F. The Fourth Seal (6:7-8)
F. THE FOURTH SEAL (6:7-8)
7. The fourth horseman is summoned in the same way as the first three, with only the tiny variant that John hears the voice of the living one. But the meaning is the same.
8.
A pale horse appeared. The Greek chl
ros (from which we get our word ‘chlorine’) means ‘yellowish green’ (BAGD), a curious colour for a horse. We should probably understand it to mean the colour of a corpse. While each of the preceding riders had an emblem (a bow, a sword, scales), Death needs no such sign. For Hades see the note on 1:18. Death and Hades are commonly linked in this book. There is no horse for Hades, but we should not look for too great consistency on points of detail (see on 1:17). Cf. Swete, ’whether on the same or another horse or on foot the writer does not stop to say or even to think’. It is enough to mention the presence of Hades without particularizing its mode of locomotion.
ros (from which we get our word ‘chlorine’) means ‘yellowish green’ (BAGD), a curious colour for a horse. We should probably understand it to mean the colour of a corpse. While each of the preceding riders had an emblem (a bow, a sword, scales), Death needs no such sign. For Hades see the note on 1:18. Death and Hades are commonly linked in this book. There is no horse for Hades, but we should not look for too great consistency on points of detail (see on 1:17). Cf. Swete, ’whether on the same or another horse or on foot the writer does not stop to say or even to think’. It is enough to mention the presence of Hades without particularizing its mode of locomotion.Once more we read that power was given. God is supreme and the little church is reminded that even Death and Hades exercise only the power that he gives them. But the power given on this occasion is awe-inspiring. A quarter of the earth’s population is slain in the ways mentioned. For sword see note on 1:16. The four agents of death are like those sent by God in Ezekiel 14:21.
Swete sums up the meaning of the first four seals: ‘The first group of seal-openings, now completed, describes the condition of the Empire as it revealed itself to the mind of the Seer. He saw a vast world-wide power, outwardly victorious and eager for fresh conquests, yet full of the elements of unrest, danger, and misery; war, scarcity, pestilence, mortality in all its forms, abroad or ready to shew themselves. This series of pictures repeats itself in history, and the militarism and lust of conquest, which it represents both in their attractive and repellent aspects, are among the forces set loose by the hand of Christ to prepare the way for His coming and the final publication of the secrets of the Sealed Book.’