C. The First Seal (6:1-2)

C. THE FIRST SEAL (6:1-2)

As we survey the picture revealed by the opening of the seals we may be a little surprised. The picture is a grim one, but it is not particularly new. War, bloody conquest, famine and pestilence are found in many apocalyses. We begin to wonder why John wept at the prospect of such well-known contents remaining undisclosed (5:4.). But there is something new here, the church. The martyrs are singled out in 6:9-11, and chapter 7 is given over to the great multitude of the redeemed. God is in control of the whole process and God is concerned for his people. So, though apocalyptic judgments be loosed against all mankind, believers included, God’s people need never be dismayed. They will be preserved no matter what the tribulation.

The first four seals form a unity. They show us the self-defeating character of sin. When the spirit of self-aggrandisement and conquest is abroad all God needs to do is to let events take their course and sinners will inevitably be punished. In the wake of conquest come war and famine and pestilence. This is not the whole story and other aspects are brought out later (as in the first four trumpets, which show that God is not inactive: he sends his judgments on sinful people). But this is the aspect with which John is concerned here. After the first four seals comes a group of two dealing with things in heaven rather than on earth. The final seal stands apart from all the rest. It is kept back until 8:1 and ushers in the next series of visions. We shall find this pattern of four, two and one repeated with the trumpets and the bowls.

1. The vision is introduced with I watched. Revelation is full of the things John saw. The Lamb himself opened one of the seals to initiate the first judgment. It may well be that we are to understand Christ’s saving work as including an element of judgment. Christ’s death was not only salvation from sin but condemnation of sin. In a voice like thunder one of the living ones spoke just one word, Come. This is not addressed to John (as is implied with ‘Come and see’, AV), but to the horseman of the vision. It calls him into action.

2. ‘I saw, and behold’ (RSV) is a frequent formula with John (4:1; 6:5,8; 7:9; 14:1,14; 19:11). NEB brings out something of its vividness with ’And there before my eyes was a white horse’. It might have been expected that when the book was opened John would have read it or heard someone reading it; instead he sees its content in a series of visions. The first four are horses with colours like those in Zechariah 6:1-3, though there the horses were drawing chariots, while here they are ridden by horsemen. Indeed the riders are more important than the horses.

The first horse is white and his rider carries a bow. Later John sees a rider on a white horse who is called ‘The Word of God’ (19:11-13), from which a surprising number of commentators conclude that it is Christ who is meant here. But there is no point of similarity apart from the colour of the horse and this seems insufficient. ’This is to play havoc with the whole scheme of John’s vision’ (Beasley-Murray). Everything in this chapter points to the seal as unfolding a series of disasters. And Christ would surely not appear merely as one of the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’. This rider is a victorious warrior for he carries a bow and is given a crown, ‘a victor’s wreath’ (Weymouth; stephanos, see on 2:10; it is to be distinguished from diad 006

ma, a royal crown, 19:12, etc.). White was the colour of victory and Charles cites a number of triumphant warriors who rode white horses. This one went forth not only conquering but bent on conquest. The expression indicates purpose. Conquest was his whole aim. We should not miss the point that the crown was given to him. He doubtless thought that his own might produced his victory. But John is sure of the sovereignty of God. The conqueror has only what God allows him to have.

Some see in the horseman a symbol of the victorious progress of the gospel. But there is nothing to indicate this. The four horsemen must surely be taken together, and they all indicate destruction, horror, terror. This one surely stands for war, triumphant war of conquest. Others try to give him a precise historical identification, usually the Parthian king Vologäses who won a notable victory over the Romans in AD 62. But it is more than difficult to see why the Seer, writing at the end of the first century, should think of this battle as something revealed by the opening of a sealed book. It is true that Parthian prowess with the bow was proverbial (and still is - witness our expression ‘Parthian shot’). But we need more than a mention of a bow to see an allusion to a specific Parthian king. It is more probable that we should take the symbolism from the Old Testament. Cyrus turns his enemies ‘to windblown chaff with his bow’ (Is. 41:2), and the overthrow of both Elam and Babylon is described in similar terms (Je. 49:35; 51:3,56). Sometimes God destroys bows, i.e. breaks military power (Ps. 46:9; Ezk. 39:3; Ho. 1:5). The same imagery may be used for the cessation of war (Zc. 9:10). A bow may even be associated with God himself, when he is depicted as a triumphant warrior (La. 2:4; 3:12; Hab. 3:9).

The opening of the first seal, then, sees a warlike conqueror on his way. The bow was not a typical Roman weapon, so it points beyond the Empire. John’s mind is on more than the Parthian king or the Roman emperor. He is saying that any nation that embarks on a career of conquest unleashes bloodshed and famine and destruction. He is saying that this will be so till the end of time, and, indeed, especially in the last days.

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