Revelation 5:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In his Revelation, John saw a great and wondrous book. It was written by God Himself, and there were seven seals upon it.

Neither on earth nor in heaven could anyone read it except the Son of God alone, because He both wrote it and sealed it.

This book is the soul, written in the Kingdom. Apart from the One Who wrote it, no one knows what it is.

No eye can see, no ear can hear, and no heart can imagine what is written in the soul.

The Kingdom is written in the soul and placed in it as a dowry, so that when the Heir of the Kingdom comes, He may bring it with Himself into the bridal chamber.

When the King comes in His glory and the hosts of those born on earth are gathered, then the wise virgins will be made ready and go out to meet Him.

He was betrothed to them and wrote them a book as a dowry.

The book signifies the all-wise memory of God, in which all are written, as the divine David says concerning this. It may also be understood as the depth of the divine judgments. The inner content of the book, being spiritual, is inaccessible to understanding, while the outward content, enclosed in letters, is easier to comprehend. The seven seals signify either the perfect confirmation of the book, unknown to us, or the divine economy of the Spirit of God, who searches the depths. No creature can loose it. By the book one may also understand the prophecies of which Christ said that they were partly fulfilled in the Gospel (Lk 24:44), but will be completely fulfilled in the last days.

This book, which is said to be written inside and outside, is the whole present world, all creation.

God knows its inner part and sees its outer part.

He surpasses the limited world by the dignity of His power, and He penetrates its inward part by the clarity of His majesty.

The book is said to be sealed with seven seals in order to show the limitation of the present sevenfold age, by which the world is contained.

Again, in another sense, this book signifies the teaching of the Old Testament, which was given by the hands of our Lord.

The seven seals are these: first, the Incarnation; second, the Nativity; third, the Passion; fourth, death; fifth, the Resurrection; sixth, glory; seventh, the Kingdom.

Therefore this is Christ, since He fulfilled all things according to His humanity.

Everything in the Scriptures that was closed and sealed, He opened and unsealed.

"Sealed," he says, "with seven seals," that is, closed by the fullness of all mysteries, which remained sealed until the Passion and Resurrection of Christ. For something is called a testament only after those who make it have died. It is sealed until the death of the testators and opened after their death. So also, after the death of Christ, all mysteries are opened.

Divine Scripture describes for us a certain book of God, in which all men are written.

Perhaps he calls the book God's remembrance of us, and the prophet perhaps calls it a little book when he says: "Your eyes saw my embryo.

In Your book all the days appointed for me were written" (Ps 138:16).

The most wise Moses, interceding for Israel after it had sinned, cries out to God: "And now, if You forgive them their sin, forgive.

But if not, blot me also out of Your book, in which You have written me" (Ex 32:32).

The divine Evangelist sees precisely such a book, written inside and outside.

Those from Israel who piously followed the law could be those written inside.

Outside could be the Gentiles, who practiced idolatry according to an inferior lot before they believed in Christ.

"In the right hand" means in Christ, for He is the palm of God and the right hand of the Father. Or it means in eternal blessedness.

The book written on the outside and the inside is the two Testaments: on the outside, the Old, which was visible; on the inside, the New, which was hidden within.

For this reason the Apostle also addressed the Hebrews, saying: "You have not come to a mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire.

Nor have you come to darkness, gloom, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words.

Those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded" (Heb 12:18-20), and so on.

By the book they understand God's omniscience and the abyss of God's judgments. Once the Lord rebuked a man for unreasonable words about His providence (see Job chs. 38-41), although "that man was blameless, upright, God-fearing, and turned away from evil" (Job 1:1). Therefore no created nature can even look into such a book.

"A book written inside and outside."

Books among the ancients consisted either of separate pieces of parchment rolled into a tube, or of pieces wound around a round rod.

A cord was passed through the inside of the scroll, tied on the outside, and fastened with a seal.

Thus the book with seven seals could have consisted of separate scrolls.

Or else it consisted of one large piece of parchment, folded like a fan and bound over it with a cord, sealed at each bend or fold of the book.

The opening of one seal made it possible to open only one part of the book.

Writing was usually done only on one inner side of the parchment, but in rare cases both sides were written on.

This book concealed the destinies of the world and of the Church. Therefore it is the same as the Apocalypse.

Saint Andrew of Caesarea understands the sealed book as the mysterious decrees of the wise providence of God concerning the salvation of mankind. By the opening of the seals he understands the fulfillment of the divine decrees by the Only-begotten Son of God, the Savior of humanity, who gave Himself as a Lamb to be slain.