CHAPTER 6

6:117. THE OPENING OF THE FIRST SIX SEALS .

1. .] The vision proceeds (on see 5:1, 5:6, 5:11). The Lamb,
who has already taken the roll (5:7) now opens the seals one by one. The first four
openings (vv. 18) form a series, marked by a common note; each is preceded by an
utterance from one of the four , and followed by the appearance of a horse and his
rider, whose significance is partly explained.
For , , see 5:5 note; with a partitive genitive is especially frequent
in the Apoc., cf. Blass, Gr. p. 96 f. The writer declines to say which seal was opened
first, or which of the began; neither point is material. , cf. 14:2,

19:6, and for the instrumental dative see 5:12, 6:10; ( ), (P), are
corrections. It is unnecessary to create an irregularity by reading (with
Tischendorf, Bousset, Nestle).
Each of the in succession thunders out his (vv. 1, 3, 5, 7). The scribes
have understood this as a call to the Seer, and many MSS. accordingly add , or
; see app. crit. But (1) would have been the natural word to invite the
approach of the Seer; and (2) no reason can be shewn why he should have been called
within the door and across the Sea in order to witness the visions which follow. Many
ancient interpreters, regarding the white horse as the verbum praedicationis
(Victorinus, cf. Zahn, Einl. 2. p. 689), explain Veni as the summons to faith (e.g.
Apringius: veni dicitur invitatio ad fidem). But throughout the Apoc. is used
of the comings of God or of Christ ( , 1:4, 1:8, 4:8; , 2:5, 2:16, 3:11,
16:15, 22:7, 22:12, 22:20; , 1:7; , 22:17, 22:20). The last two references
help to determine the meaning of here; the Come of the corresponds to the
Come of the Spirit and the Bride, of the hearer and the writer of the book; Nature no
less than the Spirit in redeemed Man calls for the coming of the Christ. Thus the
fourfold of the represents the (Rom. 8:19 ff.)
which at each crisis in the preparatory process becomes vocal in the ear of the prophet.
2. , .] The vision of the four horsemen,
distinguished by the colour of their horses, who follow successively the opening of the
first four seals, has evidently been suggested by Zech. 6:1 ff., ...
, ,
,
(grizzled bay). Zechariahs four horses are the four winds of heaven (v. 5), and
their mission is to execute judgement upon Babylon, Egypt, and the other heathen
nations of the world. The Apocalyptist borrows only the symbol of the horses and their
colours, and instead of yoking the horses to chariots he sets on each of them a rider in
whom the interest of the vision is centred.
In the first vision the horse is white, the rider carries a bow and receives a
conquerors crown (); he goes forth, it is noted, as a conqueror, and with the
purpose of winning fresh conquests ( , not ). It is tempting to
identify him with the Rider on the white horse in 19:11 ff., whose name is the Word of
Zahn Th. Zahn, Einleitung in das N.T. (Leipzig, 18979).

God; cf. Iren. 4:21. 3 ad hoc enim nascebatur Dominus de quo et Ioannes in
Apocalypsi ait Exivit vincens, ut vinceret. But the two riders have nothing in common
beyond the white horse; the details are distinct; contrast e.g. the of
19:12 with the single here, and the with the . A vision of
the victorious Christ would be inappropriate at the opening of a series which symbolizes
bloodshed, famine, and pestilence. Rather we have here a picture of triumphant
militarism. The lust of conquest which makes great Empires, whether the Seer had in
view the Empire of the Caesars or the Parthian power which menaced it, was the first
and most momentous of the precursors of the final revelation.
White horses were used by the conqueror in Roman triumphant processions; cf.
Verg. Aen. 3:537 quattuor hic, primum omen, equos in gramine vidi | tondentes
campum late candore nivali; on which Servius remarks, hoc ad victoriae omen
pertinet.
3 f. .] As the white horse and his
rider vanish, bent on the career of conquest ( ), the Lamb opens the second
seal, and there comes forth another horse, not white but , blood red (cf. 4 Regn.
3:22 ((
(
) ); the word is used of the red-brown of the
heifer (Num. 19:2), and here, as in Zech. 1:8, 6:2, of the roan of the horse, not however
without allusion to its proper meaning. The rider on the red horse has received (
) a great sword, as a symbol of his mission. may be either a knife carried
in a sheath at the girdle (Jo. 18:10), or a weapon for use in war (see Hastings D. B.
4:634); this one is clearly of the latter sort, and it is large of its kind ().
Together with the sword the second rider had received power to plunge the world
into war; his sword was not the symbol of civil justice (Rom. 13:4) but of bloodshed. It
was given him to take Peace ( ) from off the earth and (to cause men) to slay
one anotherthe negative and positive sides of warfare. The construction is rugged
and broken, as if in sympathy with the subject ( . ...
. , sc. ). For with the fut. ind. see WM. p.
360 f., Blass, Gr. p. 211 f.; other exx. may be found in Apoc. 3:9, 6:11, 8:3, 9:4 f., 9:20,
13:12, 13:16(?), 14:13, 22:14.
If the first Seal has been interpreted rightly, there can be little difficulty in
explaining the second. Victory, white-horsed and crowned, wears another aspect when
viewed in the lurid light of the battlefield. Triumph spells much bloodshed and
slaughter in the past, and the maintenance and extension of an Empire based on
conquest demands more in the future.
5. .] The breaking of the third seal lets
loose a black horse. Bloodshed is not the only attendant upon conquest; Scarcity
follows. The rider on the black horse is not named, but this description leaves no doubt
who he is. He carries in his hand, not bow or sword, but the beam of a pair of scales.
For the meaning of cf. Prov. 16:11 , Ezek.
5:1 , 45:10
WM. Winer-Moulton, Grammar of N. T. Greek, 8th Engl. ed. (Edinburgh, 1877).

