Chapter Six

Vision of the first four seals: the appearance of a white horse after the first seal is removed (1–2), a red horse after the second (3–4), a black horse after the third (5–6), and a pale horse after the fourth (7–8). Vision of the souls of those slain for the word of God, located under the altar and clothed in white garments (9–11). Depiction of a scene of worldwide upheaval destined to occur after the sixth seal is removed (12–17).

Revelation 6:1. And I saw that the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as though with a thunder voice, Come and see. The visions of the heavenly throne and the Lamb appearing before it were the first exhibitions of divine providential activity in the first of five orders of apocalyptic phenomena. They are followed by the vision of the removal of the seals of the book. This vision both presupposes them and is connected to them not only by external connection but also by inner relationship. Heaven and the heavenly throne serve as the source and foundation of all those events and phenomena which occur on earth: in them is the divine will realized, and they must be considered from this aspect. Remaining in his former position and former state of spirit, the seer beholds how the Lamb removes the first seal of the book, and at the same time hears a thunder-like (strong) voice belonging to one of the four creatures—which one, John does not indicate. In the expression “go and see,” one must see an impersonal address, and its sense can be rendered thus: let that occur which by divine predestination must occur; you, John, meanwhile observe and inscribe it in your memory.

Revelation 6:2. I looked, and behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering and to conquer. After the first seal was removed, John sees appearing a white horse and upon it a rider. The rider himself is characterized very briefly and in general terms. The seer throughout the vision directs his main attention to the horses and their color, but speaks of the riders only in connection with the horses. Therefore, in explaining the visions, one must direct attention above all to the images of the horses and their colors. A horse is the most natural symbol of movement, of war. Here is a white horse; therefore, by the movement one must understand movement of a spiritual, higher nature, pure (white) both in its aims and in its means. This movement is obviously the one which occurred on earth as a result of Christian preaching. And the victorious appearance of the rider finds its explanation in the success which accompanied this Christian preaching. The rider controls the horse, and so Jesus Christ directed the apostles and their successors in spreading the Gospel.

Revelation 6:3. And when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see. At the removal of the second seal, a voice was also heard, but of another creature, and apparently less majestic and strong. The voice spoke the same words and, of course, with the same meaning.

Revelation 6:4. And another horse, a fiery red one, went out; and to the one sitting on it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword. John saw another horse; it was red or, more correctly, fiery. If a horse in general signifies movement, then a horse of red color, reminding one of the destructive property of fire and the color of human blood, speaks of the destructive significance of the movement embodied in it. The red horse and its rider with a large sword signify the manifestation of enmity and malice, which everywhere and always accompany the initial stages of the spread of Christianity. By the action of the rider of the red horse, there will be no peace on earth. Peace of conscience, inner calm will be disturbed by the fact that people will lack confidence in the correctness of their religious beliefs. Together with this, there will be no external peace either, which will be destroyed by enmity against those who will be responsible for the disturbance of inner peace. All this was on earth with the beginning of the spread of Christianity, when much enmity was revealed among people and much blood was shed, especially during persecutions of Christians by Jews and pagans. But this history of enmity (red horse) toward the beginning of Christianity, toward Christian converts is always repeated (Matt 10:34; John 16:2).

Revelation 6:5. And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, Come and see. I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the one sitting on it had a balance in his hand. Revelation 6:6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not harm the oil and the wine. At the removal of the third seal, John saw a black horse. Black color is the color of sorrow and deprivation, and therefore the symbol of the black horse is the symbol of human deprivation, which is first and foremost expressed in lack of food and hunger. This is indicated by the very appearance of the rider. The rider held scales in his hands. Scales speak of exactness, of the absence of excess, and therefore very conveniently remind one of hunger. The voice which John heard sounding among the creatures was a divine voice emanating from God’s throne. The first part of the divine voice’s words speaks of extraordinary dearness of life due to hunger, and the second indicates the luxury to which the rich classes of society, who exploit the poor, usually indulge. Specifically, in periods of struggle between Christianity and paganism, the first Christian converts among one or another pagan society have always been and are in comparative deprivation; the richer pagan society usually wallows in the luxury of pagan life, while Christians, deprived of support and sympathy, are forced to limit their needs to the extreme (Jas 2:6).

Revelation 6:7. And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, Come and see. Revelation 6:8. And I looked, and behold, a pale horse, and the one sitting on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to him over a fourth of the earth – to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. According to the understanding of the first three seals, one must explain the symbol of the fourth. At its removal, John sees a pale horse—actually gray, colorless, such as is the color of human corpses. Following the rider who reminds one of death and is called death, came Hades. Hades here appears as the personification of the actual inhabitants of Hades, that is, the condemned by preliminary judgment to temporal torment. The rider of the pale horse was given a sword as an instrument of death; at his disposal is hunger; plague (contagious diseases) are subject to him, and even wild beasts of the earth. These calamities will fall upon “a fourth of the earth”; this is not a mathematically exact measurement of a particular space; here a definite number in the sense of an indefinite, to indicate the action of these phenomena temporally and in certain places. The number four is used in correspondence with the four creatures, four horses, and the four corners of the earth. All this is confirmed to us by church history, the history of the spread of Christianity.

