What Does Revelation 21:25 Mean in the King James?
And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
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 gates stay open because the night that would call for them to close is gone.
THE MEANING
This verse presents wholeness as a place with no closing hour. There is no night there, so the gates never need to be shut against the darkness. The welcome is continuous.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that welcome is temporary and darkness must eventually bring a closed gate.
THE ROOT
κλεισθῶσιν
kleisthōsin
GROWS FROM
κλει-
klei-
To shut or close.
The Greek uses κλεισθῶσιν (kleisthōsin, be shut) with emphatic negation: the gates will certainly not be closed. The same verb appears when Revelation says no one can shut the open door; here, that openness extends to the whole city.
ALSO GROWS
kleís: A key, the means of opening or locking.
κλείς
A key joins opening and closing in one image of access. Revelation 3:7 uses this word for the key of David, the one who opens and no one shuts.
synkleíō: To close in, confine, or enclose.
συγκλείω
This related verb shows how the same word family can describe being enclosed; in this verse, the city’s gates remain beyond that closure.
THE PATTERN
Where divine welcome is unbroken, access has no closing hour and darkness does not set its limits.
Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.THE THREAD
I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.Both verses use κλείω (kleíō, to shut): there, no one can shut the open door; here, the city’s gates are never shut. The image expands from an unclosable door to a whole city with no closing hour.
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