9:24 “Seventy weeks 1 have been determined
concerning your people and your holy city
to put an end to 2 rebellion,
to bring sin 3 to completion, 4
to atone for iniquity,
to bring in perpetual 5 righteousness,
to seal up 6 the prophetic vision, 7
and to anoint a most holy place. 8
5:1 Then 9 I saw in the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne a scroll written on the front and back 10 and sealed with seven seals. 11
1 tn Heb “sevens.” Elsewhere the term is used of a literal week (a period of seven days), cf. Gen 29:27-28; Exod 34:22; Lev 12:5; Num 28:26; Deut 16:9-10; 2 Chr 8:13; Jer 5:24; Dan 10:2-3. Gabriel unfolds the future as if it were a calendar of successive weeks. Most understand the reference here as periods of seventy “sevens” of years, or a total of 490 years.
2 tc Or “to finish.” The present translation reads the Qere (from the root תָּמַם, tamam) with many witnesses. The Kethib has “to seal up” (from the root הָתַם, hatam), a confusion with a reference later in the verse to sealing up the vision.
3 tc The present translation reads the Qere (singular), rather than the Kethib (plural).
4 tn The Hebrew phrase לְכַלֵּא (lÿkhalle’) is apparently an alternative (metaplastic) spelling of the root כָּלָה (kalah, “to complete, finish”), rather than a form of כָּלָא (kala’, “to shut up, restrain”), as has sometimes been supposed.
5 tn Or “everlasting.”
6 sn The act of sealing in the OT is a sign of authentication. Cf. 1 Kgs 21:8; Jer 32:10, 11, 44.
7 tn Heb “vision and prophecy.” The expression is a hendiadys.
8 tn Or “the most holy place” (NASB, NLT); or “a most holy one”; or “the most holy one,” though the expression is used of places or objects elsewhere, not people.
9 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
10 tn Grk “written on the inside and the outside” (an idiom for having writing on both sides).
11 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.”
12 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.
13 tn Grk “says” (a historical present).
14 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).
15 tn Or “has been victorious”; traditionally, “has overcome.”
16 tn The infinitive has been translated as an infinitive of result here.
17 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.
18 tn The words “just then” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.