Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 115:459 (Jul 1958)
Article: A Roman Law Parallel to Revelation Five
Author: Emmet Russell

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BSac 115:459 (Jul 58) p. 258

A Roman Law Parallel to Revelation Five

Emmet Russell

[Emmet Russell is a member of the Massachusetts Bar, a former teacher at several evangelical institutions, and now serving as pastor of the Short Beach Union Church, Short Beach, Connecticut.]

The familiarity of the Apostle Paul with Roman law terms and procedures does not surprise us. When we turn to the Apostle John, we do not expect such acquaintance with the Roman legal system. Yet in Revelation 5 a scene is depicted which has a parallel in the Roman law of the period. The setting of Revelation 5 may be entirely Semitic, but the parallel is so exact that it may have lain in the apostle’s mind and influenced even the details of his presentation.

The scope of this article is to describe the Roman law transaction in question, as it existed in the first century A.D., and to point out the parallel. The purpose of the author is twofold: to stimulate further research in Roman and Hellenistic law of New Testament conceptions, and to shed a little tentative legal light on those conceptions for the use of preachers and teachers of the Word.

Revelation 4 pictures the royal court of heaven with the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders praising the majesty of God. This imagery is that of an absolute Oriental monarch. Many years ago the writer was deeply impressed, on visiting Peking, with the symbolic similarity of the imperial audience chamber. Chief among the Chinese symbolic animals were ninety-nine dragons, with whom the Emperor counted as the one-hundredth. Solomon’s throne had symbolic lions, and Christ is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

As to the elders, the most absolute of monarchs has not ventured to reign for long without such a council. “Yes-men” they might normally be, yet there was always a potential “no” lurking in the shadows, should the royal person venture too far against tradition and custom. Even the sovereign God associates with Himself representatives of that race whose redemption is the chief object of His government.

BSac 115:459 (Jul 58) p. 259

Therefore in Revelation 5 the sovereign of the universe is holding court. He is source of all justice. He holds in His hand “a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.” A book, biblion, originally a diminutive, but early not so felt. The following information is drawn from the article “biblion” in Kittel’s Theologisches Woerterbuch zum neuen Testament (I, 615ff). The word may mean a book, also ...

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