Revelation 5:14

5:8-14 It is matter of joy to all the world, to see that God deals with men in grace and mercy through the Redeemer. He governs the world, not merely as a Creator, but as our Saviour. The harps were instruments of praise; the vials were full of odours, or incense, which signify the prayers of the saints: prayer and praise should always go together. Christ has redeemed his people from the bondage of sin, guilt, and Satan. He has not only purchased liberty for them, but the highest honour and preferment; he made them kings and priests; kings, to rule over their own spirits, and to overcome the world, and the evil one; and he makes them priests; giving them access to himself, and liberty to offer up spiritual sacrifices. What words can more fully declare that Christ is, and ought to be worshipped, equally with the Father, by all creatures, to all eternity! Happy those who shall adore and praise in heaven, and who shall for ever bless the Lamb, who delivered and set them apart for himself by his blood. How worthy art thou, O God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of our highest praises! All creatures should proclaim thy greatness, and adore thy majesty.

Revelation 5:14 . Καὶ προσεκύνησαν ) With this word the paragraph ends in all the copies . See App. Crit., Ed. ii., on this passage. It is the part of piety to cut out such additions, fear being laid aside.[72] The shorter reading, ΚΑῚ ΠΡΟΣΕΚΎΝΗΣΑΝ , and they worshipped , denotes the worship paid both to Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb . Comp. Revelation 5:13 . Προσκυνεῖν is often put absolutely: ch. Revelation 11:1 ; John 4:20 ; John 12:20 . [72] ABC “Vulg. refute the addition in Rec. Text and h , ζῶντι εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἱώνων .—E.

Revelation 5:14 . The prologue is brought to a splendid close by “amen” from the four ζῷα , who have the last as they had the first word ( Revelation 4:8 ), followed by silent adoration from the πρεσβύτεροι . As in the liturgical practice of early Christian assemblies, so in the celestial court, the solemn chant of praise to God is succeeded by the “amen” (“ad similitudinem tonitrui … amen reboat,” Jerome); [911], Areth., etc. Alf., bring this out by reading here τὸ Ἀμήν . By prefacing the struggle on earth ( Revelation 5:6 f.) with a vision of the brilliant authority and awe of heaven ( Revelation 5:4-5 ), the prophet suggests that all the movements of men on earth, as well as the physical catastrophes which overtake them, are first fore-shadowed in heaven (the underlying principle of astrology, cf. Jeremias, 84 f.) and consequently have a providential meaning. In 4., 5. the writer takes his readers behind the scenes; the whole succeeding tide of events is shown to flow from the will of God as creator of the universe, whose executive authority is delegated to Jesus the redeemer of his people. This tide breaks in two cycles of seven waves, the seventh ( Revelation 8:1 ) of the first series ( Revelation 6:1 to Revelation 7:17 ) issuing in a fresh cycle ( Revelation 8:2 to Revelation 11:19 ) instead of forming itself (as we should expect) the climax of these preliminary catastrophes in nature and humanity, disasters which were interpreted ( R.

J. 237–239) as the premonitory outbursts of an angry deity ready to visit the earth with final punishment. Observe that throughout the Apocalypse wind and fire are among God’s scourges handled by angels in order to punish the earth and the waters, according to the conception preserved in Apol. Arist. 2: “Moreover, the wind is obedient to God, and fire to the angels; the waters also to the daemons, and earth to the sons of men” ( Ante-Nicene Library , ix. 257 f.). The visitation is divinely complete, sevenfold like Ezekiel’s oracles against the nations (ver 25–32). Revelation 6-9 has, for its staple, little more than a poetic elaboration of Mark 13:8 ( Mark 13:24-25 ), international complications due to the scuffling and strife of peoples, and physical disasters as a fit setting for them. [911] An eighth century version of Codex Vaticanus The vision of the seven seals opened ( Revelation 6:1 to Revelation 8:2 ): Revelation 6:1-2 , a Parthian invasion.

(14) And the four beasts . . . —Better, And the four living beings said, Amen (or, the Amen). And the elders (omit “four and twenty”) fell down and worshipped. The remaining words of this verse are wanting in some of the best MSS., and they spoil thegraphic force of the description. The “Amen” rises from universal nature; the Church of Christ falls down in silent adoration. Thought and feeling assert themselves above all language. There are times when silence is the most eloquent applause; there are times when it is also the most real worship. “Let thy prayers be without words, rather than thy words, without prayer” was a wise precept of an old divine. An English and an Italian poet have given expression to the same feeling of the weakness of words. “O speech !” sang Dante, when telling his final vision— “How feeble and how faint art thou to give Conception birth.” —Parad. xxxiii. Thomson takes refuge in silence from the overwhelming thoughts of the divine glory:— “I lose Myself in Him, in light ineffable. Come, then, expressive silence, muse His praise.” Here the inspired seer describes the chorus of praise as dying into a silence born of awe and gratefulness and love.

14. said—So A, Vulgate, and Syriac read. But B and Coptic read, "(I heard) saying." Amen—So A reads. But B reads, "the (accustomed) Amen." As in Re 4:11, the four and twenty elders asserted God's worthiness to receive the glory, as having created all things, so here the four living creatures ratify by their "Amen" the whole creation's ascription of the glory to Him. four and twenty—omitted in the oldest manuscripts: Vulgate supports it. him that liveth for ever and ever—omitted in all the manuscripts: inserted by commentators from Re 4:9. But there, where the thanksgiving is expressed, the words are appropriate; but here less so, as their worship is that of silent prostration. "Worshipped" (namely, God and the Lamb). So in Re 11:1, "worship" is used absolutely.

Verse 14. - And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. (On the signification of the four beasts as representative of creation, and the four-and-twenty elders as typical of the Church, see on Revelation 4:4 and 6.) Three stages are marked in the hymn of adoration before this concluding verse: (1) the four living beings and the four and twenty elders worship the Lamb, and commemorate their redemption by him; they are able to sing "a new song" - the song of the redeemed; (2) the angels join in the worship of the Lamb, ascribing to him the consummation of all perfection; (3) then all created things praise God and the Lamb. In conclusion, the representatives of redeemed creation once more join in the eucharistic hymn, and prostrate themselves in worship before the Triune God. This forms the end of one act of the heavenly drama. The opening of the seals now follows, and a description of the attendant circumstances is given. Revelation 5:14

Revelation 5:14 . The Amen, the formal confirmation and conclusion of the hymn of praise,[1987] is uttered by the four beings, not because they occupy in any respect “a lower position,”[1988] but because the whole tenor of the hymn of praise in chs. 4 and 5, after resounding in Revelation 5:13 to the farthest extent, returns to the point whence it started,[1989] and thus comes to a truly beautiful rest.[1990] But after the Amen has been uttered, nothing else remains for the elders than silent adoration, which, naturally,[1991] is directed also to the Lamb, and not alone to the One sitting on the throne.[1992] [1987] Ewald. Cf. Deuteronomy 27:15 sqq.; Nehemiah 5:13 ; Psalm 41:13 ; 1 Corinthians 14:16 . [1988] Hengstenb. [1989] Cf. Revelation 4:8 sqq. [1990] Cf. Beng., Ebrard. [1991] Cf. Revelation 5:13 . [1992] As Ew. i. thought, supported by the completely untenable Recepta: προσκυν . ζῶντι εἱς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων , and corresponding to the view imposed upon John, that the Messiah also is a creation (“with adoration they honored God —as from him as author all things have proceeded, and the Messiah was created,” Revelation 4:2 sqq.)