Revelation 5:1 (B): "... a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals."

Revelation 5:1:  “And I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals.”

The sealed book was "written within and on the back side.” As the book was actually a scroll, the writing within could not be read until it was opened, that is, unsealed. This indicates that it was a testament, a will. According to the then current practice of making a testament, the writing on the back side named the one who was qualified to open the seals. That was usually the Heir. In this particular case, it designated the Lamb as the Heir, and so He only was qualified to open the scroll and to read what was within.

The scene shows that the Testator was very wealthy, for John wept much when no one was immediately found who qualified to open the scroll. When the Lamb, Christ, appeared as the qualified Heir, the hosts of heaven sang and rejoiced.

In the Sealed Book of Daniel 9:24-27 we have the prophecy of the end of Daniel’s Nation, City and People. In Daniel 10:1 we find that the “time appointed was long.” Daniel’s prophecy came in about 535 BC, more than 500 years, before the New Testament era a “long time”. However, there was an appointed time set for this prophecy to come to pass and the people living in the New Testament era knew that the time was at hand, Revelation 1:3.

Also in Daniel Chapter 10 we see that Daniel’s vision of “the Man Clothed in Linen” was similar to the vision of John the Revelator in Revelation 1 of the “Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot,” both of which garments indicated those of the High Priest, (Leviticus 16:4; Ezekiel 44:17).

Read Daniel chapter 12.

If this scroll of Revelation 5:1 was indeed that which Daniel had sealed, we know that it contained the prophecy which Daniel did not understand. Daniel 9:24-27 shows that seventy weeks, 490 years, were decreed upon the fleshly nation of Israel and the Holy City, Jerusalem. Then in Daniel 12:7-12, another "time, times and an half" (KJV) were decreed: "And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished."

Daniel was not able to understand it in his lifetime, (Daniel 12:8), but was promised that he would rest and stand in his lot at the "end of the days," that is, at the end of the 490 years, plus the “time, times and dividing of times," (RSV). 

The Book of Daniel was to be sealed until that "time of the end," (Daniel 12:4, 9). The Book of Revelation, however, was not to be sealed awaiting a future time, (22:10), but was to be fulfilled immediately, indicating that the time of the "end" which Daniel had specified had come. And in Revelation 10:6-7 we hear the angel declaring: "...There will be no more delay! (7) But in the days when the seventh angel is about to sound his trumpet, the mystery of God will be accomplished, just as He announced to His servants the prophets," (NIV)

Many scholars have conclusively shown that this time was fulfilled and the events were accomplished in history at Calvary and the destruction of Jerusalem forty years later in 70 AD. The Book of Revelation shows the fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy of the end of the fleshly kingdom. 

That Daniel's prophecies have been literally fulfilled should not be a cause for stumbling but rather a source of certainty that they are indeed the word of God. That they have been fulfilled makes it all the more certain that they will be fulfilled again upon the entire planet after the Gospel has gone throughout the world as a witness. They serve as a sign of the end of the whole earth in due time.

For those who are interested to see the historical fulfillment of Daniel's prophesies, I will post my chart of “Calculating the Seventy Weeks,” the “Time, Times, and Dividing of Times,”and “The Time of the End” on pages 21-24 of Revelation in Context. These charts show how Daniels’ prophecies were fulfilled and bring us up to “The Appointed Time,” which was in 70 AD.