And when he had taken the scroll: it is not necessary to repeat the exact phrase of the previous verse; something more general like “And when he had done this” or “As soon as he did this” is satisfactory.

Fell down: an act of worship, as in 1.17; 4.10.

Each holding a harp, and with golden bowls full of incense: this seems to say that every one of the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, although some would restrict it to the twenty-four elders. Appropriate terms must be found to translate harp, bowls, and incense. The harp is a stringed musical instrument; the biblical harp was smaller than a modern harp. See A Handbook on the Book of Psalms, page 311, for a detailed description of stringed instruments. In languages that have only a one-stringed instrument, that may be used here. However, in cultures where stringed instruments are unknown, one may say, for example, “a musical instrument with strings” or “a musical instrument with strings, named ‘harp.’ ” In this case a picture will be very helpful to the reader. The bowls were either made of gold or else were ceramic bowls plated with gold leaf. Both bowls and cups are mentioned frequently in Revelation, and if the local language uses only one term for both ideas, this will be no problem for dealing with the terms in this book. A bowl is usually a wide dish deep enough to contain solid or liquid foods for several people, while a cup is smaller, is normally is used for holding liquids, and is used by only one person at a time. Incense is usually a combination of aromatic spices, gums, and resins, which is used in public worship; there it is burned so that it produces smoke with a pleasant smell (see Exo 30.34-36). The offering of incense in sacrifice is associated with prayer (see Psa 141.2). In certain languages incense is called “sweet smelling herbs” or “sweet smelling stuff.”

Which are the prayers of the saints: the Greek says that the bowls (filled with incense) are the prayers (see 8.3). In effect the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders offer to God the prayers of the saints. In the Bible saints is a word used of the people of God, people who serve and worship God to the exclusion of all other deities. It is better to translate “the people who belong to God,” “the people who serve God.” The Greek word is the same as the adjective translated “holy” (see the comments at 3.7; 4.8).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:

• As the Lamb did this, the four living creatures and the twenty-four important leaders prostrated themselves before him. Each of the leaders held a harp and a bowl made of gold. The bowl was filled with sweet-smelling herbs that represent the prayers of people who belong to (or, serve) God.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Revelation to John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .