What Does Revelation 21:23 Mean?
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the weight of God lights it, and the Lamb is its lamp.
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 city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.THE KEY
The Lamb is the city’s lamp, and God’s own weight is the light that fills it.
THE MEANING
The city has no need of the sun or moon because God’s weight illuminates it, and the Lamb is its lamp. The vision speaks now of divine presence as both the source of light and the one who bears it into the city.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The city can only remain visible if the sun and moon keep lighting it.
THE ROOT
ἐφώτισεν
ephōtisen
GROWS FROM
φωτ-
phōt-
Light; to illuminate or make bright.
The verb rendered “did lighten” is φωτίζω (phōtizō), “to illuminate,” from the same word family as φῶς (phōs), “light”; the Lamb is named as the city’s λύχνος (lychnos), “lamp.” God’s weight performs the illumination, and the Lamb bears that light into the city.
ALSO GROWS
phōs: Light
φῶς
This related noun links God’s act of illuminating the city to light itself.
phōtismos: Illumination; light-giving
φωτισμός
This related form names the illumination the city receives from God’s presence.
THE PATTERN
God’s presence supplies light itself, becoming the source by which life, sight, and the city are illumined.
For with you is the spring of life; in your light we see light.The sun shall no more be your light by day, and the moon shall not shine for you with its glow; but the LORD shall be to you a light of the ages, and your God your adornment.And there will be no night there, and they have no need of lamp or light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine upon them, and they will reign to the ages of the ages.THE THREAD
In him was life, and the life was the light of humankind.John ties life to φῶς (phōs), “light,” from the same word family as the verb translated “did lighten.” Revelation pictures that living light in the city as the Lamb, its lamp.
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