Rev 6:1,2 How can the Lamb open the seal and ride out on the white horse all at he same time? The rider of the white horse held a bow and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. Notice it doesn't say he had arrows. the WTBS illustrations show him with arrows. Why does the rider of the white horse need to be someone we know none of the other riders are? I think the horse and rider simply picture the spirit of conquest.
Four Horsemen
by moomanchu 14 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Narkissos
... and a forbidden cow?
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Narkissos
Aaah...
There is a good case that this first horseman refers to the Parthians which had defeated the Romans in 53 AD and were still considered as a major threat East of the Roman empire. The cavalry on the Euphrates river (9:13-21), on the Parthian border, may be a similar allusion.
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Warlock
I know one of them was Vince Lombardi.............or was he one of the "4 Blocks of Granite"?
Oh well, I forget.
Warlock
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moomanchu
How about Britain they had quite a chunk of the world years back
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under_believer
How about Britain they had quite a chunk of the world years back
Yes, but "John" couldn't have known about Britain, could he?
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parakeet
***How can the Lamb open the seal and ride out on the white horse all at he same time?***
Circus performer. -
XJW4EVR
Correct, he doesn't have arrows. Most Dispensationalists, portray this rider as The Anti-Christ.
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Leolaia
The probable contemporary interpretation, as Narkissos noted, is that the first horseman represents the Parthian army -- or possibly, the leader of the Parthian forces, i.e. the Beast (= Nero redivivus). Inasmuch as the Christian figure of the Antichrist derives from the Beast of Revelation, the evangelical linking of the first horseman with the Antichrist rests on this basis. The Beast mimics the death and resurrection of Christ (cf. 13:3, 12, 17:11), so too the kingly portrayal of the rider on the white horse in 6:2 is derivative of the similar description of Christ in 19:11-16, tho the description of the former is decidedly inferior (e.g. the first rider was given a stephanos "victory wreath" while the second wore many diadémata "diadems", the former only had a bow while the latter has a sword out his mouth, the former was victorious in battle but the latter was much more -- "the king of kings and lord of lords"). Moreover, the vision of the horsemen (with the progression of red horse = war, black horse = famine, pale horse = pestilence) evokes the synoptic apocalypse in Mark 13 (= Luke 21), and the war / earthquakes / plagues / famines mentioned therein (cf. Luke 21:10-11) are mentioned after the description of false Christs (as the Beast and the False Prophet are construed in Revelation 13-14).
The vision of the four horsemen primarily draws on Zechariah 1:8-17 and 6:1-15, and could be construed as an exegesis of these OT passages. The four horsemen in ch. 1 of Zechariah (which are similarly colored red, pale, black, and white) are the four winds or "spirits" sent by Yahweh "to patrol throughout the world", and they say: "We have been patrolling the world, and see, the whole world is at peace and rest" (1:11). This is an allusion to the peace ushered in by Darius in 519 BC, an unusual worldwide peace. This verse is mixed together with 4:10 and quoted in Revelation 5:6, which designates these "spirits" as the eyes of the Lamb that "patrol over the whole world". This symbolizes the universal authority and glory of the Lamb throughout the world (5:13). The four horsemen in Zechariah are a force for good. But since the Lamb is the sole source of peace and justice in the world, the horsemen are used to represent the opposite; the portrayal is reversed such that the white horseman in Revelation 6:2 conquers and goes from victory to victory, the red horseman "takes away peace from the earth" (6:3), and the other two riders bring further death in their wake. Just as Zechariah can be understood in its historical context, so can Revelation 6. Like the universal peace of the time of Darius I, there was the Pax Romana during the first century AD ushered in by Caesar Augustus. The picture thus is that the Roman peace is upset and eliminated by an attack by the horsemen who are a force for strife (i.e. the exact opposite of the horsemen in Zechariah). The only enemies of the Romans at the time who were feared to mount such an attack were the Parthians. And the Nero redivivus rumor at the time also specifically claimed that Nero (= the Beast) would return, marshalling the Parthian army to attack and burn Rome (= Babylon in Revelation), to essentially finish the job he started in AD 64.
