Sárospataki Füzetek 15. (2011)

2011 / 4. szám - TANULMÁNYOK

Paradise motifs in the boor of revelation

the gods will lead to punishment. In antiquity, people expected that the dragon-serpent would meet its destruction.36

Revelation 12 shows how the dragon is removed from heaven and hurled to the earth. Chapter 20 tells that he is to be chained in the abyss for a thousand years; after a short time of release he will finally be thrown into the lake of burning sulphur. In this way, the destruction of the treacherous dragon-serpent is sealed. The source of all deception in the world, the embodiment of all rebellion against the Creator, is to be removed forever from the scene.

With the removal of the dragon, a new world order can appear, a new heaven and a new earth, the new Jerusalem. The promise of the new order is succinctly expressed: ‘there will be no more curse’ (xoc'l 7iSv xocxáöspa oúx £axoa ext; Rev. 22:3). This does not mean, as some translations suggest, that in the new Jerusalem nothing accursed will still exist; instead, the divine curse itself has been removed. Ze- chariah had already prophesied that Jerusalem would be secure from the threat of destruction (because of her sins, Zech. 14:11). In the new Jerusalem, not a soul would wish to resist the Almighty.37 When the instigator of all evil has been removed, it cannot happen again. The death sentence from paradise, which rested as a curse upon all mankind, will be removed, and the tree of life will again be provided. The city of the future will far exceed the lost paradise. ‘There will be no more curse’ — that promises eternal paradise blessings for all the inhabitants of the new Jerusalem.

Back to the future

Throughout the foregoing, we explored a variety of paradise motifs, which trained readers will more or less recognise from Genesis 1-3: the paradise garden of God; the new heaven and the new earth, where there is no sea; God and the Lamb as the eternal source of light; servants who reign as kings; free access to the tree of life; a river of living water, with deposits of precious stones; the removal of the dragon- snake: the paradise curse lifted. The original paradise may have been removed from the face of the earth, but the Old Testament is filled with promises of salvation: the people of God will live in a place like the garden of Eden (Isa. 51:1-3; Ezek. 36:35).

And yet, the book of Revelation does not foretell a return to or restoration of the lost paradise of old. All of the paradise motifs contain indications that in the future, things will be quite different. By way of conclusion, I list the following:

1. Paradise, the garden of Eden, is transformed into a garden city, the new Jerusalem, a dwelling place for all the nations.

2. What is new in the new world, and in the new Jerusalem, remains forever: even the sea (including the grave of seafarers, and the whole power of death) will be gone forever.

36 Bauckham, The Climax of Prophecy, 195-198.

37 Pierre Prigent, T’Apocalypse de Saint Jean (Commentaire du Nouveau Testament; Geneve: Labor et Fides, 2000), 483; Pilchan Lee, The New Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2001), 291; Smalley, The Revelation to John, 563-564.

2011/4 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK 23