Revelation 10
The Mighty Angel and the Little Scroll 1–4
The Angel Swears an Oath 5–7
John Eats the Scroll and Is Commissioned 8–11
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Revelation 10
Verse 1
another mighty angel — Ischyros, strong; the same word describes the ‘strong angel’ who asked who was worthy to open the book (5:2). The rainbow recalls the one ‘round about the throne’ (4:3), the face ‘as the sun’ the countenance of Christ in 1:16, and the feet ‘as pillars of fire’ the pillar of fire by night in Ex 13:21. Readers differ on who this angel is.
Verse 2
a little book open — Biblaridion, a small scroll, occurs only in this chapter (vv.2, 8, 9, 10). Unlike the book ‘sealed with seven seals’ (5:1), it lies open in his hand. His feet on the sea and on the earth claim both, the pair struck in the trumpets of 8:7–8. A scroll to be eaten is also in Ezek 2:9–10, written ‘within and without’.
Verse 3
as when a lion roareth — Mykaomai, to roar, occurs only here in the New Testament. The LORD is the one who ‘shall roar like a lion’ (Hos 11:10) and ‘shall roar out of Zion’ (Joel 3:16). The ‘seven thunders’ recall Ps 29, where ‘the voice of the LORD’ is named seven times and ‘the God of glory thundereth’ (Ps 29:3).
Verse 4
Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered — John is told to write what he sees (1:11, 19), and here is told not to. Sphragizo, to seal, is the word of Dan 12:4, ‘shut up the words, and seal the book’. ‘The secret things belong unto the LORD our God’ (Deut 29:29). At the end John is told the opposite: ‘Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book’ (22:10).
Verse 6
sware by him that liveth for ever and ever — The oath echoes Dan 12:7, where the man in linen ‘sware by him that liveth for ever’. The Creator is named in the terms of Ex 20:11. ‘Time’ is chronos, and ‘time no longer’ is usually read as ‘no more delay’, though some take it as the end of time. Verse 7 sets the end at the seventh trumpet, and Hab 2:3 says the vision ‘will not tarry’.
Verse 7
the mystery of God should be finished — Mysterion is a secret made known by God, as in Rom 16:25–26, ‘the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began’, now made manifest ‘by the scriptures of the prophets’. Teleo is to complete, and ‘declared’ is euangelizo, the verb of good news. The seventh trumpet brings it in 11:15.
Verse 9
Take it, and eat it up — Ezekiel was given a roll to eat: ‘it was in my mouth as honey for sweetness’ (Ezek 3:3), and Jeremiah said, ‘Thy words were found, and I did eat them’ (Jer 15:16). Katesthio is to eat down fully. The word ‘bitter’ (pikraino) is that of the waters made bitter in 8:11, and here it is the belly that is made bitter.
Verse 10
sweet as honey… my belly was bitter — John eats as the angel said. The sweetness is that of the Lord’s words: ‘sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb’ (Ps 19:10), ‘sweeter than honey to my mouth’ (Ps 119:103). Ezekiel after the roll says, ‘I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit’ (Ezek 3:14), the same sequence of sweetness and bitterness.
Verse 11
Thou must prophesy again — Dei is the verb of necessity: John is under divine charge to prophesy again. The audience ‘peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings’ reworks the fourfold phrase of 5:9 and 7:9 and adds ‘kings’, as Jeremiah was ‘set… over the nations and over the kingdoms’ (Jer 1:10). The prophecy continues in chapter 11.