Jonathan Kirsch - A History of the End of the World

21:20 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.

21:21 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.

21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

21:23 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.

21:24 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.

21:25 And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

21:26 And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

21:27 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.

22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

22:3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

22:4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

22:5 And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

22:6 And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

22:7 Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

22:8 And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

22:9 Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

22:10 And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righ teous, let him be righ teous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

22:15 For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

22:16 I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

22:21 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have taken the liberty of omitting some words and phrases from some quoted material, and changing capitalization and punctuation, without using brackets and ellipses to indicate the omissions and changes. Whenever I have done so, I use the word “adapted” in the note that identifies the source of the quotation. In all instances, the omissions and changes do not affect the meaning of the quoted material.

For most biblical citations, I have used BibleWorks 5: Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research, version 5.0.020w, a collection of more than 100 versions of the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek as well as in various translations, including Latin and English. Complete bibliographic information for the versions cited below is available in the BibleWorks program. The following abbreviations are used in the notes to identify the specific versions from which brief quoted passages have been taken:

BBE — The Bible in Basic English (1949–1964)

JPS — Jewish Publication Society (1917)

KJV — King James Version (1611–1769)

NKJ — New King James Version (1982)

NLT — New Living Translation [n.d.]

RSV — Revised Standard Version (1952)

TNK — Jewish Publication Society Tanakh (1985)

I have also quoted briefly from J. Massyngberde Ford’s translation of Revelation in the Anchor Bible, which is cited in notes as AB. See below for complete bibliographic information for this source.

1. Rev. 2:9 (KJV).

2. Schüssler Fiorenza, Apocalypse, 8.

3. The Seventh Seal.

4. See, e.g., Schüssler Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 40–41.

5. Rev. 1:1 (KJV).

6. Rev. 9:16 (KJV); Lindsey is quoted in Boyer, When Time Shall Be, 127 (“…some kind of mobile ballistic missile launcher…”).

7. Richard K. Emmerson, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” in Emmerson and McGinn, Apocalypse, 293.

8. Farrar, Rebirth of Images, 6 (adapted).

9. Schüssler Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 15 (“apocalyptic pornography”); Frye, Great Code, 137 (“insane rhapsody”); Yarbro Collins, Crisis and Catharsis, 154 (“imagination of a schizophrenic”); Thomas Jefferson, quoted in E. S. Gaustad, “Religion,” in Merrill D. Peterson, ed., Thomas Jefferson, 287 (“merely the ravings”).

10. Rev. 1:3 (RSV; adapted).

11. Schüssler Fiorenza, Apocalypse, 20.

12. Schüssler Fiorenza, Book of Revelation, 85.

13. Farrar, Rebirth of Images, 98.

14. Rev. 1:10, 11 (KJV; adapted).

15. Quoted in Bernard McGinn, “Revelation,” in Alter and Kermode, Literary Guide, 529.

16. Quoted in Bernard McGinn, “Revelation,” in Alter and Kermode, Literary Guide, 523.

17. From C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections , quoted in Barnwell, Meditations on the Apocalypse, 1.

18. Barclay, Letters, 11.

19. Barclay, Letters, 11 (adapted).

20. Rev. 3:16 (RSV; adapted).

21. Rev. 22:7 (RSV; adapted).

22. Rev. 1:8, 21:6 (KJV). See also John Spencer Hill, “Themes and Images,” in Drane, Revelation, 18 (“Scriptural reference to alpha and omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, is confined to Revelation….”).

23. Rev. 1:18 (NKJ).

24. Rev. 1:13–16 (KJV).