Now, take a deep breath, for here we are entering this other world, a real one that is waiting for all who trusted their eternity to Yeshua. Let us read from Revelation 21:1-2.
This passage brings us to the moment a new world is created when heaven itself is coming down onto a brand-new earth. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
This is it! This place and time must be so dear to God that it is given, right here in Revelation five different names and it is mentioned 10 times. Here she is called:
- the New Jerusalem x2 (3:12, 21:2)
- the Holy City x5 (11:2, 21:2, 20, 22:19)
- that Great City (16:19)
- the Holy Jerusalem (21:10)
- the City of my God (3:12)
This is the city built entirely by God and we, by trusting our eternal life to Yeshua, have already become citizens of this great place. But now see how both God and man will live in such harmony. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them (Rev. 21:3)
Notice the words used to describe His abode in vs.3 of Revelation 21; the word tabernacle and dwell have a sense of wrapping up the history of redemption. These two words, skenee and the verb skenos are from the Hebrew word mishkan. They sound much the same and both the Greek and the Hebrew mean tabernacle or to tabernacle. The word mishkan is used 139 times in the Hebrew Scriptures speaking of the tabernacle that was made according to the plan of the heavenly place, and here is its origin.
And we should point out another relationship between the words skeonos and Immanuel. The Greek word in verb form, skenos, used only in Revelation four times and in one other place in the Gospels, explains how Yeshua came to be with us. It is in John 1:14 where it says, And the Word became flesh, and dwelt (skenoo) among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The word dwelt is the same as the one used in Revelation 21:3. God in the flesh came to dwell with us so that we may be saved and have reserved for us a place in heaven. Then we see ourselves with Him in His abode and there, God will dwell with man. This is the wonderful news of the Bible. From the Temple, to Yeshua, to the New Jerusalem.
And it is after this that the angel brings John closer to see this great city. Now we can see such a beautiful light emanating from it. And he – an angel – carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper (Rev. 21:10-11). Here John is carried to see a high mountain which is on the New Earth and where the New Jerusalem was coming down. As the earthly Jerusalem was built on Mount Zion, and will be during the Millennium, so we read that the Temple was on top of a high mountain.
Do you see what is the first thing that John notices coming out of the New Jerusalem? It is the glory of God and it is visually described for us as, her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. This is what heaven looks like, but what kind of stone is this crystal-clear jasper and what color is it? The translations we have do not help us.
First, it could not be the jasper we know of today for the simple reason that a jasper is not crystal-clear but opaque. This means it does not let light travel through it. It is also a very inexpensive stone. In gemmology jasper is not a gem but from the family of feldspar which are stones made up of all kinds of crystalline. Feldspar is from the German, meaning field and obsolete, which gives it almost worthless value.
So how did the translators come up with a jasper stone? Perhaps it was chosen because it sounds so much like the Greek word which is iaspis. Since the letter J does not exist in Greek, they must have replaced the i for the j and called it jasper.
But what is the iaspis stone? One Greek lexicon says that it is mainly reddish (BDAG). Another says it is green (Louw-Nida). Another does not venture in giving it any color (LSJ). Frustrating, isn’t it? But there is a way to figure it out. One more time we have to turn to the Hebrew for, like the word skenoo, this word, iaspis was borrowed from the Hebrew language. It has a Hebrew root! The Hebrew is yashfay, however the sh sound is replaced by the s sound in Greek , giving it iaspis.*
Now what kind of stone is yashfay and what color is it? Yashfay is one of the colors that was on the High Priest’s breastplate in Exodus 28. Yashfay or iaspis happens to be the last stone in the breastplate – it is the color of the tribe of Benjamin (the lower left corner).
But the Bible does not give us the exact color. It simply tells us that it is the stone of Benjamin. However, there is a tradition that comes to us from the first century and perhaps before that which describes the color of the stone of Benjamin, and here we are going to see something truly beautiful.
The color is given to us in the Midrash Rabbah which is a collection of ancient commentaries on the Hebrew Scriptures. It is based on the Book of Numbers, chapter 2, where we see Israel beginning its march into the wilderness and there, we read that each tribe had their own flag. And while the colors are not given, the Midrash Rabbah does give us a few of them. One of those colors described is yashfay which is the stone for the tribe of Benjamin. This is what the commentary says, “Benjamin’s was yashfeh and the color of his flag was a combination of all the 12 colors…” (Midrash Rabbah on Num. 28). White is what we see when all wavelengths of light are reflected off an object. John tells us that it is crystal clear white and what could be crystal clear white? A diamond. So then, the New Jerusalem must be like a beautiful diamond in the sky, pure white which is the color of light and of righteousness, purity and holiness. This must have been such an awesome sight, but this is the one experience which is awaiting every believer today.
*Many believe the origin of Iaspis is the Hebrew Yashnay (The Greek Testament, Commentary)
The New Jerusalem Bible has crystal-clear diamond for Revelation 21:11