The ruined city Babylon is a city where things that used to happen don\u2019t happen anymore. John\u2019s description is under the rubric \u201cno longer\u201d (ou eti<\/em>, used 6x in Revelation 18:21-24). In Babylon, music, crafts, milling, light, and weddings have ceased. The old has passed, the new has come, but the new isn\u2019t something to celebrate. <\/p>\n Revelation\u2019s other city is also a place of novelty, identified with the new heavens and new earth (21:1), the city over which the Lord speaks, \u201cBehold I make all things new\u201d (v. 5; the lovely, rhyming Greek phrase is Idou kaina poio panta<\/em>). In chapters 20-22, ou eti<\/em> again appears 6x, as the first things come to an end and new things appear. For new Jerusalem, the first things are not missed: Satanic deception of nations (20:3); the sea (21:1); death (21:4); mourning, crying and pain (21:4); curse (22:3); night (22:5).<\/p>\n In Revelation, as in the rest of the Bible, the city is a center of innovation. Whether novelty is good or bad depends on what \u201cfirst\u201d or \u201cold\u201d things are ending and what \u201cnew things\u201d are coming to be.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ruined city Babylon is a city where things that used to happen don\u2019t happen anymore. John\u2019s description is under the rubric \u201cno longer\u201d (ou eti, used 6x in Revelation 18:21-24). In Babylon, music, crafts, milling, light, and weddings have ceased. The old has passed, the new has come, but the new isn\u2019t something to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-nt-revelation"],"yoast_head":"\n