Who is the Root of David (Revelation 5:5)?

In Revelation 5, John has a vision of the heavenly throne room. It is time for the judgment of the earth but no one is found worthy to execute the judgment, and John begins weeping. In Revelation 5:5 we read, “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’”

The scroll with its seven seals is the scroll of God’s judgment. The elder who speaks to John identifies the one person who has the moral authority and legal right to open the scroll—that is, the only one who can rightly judge the world. That person is Jesus, who triumphed over temptation and sin and is capable of executing judgment (see John 5:22). Jesus is given two titles in Revelation 5:5: Lion of the tribe of Judah and Root of David. The Root of David is a reference to His connection with David (who was also from the tribe of Judah) and His rule as king.

When King David reigned, the Lord established a covenant with him, promising that David’s throne would “be established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). The covenant was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, the Root of David. A root is a source and founding support of something. Jesus is the source, the origin, of David and his tribe of Judah.

Jesus is introduced in the Gospel of Matthew as “Jesus the Messiah, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1), fulfilling the Jewish expectation that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David. But how could the Messiah be both the Root of David and the Son of David, or the Branch, as Isaiah 11:1 had prophesied? The answer is found in Jesus’ dual nature.

As per Jesus’ human nature, Jesus was the Son of David, a branch from David’s family tree. But, touching His divine nature, Jesus was the Root of David: He was the originator of David and the source of all David’s blessings. We see the same human-divine duality expressed in Revelation 22:16, where Jesus declares that He is “the Root and the Offspring of David.”

Jesus also alludes to His connection to David in Matthew 22:41–45. There, the Pharisees affirm that the Messiah is the Son of David (verse 4). In response, Jesus says, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says,
Jesus then brings it home with this piercing question: “If then David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” (verse 45). The answer is that the Messiah is not only David’s Son, but He is also the Root of David. Jesus is indeed David’s Lord. He is the Son of God and the Source of all things, including David.