 ; the masc. is found also in the LXX. wherever the gender can be
determined, and in Mt. 11:29 f.
6. . ] Lest this rider should not be
sufficiently identified by his equipment, there comes from the midst of the what
sounds like a voice (, cf. 5:11, 6:1, 19:1, 19:6), the protest of Nature against the
horrors of famine.
.] The voice fixes a maximum price for the main foodstuffs.
The denarius, the silver franc of the Empire, was the daily wage (Mt. 20:2), and a
choenix of wheat the average daily consumption of the workman (Suidas:
, cf. Athen. 3:20). Barley was largely the food of the poor, as being
relatively cheaper than wheat, cf. 4 Regn. 7:18
: in N.T. times the proportionate cost was probably as three to one,
as the Apocalyptist puts it here ( , ). represents

the Hebrew i
in Ezek. 45:10 f. LXX., i.e., 6070 pints (Hastings, D. B. 4:912); but
the Greek measure in view was something under two pints; the Vg. renders here
by bilibris. The proclamation, then, forbids famine prices, ensuring to the labourer a
sufficiency of bread, and warning the world against such a rise in the price of cereals as
would deprive men of the necessaries of life. A similar embargo is laid on any attempt
to destroy the liquid food of the people the
prohibition is addressed to the nameless rider who represents Dearth. The oliveyards
and vineyards are not to suffer to such an extent as seriously to interfere with the
supply. Wheat and barley, oil and wine, were the staple food both of Palestine and Asia
Minor, and the voice from the midst of the deprecates any heavy loss in these
crops. Yet the very cry reveals the presence of relative hardships, and the danger of
worse things; cf. Mc. 13:8 . Cf. Hastings, D. B. 3:432
a.
On to injure, hurt, see 2:11, note.
7 f. .] At the opening of the fourth
seal, after the call from the fourth , another horse is seen, described as ,
which the Apocalyptist substitutes for Zechariahs . In the LXX. and
N.T. is the usual epithet of , , (Gen. 1:30, 4 Regn. 19:26,
Ezek. 17:24, Mc. 6:39, Apoc. 8:7), and is vegetation generally (Gen. 2:5,
Apoc. 9:4). But equus viridis (Tert. pud. 20) is scarcely tolerable, even in this book of
unimaginable symbols; must bear here its other meaning, of pale complexion;
the word is used especially in reference to the grey, ashen colour of a face bleached by
fear (cf. , Il. 7:479). The pale horse is the symbol of Terror, and its rider a
personification of Death ( , as in 1:18, 9:6, 20:13 f., 21:4; cf. 1 Cor. 15:26,
15:54 f.), with whom followswhether on the same or another horse or on foot the
writer does not stop to say or even to thinkhis inseparable comrade, Hades (1:16,
note, 20:13 f.).
.] Cf. v. 4. A far wider commission is given to the
fourth rider than to the second; his authority extends over a fourth of the earth (cf. 8:7
Vg. The Latin Vulgate.

ff.), and his opportunities of exercising it are manifold. shews that this is
no mere commonplace of human mortality, but describes an unusual visitation, in which
Death is busy in various forms. ... ... ... the
four sore judgements of Ezekiel 14:21: ,
cf. Lev. 26:23 ff., Jer. 21:7, Ezek.

