SUBJECT:  John 14:2 Many Mansions

QUESTION:  What is meant by the word “mansions”?

ANSWER:

Thank you for you e-mailed question about "many mansions" and what this phrase means.  We read about them in the following verse:

John 14:1-3

1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

As we will see, the word can denote both a building and a position. 

The word "house" in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance states:

3614  oikia (oy-kee'-ah);

from 3624; properly, residence (abstractly), but usually (concretely) an abode (literally or figuratively); by implication a family (especially domestics):

KJV-- home, house (-hold).

The word "mansions" in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance states:

3438  mone (mon-ay');

from 3306; a staying, i.e. residence (the act or the place):

KJV-- abode, mansion.

In the times that Jesus spoke these words, the custom was when a male got married, his father would add a room unto his house and the husband and wife would come there to live.  Some of these dwelling compounds have been dug up and found to have as many as 12 added rooms.

It also pictures a family situation.  The verse says "in my father's house" which denotes that we will have a room, a place and a position in the home and family of God.  Notice...

Revelation 3:12

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Revelation 21:2

2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

This home of the Father is being prepared now and will after the return of Christ come down from heaven.  This home is the New Jerusalem.  As you read in Chapter 21 you see that God, the Father and Christ will reign from this New Jerusalem.  It is in this New Jerusalem that we will have our added room and position.

Revelation 5:10

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

Revelations 1:6

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 20:6

6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Revelation 22:5

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

As you can see, God does have positions and duties planned for us in His Kingdom.  Matthew 14:2 and the discussion of mansions is just another analogy used to explain what God has planned for all of us in that Kingdom.

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