Revelation 20 - In Depth Bible Commentaries

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beloved city,’ refers to the earthly [see Sirach 24:11; Psalms 78:68; 87:2; Jeremiah 11:15;
12:7] or the heavenly Jerusalem...Since the heavenly Jerusalem does not make its appearance
until 21:10 (aside from 3:12), it would appear that ‘the beloved city’ cannot be the new
Jerusalem but must be the earthly Jerusalem.” (Pp. 1098-99) Perhaps–but John may well
mean the city of the new Jerusalem, introducing the theme of chapters 21 and 22 by this
statement--as he has done on other occasions before.
Beasley-Murray comments that "John sees the beloved city as descended from God
out of heaven in the messianic age and so views it as the center of the kingdom of Christ. The
brevity of the description of that kingdom in verses 4-6 is at least partly due to John's intention
to describe its nature in the vision of 21:9ff." (P. 298)
Here again, as we have often commented, John’s vision is ambiguous, and capable of
varied interpretations. His vision is enigmatic; he “sees through a mirror darkly.”
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The phrase ê ôï ïñáíï, ek tou ouranou, “out of the heaven,” is read by Alexandrinus,
Minuscule 2053 (in a commentary on the text), a few other Greek manuscripts, a few
manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate, some manuscripts of the Bohairic Coptic and Augustine
(who died 430 A.D.) The first writer of Sinaiticus has skipped the phrase through homoioteleuton
(similar endings). It is changed to read avpo. tou/ qeou/, apo tou theou, “from the God,”
by Minuscule 1854 and a few manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate. It is changed to read avpo., apo
(Uncial Manuscript 051 and the “Majority Text” A read evk, ek, “out of,”) tou/, tou, “the” (the
pronoun is omitted by Uncial Manuscript 051 and a few other Greek manuscripts) qeou/ evk,
theou ek, “God out of” (avpo., apo is read by Uncial Manuscript 051 and the “Majority Text” A)
tou/ ouvranou/, tou ouranou, “God out of (or ‘from’) the heaven,” by a corrector of Sinaiticus, P,
Uncial Manuscript 051, the “Majority Text”, the Latin Vulgate, some of the Old Latin witnesses,
and the Philoxenian Syriac. It is also read by Minuscules 2030, 2329, and the “Majority Text”
(K), but in a different word-order.
This is quite a complicated textual situation–but even so, the variant readings do not
change the meaning of Revelation. We suspect that there was some problem with the primitive
form of the text, leading to these differing readings.
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For similar occurrences in biblical literature, see the following passages:
“Elijah answered the captain, If I am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven
and consume you and your fifty men! Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain
and his fifty men.” 2 Kings 1:10; compare verses 12 and 14.
“I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares my Lord YHWH.
Every man's sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment upon him with plague
and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on
his troops and on the many nations with him. Ezekiel 38:21-22
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