5:1217, 29:5, 33:27, 34:28. In these O.T. passages is=,

, ,
, pestilence;
and such is doubtless the meaning of here, as distinguished from other causes
of mortality. On see Apoc. 1:16, note. The devastations caused by wild beasts
are perhaps mentioned chiefly because they belong to Ezekiels list of judgements. But
they suggest the depopulation caused by war, dearth, and pestilence (cf. Deut. 7:22), and
so have a special fitness in this context.
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.
9. ] The Lamb continues to open the seals,
but no comes from the ; the history of the world-wide Empire has been
exhausted by the first four. With the fifth seal the Church comes into sight, in its
persecuted, suffering, state. While the Empire was pursuing its victorious course
through bloodshed and death, the Church followed the steps of the Lamb that was
slain. The loosing of the fifth seal interprets the age of persecution, and shews its
relation to the Divine plan of history.
.] An altar is mentioned also in 8:3, 8:5, 9:13,
11:1, 14:18, 16:7, where see notes. Though no altar appears in the vision of c. 4., its
existence is assumed by the article, perhaps on the ground that the heavenly worship
which the Seer had witnessed is the of the earthly; cf. Heb. 8:5. The altar
here in view is the counter-part of the Altar of burnt offering, and the victims which
have been offered at it are the martyred members of the Church, who have followed
their Head in the example of His sacrificial death ( ; cf. 5:6
). Their souls () are seen under the altar, because in the Levitical
rite the blood, which is the (Lev. 17:11
), was poured out at the foot of the altar of burnt offering (Lev. 4:7
: cf. Pirqe Aboth 26). They had
been slain a phrase repeated
with a slight change from 1:9, and found again with variations in 12:11, 12:17, 19:10,
20:4. If the two causes of martyrdom are to be sharply distinguished, as the repeated
seems to indicate, the first will be the martyrs confession of the One Living and True
God, as against polytheism and Caesarism, and the second their witness to Jesus Christ.
In mart. Polyc. 9 the test offered to Polycarp is twofold: [ ],

 . On ... see Tertullian anim. 8

animae corpus invisibile carni, spiritui vero visibile est.
10. .] Beatus: animarum verba ipsa sunt desideria;
cf. Bar. 3:4. As the blood of Abel cried for vengeance on Cain (Gen. 4:10
... , cf Heb. 12:24), so in the ears of the Seer the souls of the martyrs (i.e.
their sacrificed lives) called aloud for judgement on the pagan world. It was a quousque
tandem? how long, Master Holy and True, dost thou not judge and avenge? For
see Mc. 9:19, and cf. Exod. 16:28 ; 2 Esdr. 12:16 . as

a title of God (= (

,,
), in the LXX. usually occurs in the voc., whether alone or
with (Gen. 15:2, 15:8, Jer. 4:10, Dan. 9:15); on =, see Blass,
Gr. p. 87. Christ is in Jude 4 (cf. 2 Pet. 2:1), and
receives the epithets , in Apoc. 3:7; but in a passage so full of O.T.
reminiscences as this is, the Person addressed as is probably the Father, as in
Lc. 2:29, Acts 4:24. The martyrs being Christs are also Gods (1 Cor. 3:23), and the
holiness and truth of the Supreme Master demand the punishment of a world
responsible for their deaths. The words only assert the principle of Divine retribution,
which forbids the exercise of personal revenge (Rom. 12:19 f. ...
(sc. ), ) But it was
long before this was fully understood, and the Acts of the martyrs relate many instances
in which the sufferers met their judges with threatenings of the coming wrath, not
always free from the spirit of vindictiveness; even Polyc. mart. 11 shews something of
this tendency. It is not however to be read into this quousque, as the fiery Tertullian
more than once implies; cf. Bede: non haec odio inimicorum, pro quibus in hoc saeculo
rogaverunt, orant, sed amore aequitatis.
: dost Thou refrain from pronouncing judgement and
executing vengeance. Cf. Lc. 18:7 f.
...
a passage which goes far to answer many questions in theodicy.
occurs again in 19:2; cf. () in Deut. 32:41 A,
32:43, Hos. 1:4, Joel 3:21 A, and in Deut. 18:19; other combinations are
. , 1 Regn. 14:24; , 1 Macc. 13:6; , Jer. 5:9, 5:29; , Hos.
2:13, 4:9, Soph. 1:8, 1:12 ff.; , Lc. 18:3.
11. ] The present condition of the martyrs is
revealed. (1) They have received a white robe (cf. 3:4 f., 4:4, 7:9, 7:13, 19:14; on
see Mc. 12:38, note); the honours of victory have already been conferred upon them
individually (), though the general and public award is reserved for the Day of
the Lord. The Ascension of Isaiah rightly represents the white array of the Saints as
stored up for them in the seventh heaven, ready against the day when they will descend
with Christ (4:16), after which all the righteous are seen in their celestial apparel (9:9
existentes in stolis excelsis). But the martyrs individual victory is assured as soon as
he is with Christ; he knows himself a conqueror, while on earth the Church recognises
his victory by adding his name to her hagiographies.

