And what book does John see, which has writing on the front and back and is sealed? Which book could no one read and loose its seals, except the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David who has the key of David, and who opens and no one will close, and closes and no one will open? For the whole Scripture is what is revealed by the book that has writing on the front because its interpretation is easy, and on the back because it is hidden and spiritual.
That Christ was to be born of the seed of David, according to the flesh. In the second of Kings: "And the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord, Thou shall not build me an house to dwell in; but it shall come to pass, when thy days shall be fulfilled, and thou shall sleep with thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee who shall come from thy loins, and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build me a house in my name, and I will set up His throne for ever; and I will be to; Him a Father, and He shall be to me a Son; and His house shall obtain confidence, and His kingdom for ever in my sight." Also in Isaiah: "And a rod shall go forth of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall go up from his root; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety; and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him." Also in the cxxxist Psalm: "God hath sworn the truth unto David himself, and He has not repudiated it; of the fruit of thy belly will I set upon my throne." Also in the Gospel according to Luke: "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary. For thou hast found favour before God. Behold, thou shall conceive, and shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus. The same shall be great, and He shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give Him the throne of His father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end." Also in the Apocalypse: "And I saw in the right hand of God, who sate on the throne, a book written within, and on the back sealed with seven seals; and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to receive the book, and to open its seals? Nor was there any one either in heaven or upon the earth, or under the earth, who was able to open the book, nor even to look into it. And I wept much because nobody was found worthy to open the book, nor to look into it. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose its seven seals."
"And I saw in the right hand of Him that sate upon the throne, a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals." This book signifies the Old Testament, which has been given into the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ, who received from the Father judgment.
[Daniel 12:4] "But Thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time appointed. Many shall pass over, and knowledge shall be manifold." He who had revealed manifold truth to Daniel now signifies that the things he has said are matters of secrecy, and he orders him to roll up the scroll containing his words and set a seal upon the book, with the result that many shall read it and inquire as to its fulfilment in history, differing in their opinions because of its great obscurity. And as for the statement, "Many shall pass over" or "go through," this indicates that it will be read by many people. For it is a familiar expression to say: "I have gone through a book," or, "I have passed through an historical account." Indeed this is the idea which Isaiah also expressed in regard to the obscurity of his own book: "And the sayings of that book shall be like the words of a book that is sealed. And if they shall give it to an illiterate man, saying, 'Read it,' he will reply, 'I do not know how to read.' But if they give it to a man who does know how to read and say, 'Read the book,' he will reply, 'I cannot read it, because it is sealed up'" (Isaiah 29:11-12). Also in the Revelation of John, there is a book seen which is sealed with seven seals inside and outside. And when no one proves able to break its seals, John says, "I wept sore; and a voice came to me, saying, 'Weep not: behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book and break its seals'" (Revelation 5:1-5). But that book can be opened by one who has learned the mysteries of Scripture and understands its hidden truths, and its words which seem dark because of the greatness of the secrets they contain. He it is who can interpret the parables and transmute the letter which killeth into the spirit which quickeneth.
In the apocalypse a book is shewn sealed with seven seals, [Rev. 5:1] which if you deliver to one that is learned saying, Read this, he will answer you, I cannot, for it is sealed. [Isa. 29:11] How many there are to-day who fancy themselves learned, yet the scriptures are a sealed book to them, and one which they cannot open save through Him who has the key of David, "he that openeth and no man shutteth; and shutteth and no man openeth." [Rev. 3:7] In the Acts of the Apostles the holy eunuch (or rather "man" for so the scripture calls him [Acts 8:27] ) when reading Isaiah he is asked by Philip "Understandest thou what thou readest?", makes answer:-"How can I except some man should guide me?" [Acts 8:30, Acts 8:31] To digress for a moment to myself, I am neither holier nor more diligent than this eunuch, who came from Ethiopia, that is from the ends of the world, to the Temple leaving behind him a queen's palace, and was so great a lover of the Law and of divine knowledge that he read the holy scriptures even in his chariot. Yet although he had the book in his hand and took into his mind the words of the Lord, nay even had them on his tongue and uttered them with his lips, he still knew not Him, whom-not knowing-he worshipped in the book. Then Philip came and shewed him Jesus, who was concealed beneath the letter. Wondrous excellence of the teacher! In the same hour the eunuch believed and was baptized; he became one of the faithful and a saint. He was no longer a pupil but a master; and he found more in the church's font there in the wilderness than he had ever done in the gilded temple of the synagogue.
“Sealed,” it says, “by seven seals.” This means that the book was obscured by the plenitude of all mysteries, since until the passion and resurrection of Christ it had remained sealed. For in no way is anything called a “testament,” unless those who are about to die make it, and it is sealed until the death of the testator, and after his death, it is opened. And so, after the death of Christ every mystery was revealed.
