NT Greek Reading: Rev 5:1-5

Καὶ εἶδον ἐπὶ τὴν δεξιὰν τοῦ καθημένου ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου βιβλίον γεγραμμένον ἔσωθεν καὶ ὄπισθεν κατεσφραγισμένον σφραγῖσιν ἑπτά. καὶ εἶδον ἄγγελον ἰσχθρὸν κηρύσσοντα ἐν φωνῇ μεγάλῃ, Τίς ἄξιος ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον καὶ λῦσαι τὰς σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ; καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐδύνατο ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς οὐδὲ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον οὔτε βλέπειν αὐτό. καὶ ἔκλαιον¹ πολύ, ὅτι οὐδεὶς ἄξιος εὑρέθη ἀνοῖξαι τὸ βιβλίον οὔτε βλέπειν αὐτό. καὶ εἷς ἐκ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων² λέγει μοι, Μὴ κλαῖε, ἰδοὺ ἐνίκησεν ὁ λέων ὁ ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰούδα³, ἡ ῥίζα Δαυίδ, ἀνοῖξαι⁴ τὸ βιβλίον καὶ τὰς ἑπτὰ σφραγῖδας αὐτοῦ.

And I saw in the right hand of the one sitting on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it. And I began weeping much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look at it. And one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, conquered in order to open the scroll and its seven seals.”

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Vocab:

ἔσωθεν – adv.: within, inside

ὄπισθεν – adv.: behind, at the back

κατεσφραγισμένον – perf. mid./pass. ptc. nom./acc. sg. neut., from κατασφραγίζω: to seal

σφραγῖσιν – dat. pl. fem.: seal

ἐνίκησεν – aor, act. ind. 3 sg., from νικάω: to conquer

λέων – nom. sg. masc.: lion

φυλῆς – gen. sg. fem.: tribe

ῥίζα – nom. sg. fem.: root, origin

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Notes:

¹ A good example of what may be the ingressive imperfect.

² Partitive use of the genitive. The preposition ἐκ makes this clear, and is also a good example of the supersession of many of the Classical nuances of the naked case by the more explicit preposition + case construction in Koinē. The preposition here need not be translated.

³ A couple things here: (1) another partitive use of the genitive, with the same ἐκ + genitive construction as above; (2) the second article nominalizes the prepositional phrase which follows it, basically turning the prepositional phrase into an adjective in the second attributive position.

⁴ Probably an infinitive of purpose; maybe an infinitive of result.