Revelation 5:1

II. PRELUDE TO OPENING THE SEVEN SEALS, Revelation 5:1-14.

The Book and unaccepted challenge, Revelation 5:1-4.

1. And In the fourth chapter we had St. John’s gorgeous description of the royal-divine Court, convened to unfold the future of the Church and world. We are now to have the production of the document under whose seals the future is closed.

The right hand Made visible, though the divine Person is curtained in glory.

A book Let not the English reader fashion in his mind a modern bound book, but a manuscript roll. It is disputed among commentators, whether this roll is a single sheet or seven sheets, each with its seal. The old commentators, Grotius, Vitringa, Wetstein, Storr, Ewald, and others, said seven; Stuart, Elliott, and Alford, say one. These latter hold it to be a single sheet rolled up and fastened with seven seals. The old view, as Ewald’s, is thus well given by Stuart: “Ewald objects to the idea of a scroll or roll here, and maintains that there were seven separate libelli rolled in succession around a piece of wood in the centre, the first of which was the longest and the rest successively shorter; so that the seals on the margin of the outside leaf might be seen by John.”

We here agree with the old interpreters. The obvious idea is, that as each successive seal was broken, a new leaf was unrolled, unfolding a new leaf of futurity. That futurity was thickly written over both pages of each leaf. It must have been, that of each single seal the entire matter was written on each side, so requiring a single piece for its own record. And the symbol that came forth was the concentrated embodiment of the thoughts of its written record. Why should there be seven seals on a single sheet? The seals were seven, in order to close down the seven leaves. Stuart asks, What is the significance, then, of the written within and on the back side? Just the same, we say, with seven as with one. In both cases the inside writing would, when rolled up, be concealed under the seals, and in both cases the outside writing would alone be visible, and the inside writing be inferred until seen. Stuart’s remark that the old view implies “seven rolls,” ignores the fact that a whole volume, even the entire pentateuch, is called a roll.

Within and… back side Implies that the matter was so copious, that both pages of the leaf, inside and outside, were written.

Seven seals Signs of both divine authentication and divine secrecy. The sheets were so rolled on to a cylinder that each later sheet left an uncovered margin upon which the seal was stamped.