Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 21:16

ἡ πόλις. א has αὐτῆς here instead of in the next clause which 1 omits.

ὄσον. Text. Rec[832] and Lach[833] add καὶ with A Primas[834][832] Rec. Textus Receptus as printed by Scrivener.

[833] Lachmann’s larger edition.
[834] Primasius, edited by Haussleiter.

σταδίων. Lach[835] Treg[836] W. H[837] marg. and Weiss read σταδίους with AB2.

[835] Lachmann’s larger edition.
[836] Tregelles.
[837] H. Westcott aud Hort.

χιλιάδων. B2 has καὶ χιλιάδων ιβʹ. Cf. Ezekiel 48:35, κύκλωμα δέκα καὶ ὀκτὼ χιλιάδες.

16. ἐμέτρησεν τὴν πόλιν. It is doubtful whether this is the measurement of the side of the square, or of the whole circumference. The twelve-fold measure is in favour of the latter view: thus from each gate to the next would be 1000 furlongs; the outmost gate on each side being 500 from the angle.

τῷ καλάμῳ. He has not, as in the parallel passages of Ezekiel and Zechariah, a line for the long measurements (like our “chains” and “poles”).

ἐπὶ … χιλιάδων. The construction is peculiar, but the sense clear. The measure would be about 1378 English miles, making the City 344 miles squares, according to the lower computation.

τὸ μῆκος καὶ … ἴσα ἐστίν. It is always a question how far the symbols of this Book are to be turned into visible pictures. Some, like the two-edged sword, cf. Revelation 1:16; Revelation 19:15, would if so according to our notions be grotesque, so would a city forming a cube of over 300 miles each way. Oriental artists never shrink from representing what oriental writers describe. The cube was regarded as a perfect figure and the Holy of Holies conformed to it. Passages are quoted from the Rabbis and from St Justin, which seem to prove that this notion of Jerusalem being elevated to an enormous height did commend itself to Jewish habits of thought. On the other hand we are told that the wall of the city (if it is the height which is given) was of great but not of enormous or unimaginable dimensions. Possibly as the earthly city seems from some points to stand on a square of rock surrounded by ravines, it is meant that the heavenly city will realize the ideal to which the earthly tends and stand on the level summit of a cubical mountain. Possibly also it is built on the slopes of a pyramidal mountain: if so the height is measured by the reed along the side, the conceptions of vertical height would be too abstruse.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Revelation 21:16

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