ACC ~ Revelation 5 v1

CHRIST REVEALS THE MEANING OF THE SCRIPTURES. ORIGEN: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.6.

THE SEVEN STAGES OF CHRIST’S LIFE. APRINGIUS OF BEJA: 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. TRACTATE ON THE APOCALYPSE 5.1.

THE OLD TESTAMENT VEILS THE NEW AND THE NEW REVEALS THE OLD. PRIMASIUS: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 5.1.

GOD REMEMBERS ALL OF HUMANKIND AS IN A BOOK. OECUMENIUS: The holy Scriptures depict for us a certain book, in which all of humankind is registered, perhaps calling God’s memory of us a “book,” except that the prophet calls it a “scroll,” saying, “Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in your scroll shall they all be written.” And the most wise Moses, making propitiation for sinful Israel, weeps and cries out to God, “But now, if you will forgive their sin, forgive, but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written.” The holy Evangelist saw this book written within and without. That written “within” may be those from Israel who are registered as pious through the guidance of the law, while that “without” would be those from the Gentiles who by a worse fate had been idolaters before they believed in Christ. The scroll was in the right hand of God. This is, as I certainly think, the ways of the saints who walked uprightly in the old covenant. The scroll was rolled up and sealed with seven seals. As a perfect number, the seven shows how exceedingly securely the scroll is closed and sealed up. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 5.1-7.

THE DEATH OF CHRIST REVEALS EVERY MYSTERY. CAESARIUS OF ARLES: “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. EXPOSITION OF THE APOCALYPSE 5.1, HOMILY 4.

THE WISDOM OF GOD. ANDREW OF CAESAREA: 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. COMMENTARY ON THE APOCALYPSE 5.1.

Rev