5:1. “…a book, …sealed with seven seals….”
When Jesus told His disciples: “No man knoweth, [the day and hour], no, not the angels….”, He was referring to Deut. xxxii.34: ‘Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?'” [2:320-1] (See also Deut. 32:35.)
In context, chapter 31:26-30, shows that Moses was speaking to the congregation of Israel and warning them that they would rebel and corrupt themselves. He called heaven and earth to witness the word of the Lord concerning his wrath to come for their sins. Deut. 32:35, speaks of the wrath and vengeance of God upon this ungodly nation. Verse 34, (above), speaks of this day of wrath as “sealed up.” The sealed book of Revelation 5:1 is the opening of this pent-up wrath.
Israel, under the Old Covenant, received “the sign of circumcision” which is called ‘the seal’, Roman 4:11:
“ And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which [he had yet] being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:”
In speaking of baptism as a sacrament, Lightfoot says: “…According to the nature of a sacrament it visibly teacheth invisible things….But in what sense are sacraments to be called seals? Not that they seal (or confirm) to the receiver his righteousness; but that they seal the divine truth of the covenant and promise. Thus the apostle calls circumcision ‘the seal of the righteousness of faith:’ that is, it is the seal of this truth and doctrine, that ‘justification is by faith,’ which righteousness Abraham had when he was yet uncircumcised. And that is the way whereby sacraments confirm faith, namely, because they do doctrinally exhibit the invisible things of the covenant; and like seals, do by divine appointment sign the doctrine and truth of the covenant….” [2:379-80]
Concerning certain books or contracts which were not understood, or things found which they did not know to whom they belonged, the Jews said: “Let it be laid up till Elias come.” They had an erroneous tradition that Elias would come and make all things clear before the Messiah came. [2:408, on Mark 4:11]
5:6. “…a Lamb as it had been slain….”
In the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, the bread is to represent the body of Christ, as the lamb was called the body of the Passover. “From whence our Saviour‘s meaning may be well enough discerned; viz. that by the same signification that the Paschal lamb was my body hitherto, from henceforward let this bread be my body.
“…But the apostle adds, ‘Which is broken for you:’ which, indeed, doth not so well agree with the Paschal lamb, as with the lamb for the daily sacrifice. For as to the Paschal lamb, there was not a bone of it broken; but that of the daily sacrifice was broken and cut into several parts; and yet they are both of them the body of Christ in a figure. And although, besides the breaking of it, there are these further instances wherein the Paschal lamb and that of the daily sacrifice did differ, viz., 1. that the daily sacrifice was for all Israel, but the Paschal for this or that family: 2. the daily sacrifice was for the atonement of sin; the Passover not so: 3. the daily sacrifice was burnt, but the Passover eaten: yet in this they agreed, that under both the body of our Saviour was figured and shadowed out, though in a different notion.
“…This do in remembrance of me. As you kept the Passover in remembrance of your going out of Egypt…. We suspect in our notes upon 1 Cor.xi, as if some of the Corinthians, in their very participation of the holy eucharist, did so far Judaize, that what had been instituted for the commemoration of their redemption by the death of Christ, they perverted to the commemoration of the going out of Egypt; and that they did not at all ‘discern the Lord’s body’ in the sacrament….
“…This cup … This seems to have reference to that cup of wine that was every day poured out in the drink offerings with the daily sacrifice; for that also was poured out for the remission of sins. So that the bread may have reference to the body of the daily sacrifice, and the cup to the wine of the drink offering….
“…The new testament in my blood… So our evangelist {Luke 22:21} and so the apostle, 1 Cor.xi[25] with reference to the whole ministry of the altar, where blood was poured out; nay, with respect to the whole Jewish religion, for here was the beginning or entry of the new covenant. And indeed it seems that the design of that frequent communion of the Lord’s supper in the first ages of the church, among other things, was, that those who were converted from Judaism might be sealed and confirmed against Judaism; the sacrament itself being the mark of the cessation of the old testament and the beginning of the new.” [3:201-3]
Davies, [278-83] re the Son of Man as the Suffering Servant, See 1:13 above. for quotes on this identification of the ‘Son of Man’ of 1:13 with ‘the Lamb Who Was Slain’ of 5:6.
