The worship of the lamb in Revelation 5
This Sunday'south gospel lectionary reading is from John 21, relating the miraculous catch of fish and Jesus' threefold restoration of Peter. Merely another one of the readings is Revelation 5.11-14, a truncated part of John'due south account of the worship of the lamb. Some might be preferring to preach from that, and then hither is the comment I made on the whole section in my commentary on Revelation (which you lot might want to purchase…!). Italics indicate citations from the biblical text, though ofttimes in my own translation rather than any specific English version.
viii.It is at the moment that he took the scroll(rather than later on it, every bit implied by some translations) that the chorus of praise breaks out. The four living creatures and the elders, who have previously been prostrate before the one seated on the throne, at present offer exactly the aforementioned worship to the lamb. Information technology was customary in the first century to stand for prayer, both in Graeco-Roman do as well equally for Jews and Christians (Luke 18:xi; 1 Tim. ii:8), and then this prostration demonstrates extreme reverence or urgent supplication. Although unclear in some translations, information technology is the elders (and not the living creatures) who each had a harp; the seven-stringed harp or kitharawas widely used, but here the innuendo is to the depiction of the Levites in 1 Chron. 24–25 (see comment on 4:4). To hold and play harps and to hold the bowls of incense while prostrated is impossible; the symbolic significance is of the elders performing priestly acts as representatives of the priestly people of God. Bowlswere in mutual use in both Graeco-Roman and Jewish worship, usually wide and shallow in grade; they were used to hold wine, flour or incense. The near valuable were made of aureate. The called-for of incensewas non part of early on Christian worship and was explicitly rejected by some in the early on second century – so nosotros are here offered a metaphor about prayer, not an insight into early on Christian devotional practice. The idea of prayer as metaphorical incense draws on Ps. 141:2 'Allow my prayer be set earlier you as incense', and the prayers of the saintswill come up to include (but are not limited to) the cries for deliverance and justice in half-dozen:9–11; the two are combined in 8:4–5. The term 'saints' (hagioi, 'holy ones') occurs 14 times in Revelation,[i] as does the term 'servants', another designation for the people of God (see annotate on 1:i, 2).
9–10.The idea of singing a new songcomes primarily from Ps. 96:one and 98:1 (though information technology is as well found in Pss. 33:3; 144:9; 149:1; Isa. 42:ten) and is found again on the lips of the redeemed in Rev. 14:three. This is non particularly a song of victory, only a fresh song of celebration of God'due south mighty deeds of conservancy for his people, particularly in the context of God as lord over the whole earth. In the light of Revelation's extensive use of the Old Testament, information technology is reading too much into this phrase to advise that the 'newness' relates to the new salvation in Jesus, the lamb; the God of Israel has constantly been giving of himself to his people, fifty-fifty every bit they have turned from him, and this finds its fullest expression in the self-giving of the lamb. It is non clear whether John hears a song, a chant, or a said acclamation; the word translated saying(legontes) is used in Revelation to introduce direct speech of any kind.
Although key ideas in this praise come up from the Erstwhile Testament, the language of worthy, and the repetition of honorific terms are (every bit in Rev. 4) reminiscent of the acclamations given to the emperor. The praise now makes explicit the connexion between the lamb being slainand existence worthy, and combines the language of the sacrificial system (blood) with the distinct election of God'south people (Ps. 74:two 'Remember the people you purchased long ago…whom you redeemed'). If God's saving action has been redefined in the sacrifice of the lamb, so the extent of God's people has besides been redefined. The four-fold phrase from every tribe and language and people and nation combines the language of the genealogy of the peoples of the world from Gen. 10:31 ('tribes, tongues, territories and nations') with the linguistic communication of distinct election of Israel from Exod. xix:5 ('out of all nations you will be my treasured possession') which is echoed in the restoration promise of Ezek. 36:24. The people purchased by the blood of the lamb are to be distinct, but instead of being separated from all the other nations as one nation, they are now members of every nation on earth. This fourfold phrase is repeated seven times in Revelation, though never in exactly the same form twice:
| Poesy | 5:9 | vii:ix | ten:xi | eleven:9 | thirteen:7 | 14:six | 17:15 |
| Form | tribe language people nation | nation tribes peoples languages | peoples nations languages kings | peoples tribes languages nations | tribes people language nations | nation tribe linguistic communication people | peoples multitudes nations languages |
The iii terms 'linguistic communication', 'people' and 'nation(southward)' are included each fourth dimension, while the fourth term varies between 'tribe' (5 times), 'kings' (in one case) and 'multitudes' (in one case).
