Book of Common Prayer

The vision of the new Jerusalem

⁹ Then one of the seven angels who hold the seven bowls which were filled with the seven last plagues, came to me and said, “Come, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”

^10-14 Then he carried me away in spirit to the top of a vast mountain, and pointed out to me the city, the holy Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, radiant with the glory of God. Her brilliance sparkled like a very precious jewel with the clear light of crystal. Around her she had a vast and lofty wall in which were twelve gateways with twelve angels at the gates. There were twelve names inscribed over the twelve gateways, and they are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. On the east there were three gateways, on the north three gateways, on the south three gateways and on the west three gateways. The wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on these were engraved the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

The measurement of the city

^15-17 The one who was talking to me had a golden rod in his hand with which to measure the city, its gateways and its wall. The city lies foursquare, its length equal to its breadth. He measured the city with his rod and it was twelve thousand furlongs in each direction, for its length, breadth and height are all equal. Then he measured its wall, and found that to be one hundred and forty-four half-yards high by human measurement, (which the angel was using).

The splendour of the city’s building

¹⁸ The wall itself was built of translucent stone, while the city was of purest gold, with the brilliance of glass.

^19-20 The foundation stones of the wall of the city were fashioned out of every kind of precious stone. The first foundation-stone was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth cornelian, the seventh goldstone, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth green goldstone, the eleventh zircon, and the twelfth amethyst.

²¹ The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The street of the city was purest gold gleaming like glass.

^22-23 As they went about together in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man is going to be handed over to the power of men, and they will kill him. And on the third day he will be raised to life again.” This greatly distressed the disciples.

Jesus pays the Temple-tax—in an unusual way

²⁴ Then when they arrived at Capernaum the Temple tax-collectors came up and said to Peter, “Your master doesn’t pay Temple-tax, we presume?”

²⁵ “Oh, yes, he does!” replied Peter. Later when he went into the house Jesus anticipated what he was going to say. “What do you think, Simon?” he said. “Whom do the kings of this world get their rates and taxes from—their own people or from others?”

²⁶ “From others,” replied Peter.

²⁷ “Then the family is exempt,” Jesus told him. “Yet we don’t want to give offence to these people, so go down to the lake and throw in your hook. Take the first fish that bites, open his mouth and you’ll find a coin. Take that and give it to them, for both of us.”