Arc—he Journal of the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University Volume 39 (2011): 143–170 he “Great Earthquake” Judgment in the Apocalypse: Is here an Urzeit for this Endzeit? Ralph J. Korner, McMaster University 1. Introduction T he interpretive principle that Enzeit relects Urzeit is well attested within biblical as well as in apocalyptic literature. 1 A clear example of this principle is found in the book of Revelation. The depiction of the Enzeit, that is, the re-creation of a new heaven, a new earth and a New Jerusalem (Rev 21:1–22:5) inds its Urzeit within original creation—the paradisiacal Garden of Eden (Gen 3:23). 2 Imagery that occurs both in the Garden of Eden and in the New Jerusalem includes God dwelling face to face with human beings (Gen 3:8, 9 and Rev 21:3, 4), gold of the highest quality (Gen 2:11, 12 and Rev 21:18), a lowing river (Gen 3:10 and Rev 22:1 cf. Ezek 47:1–12), the Tree of Life (Gen 3:9, 22 and Rev 22:2 cf. Ezek 47:11, 12), and the removal of the “curse” (Gen 3:17 and Rev 22:3). The New Jerusalem of the eschaton, however, does not just contain transformational elements (e.g., the Garden), but is itself transformed into what one might call an eschatological “un-city.” 3 Even further to this point, 1. Hermann Gunkel pioneered this insight in his Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Enzeit (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1895). Richard Bauckham airms this principle in apocalyptic literature: “the apocalyptists’ understanding of salvation-history… [is such that] God’s redemptive acts in the future are portrayed on the model of his past acts” (“The Eschatological Earthquake in the Apocalypse of John,” NovT 19 [1977]: 224–233, esp. 225; idem, The Climax of Prophecy [Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1993], 201). 2. An association of the heavenly city with imagery reminiscent of the Garden of Eden or Paradise was already common stock imagery in Jewish writings of John’s day (cf. 2 Bar. 4:1–7 with the use of parallelism in T. Dan. 5:12). 3. There are four anomalous architectural features which point towards the “un-citylike” nature of Revelation’s eschatological city: (1) it appears to contain only a single street (21:21); (2) explicit mention is made of the fact that John did not see a temple in the city (21:22);