New Jerusalem

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The New Jerusalem as late medieval German town in the apocalypses cycle of Albrecht Dürer .

The New Jerusalem (also called Heavenly Jerusalem ) arises from a vision from the New Testament book of Revelation to John , chapter 21, according to which a new city, a new Jerusalem , will arise at the end of the Apocalypse . This happens after the old heaven and earth have passed.

Revelation 21 : 1–2  EU describes that at the apocalypse, the last judgment and the final battle between God and the devil , God will ultimately emerge victorious from this battle. Thereupon the earth and heaven will be renewed and a city will descend from heaven: the new Jerusalem. In the history of the impact of this vision, Mount Zion often forms a pars pro toto for the actual Jerusalem, from the Crusades to pietistic endeavors, with foothills up to the beginning of the 20th century.

Appearance of the city

Miniature from the Facundus Beatus : The angel measures the New Jerusalem with a staff or reed. Also recognizable: the Lamb of God and a set of twelve figures, gates and stones.
Jerusalem chandelier in the Apostle Church (Bocholt) by Franz Rickert . Twelve angels adorn the twelve gates, which are adorned with precious stones. In the middle you can see the Lamb of God with the victory flag, a symbol for Jesus Christ.

A detailed description of the city follows in Rev 21 : 11–27  EU . It should shine with glistening light, be made of glass-like gold and be of a cube-shaped shape. On each of the four sides there are three city gates within the city wall, on which a total of twelve angels stand. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are written on the gates, each made of a pearl. The twelve foundation stones of the city wall consist of twelve different precious stones, which are listed individually and which bear the names of the twelve apostles.

Furthermore, the size of the city is described with a side length of 12,000 = 12 × 1000  stadiums , its buildings should be 12,000 stadiums high. It is surrounded by a wall with a height of 144 = 12² cubits. If you calculate a stadium with 185 m, the result is an edge length of 2,220 kilometers. Whether these numbers are to be taken literally is controversial. Some take the view that due to the number symbolism frequently encountered in the Bible, one should rather assume an inner message inherent in the numbers. The height of the wall is about 3 × 4 × 12. The three stands for a very great certainty, the four for the four cardinal points and thus the entire earth and the twelve for the twelve tribes and thus the whole people of Israel .

Historical reception

Especially during the time of the Crusades , the idea was widespread that the liberation of the earthly Jerusalem from the "unbelieving" Islamic rulers was the condition that the heavenly Jerusalem could come. An example of the artistic reception of this idea is the so-called Barbarossa chandelier in the Palatine Chapel of Aachen Cathedral , a wheel chandelier .

The Anabaptists called the Munster they ruled in the 1530s "New Jerusalem", see Anabaptist Empire of Munster .

Musical reception

The Heavenly Jerusalem is mentioned in the last section of the Requiem , In paradisum , as a synonym for Paradise:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli :
in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres ,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem .

May angels lead you to Paradise:
on your arrival the martyrs will receive
you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.

The motif of the heavenly Jerusalem is taken up in the song Jerusalem, you high-rise city . The heavenly Jerusalem is also mentioned in the song Wake up, the voice calls to us . The third verse, “Gloria be sung to you”, in which the twelve pearl gates of the new Jerusalem are mentioned, closes the cantata of the same name by Johann Sebastian Bach .

literature

  • Christoph Auffarth : Heavenly and earthly Jerusalem. A religious studies attempt on “crusade schatology” (1). In: Journal for Religious Studies. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1993, pp. 25-49, doi : 10.1515 / 0018.25 ; Heavenly and earthly Jerusalem. A religious studies attempt on “crusade eschatology” (2). Vol. 1, No. 2, 1993, pp. 91-118, doi : 10.1515 / 0019.91 .
  • Claus Bernet : "Built Apocalypse". The utopia of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the early modern period (= publications of the Institute for European History, Mainz. Vol. 215). von Zabern, Mainz 2007, ISBN 978-3-8053-3706-9 (also: Halle (Saale), University, dissertation, 2005).
  • Claus Bernet: News about the New Jerusalem: Current work on a 2,000-year-old image. In: The Minster. Vol. 66, No. 2, 2013, ISSN  0027-299X , pp. 129-135.
  • Martin Hengel , Siegfried Mittmann, Anna Maria Schwemer (eds.): La Cité de Dieu. = The city of God (= Scientific research on the New Testament. 129). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2000, ISBN 3-16-147200-4 .
  • Robert Konrad: The heavenly and earthly Jerusalem in medieval thought. In: Clemens Bauer , Laetitia Boehm, Max Müller (eds.): Speculum Historiale. History in the mirror of historiography and the interpretation of history. (Johannes Spörl presented by comrades, friends and students on the occasion of his 60th birthday). Alber, Freiburg et al. 1965, pp. 523-540.
  • Bianca Kühnel: From the Earthly to the Heavenly Jerusalem. Representations of the Holy City in Christian Art of the First Millennium (= Roman quarterly for Christian antiquity and church history. Supplement. 42). Herder, Rom et al. 1987, ISBN 3-451-20881-4 .
  • Peter Kurmann: On the presentation of the heavenly Jerusalem and on the eschatological perspectives in the art of the Middle Ages. In: Jan A. Aertsen , Martin Pickavé (Ed.): End and completion. Eschatological perspectives in the Middle Ages (= Miscellanea mediaevalia. Vol. 29). de Gruyter, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-11-017214-3 , pp. 293-300.
  • William W. Reader: The City of God in the Apocalypse of John. Göttingen 1971, (Göttingen, University, dissertation, 1971).
  • Maria Luisa Gatti Perer (ed.): La dimora di Dio con gli uomini (Ap 21,3). Immagini della Gerusalemme celeste dal III al XIV secolo. = La Gerusalemme celeste. Vita e Pensiero, Milan 1983 (exhibition catalog).
  • Michael L. Rodkinson (Translation): Babylonian Talmud, Book 3: Tracts Tracts Pesachim, Yomah and Hagiga. Chapter II. Regulations Concerning Public Lectures Which Are And Which Are Not Allowed. 1918, p. 25 ( digitized version) (English translation of a relevant section of the Babylonian Talmud ).

Web links

Commons : Heavenly Jerusalem  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Evangelical Hymns No. 150 and Praise to God 553.
  2. ↑ Evangelisches Gesangbuch EG 147, 3rd stanza with chorale by Johann Sebastian Bach, additionally EG 535 as the conclusion of the main part. In Praise of God under number 554 under the heading "The Heavenly City".