6:1 I looked on when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a thunderous voice, 1 “Come!” 2
5:1 Then 3 I saw in the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne a scroll written on the front and back 4 and sealed with seven seals. 5
“You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals
because you were killed, 12
and at the cost of your own blood 13 you have purchased 14 for God
persons 15 from every tribe, language, 16 people, and nation.
1 tn Grk “saying like a voice [or sound] of thunder.”
2 tc The addition of “and see” (καὶ ἴδε or καὶ βλέπε [kai ide or kai blepe]) to “come” (ἔρχου, ercou) in 6:1, 3-5, 7 is a gloss directed to John, i.e., “come and look at the seals and the horsemen!” But the command ἔρχου is better interpreted as directed to each of the horsemen. The shorter reading also has the support of the better witnesses.
3 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
4 tn Grk “written on the inside and the outside” (an idiom for having writing on both sides).
5 tn L&N 6.55 states, “From the immediate context of Re 5:1 it is not possible to determine whether the scroll in question had seven seals on the outside or whether the scroll was sealed at seven different points. However, since according to chapter six of Revelation the seals were broken one after another, it would appear as though the scroll had been sealed at seven different places as it had been rolled up.”
6 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
7 tn Grk “says” (a historical present).
8 tn The present imperative with μή (mh) is used here to command cessation of an action in progress (ExSyn 724 lists this verse as an example).
9 tn Or “has been victorious”; traditionally, “has overcome.”
10 tn The infinitive has been translated as an infinitive of result here.
11 tn The redundant participle λέγοντες (legontes) has not been translated here.
12 tn Or “slaughtered”; traditionally, “slain.”
13 tn The preposition ἐν (en) is taken to indicate price here, like the Hebrew preposition ב (bet) does at times. BDAG 329 s.v. ἐν 5.b states, “The ἐν which takes the place of the gen. of price is also instrumental ἠγόρασας ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου Rv 5:9 (cp. 1 Ch 21:24 ἀγοράζω ἐν ἀργυρίῳ).”
14 tc The Greek text as it stands above (i.e., the reading τῷ θεῷ [tw qew] alone) is found in codex A. א 2050 2344 Ï sy add the term “us” (ἡμᾶς, Jhmas), either before or after τῷ θεῷ, as an attempt to clarify the object of “purchased” (ἠγόρασας, hgorasa"). A few
15 tn The word “persons” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context.
16 tn Grk “and language,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.