Charles Ellicott Commentary Revelation 5:3

"And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon." — Revelation 5:3 (ASV)

And no man . . . .—Or, better, no one (for it is of more than mankind that the Apostle speaks) was able, in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, nor even (still less?) to look on it.

The looking on the book is usually understood as the gaze cast upon the book by one who would read its contents. If so, the thought is that no one could open, still less read, the scroll.

It may, however, be that all who attempted to take the book were unable to face the glory in which it lay. When Christ revealed Himself to Saul, he could not see because of the glory of that light.