Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Revelation 5

1I saw, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and outside, sealed shut with seven seals.

2I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to break its seals?”

3No one in heaven above, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book or to look in it.

4Then I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look in it.

5One of the elders said to me, “Don’t weep. Behold, the Lion who is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome: he who opens the book and its seven seals.”

6I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

7Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne.

8Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

10and made us kings and priests to our God; and we will reign on the earth.”

11I looked, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders. The number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands,

12saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and blessing!”

13I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!”

14The four living creatures said, “Amen!” Then the elders fell down and worshiped.

Early Christian texts and source notes

c. 182–188 (historical edition's dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

6. But what other name is there which is glorified among the Gentiles than that of our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man also? And because it is [the name] of His own Son, who was made man by Him, He calls it His own. Just as a king, if he himself paints a likeness of his son, is right in calling this likeness his own, for both these reasons, because it is [the likeness] of his son, and because it is his own production; so also does the Father confess the name of Jesus Christ, which is throughout all the world glorified in the church, to be His own, both because it is that of His Son, and because He who thus describes it gave Him for the salvation of men. Since, therefore, the name of the Son belongs to the Father, and since in the omnipotent God the church makes offerings through Jesus Christ, He says well on both these grounds, " And in every place incense is offered to my name, and a pure sacrifice." Now John, in the Apocalypse, declares that the "incense" is "the prayers of the saints."

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1868 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Rev. v. 6.

Editorial footnote · Against Heresies, Book 4, Preface or unspecified section · Original source

1869 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Rev. v. 6; Isa. xi. 12.

Editorial footnote · The Stromata (Miscellanies), THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA. / BOOK V. / CHAPTER VI. THE MYSTIC MEANING OF THE TABERNACLE AND ITS FURNITURE. · Original source

1872 (English edition) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Rev. v. 8.

Editorial footnote · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK VIII. / Chapter XVII. · Original source

Date uncertain | Origen

Celsus then proceeds to say that “we shrink from raising altars, statues, and temples; and this,” he thinks, “has been agreed upon among us as the badge or distinctive mark of a secret and forbidden society.” He does not perceive that we regard the spirit of every good man as an altar from which arises an incense which is truly and spiritually sweet-smelling, namely, the prayers ascending from a pure conscience. Therefore it is said by John in the Revelation, “The odours are the prayers of saints;” and by the Psalmist, “Let my prayer come up before Thee as incense.” And the statues and gifts which are fit offerings to God are the work of no common mechanics, but are wrought and fashioned in us by the Word of God, to wit, the virtues in which we imitate “the First-born of all creation,” who has set us an example of justice, of temperance, of courage, of wisdom, of piety, and of the other virtues. In all those, then, who plant and cultivate within their souls, according to the divine word, temperance, justice, wisdom, piety, and other virtues, these excellences are their statues they raise, in which we are persuaded that it is becoming for us to honour the model and prototype of all statues: “the image of the invisible God,” God the only-begotten. And again, they who “put off the old man with his deeds, and put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that hath created him,” in taking upon them the image of Him who hath created them, do raise within themselves a statue like to what the Most High God Himself desires. And as among statuaries there are some who are marvellously perfect in their art, as for example Pheidias and Polycleitus, and among painters, Zeuxis and Apelles, whilst others make inferior statues, and others, again, are inferior to the second-rate artists,—so that, taking all together, there is a wide difference in the execution of statues and pictures,—in the same way there are some who form images of the Most High in a better manner and with a more perfect skill; so that there is no comparison even between the Olympian Jupiter of Pheidias and the man who has been fashioned according to the image of God the Creator. But by far the most excellent of all these throughout the whole of creation is that image in our Saviour who said, “My Father is in me.”

Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Against Celsus, The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2 / BOOK VIII. / Chapter XVII. · Original source