5:8-9. “…having golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints…And they sung a new song…”
Concerning some of the things that were done at the Paschal supper, the host gives thanks after meat “…’over the third cup of wine, and drinks it up.’ That cup was commonly called …the cup of blessing….The cup of blessing is when they give thanks after supper….‘Ten things are spoken of the cup of blessing….Washing and cleansing:’…The crowning;’…’by the disciples.’ While he is doing this let the disciples stand about him in a crown or ring…The veiling; that is, ‘…he veils himself and sits down;…He takes up the cup in both hands,….Some say he imparts it (as a gift) to his family.'” {Lightfoot sees this third cup, or cup of blessing as the one Christ gave to His disciples when He said: “This is my blood of the new covenant.”}
It is said of the fourth cup of wine: “…’Then he, {the host of the Passover supper}, mingled a fourth cup, and over it he finished the Hallel; and adds, moreover, the blessing of the hymn,…which is, ‘Let all thy works praise thee, O Lord,’ &c.; and saith, ‘Blessed is He that created the fruit of the vine…'” [2:352-3] Note that in Revelation 5:9, they sang a Hallel, that is a song of praise.
5:8. “…the prayers of saints.”
The Jews in the time of Christ prescribed that eighteen prayers be said daily. “‘If prayer be free in his mouth, let him pray the eighteen; but if not, let him pray the summary of those eighteen.’ That our Saviour comprised the sum of all prayers in this form, is known to all Christians; and it is confessed that such is the perfection of this form, that it is the epitome of all things to be prayed for, as the Decalogue is the epitome of all things to be practised.”
“…’He that prays ought always, when he prays, to join with the church.’…’Let none pray the short prayer…in the singular number, but in the plural.…we ought to acknowledge ourselves joined with the church, and to pray for her happiness as well as for our own.”
“…While the heathen said to his idol, ‘Thou art my father,’ Jer.ii.27, the Israelite was bound to say, Our Father which art in heaven, Isa.lxiii.16, lxiv.8.
“…That prayer, wherein there is not mention of the kingdom of God, is not a prayer.“
“…In the public service in the Temple, the commemoration of the kingdom of God was the respond; instead of which the people answered Amen, when the priests ended their prayers….’the tradition is, that they answered not ”Amen” in the house of the sanctuary. What said they then?….Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever.'” …’But the priests and people standing in the court, when they heard…the name Jehovah pronounced out in its syllables, adoring, and falling prostrate upon their face, they said…Blessed be the name of the glory of his kingdom for ever and ever.” [2:146-9]
“That the Jews’ daily and common prayers, ordinary and occasional, consisted chiefly of benedictions and doxologies, which the title of that Talmudic tract, which treats of their prayers, sufficiently testifies, being called [Beracoth] benedictions, as also that … tephillah, the general nomenclature for prayer, signifies no other than … praising, i.e. benediction or doxology.“ [3:111]
5:9. “…and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation….”
According to the Rabbis: “…’Israel shall have no need of the doctrine of Messiah the King in time to come; for it is said, To him shall the Gentiles seek (Isa.xi.10), but not Israel. If so, why then is Messiah to come? and what is he to do when he doth come? He shall gather together the captivity of Israel.’ &c.” [3:51]
5:9. “…they sang a new song….”
There were certain Psalms which were sung at certain prescribed times; for example, the Great Hallel, Psalms 111 through 118, were sung at the Feast of Tabernacles as they marched around the altar. However, at the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem before His crucifixion, the people were singing “Hosanna to the Son of David”:
“…as if they had said, ‘Now we sing Hosanna to the Son of David; save us, we beseech thee, O thou [who dwellest] in the highest, save us by the Messias.'” [2, p. 274]
5:9. “… hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation….”