The song repeats the affirmation from one:6 that Jesus, the lamb, has fabricated the people to exist a kingdom and priests, but adds the futurity promise that they will reign on the world.[2] This fulfils the cosmos intention that humanity should exercise rule over the globe (Gen. ane:26) and points to the terminal victory at the Cease. The verb 'to reign' is used seven times (5:10; xi:15; 11:7; 19:vi; 20:4; 20:6; 22:5) always of God, the lamb and his followers, and anticipates their shared reign in the New Jerusalem.
11–12.Again, John combines the two senses as helooked and heard the vocal of the angels and of all creation. He gives the number of them equally myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, once over again in the reverse lodge from what nosotros might have expected – just the significance of this number is, paradoxically, that there are also many to count. Once more, it is hitting that the lamb is given the praise that was previously given to the one on the throne; the seven terms suggest a completeness or totality of affirmation, and they include within them the three terms (celebrity and honour and power, in reverse this time) of acclamation given in 4:11. The significance of these terms rests not and then much in their individual significant is in their cumulative impact.
13–xiv.John's cosmic geography breaks downwards here, every bit what he now hears is not simply what is happening in one place or in i part of creation, but in heaven and on the world and under the earth and on the bounding main, reflecting the language of the creation narratives that refer to the sky (heavens), world and sea as the iii realms of the created order. To emphasise this comprehensiveness, John'south phrase contains the back-up of specifying all that is within themwhen he has already mentioned every animate being. Having heard ii stanzas of praise to the one on the throne, and two stanzas of praise to the lamb, John now hears the ii praised every bit 1, with acclamation being given to the one on the throne and to the lamb, so that they are both singled-out and yet indistinguishable. The four terms of acclamation echo the three terms addressed to God in Rev. 4, adding 'praise', one of the other four terms addressed to the lamb. As representatives of the creation, the living creatures simply add together their 'Amen'to what the creation itself it affirming (the third of seven 'Amen's declared in the volume), and as representatives of the people of God, the elders autumn downwardly and worship.
Theology
The linguistic communication of worship here does a remarkable affair in identifying the lamb as equal with the one on the throne in deserving of worship and adulation – in a text which implicitly refutes the claims of the homo figures to exist deserving of such obeisance. Because of this, it is reasonable to claim that information technology offers us the highest possible Christological understanding in the whole New Testament: what we tin can say of God in worship, we can say of Jesus. The 2 figures of the 1 seated on the throne and the lamb are thus characterised as God the creator and God the redeemer. These figures are never quite merged, and remain distinct within the narrative of Revelation and, unlike the clan of the Word with the work of cosmos in John'due south gospel, their roles also remain singled-out. But in the final hymn of praise, the worship is given to the 2 as if they were i.
The placing of these scenes of heavenly worship following on from the royal proclamations to the assemblies in the seven cities has a powerful rhetorical impact. The followers of Jesus might be facing item challenges and opportunities, located within their own cultural and physical contexts – yet the context for all their struggles is this cosmic vision of the praise of God and of the lamb. Where they might feel as though they are 'pond against the tide' in terms of dissenting from the cultural norms of their guild – in their not-participation in the trade guilds with their associated deities, in their moral stance, and in their reluctance to participate in the regal cult – the juxtaposition of Rev. 4–5 offers a startling reconfiguration of their world. All of creation is caught upwardly, not in obeisance to the emperor, but in the worship of the God and Father of Jesus, and of the lamb, and whatever who are not taken up with this are, in fact, in the minority. Information technology is an extraordinary cultural and spiritual counter-claim to the majority perception of reality. And in its emotive extravagance, this vision of worship is not offered as a rational fact, but as a compelling call for all readers to join in themselves.
It is also of import to notation that, while there are elements that look to the future restoration and recreation of the world, this is primarily a vision of how things are now, and a reality in which readers can participate now, as an anticipation of the reality that all volition one day see clearly.
[i] 'Hagioi' occurs in v:8, eight:3, viii:four, 11:18, xiii:7, thirteen:10, 14:10; fourteen:12, 16:6, 17:half dozen, xviii:twenty, eighteen:24, 19:8 and 20:9.
[2] Some manuscripts have this in the present tense 'they are reigning on the earth', but that hardly fits with what the following chapters say nearly the present condition or the future hope of God'due south people.
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