NT Text: Revelation 21:9-10
OT Source(s):
Source: Beale & Carson (eds.), Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (2007); Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Typology (Direct Type, Forward-Looking) + Longitudinal Theme
Significance: Ezekiel 40:1-2 records: "The hand of YHWH was upon me, and He brought me ... and set me on a very high mountain, on which was something like a city to the south." Revelation 21:10 echoes: "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem." The parallels are precise: Spirit-transport, a high mountain, and a vision of the city-temple complex. Ezekiel proceeds to describe the measured temple in exhaustive architectural detail (chs. 40-48); John similarly describes the measured city (21:15-21). However, the crucial difference is that John's city has "no temple" (21:22) because God and the Lamb are its temple — the physical temple has been transcended. This typological escalation shows that Ezekiel's vision of the restored temple finds its ultimate fulfillment not in a rebuilt structure but in the unmediated divine presence.