The Book with Seven Seals
Re 5:5, Re 7:13
Re 5:5, Re 10:3
Slain Lamb: Seven Horns and Eyes are The Seven Spirits of God
Important Note: Keep an eye on "midst of the throne" or "around". We will see the key figures that appear there. The four beasts, 24 elders, the Lamb, and the saints as the great multitude with harps.
Re 5:6, Re 7:17
Harpers' New Song: 24 Elders and 4 Beasts
Harps are not an identity marker beyond being used exclusively by those who sing. Thus, harps let us know who is singing a given song, and not much more.
Re 5:8, Re 8:4
ESV used "ransomed" instead of "redeemed", in Greek these are the same in TR and CT ηγορασας.
In verse 9, a new song is sung about a "redeemed" (KJV) group of people, and because the 144,000 are called "redeemed" multiple times in Revelation 14, we can understand how the TR/KJV might link us back to this moment in time, where we see a song "a new song" there. The ESV, however, breaks this link slightly in English by saying "ransomed" instead of "redeemed". This is important because it suggests a shared redemptive theme between this new song and the one in Revelation 14. The two songs are not identical, as the song in Revelation 14 remains hidden and its learning is restricted, but they belong to the same redemptive category: both are Lamb-centered, both involve harps, and both are connected to the redeemed. The thematic resonance suggests that these two distant texts share a common thread.
ωδην καινην - "new song"
The bracketed rendering [people] reflects a textual variation in Revelation 5:9, where, in some manuscripts, it reads "us," with "people" omitted entirely. Some Greek witnesses include the first-person pronoun ἡμᾶς (“us”), yielding the sense “you purchased us for God,” while other witnesses omit the pronoun. When the pronoun is omitted, “people” is not a separate Greek word replacing “us”; it is supplied (added) in English from the following phrase, “from every tribe and language and people and nation.” The variations with "us" may reflect that ἡμᾶς was original and preserved, even though the pronoun creates a difficult reading in the mouths of the singers. It is also possible that ἡμᾶς was originally a marginal note, or that it was added because the absence of an explicit object seemed incomplete.
In terms of the oddity it creates for the singers, songs, and heavenly choruses in Revelation should be handled carefully, since their wording may not identify every singer in the same direct way as ordinary narrative dialogue. In other words, a song may be sung by individuals who are not themselves the subject of the song. In this case, the four living creatures do not appear to be the likely referent of the possible “us,” though the twenty-four elders may be.
Re 5:9, Re 14:3 — "A new song" is sung about a redeemed group of people in both Chapter 5:9 and Revelation 14:3-5. In both cases, the song is set in the throne room of heaven with the 24 elders and 4 beasts. Both songs are Lamb-centered and connected to the redeemed. Both are "new". The thematic resonance suggests that these two distant texts share a common thread. This is important because it may suggest a parallel timing of events. The two songs are not identical, though; the words of the new song in Revelation 14:3 remain hidden, and we know the words to the new song in Revelation 5:9. The new song in Revelation 14:3 appears to be about the redeamed 144,000, and in Revelation 5:9 the new song is about "every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation". That division of the songs by their subject groups deeply mirrors Revelation 7, where the 144,000 are initially sealed and the "immense multitude, which none could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues" is seen coming out of that great tribulation.
Re 5:9, Re 7:9, Re 19:1, Re 19:6 — In both Revelation 5:9 and 7:9, the redeemed from every nation are mentioned before the sevenfold praise is heard around the throne. The multitude in Revelation 7:9 is explicitly innumerable, which distinguishes it from the numbered 144,000. In Revelation 19:1–6, it is not immediately clear whether the “great multitude” is itself the wife of the Lamb, since the group speaks of her in the third person. However, the group may still be connected to the wife because Revelation 19 echoes the multitude scene of Revelation 7. The wording of a song or heavenly chorus should also be handled carefully; Revelation 5:9 provides a useful example, since some manuscripts, including Sinaiticus, include “us” in the new song, while other important witnesses omit it. This shows that the pronouns within a song do not always settle the identity of every singer as directly as ordinary narrative dialogue might.
However, that same group in 19:1 also says in 19:2 "... and has avenged the blood of his servants," which would make the group refer to itself in the third person, making the dialogue coming from the servants unusual. But John does the same in 1:1 when he says of himself, "to His bond-servant John". Meaning, a person (or persons) can refer to themself by an identity such as being a servant. In that sense, the phrase "... and has avenged the blood of his servants," confirms who the multitude is in 19:1; they are the servants.
In verse 10, the KJV says, "made us unto our God kings and priests," whereas the ESV says, "you have made them a kingdom and priests," which further links us to Exodus 19:6 in particular and also Daniel 7:18, Daniel 7:27, and Romans 8:17 — other textual criticism points aside. Because Revelation is deeply linked to the Old Testament, the ESV and CT seem to have the right words here. The ESV, in the case of this study, is more accurate in terms of the manuscripts here, and we should see this as not being the saints who sing it based on the manuscripts we have. It appears the 4 beasts and 24 elders who sing as they have the harps, and they are not saints of "kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation".
In the KJV/TR/Codex Sinaiticus/NA28 (βασιλεύσουσιν), "They 'shall reign'. Yet, in the reading of Codex Alexandrinus, it places the saints on the earth at present (βασιλεύουσιν). For the astute, the two Greek words here differ by only one letter. Based on the story of Revelation, it seems the reigning on earth would be a future prospect and not a current one before the seals of the scroll are opened.
Messengers Exalt the Lamb
Re 5:12, Re 7:12 — ἰσχύς (strength) is only used twice in Revelation.
τίσμα — creature, a created thing.
Re 4:11, Re 5:13
Re 5:13, Psalm 146
Re 5:13, Re 14:7
Re 1:6, Re 5:13
Important Note: The sealed book here is given to the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and he then opens it. Then in Revelation ten, we see Jesus again with the voice of a Lion with an open book. That book in Revelation 10 is not the same book as this sealed one.