Apocalypse Unsealed: chapter 5
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Chapter Five
THE BOOK OF SEVEN SEALS
1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the
throne a book written within and on the backside,
sealed with seven seals.
2 And I saw a strong angel proclmiming with a loud
voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof?
3 And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under
the earth, was able to open the book, neither to
look thereon.
5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not:
behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of
David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose
the sevel seals thereof.
The "book" represents the seven Holy Books of the seven Faiths.
It is sealed with seven seals because every Holy Book was sealed.
The words on the inside represent the hidden meanings while word
on the backside represent the obvious meanings. The hidden
meanings of the Holy Books were revealed by Baha'u'llah. The
Book of the Bab [the _Bayan_, meaning "Exposition"], actually
revealed through the Spirit of Baha'u'llah, was also instrumental
in unsealing the seven Books. The representation of all the seven
Books as a single Book symbolized the fact that all the Holy
Books are in essence one and the same.
The Lion of the tribe of Judah_/1 is Baha'u'llah. The Lion of
Judah alludes to the prophecy of Jacob in Genesis 49:9-10 (KJV).
In that prophecy, the Lion symbolizes a ruler or sovereign;
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Shiloh means a place of rest and
symbolizes the Ark of the
Convenant.*_/2 *"Shiloh come" equals 358
by the Hebrew gematria,
identical to "Messiah."
As the Root of David, Baha'u'llah, Who was descended from Abraham
through His third wife Katurah, is equated to Abraham, meaning
that all Prophets are in essence
one and the same.* *See _Gleanings from the
Writings of Baha'u'llah_,
pp. 88-90.
6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne
and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the
elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having
seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven
Spirits of God sent forth unto all the earth.
(RSV translates verse 6 as follows:
6 And between the throne and the four living
creatures and among the elders, I saw a Lamb
standing, as though it had been slain, with seven
horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven
spirits of God sent out into all the earth;)
The constellation Aries, the Ram or Lamb, (fig. 11) was
originally the first to appear at the Vernal equinox. But
because of the Precession of the Equinoxes, the Lamb is always
"slain" for a new constellation at each new zodiacal age. And so
it is at a new spiritual Age, which is aleays accompanied by a
Sacrificial Figure, a "Lamb of God," a "leader of the flock," the
Sacrifice of the Covenant (Exodus 24:4-8)._/3
In the last Chapter we discovered that the greatness of
Baha'u'llah's Dispensation requires an invisible zodiac of
twenty-four elders. Thus there are two of every type of elder
(Holy Figure), and, in particular, there are two Lambs in this
new Age. The two Lambs are the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Baha._/4
The Lamb may, in some Sacrifices, such as that of Jesus
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[Drawings of the constellations have been omitted.]
ARIES THE RAM OR LAMB
(Note the similarity of Aries and Triangulum.)
Figure 11
Christ and the Bab, be the Manifestation Himself, and the Lamb
may actually climb the "lofty summit of great martyrdom." In
others, such as that of Moses and 'Abdu'l-Baha, the Lamb's
spiritual Sacrifice, while not including physical martyrdom, will
transcend our abilities to recount or to comprehend. But the
Lamb is always meek, innocent, spotless in purity., Who becomes
the victim of slander and persecution, Whose Sacrifice is
required to cleanse civilization of destructive forces, to renew
the Ages, and to permit a higher reality to become manifest.
<5:6>
Although Baha'u'llah is also a Sacrificial Figure, in these
verses He is represented as the Lion, symbolic of His role as the
Sovereign or Lord of the Covenant. <G #7, 8>
In verse 6, horn symbolizes a name. The Lamb has seven horns
representing the seven names by which the Lamb had been known in
the seven former Dispensations. The seven eyes are the
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seven Prophetic Spirits through which the Lamb had been
manifested._/5
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 the
saints.
9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou are worthy
to take the book, and to open the seals thereof:
for thou wast slain, and hast redemmed us to God by
thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and
people, and nation;
10 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;
12 Saying with a loud voice, worth is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom,
and strength, and horour, and glory, and blessing.
13 And every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the
sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto
him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever and ever.
14 And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and
twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that
liveth for ever and ever.
In verse 6 the Lamb stands (seemingly) as though it had been
slain. In verse 9 we learn that the Lamb has actually been
slain. The possible contradiction is resolved, of course, by the
fact that there are two Lambs in Baha'u'llah's Dispensation. The
first Lamb, the Bab, was literally slain in the public square of
Tabriz. The second Lamb, 'Abdu'l-Baha, was not slain in a
literal sense,
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and remains alive and well, to reappear as the Lamb of the new
Jerusalem in a later Chapter.
Since the Lamb that was slain is the One worthy to "take the
book," the Bab will help to unseal the Book of seven seals.
<11:13 #2>
The Bab helped to unseal the Holy Books through the spiritual
power of Baha'u'llah. Thus in verse 7 He takes the Book from
Baha'u'llah to open the seals. Baha'u'llah explains, "...
whatsoever My Previous Manifestation and Harbinger of My Beauth
(the Bab) hath revealed hath been My Revelation and the
proclamation of My Cause."_/6
The new song is the message of the new Manifestation. "... the
divines and doctors ... have ... refused to incline their ears
unto the divine Melody."--Baha'u'llah._/7
Notes to Chapter Five
1. RSV translates verse 5 as "..., the Lion of the tribes of
Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the
scroll and its seven seals."
2. The prophecy of Genesis 49:9-10 (KJV) is correlated with
others and is discussed in detail by Marsella, Reference 12, pp.
149-252.
3. See, e.g., _Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah_, pp.
75-6, 85, 88-90, 135, 265; _The Reality of Man_, pp. 47-53. The
emphasis placed on the Lamb symbol in the Apocalypse, written in
the first century AD, may have resulted from an unusual
astrological event. About 300 years earlier, the constellations
and zodiacal signs were once again synchronous for the first time
in about 25,000 years. This auspicious event had not gone
unnoticed, the Precession apparently being rediscovered by the
astronomer Hipparchus in 127 BC, who also produced an estimate of
the precession rate--one degree per century, with an error of
about 40%. As explained in _Astrological Symbolism_, Part One of
this book, there was supposed to be a mystical correlation
between the Twelve Tribes of Israel and the zodiacal signs.
Since Aries is the first sign of the zodiac, the Lamb is a symbol
of the "leader of the flock." Gad was the leader of the ancient
tribal system whose symbol was Aries, but his tribe was one of
the Ten Lost Tribes. (See Chapter 7, Note 11; I Chron 12:8, 14.)
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The astrological formula "as above, so below," required that
heavenly events would have their counterparts on earth. Thus
there must have been an unknown Figure among the "remnant of
Israel" Who was the invisible leader of the tribe of Gad, and,
hence, of Israel. Since the sign of Aries was once more in
synchronism with the constellation, it seems likely that this
rare event must have boded well for the ascension of Israel and
her release from foreign domination, a hope that, alas, was not
to be realized.
In the first century BC, the fact that the constellation of Aries
would once again lag behind the sign or Aries must have been
widely anticipated, and speculation as to the significance of
this event must have been rampant. By the "law of
correspondences" there should, of course, be a similar
"sacrifice" on the earthly plane. The believer in astrology
would be expecting the appearance of the mystical "Lamb of God,"
which would account for the reported exclamation of John the
Baptist in John 1:29, 36. This theory would also account for the
reported journey of the wise men (astrologers), Matthew 2:1-2,
who may have dated the end of the age of Aries at 6 BC to
coincide with a "big conjunction" of Saturn and Jupiter. (See
Reference 58, pp. 399-401.)
A remarkable episode is retold by de Santillana and von Dechend
in _Hamlet's Mill_, Chapter 21, lifted from Plutarch's dialogue
_On why oracles came to fail_. The narrative, presumably
historical, describes how, during the reign of Tiberius (14-37
AD) a rumor was started that the "great Pan is dead." Pan, the
goat-horned god of the pasture fields, was clearly an Aries-type
figure. His presumed death was considered important enough for
Caesar to cause an investigation into the matter. It is ironic
that Pan gradually suffered the ignominy of being transformed
from a benevolent god into the stereotype of the "devil" of
medieval Christendom.
The symbols Lion and Lamb suggest a dualistic, Yang-Yin
relationship. 'Abdu'l-Baha (_God Passes By_, p. 99) likens the
Revelation of the Bab to the sun, its station corresponding to
the first sign of the zodiac--the sign Aries (the Ram)--which the
sun enters at the Vernal equinox. The station of Baha'u'llah's
Revelation, on the other hand, is represented by the sign Leo the
Lion, the sun's midsummer and highest station.
The blood sacrifice (ox, bull, sheep, ram or goat) was practiced
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by the ancient Hebrews as a sin offering (e.g., Numbers 6:17,
28:9; Leviticus 4:32-35, 16:11) and as a symbol of the Covenant
(Exodus 24:2-8). In ove variation of the sacrifice, a goat was
symbolically caused to bear the sins of the community and then
suffered to escape into the wilderness (Leviticus 16:10). This
is the origin of the term "scapegoat."
In the Genesis story (22:13-14) of Abraham and His son, God
allows Abraham to substitute a ram for His son in the sacrifice.
The ram thereby became a surrogate, and the story may symbolize
the end of or the non-existence of human sacrifice in the ancient
Hebrew world (Reference 14, p. 9), and entrance into the age of
Aries.
A connection between the blood sacrifice and Christianity is
given in I Peter 1:19 and Hebrews 9:12-14, 10:4, 11, 12. The
author of Hebrews denies that the sprinkling of defiled persons
with the blood of goats or bulls by priests is capable of
removing sin while the blood of Christ is capable of doing so.
Early Christian theologians set forth the theory that Jesus
Christ was a scapegoat for the original sin of Adam, giving an
esoteric meaning to the title "Lamb of God."
The future Sacrifice of Jesus may have been the theme of Isaiah
53:4-5, but some, in view of Isaiah 40:2, regard the passage as
referring to Israel. (Reference 14, p. 14f. Also see John 1:29,
36; I Peter 1:19; I Corinthians 15:22; Romans 12:1; I Peter 2:5.)
For a further history of the blood sacrifice, see Reference 4, p.
14ff.
The symbolism of the ram has great antiquity. The cult of the
ram fourished in the Middle East beginning about 2000 BC. For
example, the chief god of Upper Egypt was Amon, a highly
spiritual deity whose name means "occult" or "hidden." (Cf. Acts
17:23.) He was originally represented as having the head of a
ram and was worshipped in Roman times as Jupiter Ammon.
The "good shepherd" symbol was mirrored in ancient culture in the
religion of Orpheus. Orpheus was probably a real man, a singer,
a prophet, and a teacher, who was martyred, and whose tomb became
a shrine. The early Christian Church saw in Orpheus the
prototype of Christ. See _Orpheus and the Son of Man_, by Joseph
L. Henderson in Reference 1.
4. The Sacrificial qualities of these two Figures can be found
in several Baha'i Writings, e.g., _God Passes By_ and _The Dawn-
Breakers_. Regarding the Bab,
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we may consult, e.g., the writings of the French historian A.L.M.
Nicolas, _Siyyid 'Ali-Muhammad dit le Bab_, pp. 203-4, 376:
"Christians believe that if Jesus had wished to come down from
the cross He could have done so easily; He died of His own free
will because it was written that He should and in order that the
prophecies might be fulfilled. The same is true of the Bab so
(His followers) say... He likewise died voluntarily because His
death was to be the salvation of humanity. Who will ever tell us
the words that the Bab uttered in the midst of the unprecedented
turmoil which broke out ...; who will ever know the memories
which stirred in His noble soul?"
'Abdu'l-Baha, called the Mystery of God by Baha'u'llah, was born
on the same evening as the Declaration of the Bab, May 23, 1844.
On page 290 of _God Passes By_ we find this quote by Shoghi
Effendi: "When 'Abdu'l-Baha visited this country (the United
States of America) for the first time in 1912," a commentator on
His American travels has written, "He found a large and
sympathetic autience waiting to greet Him personally and to
receive from His own lips His loving and spiritual message...
Beyond the words spoken there was something indescribable in His
personality that impressed profoundly all who came into His
presence. The dome-like head, the patriarchal beard, the eyes
that seemed to have looked beyond the reach of time and space,
the soft yet clearly penetrating voice, the translucent humility,
the never failing love,--but above all, the sense of power
mingled with gentleness that invested His whole being with a rare
majesty of spiritual exaltation that both set Him apart, and yet
that brought Him near to the lowliest soul,--it was all this, and
much more that can never be defined, that have left with His many
... friends, memories that are ineffaceable and unspeakably
precious."
5. See Zechariah 3:9-10, 4:10 (KJV). In 4:10, "Zerubabbel" means
"Begotten in Babylon," "Scattered in Babylon," "Banished in
Babylon," or "Stranger in Babylon." (Reference 28, p. 116.) The
word is a descriptor of Baha'u'llah Who fits each of the
appelations. See commentary, Rev 16:10-11 & 14:8. In Haggai
2:23 the Lord of Hosts promises to make Zerubabbel His signet.
6. _Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah_, pp. 244-245.
7. _The Book of Certitude_, p. 164. Also see Isaiah 42:9-10,
43:19.