6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.
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.
"Lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed." We read in Genesis that this lion of the tribe of Judah hath conquered, when the patriarch Jacob says, "Judah, thy brethren shall praise thee; thou hast lain down and slept, and hast risen up again as a lion, and as a lion's whelp." For He is called a lion for the overcoming of death; but for the suffering for men He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. But because He overcame death, and anticipated the duty of the executioner, He was called as it were slain. He therefore opens and seals again the testament, which He Himself had sealed. The legislator Moses intimating this, that it behoved Him to be sealed and concealed, even to the advent of His passion, veiled his face, and so spoke to the people; showing that the words of his announcement were veiled even to the advent of His time. For he himself, when he had read to the people, having taken the wool purpled with the blood of the calf, with water sprinkled the whole people, saying, "This is the blood of His testament who hath purified you." It should therefore be observed that the Man is accurately announced, and that all things combine into one. For it is not sufficient that that law is spoken of, but it is named as a testament. For no law is called a testament, nor is any thing else called a testament, save what persons make who are about to die. And whatever is within the testament is sealed, even to the day of the testator's death. Therefore it is with reason that it is only sealed by the Lamb slain, who, as it were a lion, has broken death in pieces, and has fulfilled what had been foretold; and has delivered man, that is, the flesh, from death, and has received as a possession the substance of the dying person, that is, of the human members; that as by one body all men had fallen under the obligation of its death, also by one body all believers should be born again unto life, and rise again. Reasonably, therefore, His face is opened and unveiled to Moses; and therefore He is called Apocalypse, Revelation. For now His book is unsealed-now the offered victims are perceived-now the fabrication of the priestly chrism; moreover the testimonies are openly understood.
Before the resplendent throne of Thy majesty, O Lord, and the exalted and sublime throne of Thy glory, and on the awful seat of the strength of Thy love and the propiatory altar which Thy will hath established, in the region of Thy pasture,
"And after these things, seeing the same Lord in a second vision, he says: "For I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth."
But if we examine the declaration about Jesus who is pointed out by John in the words, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” from the standpoint of the dispensation itself of the bodily sojourn of the Son of God in the life of humankind, we will assume that the lamb is none other than his humanity. For he “was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and was dumb as a lamb before its shearer,” saying, “I was as an innocent lamb being led to be sacrificed.” This is why in the Apocalypse, too, a little lamb is seen “standing as though slain.” This lamb, indeed, which was slain in accordance with certain secret reasons, has become the expiation of the whole world. In accordance with the Father’s love for humanity, he also submitted to slaughter on behalf of the world, purchasing us with his own blood from him who bought us when we had sold ourselves to sins.
That Christ is called a sheep and a lamb who was to be slain, and concerning the sacrament (mystery) of the passion. In Isaiah: "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shearer is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away: who shall relate His nativity? Because His life shall be taken away from the earth. By the transgressions of my people He was led to death; and I will give the wicked for His burial, and the rich themselves for His death; because He did no wickedness, nor deceits with His mouth. Wherefore He shall gain many, and shall divide the spoils of the strong; because His soul was delivered up to death, and He was counted among transgressors. And He bare the sins of many, and was delivered for their offences." Also in Jeremiah: "Lord, give me knowledge, and I shall know it: then I saw their meditations. I was led like a lamb without malice to the slaughter; against me they devised a device, saying, Come, let us cast the tree into His bread, and let us erase His life from the earth, and His name shall no more be a remembrance." Also in Exodus God said to Moses: "Let them take to themselves each man a sheep, through the houses of the tribes, a sheep without blemish, perfect, male, of a year old it shall be to you. Ye shall take it from the lambs and from the goats, and all the congregation of the synagogue of the children of Israel shall kill it in the evening; and they shall take of its blood, and shall place it upon the two posts, and upon the threshold in the houses, in the very houses in which they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh on the same night, roasted with fire; and they shall eat unleavened bread with bitter herbs. Ye shall not eat of them raw nor dressed in water, but roasted with fire; the head with the feet and the inward parts. Ye shall leave nothing of them to the morning; and ye shall not break a bone of it. But what of it shall be left to the morning shall be burnt with fire. But thus ye shall eat it; your loins girt, and your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands; and ye shall eat it in haste: for it is the Lord's passover." Also in the Apocalypse: "And I saw in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth throughout all the earth. And He came and took the book from the right. hand of God, who sate on the throne. And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders cast themselves before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden cups full of odours of supplications, which are the prayers of the saints; and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art Thou, O Lord, to take the book, and to open its seals: for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us with Thy blood from every tribe, anti and people, and nation; and Thou hast made us a kingdom unto our God, and hast made us priests, and they shall reign upon the earth." Also in the Gospel: "On the next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, and behold Him that taketh away the sins of the world!"
