Jeanie C. Crain http://crain.english.missouriwestern.edu

Revelation 6 is the chapter containing the opening of six of the seven seals containing the mystery of God's fixed purposes in human history.  The reader does well to recall that the final verse of this chapter warns prophetically, "the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?" (17)  The "their" refers to all classes of society--the rulers, great men, generals, the rich and strong, and everyone, and slave and free: all are running to hide from calamity into the caves and into the mountains (16). They call out to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (16).  Being represented are the upheavals and divine judgment recognized as patterning themselves after the Day of the Lord found in the Old Testament.  One should recall that this chapter begins with the four living creatures nearest the throne of God calling, "Come." TheNRSV points out that "come" can be translated, also, as "Go!" and that it is addressed successively to each of the four horsemen. Following the four horsemen, the souls of the martyred are seen under the altar and heard asking, "How long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on earth?"  This question leads dramatically into the beginning of calamity and the great day of wrath that is to come.

Edwin D. Freed in The New Testament: A Critical Introduction summarizes the chapter in the following way:

By opening the seven seals, the Lamb displays his power as the eschatological figure who rules the world and brings on the sufferings that are signs of the End and the judgment.  Again, the composition is based on passages from the OT. The four horsemen, for example, which symbolize war, rebellion or civil strive, famine, and death, may come from Zech. 1:8-11, where they are symbolic of the four winds. Based on many sources, which are obviously woven into the apocalypse, Revelation stresses the consequences of yielding to false teaching or to the emperor cult.  John would rather that his readers died than yielded.

In chap. 6 we may have examples of a primary characteristic of apocalypse: past history written into the future tense.  The Parthians, famous bowmen (6.2a), were Rome's enemy in the East and defeated a Roman army in A.D. 62.  The rider may be alluding to that incident.  Or, since the Roman army was conquering the world, and since its officers rode white horses after victories, he may be alluding to Roman conquests (6,26). The red horse, symbolic of rebellion or civil strife, may allude to the civil wars that took place in Rome for a century before Augustus became the first emperor.  The black horse, symbolic of famine, may allude to the shortage of grain in the time of Domitian, when, as usual, barley was the poor person's food.

In 6:9-17 are some of the most vengeful and uncharacteristic verses in the Bible (see, for example Ps 79:5).  The writer sees those in heaven rejoicing at the suffering of sinners on earth.  Basing his words on the prophet's bitter exhortation (for example, Joel 2:10-11; Amos 5:18-20; Hosea 10:8) and using their images of terror, the writer wants to warn those still alive.

This particular interpretive approach seems to combine preterist (" the book the symbols and content therein relate only to events and happenings at the time of the author) and idealist (the contents of the book are not seen to relate to any historical events at all, but only to symbolize the ongoing struggle ) approaches in an interesting way: a resolution of tension between the approaches  might urge the reader to see the symbols and content in the book as relating both to events and happenings at the time of the author as well as symbolically suggesting a struggle of forces. Certainly, the martyrs under the altar (10) are clear that the earth is to be judged and their blood avenged. The reader should recall that in Hebrew tradition, Yahweh is both steadfast in love and righteous in vengeance.  God is both merciful and just; these both have short-term and long-term applications; in the long-term, the scales will balance while in the short-term, they may be quite unequal and seemingly unjust or non-compassionate. The workings of God, it must be remembered, remain inscrutable in totality (except as it can be revealed in the Word as it has come to us, including apocalyptic visions such as that of John); what is being done historically in the lives of human beings is, however, observable.  Gabel, Wheeler, and York in The Bible as Literature, 4th edition (Oxford 2000) simply conclude of Revelation 6 the following:

In the vision a scroll with seven seals is produced, and a lamblike being offers to open the seals so that what is in the scroll can be revealed; for making that offer, the lamb is praised in the same terms as God himself has been.  As each seal is opened, potential destroyers of the earth appear and natural disasters begin to occur on the earth (6).

The word "lamblike" [underlining mine] serves to remind the reader that all of Revelation is heavily veiled in image, symbol, and figurative language. What is being represented will never be completely clearly visible in the image of  "likeness."

Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse                            

Horse One: "I looked and there was a white horse! Its rider had a bow; a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering and to conquer" (2).  Revelation is quite clear: this horseman conquers: "The white horse symbolizes a conquering power that none can resist" (NRSV). F.F. Bruce, in his Bible Commentary says "the analogy of other horsemen and the fact that this horseman is equipped with a bow (like the mounted archers of the Parthian army) suggests rather invasion from beyond the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire."  The crown Bruce finds suitable as a token for one who rode out bent on conquest. One possible reason why this passage may be misinterpreted is that Revelation 19.11 clearly identifies its rider of the white horse with Christ: "Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself." That the name is not fully known suggests that the greatness of Christ surpasses human knowledge.  Matthew 11.27 says "No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."  That this figure is Christ-God is clear in the following verse which says, "He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God."

