Revelation 5: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

John sees a sealed scroll in the right hand of the One on the throne, and no one anywhere is found able to open it, which makes John weep. An elder tells him the Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed and can open it, and John then sees a Lamb that looks as if it had been killed take the scroll. The living creatures, the elders, and then countless angels and every creature in creation break into song, praising the Lamb and the One on the throne.

Claim by Claim

1. 5:1
   • John saw a scroll in the right hand of the one seated on the throne.
   • The scroll was written on the inside and on the back.
   • The scroll was sealed with seven seals.
2. 5:2
   • John saw a strong angel.
   • The angel proclaimed with a loud voice.
   • The angel asked who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals.
3. 5:3
   • No one in heaven was able to open the scroll or to look at it.
   • No one on earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it.
   • No one under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it.
4. 5:4
   • John wept much.
   • John wept because no one was found worthy to open the scroll.
   • No one was found worthy to read the scroll.
   • No one was found worthy to look at the scroll.
5. 5:5
   • One of the elders spoke to John.
   • The elder told John not to weep.
   • The elder said the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed.
   • The elder said the Lion of the tribe of Judah is the Root of David.
   • The elder said he prevailed to open the scroll.
   • The elder said he prevailed to loose the seven seals of the scroll.
6. 5:6
   • John saw a Lamb.
   • The Lamb was standing in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures.
   • The Lamb was in the midst of the elders.
   • The Lamb appeared as though it had been slain.
   • The Lamb had seven horns.
   • The Lamb had seven eyes.
   • The seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God.
   • The seven Spirits of God are sent out into all the earth.
7. 5:7
   • The Lamb came.
   • The Lamb took the scroll out of the right hand of the one seated on the throne.
8. 5:8
   • When the Lamb had taken the scroll, the four living creatures fell down before the Lamb.
   • The twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb.
   • Each of them had a harp.
   • They had golden bowls full of incense.
   • The bowls of incense are the prayers of the saints.
9. 5:9
   • They sang a new song.
   • They said the Lamb is worthy to take the scroll.
   • They said the Lamb is worthy to open its seals.
   • They said the Lamb was slain.
   • They said the Lamb redeemed them to God by his blood.
   • They said the redeemed were taken out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
10. 5:10
    • They said the Lamb has made them kings and priests to God.
    • They said God is their God.
    • They said they will reign on the earth.
11. 5:11
    • John looked.
    • John heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders.
    • The number of the angels was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands.
12. 5:12
    • The angels spoke with a loud voice.
    • They said the Lamb that was slain is worthy to receive power.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive riches.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive wisdom.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive strength.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive honor.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive glory.
    • They said the Lamb is worthy to receive blessing.
13. 5:13
    • John heard every creature in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, and in the sea speaking.
    • John heard all that are in them speaking.
    • They said blessing, honor, glory, and power be to the one who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.
    • They said this is to be forever and ever.
14. 5:14
    • The four living creatures said, Amen.
    • The twenty-four elders fell down.
    • The elders worshipped him that lives forever and ever.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

5:1

The KJV's "book" is a scroll: a long sheet of papyrus or parchment rolled up. Bound books with pages were only beginning to appear in the first century, and a document of this kind would have been a roll. "Backside" in 1611 English means simply the back, the outer face of the roll, with none of its later sense. Scrolls were normally written on the inside only, so writing on both sides pictures a document that is completely full, with nothing that could be added. The seals were lumps of wax or clay pressed with a signet ring across the edge of the rolled-up scroll, so that it could not be opened without visibly breaking them. Wills, deeds and contracts were secured this way, and only a person with the legal right to do so could break the seals and act on the contents.

5:2

An angel is a messenger who serves God in heaven.

5:3

"No man" in 1611 English means "no one at all," not males as opposed to females. "In heaven, in earth, under the earth" is a standard three-part way of naming the whole of creation: the sky above, the land of the living, and the realm of the dead below. The point is that the search came up empty everywhere.

