197. In Revelation, chapter 21, the New Jerusalem is described as having in it a source of light like a most precious stone, similar to the jasper stone, shining like crystal. It had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels above the gates, and the names inscribed of the twelve tribes of the Children of Israel. The wall was one hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, an angel. The material of the wall was jasper, and its foundation of every precious stone, jasper, sapphire, chalcedony, emerald, sardonyx, sardius, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth and amethyst. Its gates were twelve pearls. The city itself was of pure gold, resembling clear glass; and it was four-square, its length, width and height all equal, twelve thousand stades*, and other details [Rev. 21:11, 12, 16-21].
All this must be understood spiritually, as is evident from the fact that the New Jerusalem means the new church which is to be founded by the Lord, as shown in APOCALYPSE REVEALED (880). Since Jerusalem there means the church, it follows that everything which is said of that city, its gates, its wall, their foundations, and its measurements contain a spiritual sense, because anything that relates to the church is spiritual. Their meaning was demonstrated in APOCALYPSE REVEALED (896-925), so it is unnecessary to pursue this demonstration here. It is enough to know from this that the details of the description contain a spiritual sense, as the body does a soul. Without that sense nothing of what is written there could be understood as referring to the church; for instance, that the city was of pure gold, its gates were of pearls, its wall of jasper, the foundations of the wall of precious stones, the wall measured one hundred and forty-four cubits, which is the measure of a man, that is, an angel; and the city was twelve thousand stades in length, width and height, and so forth. Anyone who knows the spiritual sense from a knowledge of correspondences can understand these statements; as for instance, the wall and its foundations mean the doctrines of that church derived from the literal sense of the Word; and the numbers twelve, one hundred and forty-four, and twelve thousand mean everything belonging to it, truths as well as various kinds of good, all taken together.
* See note on 179; i.e. about 1350 miles.
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