“… This cup {of the sacrament} is not only a sign of the blood of Christ, nor only a seal as a sacrament, but the very sanction of the new testament; that is, of the whole evangelic administration, not only the sanction of a covenant, but the sanction of the covenant under the evangelic administration. From thenceforth was the cessation of Judaism. So that blood, Exod.xxiv. was not only the sanction of the covenant of grace, and the sanction of the covenant of the peculiarity of the people of Israel, but the sanction of these things under such an economy.” [4:248-9]
Davies [235-6]: “… the principle laid down in Lev.17.11 was fundamental… atonement comes through the blood…. By the outpouring of blood life was released, and in offering this to God the worshipper believed that the estrangement between him and the Deity was annulled, or that the defilement which separated them was cleansed….” [Note 5: “b. Yoma 5a; b. Zeb. 6a; cf. Heb.9.12ff.]
“…. The significance of blood will now be clear. Perhaps we may take R. Simeon b. Yohai’s words as typical: ‘Though blood is despised and serves as food of dogs, God said that we should bring a sacrifice and apply its blood to the horns of the altar in order that the blood might atone for the blood of man’….” [Note 2: “…. Pesikta R.194b.”]
“…. Dr. Vincent Taylor is surely right when he claims that ‘self-giving and complete obedience to God may certainly be included in the meaning of ‘the blood of Christ‘, but the list of derivative ideas is hopelessly attenuated unless it also includes the thought of life through death, and an offering through which men may draw nigh to God.'”
Davies, [252-3], re: How the Eucharist corresponds to the Passover: “… for Paul the Last Supper corresponds to the Passover of Judaism, it is the New Passover. Readers of the Passover Haggadah will recall how the element of memory is there emphasized. We read: ‘Now even though all of us were wise, all of us of great understanding, all of us learned as elders, all of us familiar with Scripture, it would still be our duty to tell again the story of the Exodus from Egypt….’1 Memory of a deliverance was central to the Jewish Passover. Paul transfers this to the Eucharist, the New Passover, at which even the wise2 of Corinth were again to remember the New Exodus…. just as in the Jewish Passover we have a memorial festival of thanksgiving for a past event that had led to the formation of the community of the old Israel so for Paul the Death of Jesus, when he thinks of the Eucharist, is primarily the means whereby the New Community is constituted …. the underlying idea is that of a common sharing in the Blood of Christ and this common sharing constitutes community. In the above passages the idea of community is, therefore, central and in the immediate context of the Pauline account of the Last Supper it is the need of a proper awareness of the New Community to which Christ had given birth that makes it necessary for Paul to discuss the Supper at all.
“It is not then as sacrificial and expiatory but as covenantal that Paul chiefly thinks of the Death of Jesus in the context of the Last Supper, although of course everything covenantal had a sacrificial basis.”
[Note 1: “Haggadah (London, 1897), by Rev. A.A.Green,p.27;cf.Deut.16.3″ Note 2: “Cf.I Cor.2” Note 3:”…(G.Buchanan Gray] goes on to write: ‘the recitation of the story of the death of the Lord, in other words of the act of redemption in which the Christian Church originates and on which it depends, corresponds exactly to the Haggadah at the Jewish Pascal meal, the recitation of the act of redemption from Egypt on which the Jewish nation depended.'”]
Davies, [268-9] “It was a postulate of Rabbinic thought that a man by his obedience to the Torah could obtain merit…. These merits, however, benefited not merely the person who by his obedience had acquired them, but also his contemporaries, and in addition, because of that solidarity of all the members of the community both past, present and future to which we have referred, they would also avail for those who preceded him and those who would follow him both here and hereafter.”
5:13. “And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, [be] unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”
Lightfoot cites the passages in Mark 16:15 and Colossians 1:23, where the words are translated “the whole creation” and “every creature.” In Matthew it is “all nations.” “… that phrase … which signifies the same with … every creature, is applied by the Jews to the Gentiles, and that by way of opposition to Israel.” [4:156]
5:13. “…the sea….”
The Book of Revelation does not mention ‘seas’ in the plural, however, the Old Testament prophets spoke of “the midst of the seas” as in Ezek. 27 and Daniel 11:45. The traditionists had it that seven seas compassed the land of Israel. [1:140] Revelation, however, speaks of “the sea” on earth and “the sea of glass” before the throne in the heavens.