What Does Revelation 21:16 Mean in the King James?
And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The city’s equal height, length, and breadth give it the cube-form of the inner sanctuary, so sanctuary-space fills the whole city.
THE MEANING
The city is equal in all three dimensions, a cube rather than only a square in plan. Its form echoes the inner sanctuary, so the vision presents the whole city as sacred space. Nothing in it lies outside that shared form.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
God’s presence is confined to one inner chamber, leaving the rest of life outside sacred space.
THE ROOT
ἴσα
isa
GROWS FROM
ἰσο-
iso-
same in measure; equal
The Greek says the length, breadth, and height are the same in measure: the city is a cube, not merely a square. The ἰσο- word family also describes equality and equal standing, giving no dimension a lesser place in the city’s form.
ALSO GROWS
isotēs: equality
ἰσότης
This related noun names equality directly, echoing the shared measure of all three dimensions.
isotimos: equally honored or equally precious
ἰσότιμος
This related word carries equal measure into equal standing, resonating with a city whose dimensions share one measure.
τετράγωνος
tetragōnos
GROWS FROM
γων-
gōn-
angle, corner
The Greek word for “foursquare” combines “four” with the corner element γωνία. That same corner element appears in the word for “chief cornerstone,” linking the city’s four-cornered form to the language of a building’s foundation.
ALSO GROWS
gōnia: corner, angle
γωνία
This is the corner element within “foursquare”; the verse’s geometry is built from four such angles.
akrogōniaios: chief cornerstone
ἀκρογωνιαῖος
This word shares the corner element and shows how the same Greek word-family reaches from a city’s shape to its foundational stone.
THE PATTERN
The vision extends the measured form of the inner sanctuary until the whole city bears the shape and name of divine presence.
And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.THE THREAD
And the oracle in the forepart was twenty cubits in length, and twenty cubits in breadth, and twenty cubits in the height thereof: and he overlaid it with pure gold; and so covered the altar which was of cedar.The oracle has the same equal length, breadth, and height that define the city here. That shared cube-form opens the image: what once marks the inner sanctuary now describes the whole city.
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