1. Revelation 5:1–7 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What was the content of the writing in this scroll?

Revelation 5:1–7 (ESV)

1 Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.

Interpretation 1:
The future as laid down in God's counsel

Summary: 

This scroll contains a prophecy about the future as laid down in God’s counsel. It is therefore Christ’s governmental program, which he alone is able to carry out after he had returned to heaven with all power as the King in heaven and on earth.

Arguments in favour of this view:

  1. In Revelation 4:1 Christ says, I will show you what must take place after this.

  2. It is the scroll of God on his heavenly throne and that scroll is given to him who was deemed worthy to take a seat on that same throne and who received all power in heaven and on earth (see Matthew 28:18). The content of the scroll is therefore related to that governing power.

  3. The scroll is initially in God’s right hand, i.e., the hand God uses to intervene in world events and in people’s lives (Exodus 15:6, Exodus 15:12; Psalm 44:3; Psalm 63:8; Psalm 118:15, Psalm 138:7; Psalm 139:10; Isaiah 13:1–22).

  4. The fact that the scroll has writing on both sides indicates an abundance of measures to confirm Christ’s kingship.

  5. In Ezekiel 2:9–10, Ezekiel also receives a double-sided scroll describing the LORD’s punitive measures against his people. In Revelation 5:1–14 it has become a book filled with punitive measures against the whole world.

Arguments against this view:

  1. Starting with the Lamb breaking the first seal of the scroll (Revelation 6:1), John is indeed shown all that must happen after Christ’s enthronement before he returns to earth. Every time a seal is broken something impressive happens. However, these events do not come from the scroll, because it remains closed for the time being—even after the seventh seal has been opened. John also does not tell us either in or after Revelation 5:1 – 20:15 that the content of the scroll is read.

  2. Being allowed to break one seal of the scroll after another in order to finally be able to unroll it, with all its consequences on earth, does indeed have to do with God’s kingship and the executive power given to Christ. But this does not mean that all those consequences were therefore written in this scroll and are now stemming from the scroll.

  3. The double-sided scroll does indeed indicate an abundance. But what that abundance is about is thereby not yet proven.

  4. In Ezekiel 2:1–10 God himself immediately opens the scroll to Ezekiel (possibly by means of an angel). But that book is full of lamentation and mourning and woe, apparently concerning the sinful behaviour of God’s people. That is something different from God’s plan of action. Such a description of its contents is not found in Revelation 5:1–14.

  5. This interpretation does not incorporate the fact that Revelation speaks more often of a biblion (book).

Interpretation 2

Summary:

The scroll is the book of life which is also mentioned five more times in other places in Revelations and which is only opened and read at the final judgment (Revelation 20:12).

Arguments in favour of this view:

  1. Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:12 and Revelation 21:27 also mention a book, where in Greek the same word “biblion” is used. There it always concerns the book (or: scroll) of life in which the names of God’s saints are written, already from before the foundation of the world.

    It is incorrect in translations such as the ESV to translate the Greek word “biblion” in Revelation 5:1–14 with scroll and in the other chapters with book. By doing so, the translation affects the interpretation in advance.

  2. In Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 21:27 this book of life is further referred to as of the Lamb (who was slain), a clear reference to Revelation 5:1–14.

  3. In Revelation 3:5, Christ (the Lamb) makes it known that he will not blot out from the book of life the names of the saints who are conquerors. Revelation 5:1–14 makes it clear why he is the only one who can say this. The Father gives him this book.

  4. In the book of Revelation it becomes clear that in the course of history—which is also full of trials and judgments—it is about who is and who is not in the book or on the scroll of life, whether one follows the Lamb or follows the beast. This contrast is always related to the content of the scroll: All were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done (Revelation 20:12 and Revelation 20:15; see also Daniel 7:10). 

  5. In the OT there are already examples of people’s names being written in a scroll of names; see Nehemiah 7:5 (in the Greek translation of the Old Testament the word “biblion” is used here; see also Nehemiah 12:23; Psalm 87:6).

  6. It is against this Old Testament background that Jesus tells his disciples, Rejoice that your names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20).