 .] On the other hand (2) for their full

reward, for the triumph which they will share with Christ, they must await the
completion of the martyrologion. But their waiting is qualified by two considerations;
(1) it is but for a little while ( ; cf. , , 1:1, 22:6 f., 22:12,
22:20the exact phrase occurs again in another connexion, 20:3; cf. Heb. 10:37
); and (2) the waiting is a rest; they are not bidden simply to wait (
), but to enjoy repose ( , cf. 14:13
). The delay is itself a part of the reward; to the
Church on earth it may be irksome, to the martyrs themselves it is an .
Further, the cause of the delay is revealed. They are kept waiting
, till the number of their fellow-slaves is fully made up. For this use of
, cf. Mt. 23:32, 1 Thess. 2:16; and for the idea see Baruch 30:2 aperientur
promptuaria in quibus custoditus erat numerus animarum iustarum; and cf. the
Anglican Order for the Burial of the Dead: that it may please Thee shortly to
accomplish the number of Thine Elect, and to hasten Thy Kingdom. The harder
reading implies a scarcely tolerable ellipse of (Acts 13:25,
20:24, 2 Tim. 4:7) or . are the rest of the saints (cf. Mt.
18:28 ff., Col. 1:7, 4:7, Apoc. 19:10, 22:9); is limited by the
participial clause which follows to the rest of the martyrs; ... , both the saints in
general, and the martyrs in particular. .: the Apocalyptist foresees
an age of persecution impending, cf. 2:10, 3:10. On the form see WH.2,
Notes, p. 176, Blass, Gr. p. 41, 55.
12. .] The first five openings had
revealed the condition of the world and of the Church; the sixth opening looks on to the
troubles which were expected to precede the end. The sufferings of the nations and of
the Church were but an (Mc. 13:8); with the opening of the sixth seal the
cosmical disturbances of the last age begin; cf. Mc. 13:24 ff.
. First there is a great earthquake, not one of the
of which Asia had much experience in the first century, but the final
upheaval of Hagg. 2:6 (Heb. 12:26 ff.):
, , where the last words
supply the key to the meaning of the symbolism: racial and social revolutions are the
which herald the approach of the end.
, .] The earthquake is followed by
the celestial phenomena which find a place in all apocalyptic descriptions of the last
day: cf. Joel 2:31 (= 3:4 Heb.):
, Isa. 13:10 ,
(Mc. 13:24): ib. 50:3
, , Assumption of Moses, 10. 5f. sol
non dabit lumen et in tenebras convertet se; cornua lunae confringentur et tota convertet
se in sanguinem. , Vg. saccus cilicinus, made of the hair of the black
goat; cf Isa. 50:3, and Sirach 25:17 .
WH. Westcott and Hort, N.T. in Greek second edition (1896).

well depicts the deep copper colour which the moon assumes when totally eclipsed;
with contrast c. 8:12 ... . Eclipses and
occultations of the heavenly bodies are treated in Eccl. 12:2 as symbols of old age and
failing strength: here they seem to represent the decay of society, such a period of
collapse as followed the ruin of the Empire, and may yet be in store for civilization.
13. .] The stars fell from the sky as unripe
figs fall when the tree is swept by a gale. Cf. Isa. 34:4
, , Mc. 13:25
. The Seer saw the terrible vision realised () are
the green figs (grossi) which appear in winter and of which, while some ripen, many fall
off in spring: cf. Cant. 2:11 ff. ...
(
(,
). It will be remembered that during the Ministry the fig-tree supplied our Lord
with a parable of the Last Things (Mc. 13:28). Its early greenness suggested the
approaching end of the worlds long winter, proclaiming .
: cf. Mt. 11:7 . .
14. .] The heaven was parted; cf. Acts 15:39
. Here the exact sense is determined by what
follows: like a papyrus roll (5:1) when it is being rolled up; i.e.

