Scroll

Scrolls in the Bible

A scroll is a book made by joining long strips of papyrus or animal skin, writing on them, and storing them rolled up. The New Korean Revised Version (Gaeyeok Gaejeong) renders the term as "scroll" or "scroll book," and in some contexts simply as "book." The principal passages in which scrolls appear are as follows.

• Jeremiah 36: Jeremiah dictated his words, and Baruch wrote them down on a scroll. As King Jehoiakim listened to the reading, he cut off three or four leaves at a time with a knife and threw them into the brazier until the entire scroll was burned. Jeremiah afterward had the same words written again, and many more words were added to them (Jeremiah 36:32).
• Ezekiel 2:9–3:3: Ezekiel received and ate a scroll written within and without with "lamentations, and mourning, and woe," and it was "in my mouth as honey for sweetness."
• Zechariah 5:1–4: In a vision, a scroll twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide flies through the air. It represents the curse on theft and false swearing.
• Luke 4:16–20: In the synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah; he opened it and read, then closed it and gave it back. The New Korean Revised Version renders the word here as "book," but in light of synagogue practice at the time, it is generally understood to have been a scroll.
• Revelation 5 and 10: In the right hand of the one seated on the throne is a scroll written within and on the backside and sealed with seven seals; the Lamb takes it and breaks its seals. In chapter 10, John receives and eats a little scroll, which is sweet as honey in his mouth but becomes bitter in his belly.

Background

In Hebrew the scroll is called megillah, from a verb meaning "to roll," and in New Testament Greek it is usually called biblion. Papyrus and leather scrolls were in wide use throughout the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean world. Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the Qumran area are likewise in scroll form. Early Christians are known to have adopted the codex, a book made of bound leaves, widely and at a relatively early date. In synagogues today, the Torah is still read from handwritten scrolls, and at Purim the scroll of Esther is read aloud.

Significance Across Scripture

The scroll shows that God's word is written down and handed on. The account of the scroll that Jehoiakim burned and that was then written again is read as a sign that the word cannot be destroyed by human hands. The scene of Ezekiel eating the scroll is carried over almost unchanged into Revelation 10. Both scenes convey the meaning of a prophetic calling: the prophet first takes the word into himself and then proclaims it.

Old Testament scroll imagery carries over into the New Testament. The words of Isaiah 34:4, "the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll," reappear in an end-time scene in Revelation 6:14. Psalm 40:7, "in the volume of the book it is written of me," is applied to Christ in Hebrews 10:7.

Interpretation and Issues

Interpreters differ on what the sealed scroll of Revelation 5 represents. Many regard it as a book containing God's plan of salvation and judgment, that is, the consummation of history. Others explain its form, written within and on the backside and then sealed, by comparison with ancient wills or contracts. How the seven seals that follow are understood depends on one's position in eschatology.

Shincheonji is known to teach that the one who receives and eats the open book in Revelation 10 is its own leader. The major Korean denominations have declared Shincheonji heretical, and they generally read this scene as John himself receiving a prophetic commission.

In the Korean Church

The scenes of eating the scroll in Ezekiel and Revelation are frequently cited in preaching as the basis for the expression "eating the Word." In this usage, the expression means reading and meditating on Scripture and embracing it in one's life.