Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

5:1-4
family worship; it is radically different from a mere
Bible study group, as important as that may be. The
Sunday worship of the Church is qualitatively unique:
It is God’s people coming into the palace for a formal
ceremony before the Throne, an official audience with
the King. We come to confess our faith and allegiance,
to take solemn oaths, to receive forgiveness, to offer up
prayers, to be instructed by God’s officers, to eat at His
table, and to render thanksgiving for all His benefits;
and we are to respond to all of this with music and
singing. All of this is corporate, and that necessarily
means liturgy. This may mean certain complex and
involved changes in our habits and patterns of worship.
But God should have nothing less than the best. He is
the King, and worship means serving Him.
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CHRISTUS VICTOR
The Lamb and the Book (5:1-14)
1 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the
Throne a Book written on the front and on the back,
sealed up with seven seals.
2 And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
Who is worthy to open the Book and to break its seals?
3 And no one in heaven, or on the earth, or under the
earth, was able to open the Book, or to look into it.
4 And I began to weep greatly, because no one was found
worthy to open the Book, or to look into it;
5 and one of the elders says to me, Stop weeping; behold,
the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has
conquered so as to open the Book and its seven seals.
6 And I saw in the middle of the Throne and of the four
living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb
standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes,
which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the
earth.
7 And He came, and He took it out of the right hand of
Him who sat on the Throne.
8 And when He had taken the Book, the four living
creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the
Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
9 And they sing a New Song, saying: Worthy art Thou to
take the Book, and to break its seals; for Thou wast slain,
and didst purchase us for God with Thy blood out of
every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
10 And Thou hast made them to be kings and priests to our
God; and they will reign upon the earth.
11 And I looked, and I heard as it were the voice of many
angels around the Throne and the living creatures and
the elders; and the number of them was myriads of
myriads, and thousands of thousands,
12 saying with a loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb that was
slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing.
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the
earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things
in them, I heard saying: To Him who sits on the Throne,
and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen.
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen. And
the elders fell down and worshiped.
1-4 St. John sees the One sitting on the Throne
holding a Book . . . sealed with seven seals. As
Theodor Zahn observed, the seven seals indicate that
this document is a testament. While this is not the
entire explanation, it is important for a proper
understanding of the Book. Zahn wrote: “The word
biblion [book] itself permits of many interpretations, but
for the readers of that time it was designated by the
seven seals on its back beyond possibility of mistake.
Just as in Germany before the introduction of moneyorders
everybody knew that a letter sealed with five
seals contained money, so the most simple member of
the Asiatic churches knew that a biblion made fast with
seven seals was a testament. When a testator dies the
testament is brought forward, and when possible
opened in the presence of the seven witnesses who
sealed it; i.e., it was unsealed, read aloud, and executed.
. . . The document with seven seals is the symbol of the
promise of a future kingdom. The disposition long ago
occurred and was documented and sealed, but it was
not yet carried out .” 1
The Book was also written on the front and on the
back. Any Christian reader 2 would immediately have
understood the significance of this description, for it is
based on the description of the Ten Commandments.
The two tablets of the Testimony, which were duplicate
copies, 3 were inscribed on both front and back (Ex.
32:15). An analogue of this is found in the suzerainty
treaties of the Ancient Near East: A victorious king
(the suzerain) would impose a treaty/covenant upon
the conquered king (the vassal) and all those under the
vassal’s authority. Two copies of the treaty were drawn
up (as in modern contracts), and each party would
place his copy of the contract in the house of his god,
as a legal document testifying to the transaction. In the
1. Theodor Zahn, Introduction to the New Testament, Vol. III, pp. 393 f.; quoted
in G. R. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., revised ed., 1978), p. 121.
2. In saying this, I am assuming that the average Christian of the first century
had more sense than the average commentator of the twentieth. There is
hardly a single commentary that even gives the Ten Commandments a
passing glance in this connection.
3. See Meredith G. Kline, Treaty of the Great King: The Covenant Structure of
Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1963),
pp. 13ff.; idem, The Structure of Biblical Authority (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., second cd., 1975), pp. 113ff.
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