1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. 2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. 6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. 8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. 9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24 And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. 25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it. 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.
[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 20:13-21:2
“So when these have once been mixed up and combined with their own substances, how is it possible that what has been mixed together to form a compound be restored as bodies, as you profess, unless you were to say that things of one kind are raised to become things of another kind?”
In answer to these people one could quote the text of Holy Scripture, O people, “you are wrong, and you do not know the power of God,” by whose will the universe was brought into being, and whose decree is the only completed work, as was said earlier. For in what way is it easier to bring beings into existence from non-being than to separate them again once they have been brought into being and mixed either in themselves or with other beings, and to apportion to each its own characteristics?
For in fact we, too, effect this, when we often skillfully separate wine which has been mixed with water. The sun, too, draws off drinkable and sweet water from the sea by means of steams and vapors, but leaves alone that which is heavy, earthy, briny, and bitter. But above all it is God alone who is able to do whatever he wills.
Therefore, if God brought into being things which are not, why is it not easy for him to separate again what was completely mixed together with the elements simply by his own will, and to assign its own identity to each body, even if this proves impossible for human beings? For just as it is impossible for you and me to separate the illumination of fire from its burning, it is possible for God—for Scripture says, “The voice of the Lord, who cuts into two a flame of fire”—so it is impossible for you and me to separate what has been mixed together, but it is easily possible for God.
The present text of the Revelation now sets before us this amazing doctrine, saying, The sea gave up the dead in it from the sea. This is the element of water, signifying all that is made of water. So he means that what is made of water gave up all that was mixed in it from the watery nature of human bodies.
He says, Death and Hades gave up the dead in them. He calls the earth death since our bodies are dissolved in it, so that the blessed prophet by a periphrasis calls death “the dust of death,” saying, “He brought me down to the dust of death.” Accordingly, the earth also has given up all of our earthy substance in it.
In addition, Hades also gave up the dead in it, calling the air and fire Hades from their incorporeal and invisible [nature]. For air is invisible in its lightness, except when it becomes dense, and fire lurks invisibly in wood until it is kindled externally. But also the element of fire is ether, which is invisible to us when obscured by the covering of much air. Or perhaps he calls fire Hades because it destroys and disfigures those it attacks, so that many learned writers call it obscure.
So the resurrection takes place when each of the elements has rendered back all of the human composition they contained. After this, he says, They were all judged by what they had done.
He says, Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire, that is, Death was destroyed, together with the formless and incorporeal existence of the souls in death, once the resurrection had taken place and each soul had received its own particular body. He has explained this in a somewhat figurative way and has symbolized their destruction by saying that Death and Hades had been thrown into the lake of fire. The prophet Hosea also writes this, saying, “O Death, where is your justice? O Hades, where is your sting?”
He says, The lake of fire is the second death; for it has been said earlier that the first death is physical death, the separation of the soul and body, but the second is spiritual death, the punishment and retribution due to those for whom sin is their mother.
But he also says that all who were born in their sins and who were not considered worthy to be written in the book of life have suffered the same. Do not be surprised that he said earlier that those who are “medium sinners” have been thrown into the lake of fire with the Devil and the Antichrist. For a different punishment is meant there, just as there is a different kind of fiery heat: one is a sort of continuous burning heat, the other is less so and mild, even though both are called fiery heat. You must understand me there, too, as meaning this.
He says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more: Peter says something like this in the second of his epistles, saying, “According to his promises we wait for new heavens and earth.” He does not mean that the heaven and the earth and the sea have been destroyed and have disappeared and that others have been created in their place, but that the present ones have thrown off their decay and have become new, as though they have taken off an old and squalid garment and the accompanying dirt. For everything is called new which was not formerly of such a kind, but has now become so. Then creation will be purified from all decay, which was imprinted on it by human transgression.
The divine apostle is a most trustworthy witness of these things when writing to the Romans about creation, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will, but on account of him who subjected it, in hope that creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.” But not only he, but the blessed prophet, too, sings about heaven and earth according to the testimony recently cited, “They will all wear out like a garment; you will wrap them up like a cloth, and they will be changed.”
He says, And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband: by Jerusalem he symbolizes the blessed lot and dwelling of the saints. He called this figuratively Jerusalem both here and later, and he has fittingly adorned it with magnificence, so that from what is said about the perceptible Jerusalem we may turn our thoughts to the spiritual blessedness of the saints and their way of life.