What Does Revelation 21:14 Mean?
And the wall of the city has twelve foundations, and in them are the names of the twelve sent ones of the Lamb.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.THE KEY
The Lamb’s city is grounded in the names, the natures and witness, of those sent by him.
THE MEANING
You are shown a city whose foundations bear names, making its structure inseparable from the people associated with the Lamb. Their identity is set into the city’s architecture, so belonging here has a face.
THE ROOT
ὀνόματα
onomata
GROWS FROM
ὀνομα-
onom-
Name; in use, also a person’s recognized identity or reputation.
The names are placed on the foundations, where they become part of what gives the city its shape. A name can carry the nature and witness of the person named, so these are not merely labels on the structure.
ALSO GROWS
onomazō: To name or call by name.
ὀνομάζω
The same word family makes naming an act of identifying someone, not simply decorating a surface.
onomastos: Named, renowned.
ὀνομαστός
A name can carry the recognized character of a person, illuminating why these names belong in the city’s foundations.
ἀποστόλων
apostolōn
GROWS FROM
ἀποστελλ-
apostell-
To send forth or dispatch.
“sent ones” in this verse is apostolōn. English “apostle” can sound like a title, while its Greek word family keeps the sending audible. The names in the foundations belong to people whose identity is bound to being sent forth.
ALSO GROWS
apostellō: To send or dispatch.
ἀποστέλλω
This verb makes the apostles’ defining movement clear: they are sent out.
apostolē: A sending or commission.
ἀποστολή
The related noun carries the act of sending into the role named in the verse.
θεμελίους
themelious
GROWS FROM
θεμελι-
themeli-
A base laid beneath a structure; the word family also carries the sense of establishing.
“foundations” in this verse is themelious. The foundation is not only what lies beneath the city; it is the city’s establishing ground. The verse places names on that ground, joining the city’s stability to the identity and witness those names carry.
ALSO GROWS
themelioō: To lay a foundation or establish.
θεμελιόω
This verb shows the foundation as an act of establishing, not only a static object.
themeliosis: A founding or foundation.
θεμελίωσις
The related noun keeps the focus on the grounding that gives a structure its stability.
THE PATTERN
God’s dwelling is pictured through foundations and pillars that give the community its shape and identity.
Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a tested stone, a weighty cornerstone, a foundation set firm. The one who leans his weight will not hurry.Having been built upon the foundation of the sent ones and the prophets, the Anointed One, Jesus, himself being the head of the corner.The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will by no means go out again. I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of the heavens from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.THE THREAD
Having been built upon the foundation of the sent ones and the prophets, the Anointed One, Jesus, himself being the head of the corner.Ephesians makes explicit the architecture Revelation compresses into one image: the apostles are associated with the foundation. Revelation adds that the foundations carry their names, placing their witness within the city’s structure.
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