Alcuin of York, on Rev 5:2

“And I saw a strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?”

“And I saw a strong angel, proclaiming with a loud voice: Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? By the strong angel we should understand a herald of the law, for the lips of the priest keep knowledge, and they seek the law at his mouth: because he is the angel of the Lord of hosts. [Mal. 2:7] Now what does it mean to ask who is worthy to open the book, if not to anxiously long for Christ, who could show that the law had been fulfilled and revealed in him, so that it no longer needed to be kept and understood carnally, but spiritually? It is right for the book to be opened first, and for its seven seals to be loosed afterwards, because the proclamations of the divine law were first fulfilled in Christ, and then in a certain manner in the whole body, as shown by the opening of the individual seals. Then since Christ had not yet come, it is fittingly said after that:”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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