SEV Biblia, Chapter 6:8
Y mir, y he aquí un caballo verde; y el que estaba sentado sobre l tenía por nombre Muerte; y el infierno le seguía; y le fue dada potestad sobre la cuarta parte de la tierra, para matar con espada, con hambre, con mortandad, y con las bestias de la tierra.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Revelation 6:8
Verse 8. A pale horse] The symbol of death. Pallida mors, pale death, was a very usual poetic epithet; of this symbol there can be no doubt, because it is immediately said, His name that sat on him was DEATH. And hell followed with him] The grave, or state of the dead, received the slain. This is a very elegant prosopopaeia, or personification.
Over the fourth part of the earth] One fourth of mankind was to feel the desolating effects of this seal.
To kill with sword] WAR; with hunger - FAMINE; with death - PESTILENCE; and with the beasts of the earth - lions, tigers, hyaenas, &c., which would multiply in consequence of the devastations occasioned by war, famine, and pestilence.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 8. And I looked, and behold a pale horse , etc.] An emblem either of the state of the church, pale not with persecution, as some think, for through that it was red; but with the hypocrisy and superstition of many of its members, who were paving the way for the man of sin, and on account of whom the church was grown sickly and dying; or rather this is an emblem of the sickly and dying state of the Pagan Roman empire, through a complication of judgments upon it, hereafter mentioned, as war, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts: and his name that sat on him was Death ; not Satan, who has the power of death, but death itself; who is represented as a person, as he elsewhere is, sometimes as a king, ( Romans 5:14); and as an enemy, ( Corinthians 15:25); (see Isaiah 28:15); and this was a very ancient way of speaking of death among the Heathens; in the theology of the Phoenicians, according to Sanchoniathon f178 , who wrote before the Trojan wars, a son of Saturn by Rhea was called Muth, whom the Phoenicians sometimes called Death, and sometimes Pluto; which is manifestly the same with the Hebrew word twm , death; the name of the rider of this horse may well be called Death, both with respect to the various kinds of death under this seal, and with respect to the short lives of the emperors; for in less than fifty years' time, which is the period of this seal, namely, from Maximinus, A. D. 235, or 237, to Dioclesian, A. D. 284, or 286, there were more than twenty emperors, and who most of them were cut off by violent deaths; besides the thirty tyrants who sprung up under one of them, as so many mushrooms, and were soon destroyed. This is the only rider that has a name given him; and from hence we may learn what to call the rest, as the rider of the white horse Truth, or Christ, who is truth itself; the rider of the red horse War; and the rider of the black horse Famine: and because both the last, with other judgments, meet together under this seal, the rider of this horse is emphatically called Death: and hell followed with him : that is, the grave, which attended on death, or followed after him, and was a sort of an undertaker, to bury the dead killed by death; so these two are put together, ( Revelation 1:18 20:13,14); and power was given unto them ; to death and hell, or the grave, or rather to death only, for the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read, to him: and the power that was given him reached over the fourth part of the earth ; not of the church, which is never called the earth in this book, but is distinguished from it, ( Revelation 12:16); nor the land of Judea, but the Roman empire; some understand it of Europe, the fourth part of the world: to kill with the sword ; Maximinus, with whom this seal begins, was of a very barbarous disposition, and a more cruel creature, it is said, was not upon earth; and besides his persecution of the Christians, he acted a most inhuman part to the Pagan Romans themselves, so that the senate dreaded him; and the women and children at Rome, having heard of his barbarities, deprecated his ever seeing that city; and he was called by the names of the worst of tyrants; more than four thousand men he killed without any charge or judicial process against them, and yet his blood thirsty mind was not satisfied f179 : Gallienus, another emperor after him, emptied many cities entirely of men, and killed three or four thousand a day of his own soldiers, whom he understood had thoughts of a new emperor f180 ; under him thirty tyrants sprung up together in the empire, who made