Bible Question:
Why is the number twelve so significant? ex. the twelve diciples, when Jesus raised a twelve year old from the dead, Revelation 21:12. Thanks |
Bible Answer: A little more on Revl;ation 21:12 "This pattern of Old Testament promise, New Testament fulfillment, and eschatological consummation is made particularly clear by John's description of the New Jerusalem itself. It is a perfect cube (like the Holy of Holies of the Temple) in which Old Testament promise, New Testament fulfillment, and ultimate consummation meet and fuse. On the twelve gates are described the names of the "sons of Israel". On the twelve foundations are inscribed "the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." The city is adorned with twelve different precious stones: the same stones that adorned the breastplate of the levitical priest in the Old Testament. Moreover, John sees "no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb." That is why the New Jerusalem is a gigantic cube. What the Holy of Holies was in a sort of miniature, the whole city (and, by implication, the whole cosmos) becomes in the final consummation of the new heaven and new earth. Everything is consecrated to God and everything is brought into union with God through it. This means, among other things, that the Church really is nothing other than a continuation of the same plan of God in the Old Testament. In a word, Old Testament Israel is now the Church and, in the Old Testament, Israel is the Church back then. That is why Pope Pius XII said we are all spiritual Semites. It is why, in the Liturgy of the Hours, we read of the "Church of Abel" of which we are a part. When we read the Old Testament, therefore, we are reading the history, not of some foreign people who lived on the other side of the world a long time ago, but of our own family. We are wild olive branches who have been grafted onto the natural olive tree (Romans 11). It was to bring us Gentiles back to God that the covenant family of Israel was chosen. And it was into that covenant family that we are grafted when we were baptized into Christ. Only now we call it the Church. And so, Jesus can say to the twelve apostles (Matthew 19:28): "You who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" and it is why Revelation sees the New Jerusalem as founded on the twelve patriarchs just as much as it is founded on the twelve apostles." From: Catholic Scripture Study Revelation, Lesson 20 A New Heaven and a New Earth Copywrite: www.catholicexchange.com |
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FytRobert | ||
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Jokerman64 | ||
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Jokerman64 | ||
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Jokerman64 | ||
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moody1 | ||
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Lyle | ||
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fayrob | ||
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Emmaus | ||
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Emmaus | ||
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13599 | ||
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1628 lincola place brooklyn ny | ||
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sniffney |