In Revelation: could Jerusalem NOT be a City?

Question

I was talking with somebody who believes that "Jerusalem" in Revelation doesn't really mean a City, but a person. One of the arguments was this:

In Revelation 21:9 says:

9 One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.

So there, it's clearly that is a temple, specially when you keep reading and it describes how the temple was.

Rev 5:6 it says:

6 Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits[a] of God sent out into all the earth.

As in Rev 5:6 it mentions a lamb, but in reality is not a lamb, according to Christians, is Jesus. So if Revelation says a lamb, but in reality is Jesus, it's possible for the city not to be a city , but a person. I feel and I'm about 99% sure that's not true, but, I would want to understand it from a hermeneutic point of view. Thanks!

Answer 1

Jerusalem coming down from the heavens is actually mentioned a few verses earlier in Revelation 21:2:

I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

It's meaning follows in the next verse:

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

So yeah, the lamb means Christ. The significance of Jerusalem is not the physical city, but the people in it. But contrary to a lamb, which is a single living being, a city is not something singular, it contains a people. Those people are the bride in question. As such Jerusalem can't be a single person. You could still argue Jerusalem is a people, but that seems unlikely because it actually contains people according to 21.27:

Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

Answer 2

The ancients often believed that everything on earth is a replica of things that are in heaven. We see this in Hebrews 8:5:

They worship in a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary ...

In the vision described in Revelation 21:9ff, John is shown this heavenly city of Jerusalem - the real Jerusalem. This is demonstrated in following verses, as the angel shows John the walls, gates and courses of stone in its foundation. The city of Jerusalem is being described symbolically as the bride of Christ, but being only symbolic she is not an actual person.