great havoc before they were cut off; and in his time the Alemanni (a people in Germany) having wasted France, broke into Italy; Dacia, which beyond the Danube was added by Trajan (to the Roman empire) was lost; Greece, Macedonia, Pontus, and Asia, were destroyed by the Goths; Pannonia was depopulated by (the people called) Sarmatae and Quadi; the Germans penetrated into Spain, and took the famous city of Tarracon; the Parthians having seized Mesopotamia, began to claim Syria to themselves; so that, as the Roman historian observes f181 , things were now desperate, and the Roman empire was almost destroyed: not to take notice of the multitudes that were killed in after wars and persecutions, under other emperors, during this seal: and with hunger ; or famine; there was a grievous famine in the times of Gallus and Volusianus, which Dionysius bishop of Alexandria makes mention of f182 ; and Cyprian, who lived under this seal, also speaks of famine, and indeed of all these three, war, famine, and pestilence, as then imputed to the Christians, and to their irreligion, which charge he removes f183 : and with death ; that is, with the pestilence, which, by the Targumist f184 , and other Jewish writers f185 , is commonly called antwm , death, because it sweeps away and carries off such large numbers with it: now in the reign of the last mentioned emperors was a very noisome pestilence, which raged most cruelly; the Roman historian says f186 , that their reign is only known, or was famous, for the pestilence, diseases, and sicknesses; Hostilianus, who was created emperor by the senate, died of it f187 ; Dionysius of Alexandria has given a most shocking account of it, who lived at the same time f188 ; it began in Ethiopia, and went through the east, and through all parts of the Roman empire, and lasted fifteen years; to which perhaps, for its large extent and long duration, there never was the like: and with the beasts of the earth ; by which many of the Christians were destroyed in the persecutions of those times; and is also one of God's four judgments, and which goes about with the sword, famine, and pestilence, ( Ezekiel 14:21), and may be literally understood of destruction by wild beasts, as Arnobius, who lived at this time, observes f189 ; or allegorically, of men comparable to wild beasts, as Herod is called a fox, and Nero a lion; and such savage creatures were most of the Roman emperors, and particularly the thirty tyrants under Gallienus: so the Targum on ( Jeremiah 3:12); interprets the beasts of the field, aymm[ yklm , the kings of the nations. The Alexandrian copy reads, and upon the fourth part of the beasts, as if the power of death reached to them as well as to men. Under this seal all the judgments of God on Rome Pagan meet together; and it is observable that Maximinus, a Roman emperor, and one of the last of the Pagans, boasted, that for worshipping of the gods, and persecuting Of the Christians, neither pestilence, famine, nor war, were in his times, when on a sudden all these three came together at once f190 ; to which may be added the following observation, that though the several steps and methods which God took to punish, weaken, and destroy the Roman Pagan empire, were remarkably seen in the distinct periods to which these first four seals belong, yet they must not be entirely restrained and limited to these periods, as if they were not made use of in others; so though the Gospel proceeded with remarkable success under the first seal, in the times of the apostles, to the subduing of multitudes in the Roman empire, it was also preached with great success under the following seals; and though there were most grievous wars under the second seal, in the times of Trajan and Adrian, so there were also in after times; that was not the only period of war, though it was remarkably so; likewise there was a famine in the times of Claudius, under the first seal, ( Acts 11:28); and in the time of Trajan, under the second seal f191 , and of Commodus as well as under the third; and there were pestilences also in those times, as well as under the fourth seal; and because God did by each of these weaken, break, and at last bring to ruin that empire, they are showed to John one after another.