English
And one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not lament. See, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And I saw in the middle of the throne and the four animals, and in the middle of the elders, a slain lamb standing. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are God’s seven spirits sent into all the earth. And he came and took it from the right hand of the one sitting on the throne.
Interpretation
Following the menorah image in chapter 4, the lamb is the sacrificial offering given in the heavenly temple. The scroll’s chain of transmission—from God to the lamb in chapter 4, then from an angel to John in chapter 10, with John told to write what he sees—corresponds to the book’s introduction, in which the titular revelation passes from God to Jesus to an angel to John to his readers. While the scroll’s contents are seen in chapter 6, in a meta sense the scroll represents the titular revelation as a whole (i.e. the scroll recursively represents the very book we are reading).
Parallels
Psalms
89.13 You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.
132.17 There I will cause a horn to sprout up for David
Isaiah
11.1 A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
Jeremiah
23.5 The days are surely coming, says Yhwh, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
33.15 In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
Genesis
49.9 Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet
Exodus
12.21 Then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, ‘Go, select lambs for your families, and slaughter the Passover lamb.’
Zechariah
3.8 I am going to bring my servant the branch.
4.10 ‘These seven are the eyes of Yhwh, which range through the whole earth.’
6.12 Thus says Yhwh of armies: Here is a man whose name is Branch: for he shall branch out in his place, and he shall build the temple of Yhwh.
Dead Sea Scrolls
4Q174 He is the branch of David who shall arise with the interpreter of the Law to rule in Zion at the end of time.
1 Corinthians
5.7 Clean out the old yeast so that you may be a new batch, as you really are unleavened. For our Passover lamb, the Anointed One, has been sacrificed.
4 Ezra
12.31, 32 ‘And as for the lion […] this is the Anointed One whom the Most High has kept until the end of days’
John
1.29, 36 The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! […] and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, ‘Look, here is the lamb of God!’
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