Author: Administrador

“Then the angel showed me the river of life-giving water, clear as crystal.” Bishop William Skylstad of the Roman Catholic Church’s Spokane Diocese cites this verse from Revelation in recalling his own childhood experience of salmon fishing and growing up on an apple orchard along the Methow River, in Washington State.1 We all live in … Continue reading “Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 Commentary by Barbara Rossing”

The view of the future offered by John of Patmos is beautiful. The lectionary skips much of the detail, but the New Jerusalem is full of a variety of precious stone and is of impressive scope. This text is one of the primary influences on Christianity’s view of heaven, a place of beauty, peace, and … Continue reading “Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 Commentary by Micah D. Kiel”

This vision from Revelation twice uses the word “pass away.” It is used for the passing away of a world (21:1) and then for the passing away of all the first or former things (21:4). “Pass away” is a word that in our ordinary speech means death. When we receive word that someone has died, … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6a Commentary by Craig R. Koester”

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, we continue to celebrate and to ponder the mystery of Jesus’ resurrection. The gospel accounts are clear that this is the same Jesus whom the disciples knew and followed, and yet they also insist that there has been change: Jesus has been glorified, exalted, made alive beyond death’s power. … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6 Commentary by Brian Peterson”

In the book of Revelation, “seeing” plays a fundamental role. This peculiar book in the New Testament (but not in Second Temple Judaism literature, where apocalyptic writings — writings concerned with special revelations and using heavily metaphorical language to convey them — are quite common) focuses on what its writer sees and what it means … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6a Commentary by Valerie Nicolet-Anderson”

Contrary to popular apocalyptic thinking, there is no “rapture” or a future snatching of Christians up from the earth in Revelation. Instead, it is God who is “raptured” down to earth to take up residence among us. Revelation is profoundly ecological in the sense of declaring God’s commitment to the earth as the location of … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6 Commentary by Barbara Rossing”

“See, I am making all things new” (Revelation 21:5, NRSV). As we enter Revelation 21 everything has changed. With John we see both a new heaven and a new earth. A holy city descends from heaven, resplendent with gold, jewels, and divine light. After chapters of trauma and conflict on a cosmic scale, after Death … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6a Commentary by Greg Carey”

The End of Revelation is fascinating and perplexing in that most people’s expectations about the message of Revelation are not what they have always been taught. In Revelation 21, people do not go to heaven as most people have been taught but rather God comes down to earth to dwell with mortals — “the new … Continue reading “Revelation 21:1-6 Commentary by Israel Kamudzandu”

When Revelation 7:9-17 is read as an isolated unit, much of its meaning is lost. To grasp the passage’s fuller meaning we need to go to chapter 6, where the first six seals on the scroll are opened. After the sixth seal is opened (verse 12), the physical foundations of creation are rattled. Destruction reaches … Continue reading “Revelation 7:9-17 Commentary by Walter F. Taylor, Jr.”

John’s apocalyptic visions in Revelation 7:9-17 present challenges in two different ways. The first challenge has to do with inclusivity/exclusivity. The second has to do with the social setting of the Apocalypse and how that translates to today. 144,000 or an Uncountable Multitude? The first half of this text, verses 9-12, depicts an innumerable mass … Continue reading “Revelation 7:9-17 Commentary by Micah D. Kiel”