The beloved city isn’t necessarily the New Jerusalem. In Matthew 23:37 Jesus seems to show that the earthly Jerusalem was beloved.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38
Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
The "desolate house" statement in Matt 23:38 is "the curse of Solomon" being pronounced on Jerusalem by Christ in Matt 23.
1 Kings 9:6-8
6
But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments
and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, 7 then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them;
and this house which I have consecrated for My name
I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8 And
as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’
So then we can see the blessed city and beloved city in Rev 21 and it explains its presence in Rev 20 with all the saints inside and all the wicked surrounding it.
Revelation 21:2 shows New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven prepared as a bride. I think most people would agree that the bride of Christ is the church. I would argue that the bride was prepared at the cross; this is where Christ was found guilty of our sins and paid for those sins.
I am just reading the text. Rev 21 says this -- city "prepared as a bride"
2 Then
I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the
tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them
and be their God. ..
The New Jerusalem
9 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, “
Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain,
and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God. Her light
was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 Also
she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and names written on them, which are
the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13
three gates on the east, t
hree gates on the north,
three gates on the south, and
three gates on the west.
<looks like a real city - coming down out of heaven.>
14 Now
the wall of the city had
twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he who talked with me had a gold reed to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16
The city is laid out as a square; its
length is as great as its breadth. And he
measured the city with the reed:
twelve thousand furlongs. Its length, breadth, and height are equal. 17 Then he
measured its wall:
one hundred and forty-four cubits,
according to
the measure of a man, that is, of an angel. 18 T
he construction of its wall was
of jasper; and the
city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The
foundations of the wall of the city
were adorned with all kinds of precious stones: the first foundation
was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth sardius, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. 21 The
twelve gates were twelve pearls: each individual gate was of one pearl. And the street of the city
was pure gold, like transparent glass.
The Glory of the New Jerusalem
22 But I saw
no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The
city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb
is its light. 24 And
the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and
the kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it. 25
Its gates shall not be shut at all by day (there shall be no night there). 26 And they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.
<looks like a real city - coming down out of heaven. and the saints, go in and out of the city but they are not the city in Rev 21>