Behold the seven horns of the Lamb, the seven eyes of God -the seven eyes are the seven spirits of the Lamb; seven torches burning before the throne of God seven golden candlesticks, seven young sheep, the seven women in Isaiah, the seven churches in Paul, seven deacons, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven seals to the book, seven periods of seven days with which Pentecost is completed, the seven weeks in Daniel, also the forty-three weeks in Daniel; with Noah, seven of all clean things in the ark; seven revenges of Cain, seven years for a debt to be acquitted, the lamp with seven orifices, seven pillars of wisdom in the house of Solomon.
The throne, the animals, the elders are all the church. For the church is in the midst, and he continues to describe the scene and says, “A lamb standing as though slain.” For as often as Christ is preached in the midst of the church as slain, so often is the same Lamb seen as though sacrificed for the fault of the world, since what is unknown is made known to the uninitiated and the memory of the faithful is formed by a pious worship. For whenever the church, which Christ has put on, mortifies herself to the world that she might live to God, the Lamb is said to be sacrificed, as though the Head for the body. And so it continues: “Having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” The variety of words teaches but one understanding, for the horns symbolize the most excellent gifts of the Holy Spirit by which Christ reigns throughout the world in his church. It continues, “which are the seven spirits of God.” For no one governs with a righteous prominence throughout the world or is especially glorified by the gift of the Holy Spirit spread abroad, except the church. As we know, seven signifies universality and completeness. And this is true, because the horns are upon the head, and so the exaltation of each church is rightly said to be placed upon Christ. For “upon this Rock I shall build my church,” which is as though he said, “I shall build you upon me.”
The throne, the animals, the elders and the Lamb as though slain are all the church together with her head. [The church] dies for Christ that she might live with Christ. The martyrs in the church may also be understood as the Lamb slain.
Here he showed even more clearly our Lord, Jesus Christ, whom he declares was not dead but was as though slain because of the suffering and the death which he had undergone. He says that he had seen this [Lamb] in the midst of the throne, that is, in power and in divine majesty. “And among the four living creatures.” This is because he is known in the fourfold order of the gospels. “And among the elders.” By this he indicates the chorus of the law and the prophets, or of the apostles. He testifies that he saw the Lamb there, not slain but as if slain, that is, even he who had conquered death and had trampled upon the passion. “And he had seven horns and seven eyes.” The horns symbolize power and strength. The number seven represents the condition of the world which he rules effectively and which he governs with great power. Moreover, he calls the seven eyes the seven spirits of God, and in this way speaks of the Holy Spirit who remains with our Lord, Jesus Christ, gloriously by the degrees of the seven virtues. Concerning him the apostle says: “We know that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” And again: “The Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead will also vivify our mortal bodies on account of his Spirit who dwells in you.” Since “their sound has gone out into the whole world,” he speaks of the Spirit as “those sent,” calling to mind the gifts of the Holy Spirit which have been abundantly spread throughout the entire earth.
And I saw in the midst of the throne ... a Lamb standing as if slain. The same Lord who is the Lamb by dying innocently, also became a lion by bravely overcoming death. Tyconius says the lamb represents the Church, which in Christ has received all power.
Having seven horns and seven eyes. The Spirit in Christ is sevenfold, due to the eminence of power: compared to horns, due to the illumination of grace, to eyes.
[AD 990] Oecumenius on Revelation 5:1-7
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.
To him belongs the glory for ever and ever. Amen.