The book is first introduced as being “sealed.” Particularly, it is a scroll with seven wax seals. As each is opened, a sequence of events is unfolded beginning with war, famine, disease, earthquakes, and heavenly signs that point to some crisis. Several characters include the beast who is backed by a false prophet. The opposition is saints whom they had martyred and the two witnesses who were also killed. Two other characters working behind the scenes are the Dragon (the Devil) and Jesus Christ.
Essentially, the book is a victory song of the Lamb (Jesus) who is revealed in the book not only as a Jewish apocalyptic art form but Greek odes and Greek images similar to their mythological stories. The Pindaric odes of the sixth century BCE was a way of celebrating the victor in the Greek National Games. Three elements are generally present: a reference to the occasion and a reflective element. John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ is so grand that it is appropriate to write a song of victory to celebrate His conquests. In other words, an ode is written in His honor. This lamb of God is not only victorious over sin and death (Hebrews 2:9), but He is now the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is returning in judgment as the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.” The Lamb had fought Satan and experienced “agony,” a general term used in describing the contestants at the great national festivals. Is it any wonder that the old Latin word “agonia” is a sacrificial victim? in this way, Jesus not only fulfills His role as a “contender” in a battle, but He also fulfills His role as the “sacrificial victim.”
The victory of the Lamb of God
The honor of a horse winning all three major races is a great accomplishment. These horses are given the prestigious title of Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Similarly, there were four Greek games(i.e. Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian) and the men who were successful in all four games were called the “periodonikai.” As John writes his ode of Jesus, he presents Him as the victor of victors. He writes to Laodicea, “He that overcometh (Gr. nikon), I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame (Gr. enikesa), and sat down with my Father in his throne ” (See Rev. 17:14). Just as the victors were given crowns. Symbolically, Christ’s crown of thorns is paradoxical in that what appears to be a defeat becomes a victory. He gives the victory cry on the cross, “It is finished” (Hebrews 2:7-9; 2 Timothy 2:5). He is the crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.
Mythic Variation
The accounts of Hesiod, the Greek Bible of the first century, would have been well known and read in that day, even among Hellenized Jews. John draws from Hesiod’s imagery as a comparison of epic battles fought and won by their heroes. For example, his account of the battle between Zeus & Typhoeus and Pindar’s combat between Zeus & Typhon in a Pythian Ode that share similar images in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Pindar’s Tartarus is the abyss of Revelation 9:1 and the volcanic mountain of Revelation 8:8 is similar to Mount Aetna into which the dragon was consigned. Satan replaces Typhon as the multiheaded Dragon who takes over heaven & earth (Revelation 12). It is popular among religious scholars to designate the book as apocalyptic literature, whereas the images are drawn from their household stories found in Hesiod.
Revealed / Sealed
The word “revelation” has to do with uncovering or unveiling. The difficulty in understanding this prophetic book cannot be attributed to God. Many prophecies were revealed but not understood by the prophet or hearer because they were sealed for another time until the time of its fulfillment. For example, Daniel was told, “…for the words are shut up and sealed till the time of the end” (cf. Dan.12:9). Daniel 8:26 explains that the fulfillment “belongeth to many days to come”(Dan. 8:26; cf. Rev. 5:1-5, Mat. 24:15, Luke 21:22). During the time of Daniel, they were sealed. Prophets desired to know their meaning (Mat. 13:17, 1 Peter 1:10-11). But, what they revealed did not pertain to them. For that reason, they were sealed until the generation to which they applied arrived. That generation was the first generation in which our Lord lived and died. What John saw had to do with “things that must shortly come to pass”(1:3). Therefore, he was not to seal up the book, “for the time is at hand” (22:10). This is just the opposite of what God told Daniel. If Daniel was to seal a book for over 2000 years because the time for its fulfillment was not near, why would the now unsealed Revelation apply to a time 2000 years away?  John said it was near. The prophecies pertained to them (1 Pet. 1:12) which would account for the seals being opened for all to see.