The New Jerusalem as a Bride

“ I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. ”
— Revelation 21:2
Sketch of first century bride

I haven’t posted about my New Jerusalem paintings in a while, because I’ve been stuck and didn’t have a vision for how to portray something so magnificent. I have a list of subjects but haven’t known how to paint them. However, I’ve seen a surprising increase in interest in my New Jerusalem paintings, with several people writing to me about them in a short period of time, as well as many people finding their way to this website, searching for one thing—New Jerusalem paintings.

I took it as a nudge from God to begin to paint them again. So I prayed, then began to search the internet to see what I could find about New Jerusalem. I came across a sermon where the pastor talked a lot about the simile of New Jerusalem looking like “a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.” He said that the first century church would have thought of a brightly colored wedding dress rather than the white ones of Western culture (these came much later). Loving color as much as I do, my imagination was fired. The pastor went on to say that the Yemeni Jews have kept first century culture more than any. I looked up images of their brides and found confirmation. These brides wear red, and stripes, and necklaces “down to their belts” as well as bracelets “up to their elbows.” Elaborate! I’d seen similar pictures of a Moroccan acquaintance’s wedding that was similar, and have seen brightly colored Central Asian wedding dresses, all of which, have helped me envision John’s simile.

I plan to blog my process in making this painting, so I begin with my preliminary sketch—definitely a “working drawing,” Next, I’ll draw the sketch onto tracing paper in order to transfer it to the 30”x40” canvas. This is a big task, so if you pray, please pray that I can do it well.

All the Colours of the Wall--New Jerusalem Foundation Part 3

“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. ”
— Revelation 21:19,20 NIV
Twelve colourful stone foundations for the walls of the New Jerusalem—detail of painting by Joan C. Thomson

Twelve colourful stone foundations for the walls of the New Jerusalem—detail of painting by Joan C. Thomson

Progress!  All the gem colour “stripes” for the wall foundations in the New Jerusalem (in my painting series) along with their gold “mortar” are painted.  I’m struck with how contemporary the colours look.  Gorgeous!  Imagine the light of the glory of God shining through the stones and reflecting off them.  

I’ve also painted the detail of the bits of “gold” (pyrite) on the lapis lazuli or “sapphire” foundation.  Looking at pictures of the various stones on the internet was helpful but better still, is seeing the real stones.  I was pleased to find three of the stones at our local German Christmas Market: chrysoprase, carnelian and lapis.

Chrysoprase, carnelian and lapis lazuli—three of the stones in the wall foundations of the New Jerusalem.

Chrysoprase, carnelian and lapis lazuli—three of the stones in the wall foundations of the New Jerusalem.

Jasper, according to Pliny the Elder—a first century historian, was green. Sapphire was the name for lapis lazuli though the other stones seem to have kept their names.  There are different versions of the stones on the internet—and in various Bible translations, but I’ve tried to stick close to the literal Greek words and their meanings (biblehub.com).

Faceting of gemstones didn’t begin until much later, so it’s likely that the Apostle John saw smooth, highly polished stones.

With this series of paintings, I’m hoping to provide a glimpse into what this heaven-coming-to-earth looks like but even the best image falls short of seeing the real thing in person.  The New Jerusalem is the place that Jesus has prepared for those who follow him—believing is seeing.

The next stage in this painting will be to add the names of the apostles—one on each foundation colour, in gold leaf.

““Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”
— John 14:1-3


The Colours of the Foundation Part 2

The wall is built of jasper, while the city is pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations of the wall of the city are adorned with every jewel; the first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. Revelation 21:18-20 NRSV

New Jerusalem Wall painting process first four foundations

Amid a flurry of year-end paperwork, I’ve been diligently exploring how to paint the colours of the foundations of the New Jerusalem walls—and painting them. I wanted to attempt to capture the luminous qualities of light glowing through and bouncing off this variety of precious and semi-precious stones.

Since this body of work is largely abstract or abstracted realism, I chose to represent the “adorn[ing] of the walls with every jewel,” with a stripe in each gemstone colour. To create the appearance of translucence, I mixed a little of the paint colour with acrylic glazing medium, building layer upon layer, varying the brushstrokes for visual texture of crystal formations in some of the gems. However, the character of paint being what it is, not all colours, such as red-orange and yellow lend themselves to transparency. Some of the stones themselves, such as lapis lazuli (sapphire) are entirely opaque.

New Jerusalem Wall Foundations Painting Process

It’s a joy to watch the vibrant colours emerge—what a combination! The majority in any one colour are a version of green—four out of twelve, so it seems that the answer to the age-old question of God’s favourite colour is green. According to Pliny the Elder, a writer and historian of the first century, jasper was green—the entire wall above the foundations is jasper. Sometimes different sources have different colours for the same stone and some, like beryl can come in red, yellow, blue or green, as in emerald; emerald is already the fourth foundation so the eighth—beryl, can’t be the green one. We’ll see.