What Does Revelation 21:2 Mean in the King James?
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
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 Greek word for “adorned” shares its root with κόσμος (kosmos, world), so the bride-city arrives as a world arranged in beauty.
THE MEANING
This vision places wholeness before you as something coming from God: the city descends rather than being climbed toward. Its readiness appears as a bride’s adornment, joining beauty, order, and intimate relation in one image.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that wholeness is a place you reach by your own ascent dissolves here: the city comes down from God.
THE ROOT
κεκοσμημένην
kekosmēmenēn
GROWS FROM
κοσμ
kosm
To arrange in order; adorn.
“adorned” in this verse is kekosmēmenēn. The Greek word-family reaches from adornment and arrangement to κόσμος (kosmos, world or ordered whole). The bride-city is more than decorated: its image carries the sense of a whole world brought into fitting order.
ALSO GROWS
kosmeō: To arrange, adorn, or put in order.
κοσμέω
This verb is the same word-family as “adorned,” making the bride’s beauty an act of arrangement.
kosmos: Order, adornment; also the world or universe.
κόσμος
This branch opens the image from a bride’s adornment to a world brought into order.
kosmēma: An ornament or adornment.
κόσμημα
This noun keeps the concrete sense of what is arranged to make something beautiful.
καταβαίνουσαν
katabainousan
GROWS FROM
βαιν
bain
To step or go.
“coming down” in this verse is katabainousan. The verb keeps the city in motion: it comes into view from above. The verse presents the holy dwelling as received from God, not as a human ascent toward God.
ALSO GROWS
bainō: To step or go.
βαίνω
This is the verb at the center of the compound describing the city’s movement.
katabasis: A descent or going down.
κατάβασις
This noun makes the downward movement in the verse explicit.
anabainō: To go up or ascend.
ἀναβαίνω
Sharing the same verb-family, this branch makes the verse’s downward direction stand out.
יְרוּשָׁלַיִם
Yerushalayim
GROWS FROM
שלם
sh-l-m
To be whole or complete.
“Jerusalem” in this verse is Yerushalayim. The Hebrew name Yerushalayim echoes שָׁלוֹם (shalom, wholeness), carrying the city as more than a place: it bears the nature of wholeness. The name’s dual ending evokes two wholenesses gathered into one dwelling.
ALSO GROWS
shalom: Wholeness, completeness, well-being.
שָׁלוֹם
This branch brings the name’s resonance with wholeness into the image of the city.
shalem: Whole, complete.
שָׁלֵם
This branch names the quality carried by the city’s Hebrew name.
shalam: To be complete or made whole.
שָׁלַם
This verb shares the same consonants and connects Jerusalem’s name with the movement toward wholeness.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling comes toward people as a gift, bringing divine presence into their midst.
Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for, lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the LORD.And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.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 he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.The Greek word-family καιν- (kain-, new) appears in “new Jerusalem” and in “I make all things new.” The city is renewal taking shape as a dwelling.
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