Revelation 6 - Introduction
The Opening of the Seven Seals... [ Continue Reading ]
The Opening of the Seven Seals... [ Continue Reading ]
The First Seal. Chap. 6 Revelation 6:1-2 1. _one of the four_ Presumably the Lion, as the other voices are described as those of the second, third, and fourth. But the voice (so the word "noise" should be rendered: cf. Revelation 10:3-4) like thunder does not refer to the lion's roaring: no doubt t... [ Continue Reading ]
_behold a white horse_ The image of these four horses is certainly suggested by the vision of four chariots (with perhaps four horses in each, and so related to this exactly as Ezekiel's vision of the living creatures to that in ch. 4) in Zechariah 6:1-8: cf. ibid. Revelation 1:8. But that passage t... [ Continue Reading ]
The Second Seal, Revelation 6:3-4 4. _to take peace_ The word "peace" has the article, which according to Greek usage may mean merely "peace in general, peace in the abstract," but may also very well stand for "_the_peace" which the conquests of the previous Rider have left as their fruit. _that th... [ Continue Reading ]
The Third Seal, Revelation 6:5-6 5. _a pair of balances_ The primary meaning of the word is a _yoke:_but no doubt the A. V. is right, as what follows proves that scarcity rather than oppression is to be symbolised. The sense is, that mankind shall be placed on limited rations of bread, like the peo... [ Continue Reading ]
_I heard a voice_ One of the many voices heard throughout this book without anyone being defined as the speaker. _A measure of wheat_ The object of the voice is rather to _define_the extent of the scarcity than, as some say, to mitigate it. A quart (or somewhat less) of corn is to be bought for a si... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fourth Seal, Revelation 6:7-8 7. _I heard the voice of_ The slight variation of phrase serves to mark the fourth rider off, as partly distinct in character from the rest. They have brought an increasing series of scourges to the earth: his work is utter and unmitigated woe, combining the worst... [ Continue Reading ]
_a pale horse_ Or LIVID, lit. GREEN, as in Revelation 8:7, but used constantly of the paleness of the human face when terror-struck, or dead or dying. It is not certain whether it here expresses a possible colour for a real horse: it seems not very appropriate for the "grisled" of Zechariah 6:3. Per... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fifth Seal, Revelation 6:8-11 9. This series of seven visions, like the other groups of seven throughout the book, is divided into two parts. We have seen (Revelation 2:7; Revelation 2:19) that the messages to the seven Churches were divided into a group of _three_and one of _four:_here the fir... [ Continue Reading ]
_How long_ Cf. Psalms 94:3. _O Lord_ Not the ordinary word of reverence applied to God, but one meaning (as we say) "lord and master." It is used of God in Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; and of Christ in Judges 4 (according to the right reading and probable translation), 2 Peter 2:1. Perhaps, as the usual wo... [ Continue Reading ]
_And white robes were given_ We should read, AND THERE WAS GIVEN THEM TO EACH ONE A WHITE ROBE, bringing out still more fully than the old text, that the white robe is an individual, not a common blessing. It serves to mark them both as _innocent_and as _conquerors:_what it _is_is better felt than s... [ Continue Reading ]
The Sixth Seal, Revelation 6:12-17 12. _a great earthquake_ Earthquakes follow wars, famines, and pestilences in Matthew 24:7, as the _earlier_signs of the approach of Christ's Coming. But here it is coupled with the darkening of the sun and fall of the stars which, ibid. 29, precede His Coming _im... [ Continue Reading ]
_and the stars of heaven_ So still in Matthew 24:29. _as a fig tree_ It is curious that a "parable of the fig-tree" follows in Matthew 24:32, immediately after the "fall of the stars." But this image is taken, not from our Lord's prophecy l.c., but from Isaiah 34:4 (the Hebrew, not LXX.). The "unti... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the heaven departed_ i.e. parted asunder. The verb _depart_was so used (only in a transitive sense) in the Marriage Service until the last revision of the Prayer-Book, "till death us depart," i.e. "till death part us." Here we still have a reference to Isaiah 34:4. The word for "scroll" is the... [ Continue Reading ]
_chief captains_ Should be transposed with "rich men." The word means lit. "captains of thousands," and was in St John's time the recognised equivalent (as e.g. Acts 21:31, &c.) for the _tribunus_of the Roman army. Probably St John is thinking of Isaiah 3:2-3. _in the dens_, &c. Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_and said_ should be AND THEY SAY. _to the mountains_, &c. Hosea 10:8: adopted by our Lord, Luke 23:30. In that passage, it is entirely natural to understand Him to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem _only:_and therefore it does not seem necessary to understand this vision as implying that the _L... [ Continue Reading ]
_for the great day of his wrath is come_ So the world has thought in every great social convulsion, since they have learnt so far to believe the Gospel, as to confess that such a day is coming. The thought has led men to repentance or to despair, as they were worthy of one or other: but, since the w... [ Continue Reading ]