Horse Two: If one follows a rule of first electing the most natural representation for the color of the horse, then when the second horse comes in red and the reader is told "its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that the people would slaughter one another; and he was given a great sword," a conclusion that this horse and rider represent bloodshed and violence in war can not be wrong..  F.F. Bruce concludes, "The blood-red colour of the horse is in keeping with the mission of its rider, which is to sow strife and slaughter on earth--civil war this time rather than foreign invasion: such civil war as had recently been experienced during the 'year of the four emperors' (A.D. 68-69). Bruce tends, thus, to prefer an interpretation which relates events to the time of the author.

It should be fully possible to agree that Revelation does, in fact, allude to events of the day, just as the context sweeps it out of its historical moment into at least the general repetition of patterns and to an inevitable sense that at some point the cycle ends.  That is, it should be possible to argue for a metaphysical/spiritual conqueror to the extent one admits to stepping outside the confining box of space-time. How one can accomplish that remains a matter of philosophy and theology--at the speculative extreme--and simple trust at yet another pole.

Horse Three: The third horse is black and its rider holds a pair of scales in his hand.  From the midst of the four living presences issues a voice saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's pay, and three quarts of barley for a day's pay, but do not damage the olive oil and the wine" (6).   Following the horse of war, it should not be surprising to see this one as famine to be followed by pestilence and death in the next horse and rider. F.F. Bruce again relates interpretation to the history of the author and says the following: 

In the fifth century B.C. a quart of grain was a fair daily ration for a Persian soldier or a Greek slave; for a Greek soldier twice as much was thought suitable.... according to the parable of Mt. 20:2 this [the denarius] was a labourer's daily wage in Palestine in A.D. 30.  The announcement is thus to the effect that a man's daily wage would buy just enough wheat for one, or just enough barley for three--appreciably more than the siege-rations of Ezekiel 4:10.  

The olive oil and wine are spared at this stage but will suffer with "other trees when the winds of wrath are unleashed against them (7:1; 8.3), according to Bruce.

Horse Four: The pale green horse is the color of death.  Its rider's name is Death, and he is followed by Hades ((8).  How much clearer can a writer be about a possible meaning of the image? Worth mentioning is the alliance here of two personifications: Death and Hades.  These two are given authority to kill with sword, famine, and pestilence and by wild animals over a fourth of the earth (8). No wonder then that individuals at all societal levels run to the mountains, the rocks, and caves to hide, particularly after the sixth seal is opened.

Fifth and Sixth Seals

The fifth seal offers a brief respite before plunging the reader into earthly crisis and destruction.   "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered for the word of God and for the testimony they had given; they cried out with a  loud voice, 'Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long will it be before you judge and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?" (9).  This is the jarring call for vengeance on the part of martyred souls; at their place under the altar in heaven; the altar is the one on which incense (prayers) ascend to the throne.  Matthew nine has Jesus sitting on the Mount of Olives telling his disciples, when they question the coming desolation, that the end will not come before many are tortured:

Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name.  Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another... But the one who endures to the end will be saved.  And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all the nations; and then the end will come (9-14)

There follows in Matthew descriptions of the desolating sacrilege spoken of by Daniel (15). The prayer of vindication is addressed to God.  However one takes this vision--long-term or short-term--it has much in it of exacting justice, but the delay here must be interpreted as compassion for the masses and the giving of time as an opportunity to repent before the awful Day of the Lord. Matthew is clear about the demands of justice: "for the sake of the elect, those days [of suffering] will be cut short" (19.22).

Chapter six ends cataclysmically:  the opening of the sixth seal is followed by a great earthquake, the sun becomes black, the full moon becomes like blood, the stars fall to the earth, the sky vanishes, and every mountain and island is removed from its place; then everyone runs for shelter, recognizing that the great day of wrath has come. John even in this terror is still author of the majestic and sublime, as evidenced in his similes: the sun became "black as sack-cloth"; the stars of the sky drop to the earth like the fig tree drops its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; and the sky vanishes as a scroll rolling itself up.

The reader might wish to read Darby's account of Revelation 6.  At the end of that account, it seems possible only to counter that vengeance is, after all, a human concept! That concept may miss very much the true outcome of God's kingdom and any introductory events into it.

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Last modified: October 27, 2005