From Babel to the New Jerusalem 113 heavens, µyIm'V;b' /varo. To touch the skies must have been the ultimate thrill for those people of Shinar, a reflection of their ambition to equal God, whose abode they aimed to invade. Humans hypothesize that they can enter into a divine-human competition or even rivalry. Very different is the dynamic in John’s Apocalypse, where the city is seen as descending from heaven (13), from God (14), katabaivnousan ejk tou' oujranou' ajpov tou' qeou', Rev 21,2.10. It seems necessary to distinguish two aspects here: the motion as such, and its direction downwards. Movement is always a process and never the final stage. In biblical terms human life and history connote motion and unrest (15), whereas eternity is tied up with the notion of stillness and repose (16). Accordingly, since the movement leads from heaven to earth (21,2, ajpo; tou' qeou'), it expresses an interim status of that City between eternity and history (17). Similarity exists between the unusual descent of the City and a tent, which is a symbol not just of sojourn, pausing and rest, but also evoking nomadic migration. Hence, two basic periods of biblical civilization are evidenced: at the beginning there is the tent which in its ultimate development reaches the stage of urbanization. Tent and city, we would argue, symbolically embody human history as such (18). The verb katabaivnein occurs in relation to different angels (10,1; 18,1; 20,1) and divine chastisements (13,13; 16,21) that come down from above (19). Noteworthy are the intertextual links with Gen 18,21 (God looks after men), Exod 19,10 (Moses brings law down from Sinai to his people), Matt 3,16 (Spirit comes on Jesus after His baptism), and most importantly, the “Son of man” passages in John’s Gospel referring to the Incarnation (Jo 6,33.38.41.50.51.58) (20). Therefore, the katábasis signals the coming of God (13) “The preposition ejk [...] tells the origin of the Holy City and the ajpov [...] points to the City’s originator”. R.L. THOMAS, Revelation 8–22. An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago, IL 1995) 441. (14) This vision is so unexpected not least because it differs from Jewish expectations: “The city that John sees is thus part of the new creation, that is to say, it is a completely new phenomenon. It descends [...] from the newly created heavens. Such a novel idea, as far as one can ascertain from the texts available, was nowhere entertained by the Jews of the time” (R. MCKELVEY, The New Temple. The Church in the New Testament [Oxford 1969] 169). (15) Cf. Ps 23,4 and passim. (16) See especially Heb 4,1-13. (17) “The Jerusalem imagery in Rev 21–22 as an integrative symbol is ‘already’ in the sense that it has integrative efficacy for the present and it is also ‘not yet’ in the sense that it charts future possible courses for development as an ideal model. [...] There is thus movement in the imagery between center and circumference [...]. The descending city is seen as an integrative symbol drawing together the polarities of heaven and earth”; J. DU RAND, «The imagery of the heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation 21:9–22,5)», Neot 22 (1988) 81. (18) This interpretation does not overrule the opinion that the sacred writer intimates an identification of the heavenly city with the Temple, cf. H. GIESEN, Die Offenbarung des Johannes (RNT; Regensburg 1997) 451. (19) Notice the difference from the city of Babylon that falls from the earth into the abyss, making room for the New Jerusalem, that descends from heaven to earth (11,13; 14,8; 18,2). (20) “If [...] the participle katabainousa (‘coming down’) is John’s distinctive articulation of the natural connection between earthly and heavenly expectations of Jerusalem, then this Christological motif could be an additional reason for his choice of words. Just as the full revelation is inaugurated by Christ’s self-sacrifice, so the final manifestation (katabaino = ‘descend’ used at John 3,13; 6,33.38.41.42.50.51.58) is now applied to the realization of the hopes of a New Jerusalem (Rev 3,12; 21,2.10)”. J.M. COURT, Myth and History in the Book of Revelation (London 1979) 158.