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Rev_21:24-27. The men who enter into the city.
The description is based throughout upon O. T. prophecies,[4359] so that it definitely marks how the mystery of God, which He had long since promised through the prophets, finds then its fulfilment.[4360] Hereby the future expression, now employed by John, is explained, while the aor., written besides in Rev_21:23 b, reports what has been beheld.[4361] In the tone and language of the ancient prophets, John describes the people who are to find entrance into the future city. In general, as has been said, Rev_21:27, in a decisive way, they are only such as are written in the book of life;[4362] but in Rev_21:24-26, the Gentiles are expressly designated as those who, according to the ancient prophecies, are to find admission into the city. Thus by this statement, derived from the ancient prophetical declarations, the ideas of those expositors are not justified who conceive of the “heathen” and “kings,” as dwelling outside of the city,[4363] or who even attempt to determine what had been the moral condition, during their earthly life, of the heathen admitted now into the new Jerusalem.[4364] The essentially parallel description, Rev_7:9 sqq., leads to the fact that believers from the heathen are to be regarded as entitled to an abode in the new Jerusalem; but the peculiar character of the description is conditioned by the O. T. prototypes, upon which John depends, although in its perspective, that which occurs in the earthly period of the Messianic time—as the conversion of the heathen, which is represented by the heathen coming to the earthly Jerusalem, and bringing presents—does not appear definitely separated from that which, to N. T. prophecy, having the first appearance of the Lord back of it, lies only on the other side of the second coming of the Lord. Altogether inapplicable is the remark made in critical interests,[4365] that the writer of the Apocalypse announces his anti-Pauline-Judaizing view, by making the distinction between heathen and Jews continue, even at the completion of the kingdom of God, in opposition to Gal_3:28, 1Co_15:28. It is, indeed, directly stated how the natural distinction is no longer applicable, since the heathen, just as the Jews, receive full citizenship in the new Jerusalem, and, in like manner, participate in the blessed glory of the holy city. Cf. Rev_22:2. Emphasis on works also in the Apoc.[4366] is not intensified to a bold opposition to Paul.[4367] Cf. Rom_2:9 sqq.; 2Co_5:10
διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς αὐτῆς . With correct meaning, Andr. explains ἐν τῷ φωτί ; but the expression gives rather the pictorial view as to how the heathen pursue their way through the light that radiates from the city shining in the δόξα of God (cf. Rev_21:23).[4368]
τὴν δόξαν αὐτῶν , viz., τῶν βασιλεών .[4369] Not until Rev_21:26 is any thing said of the δόξα κ . τιμ . τῶν ἐθνων .[4370]
καὶ οί πυλῶνες , κ . τ . λ . The constant standing-open of the gates is admissible, for the reason that there is no night, and therefore the bringing-in of glorious gifts (Rev_21:26) need not be interrupted.[4371] To οἴσουσι ,[4372] an impersonal subject is to be supplied,[4373] and not οί βασιλεῖς .[4374]
πᾶν κοινὸν . Cf. Act_10:14
ποιοῦν βδέλυγμα καὶ ψεῦδος . Cf. Rev_17:4 sq., Rev_21:8, Rev_22:15. The more definitely the sins of the heathen are mentioned as the reason for their exclusion from the holy city, the more significant it is to reckon the heathen nations and kings of the earth designated, Rev_21:24 sqq., among those who are written in the book of life. For they also enter into the city, bringing gifts, and that, too, as citizens who are to remain therein. Thus the innate universalism of the genuine ancient-prophetic Apocalyptics which lies at the foundation also of passages like Rev_5:9, Rev_7:9, is expressed the more pregnantly, because the heathen, received into the new Jerusalem, are designated in the same words ( τὰ ἔθνη , οἱ βασιλεῖς τῆς γῆς ) as were employed by ch. 13 in the expression standing for the heathen world worshipping the beast.
[4359] Isa_60:3; Isa_60:11; Psa_72:10.
[4360] Cf. Rev_10:7.
[4361] Cf. Rev_22:3 sqq. with Rev_21:1 sq.; also Rev_18:9; Rev_18:15, with Rev_18:17.
[4362] Cf. Rev_20:15.
[4363] Ewald, De Wette, Bleek, etc.
[4364] Storr., Diss. II. in Apoc. quaedam loca, p. 355: “Provided, according to the measure of their ability and knowledge, they were devoted to godliness, truth, and right.” See Comment. theolog. edit. a Velthus., Kuin. et Rup., vol. v. Likewise Ebrard.
[4365] Hilgenfeld, Introduction, p. 449.
[4366] Rev_20:12, etc.
[4367] Hilgenfeld ut supra.
[4368] Hengstenb. Cf., on the other hand, De Wette: “By means of its light.”
[4369] De Wette, Bleek.
[4370] Cf. Isa_46:12.
[4371] Cf. Isa_40:11.
[4372] Cf. Rev_12:6, Rev_10:11.
[4373] Luther, Bengel, De Wette, Hengstenb., Ew. ii., etc.
[4374] Ew. i., Züll.