When He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
Here, I. The apostle beholds this book taken into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to its being unsealed and opened by him. Here Christ is described, 1. By his place and station: In the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and of the elders.
Commenting on Revelation 5:6-14
And when he had taken the book,.... The Vulgate Latin version reads, "when he had opened the book", very wrongly; for the opening of it by unloosing the seals, one after another, is hereafter mentioned, in Rev 6:1, but when it was observed, that the Lamb took the book, and his commission to open, unseal, and fulfil it, the four beasts, and four and twenty...
Verse 8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts, etc. The acts of adoration here described as rendered by the four living creatures and the elders are, according to the explanation given in , emblematic of the honour done to the Redeemer by the church, and by the course of providential events in the government of the world, Fell down before the Lamb.