The attack of the Parthians is also narrated in ch. 9, where they are led by the "angel of the abyss" and who also ascend from the abyss (9:2, 11); compare Revelation 11:7 which says that the Beast comes out of the abyss. They have "horses armored for battle" and charge forward with "chariots" (9:7-9), and their attack is also described in v. 13-21 which describes in detail the horses and breastplates. What is particularly interesting is that this attack occurs when the "four angels chained up at the great river Euphrates" (v. 14) are released, who bring forth "three plagues" (v. 18) in order to destroy a third of the human race. It is quite tempting to identify the "four angels" directing the calvary with the "four horsemen" of ch. 6 (= the four "spirits" of Zechariah 1), who similarly bring three plagues (war, disease, and pestilence), and the angels are released at the River Euphrates, i.e. right in Parthian territory. The white horses in Zechariah 6:6 ("who patrol the world") also go forth to the West. The bow used by the rider of the white horse (Revelation 6:2) was not a Roman weapon but typified the Parthian horsemen feared by the West.
A close parallel to the scenario in Revelation can be found in the Sibylline Oracles (early second century AD):
"The poets will bewail thrice-wretched Greece when a great king of great Rome [Nero], a godlike man from Italy, will cut the ridge of the isthmus. Him, they say, Zeus himself begot and lady Hera [cp. the Beast being raised up by the Dragon in Revelation]. Playing at theatricals with honey-sweet songs rendered with melodious voice, he will destroy many men, and his wretched mother. He will flee from Babylon [= Rome], a terrible and shameless prince whom all mortals and noble men despise. For he destroyed many men and laid hands on the womb. He sinned against spouses and was sprung from abominable people. He will come to the Medes and to the kings of the Persians, those whom he first desired and to whom he gave glory, lurking with these evil ones against a true people...A man who is a matricide will come from the ends of the earth in flight and devising penetrating schemes in his mind. He will destroy every land and conquer all and consider all things more wisely than all men....Blood will flow up to the bank of deep-eddying rivers. Wrath will drip in the plains of Macedonia.... Woe to you, Babylon, of golden throne and golden sandel. For many years you were the sole kingdom ruling over the world. You will be spread out flat by the turmoil of an earthquake. Terrible Parthians made you shake all over... Effeminate and unjust, evil city, ill-fated above all, Alas, city of Latin land, unclean in all things, maenad, rejoicing in vipers, as a widow you will sit by the banks, and the river Tiber will weep for you, its consort. You have a murderous heart and impious spirit. Did you not know what God can do, what he devises? But you said, 'I alone am, and no one can ravage me.' " (Sibylline Oracle 4.137-149, 167-173, 363-373, 434-441).
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Hellrider
The Four Horsemen, great Metallica-song!
Metallica
The Four Horsemen
By the last breath of the fourth winds blow
Better raise your ears
The sound of hooves knocks at your door
Lock up your wife and children now
It's time to wield the blade
For now you have got some companyThe Horsemen are drawing nearer
On the leather steeds they ride
They have come to take your life
On through the dead of night
With the four Horsemen ride
or choose your fate and dieYou have been dying since the day
You were born
You know it has all been planned
The quartet of deliverance rides
A sinner once a sinner twice
No need for confession now
Cause now you have got the fight of your lifeThe Horsemen are drawing nearer
On the leather steeds they ride
They have come to take your life
On through the dead of night
With the four Horsemen ride
or choose your fate and dieTime
has taken its toll on you
The lines that crack your face
Famine
Your body it has torn through
Withered in every place
Pestilence
For what you have had to endure
And what you have put others through
Death
Deliverance for you for sure
There is nothing you can doSo gather round young warriors now
and saddle up your steeds
Killing scores with demon swords
Now is the death of doers of wrong
Swing the judgment hammer down
Safely inside armor blood guts and sweatThe Horsemen are drawing nearer
On the leather steeds they ride
They have come to take your life
On through the dead of night
With the four Horsemen ride
or choose your fate and die