[b-greek] Rev. 21:3,10

From: Rosangela Lira (lira@escelsa.com.br)
Date: Fri Jul 28 2000 - 11:54:12 EDT


Professor Juan Stam wrote:
"I also agree that the present active
particples in 21.2,10 & 3.12 as well as for angels in 10.1, 18.1 and 20.1
is best understood as an action in process so that Juan saw the object as
it descended, not only after its descent".

Dear Professor Stam:
Note that in Rev. 21:2,10 John is really seeing the city. But note that in
Rev. 3:12 John is definitely not seeing the city, yet the same verbal form
is used. In 3:12 KATABAINOUSA EK TOU OURANOU is just describing the city:
it is not any kind of city; it is the city that comes down out of heaven
from God. My point is that, since the expression KATABAINOUSA EK TOU
OURANOU is used adjectively in 3:12 to describe the city, this can also be
the case in 21:2,10. In my opinion he sees "the New Jerusalem which comes
down out of heaven from God", not while it is descending, but from a point
of observation above, where he can see inside its walls (as 21:10
suggests).
Note that Paul has his own ways of describing the city: "the Jerusalem
above" or "from above" (Gal. 4:26), "the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem" (Heb. 12:22). In my opinion the expression
"KATABAINOUSA(N) EK TOU OURANOU APO TOU QEOU" is the expression John coined
to describe the city: the New Jerusalem "which comes down out of heaven
from God" (as in 3:12).
And of course I am assuming that the city is literal, and refers to a
place, not to a people.


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