THE NEW JERUSALEM
Revelation 21:15-21 - The angel who talked with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city, its gates and its walls. The city was laid out like a square, as long as it was wide. He measured the city with the rod and found it to be 12,000 stadia in length, and as wide and high as it is long. He measured its wall and it was 144 cubits thick, by man’s measurement, which the angel was using. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.
Have you ever stopped to consider just how large the New Jerusalem would be? In Revelation 21:15-21 we are told that the New Jerusalem will be a cube 12,000 stadia in length, width, and height. Since there are those among us who no longer use stadia as a measurement the size of the New Jerusalem in metric would be 2,200 km in length, width, and height. If we were able to drive across the New Jerusalem at current express way speeds would take almost an entire day. For purposes of scale I have included the image below which shows a square representing the size of the New Jerusalem (2,200 km on each side) superimposed in scale over a circle representing the size of the Moon (3,476 km in diameter):
