Revelation 21:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Then there will be no evil for it, because it will be above that lower beauty of temporal things which formerly existed with it. Then there will be, as it is written, a new heaven and a new earth (see also Is 65:17), for souls no longer laboring but reigning.

"All things are yours," says the Apostle, "and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Cor 3:23). And "the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God" (1 Cor 11:3).

Therefore, since the soul's corruption is not in its nature but contrary to its nature, and is nothing other than sin and the punishment for sin, it is clear from this that no nature, or rather no substance or essence, is evil.

After finishing his discourse on the judgment, in which John foretold the condemnation of the evil, it remains for him to speak also about the good.

"And I saw," John says, "a new heaven and a new earth; for the former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more." This will happen in the order he had already indicated above, when he said that he saw the One seated on the throne, from Whose face heaven and earth fled away (cf. Rev 20:11).

After the condemnation of those not written in the book of life, and after they are cast into eternal fire, the form of this world will pass away through destruction by cosmic fires. What kind of fire this will be, and in what part of the world or universe it will be, I think no man knows, except one to whom the Holy Spirit reveals it.

It will be as the flood was brought about by an inundation of the world's waters. Thus, in this cosmic conflagration, those properties of the corruptible elements that corresponded to our corruptible bodies will be destroyed by fire.

The substance itself will receive such properties as, through a marvelous change, will correspond to immortal bodies. Thus the world, renewed for the better, will be fully adapted to men renewed for the better also in the flesh.

Concerning the words, "and the sea was no more," I find it difficult to say whether it will be dried up or also changed into something better.

For we read that the heaven will be new and the earth new, but I do not recall reading anywhere of a new sea, except in those places in this same book where it speaks of a glassy sea like crystal (Rev 4:6).

In those cases, however, the end of the age is not being discussed. It also seems that the sea is not spoken of in the proper sense there, but as though it were a sea.

Nevertheless, because prophetic speech loves to mix figurative expressions with direct ones, the words "and the sea was no more" may refer to that sea which gave up the dead who were in it (Rev 20:13).

For then this rebellious and stormy age, understood under the name of the sea, will no longer be the life of mortals.

Let us also note that the Evangelist regards the change of the former state and its alteration for the better as a kind of death. Therefore he uses the word “passed away” instead of “were changed.” Of the sea he said: “And the sea was no more.”

The sea will not be needed when people no longer need to sail upon it, nor to carry and deliver the fruits of the earth to distant lands. And if the sea signifies the stormy and troubled life of this world, then it will not be needed. For among the saints there will then remain not the slightest fear or disturbance.

Basil the Great also confirms this in his interpretation of Isaiah’s words: “I say to the deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your rivers’” (Isa 44:27).

When, as the Fathers say, the coarseness of matter or the corruptible quality has disappeared, nature itself remains more perfect, since it was appointed to exist in eternity. The Apostle Paul likewise speaks of the change of our body: “When this corruptible puts on incorruption, and this mortal puts on immortality” (1 Cor 15:54).

He calls the command a law or condition, so that we may know that everything is under His authority. It cannot pass away, that is, disappear, because the Almighty established it so, and the Truth promised it so.

Then creation will be cleansed from every corruption that came about through the fall of men. A trustworthy witness to this is the divine Apostle, who writes to the Romans concerning creation: “Creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but by the will of Him who subjected it in hope. Creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom 8:19-21).

Not only he, but also the God-inspired prophet hymns heaven and earth in agreement with the testimony just cited: “They will all grow old like a garment, and like a robe You will wrap them up, and they will be changed” (Ps 101:27).

Everything sinful, and therefore subject to corruption and instability, will be taken away from the present visible world. The Apostle Peter speaks precisely of this change, comparing the cleansing of the world by fire at the last time of its existence with its former cleansing through the universal flood.

And the troubled sea of worldly life is no more.

This new Jerusalem, in the opinion of the interpreters, is the Kingdom of Heaven. It shines with beauty and splendor, and it is to descend upon the renewed earth from God out of heaven.

But immediately after this he adds: “According to His promise we look for a new heaven and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:13). St. John the Theologian truly saw in revelation “a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.”