The book is in the right hand because it is in Christ, for he is the arm of God, he is the right hand of the Father, or it means that it was in the highest blessedness. The book written on the inside and the outside is both Testaments, the Old Testament on the outside because it was visible, and the New Testament on the inside because it lay hidden within the Old. The apostle speaks to the Hebrews of this: “For you have not come to what may be touched, a fire, a storm, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice with words whose hearers entreated that no further word be given to them, for they could not bear what was said,” and the following. However, now “comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, we do not contemplate what is seen but what is not seen, for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” And therefore one book is mentioned, since the New Testament cannot be without the Old, nor the Old without the New. For the Old Testament is the messenger and the veil of the New, while the New is the fulfillment and revelation of the Old. And because the Old Testament was on the outside, it neither disclosed everything nor did it conceal everything. Or, to express this more clearly, every dispensation of the Savior that is either promised or enacted in either Testament is collected here in this book.
seven seals. the seven seals are first, the incarnation; second, the nativity; third, the passion; fourth, the death; fifth, the resurrection; sixth, the glory; and seventh, the kingdom. Therefore, Christ fulfilled all these things through his humanity. All Scriptures that were closed and sealed, he opened and unsealed.
This scroll, which is said to be written on the inside and on the outside, is all of the present world which is a creature [of God]. God perceives the inner [thoughts of every creature] and he knows their outer deeds. For, by the virtue of his power he surpasses this world which is contained [by him] and by the clarity of his majesty he searches into the inmost parts. The book is said to be sealed by seven seals, so that the decree and limit of the present seven days, in which the world was made, might be manifested. Another interpretation: This book signifies the teaching of the Old Testament, which was given into the hands of our Lord, who accepted the judgment from the Father. The seven seals are these: First, incarnation; second, birth; third, passion; fourth, death; fifth, resurrection; sixth, glory; seventh, kingdom. These seals, therefore, are Christ. Since he completed all things through his humanity, he opened and unsealed everything which had been closed and sealed in the Scriptures.
sealed with seven seals. this signifies either the fulfillment of the book, which is obscure and unknown to all, or the dispensation of the one who searches the depths of the Spirit of God. 1 Cor 2:10
book written within and without. is the all-wise memory of God. The things written on the outside are easily understood according to the literal meaning, but the things inside symbolizing the spiritual meaning are very hard to comprehend.
We recognize the book to be the most wise memory of God in which, according to David, all people are recorded, as well as the depths of the divine judgments. Those things written on the outside through the letter are more easily comprehended. Those things written on the inside through the Spirit are more difficult to decipher. The “seven seals” signify either the obscurity of the book which is known to no one or the economies of him “who searches the depths of the Spirit of God.” No created being is able to open these seals. The “book” also is understood to be the prophecy that Christ himself said to be fulfilled in the Gospel, but the rest of [the prophecy] will be fulfilled in the last days.
And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a book written within and on the back. This vision demonstrates to us the mysteries of the Holy Scripture revealed through the Incarnation of the Lord. Its harmonious unity contains the Old Testament as if externally, and the New Testament internally.
Holy Scripture describes for us a certain scroll of God in which all human beings have been written down. Perhaps it calls the scroll figuratively God’s record of us, except that the prophet names it a little scroll, saying, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your little scroll all people will be written.” On the other hand, Moses the most wise, pleading for Israel, who had sinned, wept aloud to God and cried, “But now, if you will forgive their sin, forgive—and if not, blot me out of your scroll which you have written.”
This is the scroll which the divine evangelist sees written on the inside and outside. Inside would be those people of Israel written down as God-fearing by their keeping of the law. On the back, and in a worse fate, would be those of the gentiles who were idolatrous before believing in Christ.
The little scroll was in the right hand of God; it refers, I imagine, to the ways of the saints who were triumphant in the old covenant. The little scroll had been shut and sealed with seven seals. The number seven, being a perfect number, indicates that the little scroll had been truly and very securely shut and sealed up.
What does it mean that the little scroll had been closed? That nobody was considered to be worthy of the vision of God, except a very few. For in view of the transgression of Adam, how could what had been closed ever be seen? More people through their sins had caused the little scroll to be closed— and their number was innumerable—than those very few who were well-pleasing to God for it to be opened, and so the general free access to God had to be barred against those who were written within it, since “all had turned aside and had become corrupt,” according to the prophet. For even if a very few in number had triumphed in the old covenant, since they were but human beings, they were not considered worthy to regain for everyone the freedom which had been lost by sin.
So since the prophet understood this, he addressed God, “In the morning you will hear the voice” of my supplication, “and in the morning I will stand beside you and you will behold me.” By the spiritual morning he means the appearance of Christ, “the sun of righteousness,” which put an end to the gloom of ignorance, as though in this way, and not otherwise, humankind might acquire freedom, so that God could both listen to those praying, and find them worthy of his regard, once Christ had abolished the wall of sin which separated us from God. Before his visitation to humankind, “every mouth” had been stopped, “and the whole world had been put under God’s judgment,” according to Scripture. So the fact that the scroll was closed and sealed indicates, as has been said, the lack of a free approach [to God] by those whose names were written in the scroll.
