Revelation 5:1

Revelation 5:1. The book beheld by the Seer is on, not ‘in' (comp. chap. Revelation 20:1) the right hand of him that sat on the throne, and it shall be opened for the inspection of all His saints (comp. Daniel 12:10; Mark 4:11). Although God's ‘judgments are a great deep,' His ‘secret is with them that fear Him.' The Greek word commonly translated ‘book' was really a ‘roll,' after the fashion of the sacred rolls of the Jewish synagogues. This ought to appear in the translation, as it is otherwise impossible to attach a meaning to the important statement that it was written both within and on the back. Such a translation is also the more necessary, because the description of the ‘roll' is intended to correspond with, and is indeed taken from, that in Ezekiel 2:9-10, ‘And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me: and it was written within and without.' That the roll was written both ‘within and on the back' is apparently intended to do more than indicate the richness and fulness of the contents. It indicates also that the whole of these had been determined by God Himself. No other might add to them. The roll is close-sealed, a strong expression, to mark the mysterious and inscrutable nature of its contents. The same idea is also brought out by the mention of the seven seals.

It may be greatly doubted if the number seven is to be understood as denoting nothing further than the number itself. The seven churches are one Church, the seven Spirits one Spirit. Why not the seven seals one seal? The number one is elevated into the sacred number seven in order to indicate the completeness of the sealing. By this view, which analogy commends, we are saved all the questions raised by commentators as to the mode in which the seals were fastened to the roll, and as to the possibility of conceiving how each of them could secure a certain portion only of the contents. Even the successive openings of the seals need not imply more than a further unrolling of the parchment. The seals are successively broken in order to comply with the requirements of the poetic delineation.

The general nature of the contents of the roll may be gathered from the reference to that of Ezekiel (chap. Revelation 2:10), ‘lamentations, and mourning, and woe.' The revelation itself, afterwards given to the Seer, confirms this. Judgment upon the Church's foes is the prominent idea of what the roll contains.