[14] John adds to Ezekiel’s description with the notation that the
12-gated wall also has 12 foundations. The seer is updating the prophet for a
particular reason, to emphasize the universalism that has been a part of his
agenda throughout (see the discussion of 21:3). If the complete restoration and
inclusion of the Israelite tribes is symbolized by the 12 gates, the complete
inclusion of all believing Gentiles is symbolized by these 12 foundations.
Noticing that each foundation stone had inscribed on it the name of one of the
Lamb’s 12 apostles, John follows early Christian tradition, which maintained
that the eschatological city had a foundation of apostles and prophets
conceived by God (Eph 2:20; Heb 11:10), with Christ as its cornerstone. The
image of a city wall with Jesus’ 12 apostles as foundation signifies the
incorporation of the believing church into this eschatological city. The
combination of the 12 tribes and the 12 apostles makes this single, critical
point: the new city is founded upon and therefore open to all God’s people, Jew
and Gentile alike. John has used the resulting total of 24 before to express
symbolically this message of inclusiveness. The 24 elders in 4:3–4 represent a
similar combination of 12 and 12 that anticipates the link between Israel and
the apostles here. Notably, too, in both this section and the earlier one,
God’s glory, symbolized by jasper, is on radiant display. John evidently joins
the manifestation of God’s glory, at least in part, to the universal makeup of
God’s eschatological community. (Brian K. Blount, Revelation: A
Commentary [The New Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John
Knox Press, 2013], 388)
