5:1. ‘Sealed Book’  See also 19:20 and 20:11 below.

In Enoch LXXXV-XC we have Enoch’s second dream-vision where he sees the history of the world to the founding of the Messianic kingdom.  Lxxxvi tells of the fall of the angels and mankind. Lxxxvii of the advent of seven archangels; lxxxviii of the punishment of the fallen angels by the archangels; lxxxix of the deluge and deliverance of Noah, the death of Noah to the Exodus, Israel‘s wilderness journey, giving of the Law and entrance into Palestine, and the time of the judges to the building of the Temple, the divided kingdom and the destruction of Jerusalem. 

 

At this point, Enoch sees the Lord call seventy shepherds and give to each some sheep.  He then calls a man to keep record of how the shepherds treat the sheep.

 

Lxxxix, 68-71 deals with the period from the destruction to the return from captivity.  The cruel shepherds give the sheep to wild beasts and the recorder writes it in the book and delivers it to the Lord who reads its and seals it.  In the second period of the return, up to Alexander the Great, the cruelty of the shepherds is again recorded and shown to the Lord. 

 

In XC, the third period to the Graeco-Syrian domination, Enoch sees thirty-five cruel shepherds, then twenty-three, completing fifty-eight times.  The fourth period comes up to the Maccabaean revolt; the last assault of the Gentiles on the Jews, and how the Maccabees were given a “great sword”.  The recorder writes the last twelve of the seventy shepherds, who had destroyed more than their predecessors, and delivers it to the Lord who then smites them in wrath.

 

In XC.20-27, the Lord establishes His throne in ‘the pleasant land’.  The sealed books are opened and the fallen angels, the shepherds, and the apostates are judged.

 

This scenario shows there was a tradition of historical prophecy, where successive eras of time are recorded in sealed books.  In fact, the oldest pre-Maccabean portions of the Book of Enoch, XCIII, and XCI 12-17[1] is called the “Apocalypse of Weeks” and gives a prophetic account of the spiritual view of future historical events up to the time of Jesus. (pp. 132-4).

 

Just as Enoch prophesied of the future historical events, so did Daniel.  This gives us a precedent for interpreting Revelation 5:1, et. seq., as the opening of the sealed book of Daniel which would, on this view, be a spiritual record of the historical events transpiring from the time of Daniel to the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.  It was a literary convention of the culture.

 

5:8. “…which are the prayers of the saints….”

Enoch XCIX.3: “In those days make ready, ye righteous, to raise your prayers as a memorial, And place them as a testimony before the angels, That they may place the sin of the sinners for a memorial before the Most High.”  (p. 141.)

 

5:11. “Ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands”

(Enoch XL.1 p. 59).”1. And after that I saw thousands of thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand, I saw a multitude beyond number and reckoning, who stood before the Lord of Spirits.”

 

5:11-13. “…worthy art thou….”

Enoch XXXIX.12-13. p. 59).  “12. Those who sleep not bless Thee: they stand before Thy glory and bless, praise, and extol, saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Spirits: He filleth the earth with spirits.’  13. And here my eyes saw all those who sleep not: they stand before Him and bless and say: ‘Blessed be Thou, and blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever.'” 

 

5:13 “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…”

(Enoch XLVIII.2-5, p. 66).  “2. And at that hour the Son of Man was named In the presence of the Lord of Spirits, And his name before the Head of Days.  3. Yea, before the sun and the signs were created, Before the stars of the heaven were made, His name was named before the Lord of Spirits.  4. He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall, And he shall be the light of the Gentiles, And the hope of those who are troubled of heart.  5. All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him, And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits.”