Matthew 4:5

4:5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, ¹  had him stand ²  on the highest point ³  of the temple,

Nehemiah 11:1

The Population of Jerusalem

11:1 So the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, ⁴  while the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of every ten to settle in Jerusalem, the holy city, while the other nine ⁵  remained in other cities.

Isaiah 48:2

48:2 Indeed, they live in the holy city; ⁶ 

they trust in ⁷  the God of Israel,

whose name is the Lord who commands armies.

Daniel 9:24

9:24 “Seventy weeks ⁸  have been determined

concerning your people and your holy city

to put an end to ⁹  rebellion,

to bring sin ¹⁰  to completion, ¹¹ 

to atone for iniquity,

to bring in perpetual ¹²  righteousness,

to seal up ¹³  the prophetic vision, ¹⁴ 

and to anoint a most holy place. ¹⁵ 

Revelation 11:2

11:2 But ¹⁶  do not measure the outer courtyard ¹⁷  of the temple; leave it out, ¹⁸  because it has been given to the Gentiles, ¹⁹  and they will trample on the holy city ²⁰  for forty-two months.

Revelation 21:2

21:2 And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.

Revelation 22:19

22:19 And if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life ²¹  and in the holy city that are described in this book.

¹ sn The order of the second and third temptations differs in Luke’s account (4:5-12) from the order given in Matthew.

² tn Grk “and he stood him.”

³ sn The highest point of the temple probably refers to the point on the temple’s southeast corner where it looms directly over a cliff some 450 ft (135 m) high. However, some have suggested the reference could be to the temple’s high gate.

⁴ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁵ tn Heb “nine of the hands.” The word “hand” is used here in the sense or a part or portion.

⁶ tn Heb “they call themselves [or “are called”] from the holy city.” The precise meaning of the statement is uncertain. The Niphal of קָרָא (qara’) is combined with the preposition מִן (min) only here. When the Qal of קָרָא is used with מִן, the preposition often indicates the place from which one is summoned (see 46:11). So one could translate, “from the holy city they are summoned,” meaning that they reside there.

⁷ tn Heb “lean on” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB, NIV “rely on.”

⁸ tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.

⁹ tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.

¹⁰ tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).

¹¹ tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.

¹² tn Or “everlasting.”

¹³ sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.

¹⁴ tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.

¹⁵ tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.

¹⁶ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

¹⁷ tn On the term αὐλήν (aulhn) BDAG 150 s.v. αὐλή 1 states, “(outer) court of the temple…Rv 11:2.”

¹⁸ tn The precise meaning of the phrase ἔκβαλε ἔξωθεν (ekbale exwqen) is difficult to determine.

¹⁹ tn Or “to the nations” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).

²⁰ sn The holy city appears to be a reference to Jerusalem. See also Luke 21:24.

²¹ tc The Textus Receptus, on which the KJV rests, reads “the book” of life (ἀπὸ βίβλου, apo biblou) instead of “the tree” of life. When the Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus translated the NT he had access to no Greek mss for the last six verses of Revelation. So he translated the Latin Vulgate back into Greek at this point. As a result he created seventeen textual variants which were not in any Greek mss. The most notorious of these is this reading. It is thus decidedly inauthentic, while “the tree” of life, found in the best and virtually all Greek mss, is clearly authentic. The confusion was most likely due to an intra-Latin switch: The form of the word for “tree” in Latin in this passage is ligno; the word for “book” is libro. The two-letter difference accounts for an accidental alteration in some Latin mss; that “book of life” as well as “tree of life” is a common expression in the Apocalypse probably accounts for why this was not noticed by Erasmus or the KJV translators. (This textual problem is not discussed in NA²⁷.)