He says, I saw a strong angel proclaiming, “Who is worthy to open the little scroll and break its seals?” “No one, most divine angel,” one would say to him; only the incarnate God, who took away sin and who canceled “the bond which stood against us” and with his own “obedience” healed our “disobedience.”
He says, And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the little scroll. For neither did an angel accomplish this for us, as Isaiah says, “Not an envoy, nor an angel, but he himself saved them because he loved them,” neither a living man, nor even one of the dead. “A brother cannot ransom himself—a man cannot ransom himself,” as it is written somewhere.
And why does he say, “I tell you to open the little scroll,” when no human being was strong enough to look into it? For how could anyone of those filled with the mist of sin look into it in the presence of the divine throne, on which the scroll was laid? “The unworthiness of all of them caused me to lament.” But one of the elders encouraged me, pointing to the one who had opened it. For he says to me, See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the little scroll and its seven seals. He, he says, who has conquered our conqueror, the Devil, is he who opened the little scroll and its seals.
And who was the lion of the tribe of Judah? Certainly the Christ, about whom the patriarch Jacob said, “He stooped down, he couched as a lion and as a lion’s cub. Who will raise him up?” That the Lord according to his humanity arose from Judah, the divine apostle is witness when he said, “For it is evident that our Lord Jesus” Christ “has arisen from Judah.”
One might be surprised that he did not say of him, “A shoot from the root of Jesse,” or “A flower sprung up from the root,” as Isaiah said, but he called him a root of David. He says this to show that according to his human nature he was a shoot sprung from the root of Jesse and David; but according to his divine nature, he himself is the root, not only of David but of all visible and invisible creation, since he is the cause of the universe, as was also said earlier.
He says, And I saw in the midst of all those around the throne of God a lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth, and he came and took it—that is, the little scroll—from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. He called the Lord a lamb on account of his guilelessness, and his ability to provide. For just as the lamb is the provider with its yearly production of wool, so also the Lord “opens his hand and fills every living thing with delight.” This at least is what prophecy calls him, saying through Isaiah, “like a lamb he was led to slaughter, and like a sheep before its shearer he was dumb,” and through Jeremiah, “I did not know I was like a guileless lamb led to be slaughtered.”
But the lamb is described not as slaughtered, but as though it had been slaughtered. For Christ came to life again, trampling death underfoot, and despoiling Hades of the souls in its possession. For the death of Christ was not an absolute death, but as it were a death cut short by the resurrection. But since the Lord after his resurrection continued to bear the symbols of death, the print of the nails, having his life-giving body stained red by his blood, as Isaiah said, speaking in the person of the holy angels, “Why are your garments red, and your clothes like one who comes from the full-trodden wine-press?”—on account of this he was as one who had been slaughtered in the sight of the vision.
The seven horns bear witness to his great strength, as the number seven, being the perfect number, often indicates, as has also been said earlier. The horns are the symbol of power, according to the prophet who said, “And all the horns of the wicked I will break off, but the horn of the righteous shall be exalted,” and Habakkuk has, “there are horns in his hands.”
The seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth, Isaiah interprets for us, saying, “And there shall rest upon him a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and might, a spirit of knowledge and reverence; a spirit of the fear of God will fill him.” These spirits, that is, spiritual gifts of grace, have been sent to everyone from God, but no one ever received them in the same way as they rested upon Christ in their work among practically all people. And he grew stronger in word and understanding. For the spirits which he himself as God sent from above, these he himself received below as a human being. For he was both a human being and God.
in the right hand. Now in his right hand, that is, within his power and knowledge, all mystery of the Deity was enclosed in the books of the prophets. For the Lord does nothing which he does not reveal to his servants the prophets.
seven seals. The nativity from the womb, this was signified in the birth of Isaac in Gen 22, The passion was prefigured in the sacrifice of the lamb in Ex. 12 and the goat in Num 7. The resurrection was signified in Sampson who broke through the gates of Gaza in Judges 16. The ascension was signified in the passage in Lev. 1, where one live bird is left and flies away, and in Elijah being caught up in 2 Kgs 2. The sending of the Holy Spirit is in the figure of the fie descending from heaven in 1 Kgs 1. The coming for judgment is signified in Dan 7, and the books were opened.
First is the incarnation Is. 8.
Second is the nativity Is. 7.
Third is the passion Is. 53.
Fourth is the descent into hell Zech 9.
Fifth was the resurrection Hosea 6.
Sixth is the ascension Is. 63.
Seventh is the coming judgment Is. 3.
And I saw. He uses a copulative conjunction 'and', because what is said here is not a different vision from the preceeding one, but they are joined as one section with another.
sealed with seven seals. that is, with all obscurity. And because all time is enveloped in seven days, wholeness is rightly signified by the number seven.
[AD 253] Origen of Alexandria on Revelation 5:1