The Little Scroll

 

Revelation 10:1-2:  “Then I saw another mighty angel…. He had a little scroll open in his hand.”  (RSV. Also all of Revelation Chapter 10.)

 

            Who is this “Mighty Angel”?  He is somewhat like the Son of Man of chapter 1. His face is like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire.  There is a great similarity here with the “Man” Daniel saw, (Daniel 10:5-6).  This ‘Man’ had overcome the prince of Persia and was aided by Michael, one of the chief princes.  He had come to make Daniel understand what is to befall “your people” in the latter days.

            Daniel was beside the “Great River” which some editor has here designated as ‘Hiddekel’, (10:4, one of the rivers of Eden, Genesis 2:14), but translated by RSV as “Tigris”.  Instead of the literal Tigris, this ‘Great River‘ may represent the earthly counterpart of the river of time, streaming across the heavens; the heavenly part being the Ulai.  The “Ulai” may be a form of the word used in topographical designations (BDB 18-19).  Topography is determined ultimately by position in relation to the starry heavens.  Therefore, the Ulai may have meant the stream of the sun, moon and stars as they passed over in the process of time.  Surely, then, the ‘voice’ from between the banks of the Ulai was the Son of Man in Daniel.

            In 8:15-16, Daniel in his vision hears: “A Man’s voice between the banks of the (river?) Ulai and it called:  ‘Gabriel, make this man understand the vision.’”  Whereupon Gabriel begins to expound to Daniel the events that shall lead up to “the appointed time of the end” (Daniel 8:19 RSV).  But Daniel did not understand at that time.  Daniel was to “seal up the vision, for it pertains to many days hence” (8:26).  The promise was that he would understand at the time of the end, when the sealed scroll would be opened.

            This Gabriel appears again to Daniel to give him more wisdom and understanding about the appointed time of the end, (9:21-22).  He then proceeds to designate the seventy-week period, (9:24-27 RSV), that is:

Decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy (One).

The City and the Sanctuary are to be destroyed, (9:26). 

            It seems that in Daniel 10, it is “The Man” Himself Who comes to speak with Daniel.  He gives Daniel more details about events that are to transpire up to “the time appointed“, (Daniel 11:27, 29, 35, 40; 12:4, 9, 13.)  “The time of the end” is an “appointed time“, (Daniel 8:19; 11:27, 35).

            Daniel was instructed to “seal up the vision” (8:26; 12:4, 9) until the “time of the end.”  Revelation 1:3 says that “the appointed time is at hand”, and Revelation 5 shows the sealed book, (of Daniel’s prophecy), is about to be opened.  The Lamb proceeds to open the seals in chapters 6 through 8.  The seventh seal consists of the seven trumpets, six of which have sounded by the end of Revelation chapter 9.  He has a “little scroll” open in his hand.  I submit that this little scroll is the inside, or core of the scroll of chapter 5.  The Lamb has opened all the seals, and nothing is now left but the innermost page.  In Revelation 10:2, the “little book” is now open.

            The Mighty Angel that held this little book set his right foot upon the sea and his left foot on the earth.  This Mighty Angel had one foot in the heavenly Ulai and one upon the Mediterranean, indicating the bond between the heavens and the earth, which is time.  Revelation 10:7 shows that the voice of this Mighty Angel marks the end of the “mystery” that “God had declared to his servants the prophets“.  The mysterious sealed words of Daniel have now been fully revealed.  This Mighty Angel is Daniel, standing in his place at the end of the days, and, at last, fully understanding Gabriel’s message to him many years earlier.

            The “Little Book”, i.e., the last page of the opened scroll is given to John the Revelator who is then instructed to “eat the book” because he “must now prophesy before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”  That is, Daniel’s prophecy to fleshly Israel is ended; the message is no longer to be confined to the Jews nor to be relevant only to their end, but is to be applied universally.  Chapter 10 ends the first half of the book as well as the end of God’s message to fleshly Israel.  This leads into chapter 11, where the Temple concept must be addressed.

 

No More Delay/Time No Longer

 

Revelation 10:6: And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer.” [NIV and RSV: “There shall be no more delay.”]

 

            This phrase has as a referent the fact that the Lord told Ezekiel, (12:26-28):

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 27 Son of man, behold, [they of] the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth [is] for many days [to come], and he prophesieth of the times [that are] far off. 28 Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.

 

            From this passage the Rabbis understood that a prophet was to be proven in his own generation as to whether or not his prophecies came to pass.[1]

            The phrase, “There should be time no longer”, might be translated “the time is up”.  The gist of the message is that the time for the end of the Jewish nation, temple, race and city had come.  All the days of grace had expired; all avenues for appeal had been exhausted; the promised penalty of the wrath of God must now be executed.  (See “What is Prophecy?” Commentary on Revelation 1:3)