Revelation 5:5

ἀνοῖξαι … σφραγῖδας, cf. Dittenberger's Sylloge Inscr. Graec. 790 47 (first century) τὰς σφ. ἀνοιξάτω. Christ's success is due to his legitimate messianic authority as a Davidic scion (ῥίζα = shoot or sprout on main stem, cf. Sibyll. iii. 396); the Davidic descent of Jesus was a tenet of certain circles in primitive Christianity (Dalman i. § 12). Possibly there is an allusion to the original bearing of the O.T. passage: Jesus irresistible and courageous, yet in origin humble. In 4 Esdr. 12:31, 32 the messiah's rebuke to the Roman empire is thus described: leonem quem uidisti de silva euigilantem mugientem et loquentem ad aquilam et arguentem eam iniquitatis … hic est unctus, quern reseruauit altissimus in finem [dierum, qui dicitur ex semine David]. ῥάβδος, in sense of “shoot” occurs with ῥίζα in Isaiah 11:1 (cf. 10; Ezekiel 19:11-12; Ezekiel 19:14); hence the combination with the idea of “sceptre” (ἐνίκησεν, cf. Revelation 2:27) in a messianic connotation (cf. on Revelation 22:16). The enigma of the world's history lies with Christ, to be solved and to be controlled. Jewish eschatology (En. xlvi. 3, xlix. 1) had already proclaimed the revealing power of messiah, who is “mighty in all the secrets of righteousness … and who reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden”. John claims that Jesus is the legitimate messiah, whose power to unfold God's redeeming purpose rests upon his victorious inauguration of that purpose. The victory of Christ in Revelation 5:5 f. follows dramatically upon the allusion in Revelation 3:21, but it is to press the sequence too far when this scene is taken to represent his arrival in heaven “just after the accomplishment of his victory” (Briggs).