Jerusalem was the place where God himself in the old dispensation was pleased to dwell with his people. On Mount Zion (the highest point in the city), the Lord had Solomon build a temple in which he dwelt (Psalm 132:13). The ceremonies of that temple foreshadowed how (through Jesus’ coming sacrifice) God and man could again live together in peaceful harmony. The “New Jerusalem” of the present paragraph is the fulfilment of what was foreshadowed in the imperfect old Jerusalem. The use of the word “new” indicates both the continuity and the discontinuity between the old Jerusalem and its replacement.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.