the expanse of heaven (

(
(,
, ) was seen to crack and part, the divided
portions curling up and forming a roll on either hand. The conception is borrowed from
Isa. 34:4 , cf. Ps. 101. (102.) 27
. The writer of 2 Peter explains the cause of the phenomenon (3:12
).
.] Cf. 16:20 ,
: the source is perhaps Nahum 1:5 ,
, or Jer. 4:24. But to move mountains was a proverbial expression
for attempting apparent impossibilities, cf. Mc. 11:23, note, 1 Cor. 13:2; whilst the
residence of the Seer in Patmos suggests a reference to the rocky islands of the Aegean.
The last times held in store movements not less improbable than the upheaval of Mt
Sipylos or Messogis or Cadmos, or the submerging of Patmos or Samos, or even the
whole archipelago; movements, however, not disastrous in their ultimate results, but
issuing in a higher order, cf. Arethas: .
, i.e. . .; cf. WM. p. 661.
15. .] Seven conditions of life are named, covering the
whole fabric of society from the Emperor down to the meanest slave. For
, the heads of states hostile to the Christ, see Ps. 2:2 ff., Acts 4:26 ff.; the
Caesars are in view here, but not exclusively; of the other persons in authority named
the (magistratus) are the civil officials (e.g. the persecuting proconsuls),
while the (tribuni) are the military authorities (cf. Mc. 6:21, note); the former
word is frequently coupled with (Jon. 3:7, Isa. 34:12, Jer. 25:18 (49:38), 32:5
(25:19), Dan. 5:2 f. Th., 6:17); is the LXX. equivalent of
,
, ,
and in
the N.T. (e.g., Acts 21:31 ff., 22:24 ff., 23:10 ff., 24:22) usually represents the Roman
tribunus militum (see Blass on Acts l.c.); it is therefore not necessary to find an allusion

in the use of the word to the Parthian as contrasted with the Roman authorities
(Mommsen 5:343 f. cited by Bousset). Not officials only will be terror-struck by the
signs of the approaching end, but all classes of society; wealth and physical strength
will afford no security (for see Jer. 26. (46.) 5 f., 31. (48.) 14); slaves and free
the contrast indicates the deepest of class-distinctions in ancient lifewill be huddled
together in the frantic attempt to escape. . is based on Isa. 2:10,
2:18 f.: ...
, .
16. .] From Hosea 10:8
, . The words were quoted by
our Lord on His way to the cross, Lc. 23:30 . What
sinners dread most is not death, but the revealed Presence of God. There is deep
psychological truth in the remark of Gen. 3:8
. The Apocalyptist foresees the same shrinking from the sight of
God in the last generation of mankind which Genesis attributes to the parents of the
race. But there will be then a further source of terror: the end brings together with the
revelation of God the wrath of the Lamb. The words are
pregnant with the grave irony which has already shewn itself in 5:5 f. ... ...
... . But the situation is now reversed. The Lion standing before the
Throne is the Lamb; the Lamb in the great day of His appearing is once more the Lion,
in the terribleness of His wrath. In the Gospels is attributed to Christ once only
(Mc. 3:5, see note), but His scathing denunciations of the Pharisees (Mt. 23:14 ff.) and
His stern predictions of the doom of the impenitent make it evident that the Sacred
Humanity is capable of a righteous anger which is the worst punishment that the
ungodly have to fear, more insupportable even than the vision of the Divine Purity.
17. ] The great day is a phrase
borrowed from the Prophets (Joel 2:11, 2:31, Zeph. 1:14; cf. Jude 6). Here it is
combined with another prophetic phrase, the day of wrath (Zeph. 1:15, 1:18, 2:3; cf.
Rom. 2:5). The Great Day of the Lord is a dies irae to the world. , is already
come (i.e. it came when the signs of the end described in vv. 1214 began). Fear
anticipates the actual event, for there is another seal to be opened before the parousia.
There have been epochs in history when the conscience of mankind has antedated the
judgement and believed it imminent. , sc. the wrath of God and of the
Lamb: cf. 5:13, 22:1.
] And who, that has to meet that wrath, can hold his
ground? Cf. Nah. 1:6 ;
; Mal. 3:2 ;
; Ps. 35. (36.) 13 . The only
possible answer is given by Christ Himself in Lc. 21:36
, ... .