5:5

The elders are the twenty-four figures seated on thrones around God's throne, introduced in chapter 4. "Juda" is the KJV's spelling of Judah, following the Greek form of the name. "The Lion of the tribe of Judah" reaches back to Genesis 49:9, where the dying Jacob compares his son Judah to a lion; Judah was the tribe David came from, and so the royal tribe. "The Root of David" comes from Isaiah 11:1 and 11:10, where a shoot grows from the stump of Jesse, David's father. "Root" here means the growth that springs from the stock, that is, a descendant of David's line. "Hath prevailed" is stronger than modern "prevailed" suggests: the Greek verb means to conquer, to win a victory.

5:6

"Beasts" here translates a Greek word meaning "living creatures," and in 1611 English "beast" simply meant a living animal, with no suggestion of brutality. Revelation uses a completely different Greek word for the hostile "beast" that appears in chapter 13; the two are not the same term. "As it had been slain" means the Lamb carries the visible marks of having had its throat cut as a sacrifice, and yet is standing alive. Horns are the standard Hebrew image for strength, drawn from a bull or a ram, and eyes stand for seeing and knowing; seven of each carries the sense of complete power and complete sight, since seven runs through Revelation as the number of wholeness. The Greek phrase describing where the Lamb stands is genuinely unclear: it can mean in the middle of the throne itself, or in the middle of the space marked out by the throne, the creatures and the elders. Translators divide, and the rendering leaves it open.

5:8

The "harps" are not the large upright instrument of a modern orchestra but the kithara, a small handheld lyre with strings stretched over a frame, the ordinary instrument for accompanying song. "Vials" in 1611 English means wide shallow bowls, not narrow glass tubes; these are the kind of bowl used at an altar. "Odours" means incense, the fragrant smoke burned in the temple. Incense was burned while people prayed, and the smoke drifting upward was a familiar picture for prayer going up to God, as in Psalm 141:2. "Saints" is the KJV's regular word for all of God's people, everyone set apart as his, not a special category of outstanding individuals.

5:9

"A new song" is a set phrase from the Psalms, called for when God has just done something fresh and rescuing, as in Psalms 96 and 98. "Redeemed" translates the ordinary Greek verb for buying something in a marketplace, the word used for purchasing a slave out of slavery; the modern rendering "bought" is closer to its everyday flavor. "Kindred" means tribe or clan, and "tongue" means language. The manuscripts differ here: some read "redeemed us," which the KJV follows, and others read "redeemed people for God" without the "us," which most modern translations follow.

5:10

"Kings and priests" echoes Exodus 19:6, where God tells Israel at Sinai that they will be to him "a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." The manuscripts differ by a single word: some read "kings," as the KJV has it, and others read "a kingdom." They also divide over whether the last clause is "they reign" or "they shall reign," so both the present and the future are defensible readings of the text.

5:11

"Ten thousand times ten thousand" translates a Greek word, myrias, that was the largest round number Greek had a name for. "Myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands" was an idiom for a crowd beyond counting, not an arithmetical figure to be multiplied out.

5:12

The KJV's "blessing" here does not mean a benefit handed to someone. The Greek word means speech that praises, so directed at the Lamb it means praise spoken aloud. Seven things are named in the list, the same number that runs through the seals, horns and eyes of this chapter.

5:13

"For ever and ever" renders a Greek phrase that reads literally "to the ages of the ages," a piled-up idiom for time without end. The four realms named, heaven, earth, under the earth and the sea, together mean every place where anything exists.

5:14

"Amen" is a Hebrew word carried straight over into Greek and then into English without translation. It means roughly "truly" or "let it stand," and it was said by hearers to endorse a statement or a prayer someone else had just made. The manuscripts differ at the end of the verse: the earliest read simply "the elders fell down and worshipped," while later ones add "him that liveth for ever and ever," which is the reading the KJV follows.