Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 6:2

White horse. For white, see on Luke 19:29. Horse, see Zechariah 1:7-11; Zechariah 6:1-8. All the figures of this verse are those of victory. The horse in the Old Testament is the emblem of war. See Job 39:25; Psalms 76:6; Proverbs 21:31; Ezekiel 26:10. So Virgil :

" But I beheld upon the grass four horses, snowy white, Grazing the meadows far and wide, first omen of my sight.

Father Anchises seeth, and saith : 'New land and bear'st thou war ? For war are horses dight; so these war - threatening herd - beasts are. ' " Aeneid," 3, 537.

So Turnus, going forth to battle :

"He spake, and to the roofed place now swiftly wending home, Called for his steeds, and merrily stood there before their foam E'en those that Orithyia gave Pilumnus, gift most fair, Whose whiteness overpassed the snow, whose speed the winged air." " Aeneid, " 12, 81 - 83.

Homer pictures the horses of Rhesus as whiter than snow, and swift as the winds (" Iliad, "10, 436, 437); and Herodotus, describing the battle of Plataea says :" The fight went most against the Greeks where Mardonius, mounted on a white horse, and surrounded by the bravest of all the Persians, the thousand picked men, fought in person " (ix., 63). The horses of the Roman generals in their triumphs were white.

Bow [τ ο ξ ο ν]. See Psalms 45:4; Psalms 45:5; Hebrews 3:8; Hebrews 3:9; Isaiah 41:2; Zechariah 9:13; Zechariah 9:14, in which last passage the figure is that of a great bow which is drawn only by a great exertion of strength, and by placing the foot upon it. Compare Homer's picture of Telemachus' attempt to draw Ulysses' bow :

"And then he took his place Upon the threshold, and essayed the bow; And thrice he made the attempt and thrice gave o'er." " Odyssey, " 21, 12425.

The suitors propose to anoint the bow with fat in order to soften it.

"Bring us from within An ample roll of fat, that we young men By warming and anointing may make soft The bow, and draw the cord and end the strife." " Odyssey, " 21, 178 - 80.

A crown [σ τ ε φ α ν ο ς]. See on chapter Revelation 4:4.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

Revelation 6:2

Old Testament

New Testament