"Heaven and Earth" was a Hebrew idiom signifying the entirety of the Jewish religious, political, and societal system. It referred to the Temple and its covenantal structure—a sacred pattern uniting the divine and the earthly. The Temple was seen as the cosmic center—the "sun" around which the Jewish world revolved.
Deuteronomy 31:26–28 links the "Law" and the Temple system to "Heaven and Earth."
The tabernacle was designed as a microcosm of the cosmos—its structure and symbolism modeling "heaven, earth, and sea." The Jewish historian Josephus (Antiquities 3.7.7) confirms this:
"When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts... he denoted the land and the sea... but he set apart the third division for God, because heaven is inaccessible to men."
Outer Court = Sea (Gentile access)
Inner Court = Earth (Israelite access)
Holy of Holies = Heaven (God's domain)
Even Talmudic tradition speaks of the temple walls resembling the sea (b. Sukkah 51b), and Numbers Rabbah 13:19 describes the court as encircling the Temple like the sea around the world.
So in Revelation 21:1, when John says "there was no more sea", he is referencing the removal of the outer court—a prophetic picture of open access to God's presence. No more division between Jew and Gentile.
Galatians 3:28 — "There is neither Jew nor Greek... for you are all one in Christ."
The Destruction of the Old Heaven and Earth
Matthew 24:34–35 — "This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away."
2 Peter 3:10,12 — "The heavens shall pass away... the elements shall melt with fervent heat..."
These verses are often misunderstood as cosmic destruction. But Peter’s language is covenantal and temple-based. “Elements” translates from the Greek stoicheia, meaning:
Traditions of men
Religious rules
Principles of the old teaching
(see Galatians 4:3,9, Colossians 2:8,20, Hebrews 5:12)
The Literal Earth Will Not Be Destroyed
Ecclesiastes 1:4 — "The earth abides forever."
Psalm 89:36–37 — "Established forever like the moon, like the faithful witness in the sky."
Psalm 78:69 — "The earth which He has established forever."
Psalm 148:4–6 — "He established them forever and ever..."
Psalm 119:90 — "You established the earth, and it abides."
These verses confirm the enduring nature of the physical world. What “passed away” in 70 AD was the covenantal system, not creation.
You are the New Temple. You are the New Heaven and Earth. You are the New Creation.
This is not a future fantasy. It is fulfilled reality.
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