NOTES for Rev 22:14 — June 1, 2025

NOTES for Rev 22:14

The imagery of the Book of Revelation contains many elements traditional for the prophetic visionary tradition. Among these elements is the image of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which first appeared in the preaching of Isaiah of Babylon and was recorded in writing in the second part of the Book of Isaiah.

This image is connected with the traditional pre-exilic idea of the Kingdom as an earthly state with its capital in Jerusalem. Of course, the Messiah, who according to the pre-exilic prophetic tradition was to become the head of this state, was expected to establish laws in it that fully corresponded to the Torah. And the right to settle in it, as is not surprising, would belong only to those ready and willing to observe the established laws.

Of course, there is still much that is earthly and human in such ideas about the Kingdom. But the role of the Torah and the commandments given by God for life in the Kingdom is reflected in them quite adequately. It is another matter that the Kingdom itself turned out not to be what people expected to see in the pre-exilic period, when many still perceived it specifically as an earthly state. In the post-exilic period, largely thanks to the preaching of Isaiah of Babylon, ideas about the Kingdom began to change, although even in Gospel times they remained in the popular mind in many ways the same as they had been in the pre-exilic period.

And yet, if not to everyone, then at least to some it became clear what Jesus meant when He said that His Kingdom is "not of this world." But this, of course, did not free those seeking the Kingdom from keeping the Torah. It simply meant that the discussion now had to be not only and not so much about the external Torah, about legislation and religious norms and rules, as about the inner Torah, which for a person living a spiritual life becomes not simply a moral code but a spiritual core that makes keeping the commandments entirely organic. And only in this case, as can be seen, does the direct road to the goal open for the seeker of the Kingdom.