Then: as in other chapters this word indicates that the events in this verse immediately follow what happens in chapter 21. Some translators will wish to say “After the angel showed me the new city, he showed….”

He showed me: it is better to make the subject explicit, “the angel showed me” (as New Revised Standard Version has done); see 21.9.

The river of the water of life: the genitive phrase water of life is better translated “life-giving water” (see 21.6 “the fountain of the water of life”).

Bright as crystal: see expressions with a similar meaning in 4.6; 21.11.

Flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb: as 3.21 and 22.3 make clear, God and the Lamb sit on the same throne, not on two different thrones. The idea of flowing from can be expressed by “flowing from under.”

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .