The Revelation of John (American Standard Version, 1901) · 5 of 22 · tr. American Standard Version (1901)
4:6-5:12
[4:6] and before the throne, as it were a sea of glass like unto crystal; and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, four living creatures full of eyes before and behind.
[4:7] And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face as of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
[4:8] And the four living creatures, having each one of them six wings, are full of eyes round about and within: and they have no rest day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.
[4:9] And when the living creatures shall give glory and honor and thanks to him that sitteth on the throne, to him that liveth for ever and ever,
[4:10] the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
[4:11] Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power: for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created.
[5:1] And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed with seven seals.
[5:2] And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
[5:3] And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon.
[5:4] And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the book, or to look thereon:
[5:5] and one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof.
[5:6] And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth.
[5:7] And he came, and he taketh it out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne.
[5:8] 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.
[5:9] And they sing a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation,
[5:10] and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.
[5:11] 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;
[5:12] saying with a great voice, Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing.
Narratives or doctrines of cosmic origin — how heaven, earth, and the primordial deities first came into being. The Kojiki's deities born alone on the Plain of High Heaven, Voluspo's Ginnungagap, Genesis's tohu wa-bohu, the Timaeus's Demiurge fashioning the Receptacle, the Hesiodic Theogony, the Kalevala's egg-cosmogony, Egyptian Nun-and-Atum. Distinct from emanation_hierarchy (structural-ontological cascade), letters_of_creation (mechanism of creation), and apocatastasis/frashokereti (end-state restoration); cosmogony is temporally-narrative beginning.
The declaration 'thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were, and were created' references the act of cosmic origin.
Pronoia — the doctrine that the divine actively orders the unfolding of the cosmos and human affairs toward intelligible ends, against pure chance or blind necessity.
The sealed book held in the right hand of the throne, which must be opened by the worthy Lamb, implies a divinely ordered unfolding of cosmic events toward intelligible ends.
The doctrine that the divine or a spiritual principle takes on a specific, bounded material or bodily form — descending from an unconditioned state into individual, corporeal existence — as a discrete act rather than a diffuse pervading presence. The Christian Word made flesh, the Hindu avatara, the Egyptian pharaoh as living Horus, the Vajrayana tulku. Distinct from divine_immanence (the general claim that the divine pervades all of creation diffusely, not a specific embodiment-event) and separation_from_source (the felt exile FROM origin, the opposite motion) in describing a specific, individuated descent INTO a particular body or form.
The Lamb 'as though it had been slain' represents the divine principle taking on a specific bounded bodily form and undergoing a discrete act of descent into material existence.
A non-physical dimension of reality, interpenetrating the physical world, populated by forces, beings, and forms ordinarily imperceptible to physical senses and instruments, that can affect embodied life without being seen — Dion Fortune's 'mind-side of nature,' the astral plane of Western esotericism broadly construed. Distinct from astral_light (a specific transmitting medium or fluid operating within this realm, not the realm itself), pleroma (the divine fullness at the summit of a cosmic hierarchy, not a parallel plane coextensive with ordinary life), and animism (particular indwelling spirits bound to specific natural objects, not the general unseen dimension itself).
The entire passage depicts a non-physical heavenly realm populated by the throne, living creatures, elders, and innumerable angels, all imperceptible to physical senses.
Numbers, proportions, and mathematical relationships as the underlying structure of divine reality.
Seven seals, four living creatures, six wings, twenty-four elders, seven horns, seven eyes, and ten-thousand-times-ten-thousand angels encode divine structure through number.
Direct address to the divine, whether petitionary, contemplative, or liturgical; speech and silence offered upward.
The golden bowls full of incense are explicitly identified as 'the prayers of the saints,' and the continuous Trisagion and doxologies constitute liturgical address to the divine.
Divine names or formulas that carry ontological power, used in prayer, liturgy, or magical practice.
The Trisagion 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come' functions as a liturgical formula carrying ontological weight in the heavenly court.