Revelation 6:9. And when He broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. Now after the visions of the first four seals, the question arose for the holy John: How long will the righteous suffer together with the wicked, who deserve punishment? And do these latter receive any reward for their suffering and their patience? The appearance of the fifth and sixth seals provide the answer to these questions. In response to the question about the state in which the souls of Christian martyrs find themselves, John sees them under the heavenly altar. This altar is a completely special place and a special object of apocalyptic vision. This is the altar of burnt offering (Lev 4:7), standing in the court of the people for the offering of sacrifices. Below (under) this altar, like sacrifices already offered and burned, were souls in the proper sense of the word, that is, the immortal souls of dead people. These are the souls of those who died a violent death, that is, the souls of martyrs. They were tortured, first, for the word of God, that is, for God’s teaching; and second, for their testimony, that is, for their confession of faith in Jesus Christ. This confession they had, that is, held, proclaimed, and carried through to the end, confirming its sincerity by their death. Now the souls of these Christian martyrs were under the altar, which signifies their special closeness to the Lord God.

Revelation 6:10. And they cried out with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Sovereign and True Lord, do You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? At the same time that the souls of the slain became visible under the altar, their loud cry was heard. They addressed themselves to the divine throne, and, calling God holy and true, ask why there is still no judgment of the divine court over sinners and why they still have not been repaid according to their deeds. Here is heard perplexity and a plea for righteous judgment, for the word of divine justice in relation to sinners—most closely to the pagans and Jews, the persecutors of Christians.

Revelation 6:11. And a white robe was given to each of them; and they were told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers, those who were about to be killed as they had been, would be completed. In response to the cry of the martyrs, each of them was given a white garment as a sign of their purity and innocence. The giving of the garment to the martyrs means their justification, their closeness to the Lord God, and their hope for complete blessedness at the resurrection of the dead. Besides giving white garments, the Lord comforts them with the immutability of his judgment by his divine predestination. The time of this judgment and recompense will coincide with the time when the number of martyrs reaches a certain limit, determined by God beforehand. The blood of the martyrs will be avenged; but this will not occur before the number of their coworkers and brothers who are also to shed their blood for the confession of the Christian faith is fulfilled.

Revelation 6:12. And when He broke the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as a hair-cloth, and the moon became like blood; Revelation 6:13. and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree sheds its unripe figs when shaken by a gale wind. Revelation 6:14. And the heaven was split apart like a scroll being rolled up; and every mountain and island was moved from its place. The sixth seal responds to the question: How long will the righteous suffer together with the wicked, worthy of punishment? As long as, it responds, until the time of general recompense comes at the second coming of the Lord. And the words of verse 12 can be understood in the sense of indicating the general upheaval of the world before the second coming of the Lord. In the upheaval, the sun will be likened to sackcloth, a garment of black wool. This word expression is not unique in Holy Scripture (Matt 24:29) and is repeated almost literally in the prophet Isaiah (Isa 50:3). It speaks that a change will occur in the very nature of the sun and in its relationships to the earth and other planets. Here one must understand a cessation of sunlight. Similarly, the moon (“like blood”) will no longer illuminate the earth but will only arouse us by its new appearance. At the same time this general upheaval is occurring, the stars in the sky will fall to the earth. The explanation of the Apocalypse says that here one must see not a deception of vision but an actual fall of stars in the form of asteroids, meteors, and the like. The upheaval will touch the very earth and heaven. “The heavens receded like a scroll being rolled up.” This expression: “And all the starry host will wear away; and the heavens will be rolled up like a scroll; and all their starry host will fall, like withered leaves from the vine, and like leaves falling from the fig tree” (Isa 34:4) speaks of the removal of the heavens from human view. Simultaneously with the upheaval in the heavens, on the earth a terrible earthquake will occur, as a result of which the appearance of the earth’s surface will change. For the Lord it is possible to make a complete and perfect change in the appearance of the earth.

Revelation 6:15. And the kings of the earth, and the magnates, and the rich, and the thousand-commanders, and the mighty, and every slave, and every free person hid themselves in the caves and in the clefts of the mountains, Revelation 6:16. and they say to the mountains and to the stones: fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him Who Sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb; Revelation 6:17. because the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Verses 15–17 tell us about the impression the upheaval will make on people. All earthly inhabitants, who, because of their sins, must fear the wrath of God, will flee to the mountains and caves. But no protection will be able to hide sinful people from the approaching judgment and recompense. The words of verse 17 confirm that the sixth seal concerned the coming of the time of the second coming, the time of the day of the Lord. * * * Notes Andrew of Caesarea A choinix, a small grain measure. A denarius was a coin corresponding to a day’s wage for a laborer. Ewald, Lüthardt. Hengstenberg. Ewald, Kliefoth, Lüthardt. Ebrard, Suller, Ewald, Kliefoth, Lüthardt. Hengstenberg, Ebrard. Hengstenberg, Ebrard, Suller. Cornelius a Lapide, Kliefoth, Calmet, John Chrysostom on Matt 24:29.