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state of the Church in the last time which John here describes, but he speaks of all things entirely new and perfect for eternity. Augus- tine says : There are many obscure things in this book ; but in these words , where he says , God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, that which is spoken concerning the future world and immortality , and the eternity of the saints {for it is only then and there that these things will cease to be\ is spoken with such light , that we ought neither to seek nor to read anything plain in the sacred writing s, if we shall think these things obscure : lib. xx. de Civ. Dei, c. 17. — n rupriXk) But in ver. 4, dor5jX0oi/, as ch. ix. 12. To pass away is something more in sound than to pass by , [as the Greek ought to be translated in ver. 1, not passed away , as Engl.]1 Death, sorrow, crying, and pain, altogether pass away ; the former heaven and the former earth pass by , giving way to a new heaven and a new earth.
2. TepovffaXri/x) It is not without reason that John always writes in his Gospel 'lepoooXvfAa, of the old city; in the Apocalypse always ' Is povffaXri/j,, of the heavenly city, 'is povaaXrifjj is a Hebrew name, the original and more holy one : 'Is potoXv/xa, afterwards in ordinary use, is a Greek name, and rather used in a political sense. St Paul ob- serves the same difference, when refuting Judaism, Gal. iv. 26 (comp, the same Epistle, i. 17, 18, ii. 1) ; Heb. xii. 22, although at other times he uses them indiscriminately, and says to the Romans and Corinthians, for the sake of as ftvorriroc [ dignity ] and to win their favour, 'ispovdaXw. — sJdov , I saw) The more recent Editions have in- correctly introduced the name of John in this verse.2 It was the beginning of an ecclesiastical section [used in the services of the Church] ; but the text itself most closely connects together the new heaven, the new earth, and the new Jerusalem. The new city has no connection with the millennium, as Lange and some others judge, Comm. Apoc. f. 241, etc. ; but it belongs to the state of perfect re- novation and eternity, as is shown by the series of visions, the mag- nificence of the description, and the opposition to the second death : ch. xx. 11, 12, xxi. 1, 2, 5, 8, 9, xxii. 5. — xarafianovaav, coming down) This may be taken in vision , respecting the act of descending : in the reality signified, without reference to that act, it may be understood
1 A reads dTrsjXtfsc r B, u.TrvihQov' so h Iren, and Vulg. “abiit.” Beng. read with Rec. Text, which has no very old authority on its side, nocpyTik. — E.
2 AB h Iren, and best MSS. of Vulg. have not syu T uumyis, which Rec. Text has inserted without good authority. — E.
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