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - Christ, the Lamb, opens the first seal: observe what appeared. A ride on a white horse. By the going forth of this white horse, a time of peace, or the early progress of the Christian religion, seems to be intended; its going forth in purity, at the time when its heavenl Founder sent his apostles to teach all nations, adding, Lo! I am with you alway, even to the end of the world. The Divine religion goes ou crowned, having the Divine favour resting upon it, armed spirituall against its foes, and destined to be victorious in the end. On openin the second seal, a red horse appeared; this signifies desolatin judgments. The sword of war and persecution is a dreadful judgment; i takes away peace from the earth, one of the greatest blessings; and me who should love one another, and help one another, are set upon killin one another. Such scenes also followed the pure age of earl Christianity, when, neglectful of charity and the bond of peace, the Christian leaders, divided among themselves, appealed to the sword, an entangled themselves in guilt. On opening the third seal, a black hors appeared; a colour denoting mourning and woe, darkness and ignorance He that sat on it had a yoke in his hand. Attempts were made to put yoke of superstitious observances on the disciples. As the stream of Christianity flowed further from its pure fountain, it became more an more corrupt. During the progress of this black horse, the necessarie of life should be at excessive prices, and the more costly thing should not be hurt. According to prophetic language, these article signified that food of religious knowledge, by which the souls of me are sustained unto everlasting life; such we are invited to buy, Is 55:1. But when the dark clouds of ignorance and superstition, denote by the black horse, spread over the Christian world, the knowledge an practice of true religion became scarce. When a people loathe their spiritual food, God may justly deprive them of their daily bread. The famine of bread is a terrible judgment; but the famine of the word i more so. Upon opening the fourth seal, another horse appeared, of pale colour. The rider was Death, the king of terrors. The attendants or followers of this king of terrors, hell, a state of eternal miser to all who die in their sins; and in times of general destruction multitudes go down unprepared into the pit. The period of the fourt seal is one of great slaughter and devastation, destroying whatever ma tend to make life happy, making ravages on the spiritual lives of men Thus the mystery of iniquity was completed, and its power extended bot over the lives and consciences of men. The exact times of these fou seals cannot be ascertained, for the changes were gradual. God gav them power, that is, those instruments of his anger, or thos judgments: all public calamities are at his command; they only go fort when God sends them, and no further than he permits.
Greek Textus Receptus
και 2532 ειδον 1492 5627 και 2532 ιδου 2400 5628 ιππος 2462 χλωρος 5515 και 2532 ο 3588 καθημενος 2521 5740 επανω 1883 αυτου 846 ονομα 3686 αυτω 846 ο 3588 θανατος 2288 και 2532 ο 3588 αδης 86 ακολουθει 190 5719 μετ 3326 αυτου 846 και 2532 εδοθη 1325 5681 αυτοις 846 εξουσια 1849 αποκτειναι 615 5658 επι 1909 το 3588 τεταρτον 5067 της 3588 γης 1093 εν 1722 ρομφαια 4501 και 2532 εν 1722 λιμω 3042 και 2532 εν 1722 θανατω 2288 και 2532 υπο 5259 των 3588 θηριων 2342 της 3588 γης 1093
Vincent's NT Word Studies
8. Pale (clwrov). Only in Revelation, except Mark vi. 39. Properly, greenish-yellow, like young grass or unripe wheat. Homer applies it to honey, and Sophocles to the sand. Generally, pale, pallid. Used of a mist, of sea-water, of a pale or bilious complexion. Thucydides uses it of the appearance of persons stricken with the plague (ii., 49). In Homer it is used of the paleness of the face from fear, and so as directly descriptive of fear ("Iliad," x., 376; xv., 4). Of olive wood ("Odyssey," ix., 320, 379) of which the bark is gray. Gladstone says that in Homer it indicates rather the absence than the presence of definite color. In the New Testament, always rendered green, except here. See Mark vi. 39; Apoc. viii. 7; ix. 14. Hell. Properly, Hades. The realm of the dead personified, See on Matt. xvi. 18.
Power (exousia). See on Mark ii. 10; 2 Pet. ii. 11. Rev., better, authority. With the sword (en romfaia). Another word for sword. Compare verse 4, and see on Luke ii. 35.
With death (ei qanatw). Or pestilence. The Hebrew deber, pestilence, is rendered by the Greek word for death in the Septuagint. See Jeremiah xiv. 12; xxi. 7. Compare the term black-death applied to an Oriental plague which raged in the fourteenth century.
With the beasts (upo twn qhriwn). Rev., by. The preposition uJpo by is used here instead of ejn in or with, indicating more definitely the actual agent of destruction; while ejn denotes the element in which the destruction takes place, and gives a general indication of the manner in which it was wrought. With these four judgments compare Ezek. xiv. 21.
