Passage

Revelation 5.9

Book: Revelation · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. And he came, and he taketh it out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. 8. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9. And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,

and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon earth. 11. And I saw, and I heard a voice of many angels round about the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; (Revelation 5:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. 8. Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

9. They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book, and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation,

and made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on the earth.” 11. I saw, and I heard something like a voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousands of ten thousands, and thousands of thousands; (Revelation 5:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. 8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. ^{odours: or, incense}

9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. 11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; (Revelation 5:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. and he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who is sitting upon the throne. 8. And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, having each one harps and golden vials full of perfumes, which are the prayers of the saints,

9. and they sing a new song, saying, 'Worthy art thou to take the scroll, and to open the seals of it, because thou wast slain, and didst redeem us to God in thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,

and didst make us to our God kings and priests, and we shall reign upon the earth.' 11. And I saw, and I heard the voice of many messengers round the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands (Revelation 5:7-11, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders
Audience: John, receiving the throne-room vision
Location: the heavenly throne room
Time period: commonly dated to the reign of Domitian, c. AD 95

Theological reading

Thou art worthy to take the book... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. The new song is sung to the Lamb, and the significance lies in what has just happened one chapter earlier.

In chapter 4 the same living creatures and elders sing to the one who sits on the throne, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power, for thou hast created all things. Chapter 5 repeats the acclamation and directs it to the Lamb. The vocabulary, the singers, and the setting are the same; only the recipient changes. By the end of the chapter both are addressed together, with blessing and honour and glory and power ascribed unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

This structure is the strongest christological argument in the book, and it is structural rather than titular. Revelation is emphatic elsewhere that worship belongs to God alone, twice showing John falling at an angel's feet and twice having the angel refuse and command him to worship God. The book that refuses worship to angels in the sharpest terms directs to the Lamb the identical worship it directs to the throne, without any note of qualification.

The ground of the worthiness is also worth marking. It is not the Lamb's power or his origin but that he was slain and by his blood purchased people out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. The heavenly worship is grounded in a historical execution, and the universality of the purchase is stated in the same breath, which is why this verse carries weight in discussions of the scope of the atonement as well as of Christology.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word; see Lexicon Roadmap.

TBD

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Concepts:

People:

Michael Heiser

Lexicon:

Guides:

Ris3n Arguments, via Revelation 5.9-13

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.