[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.
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.
"And I saw an angel full of strength proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no one was found worthy, neither in the earth nor under the earth, to open the book." Now to open the book is to overcome death for man.
who is worthy.... It is because Christ opened the book when he undertook the work of the Father's will, was conceived, and was born. The He broke its seals when He was slain for the human race.
a strong angel. this should be interpreted as the chorus of holy fathers who, having lived in divine friendship, and seeing with the eyes of faith that the arrangement of the present times and the order of all things were entirely sealed by the providence of God, understand their Operator to be the Lord of majesty.
And I heard a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book? This signifies the preaching of the law. For many prophets and righteous men desired to see what the apostles saw (Matt. 13). And about this salvation, as Peter says, the prophets sought and searched diligently (1 Pet. 1). This is the book which in Isaiah is sealed both to the one who can read and to the one who cannot. Yet even there its opening is proclaimed thus: In that day the deaf will hear the words of the book (Isa. 29). And concerning it, Ezekiel says: And I saw, and behold, a hand was sent to me, in which was a scroll, and he spread it before me, and it was written within and without (Ezek. 2). He also added what John was silent about, namely, what was written in the book, saying: And there were written therein lamentations, mourning, and woe (Ibid.). For the entire series of the Old and New Testaments warns us to repent for sins, to seek the kingdom of heaven, and to flee from the lamentations of hell.
who is worthy to open the book. That is, to reveal the mystery of God. and to loose the seals: That is, to show how each seal proceeds from the divine will.
[AD 420] Jerome on Revelation 5:1-5