And so to our final verse, our grand finale, which contains both the noun ‘skene’ and its related verb, ‘skeno’. Of all the paradoxes associated with these words that we have looked at, this is, perhaps, the most surprising: it is the apotheosis of the ‘skene’ paradox. In our last passage, the war in heaven was won, but the war on earth raged on, and God’s judgements rained down. The heavenly tabernacle was more reminiscent of the Mosaic ‘Tabernacle of the Testimony’, and was so “charged with the grandeur of God” (to quote G.M. Hopkins’s superb image) that it was inaccessible to all others. By chapter 21, however, all has changed. In chapter 18 great news is proclaimed: “Fallen ! Fallen is Babylon the great !” (v.12) In chapter 19 comes the Rider on the white horse, on whose robe his name is written, “King of kings and Lord of lords”; in a great battle with “the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” Christ is triumphant: all his enemies are slain, and the beast and his false prophet are cast into a lake of sulphur. In chapter 20 the Devil is locked in the abyss for a thousand years; on his release, he once more gathers his forces to attack God’s people, but “fire came down from heaven and devoured them”, and Satan is finally and eternally thrown into the lake of sulphur. The name ‘Satan’ means ‘opponent’ or ‘antagonist’, but his rebellious opposition is now at an end. Its futility is superbly expressed in a line in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ (X. 386-7), where he proudly boasts “I glory in the name Antagonist of heaven’s almighty King”, seemingly oblivious of the absurdity of trying to oppose the Almighty. And so we come to chapter 21, where we need to look at the first three verses: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had gone away, and the sea is no more. (2) And I saw the holy city, Jerusalem, new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Look ! The dwelling-place (‘skene’) of God is with men, and he will dwell (‘skeno’) with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.’”
Saturday, 10 December 2011
SKENE 27: the New Jerusalem
And so to our final verse, our grand finale, which contains both the noun ‘skene’ and its related verb, ‘skeno’. Of all the paradoxes associated with these words that we have looked at, this is, perhaps, the most surprising: it is the apotheosis of the ‘skene’ paradox. In our last passage, the war in heaven was won, but the war on earth raged on, and God’s judgements rained down. The heavenly tabernacle was more reminiscent of the Mosaic ‘Tabernacle of the Testimony’, and was so “charged with the grandeur of God” (to quote G.M. Hopkins’s superb image) that it was inaccessible to all others. By chapter 21, however, all has changed. In chapter 18 great news is proclaimed: “Fallen ! Fallen is Babylon the great !” (v.12) In chapter 19 comes the Rider on the white horse, on whose robe his name is written, “King of kings and Lord of lords”; in a great battle with “the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies” Christ is triumphant: all his enemies are slain, and the beast and his false prophet are cast into a lake of sulphur. In chapter 20 the Devil is locked in the abyss for a thousand years; on his release, he once more gathers his forces to attack God’s people, but “fire came down from heaven and devoured them”, and Satan is finally and eternally thrown into the lake of sulphur. The name ‘Satan’ means ‘opponent’ or ‘antagonist’, but his rebellious opposition is now at an end. Its futility is superbly expressed in a line in Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ (X. 386-7), where he proudly boasts “I glory in the name Antagonist of heaven’s almighty King”, seemingly oblivious of the absurdity of trying to oppose the Almighty. And so we come to chapter 21, where we need to look at the first three verses: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had gone away, and the sea is no more. (2) And I saw the holy city, Jerusalem, new Jerusalem, coming down from heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a great voice from the throne saying, ‘Look ! The dwelling-place (‘skene’) of God is with men, and he will dwell (‘skeno’) with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them.’”
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