The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described
in the last book of the New Testament of the
Bible, the Book of Revelation by John of Patmos,
at 6:1-8.
The chapter tells of a book or scroll in God's
right hand that is sealed with seven seals.
The Lamb of God opens the first four of the
seven seals, which summons four beings that
ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses.
Though theologians and popular culture differ
on the first Horseman, the four riders are
often seen as symbolizing Conquest or Pestilence
(and less frequently, the Christ or the Antichrist),
War, Famine, and Death.
The Christian apocalyptic vision is that the
Four Horsemen are to set a divine apocalypse
upon the world as harbingers of the Last Judgment.
One reading ties the Four Horsemen to the
history of the Roman Empire subsequent to
the era in which the Book of Revelation was
written as a symbolic prophecy.
== White Horse ==
Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the
seven seals, and I heard one of the four living
creatures saying as with a voice of thunder,
“Come.”
I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he
who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given
to him, and he went out conquering and to
conquer.
Based on the above passage, a common translation
into English, the rider of the White Horse
(sometimes referred to as the White Rider)
is generally referred to as "Conquest".
The name could also be construed as "Victory",
as in the translation found in the Jerusalem
Bible (the Greek words are derived from the
verb νικάω, to conquer or vanquish).
He carries a bow, and wears a victor's crown.
The White Rider has also been called "Pestilence",
particularly in popular culture (see below).
=== As righteous ===
Irenaeus, an influential Christian theologian
of the 2nd century, was among the first to
interpret this Horseman as Christ himself,
his white horse representing the successful
spread of the gospel.
Various scholars have since supported this
notion, citing the later appearance, in Revelation
19, of Christ mounted on a white horse, appearing
as The Word of God.
Furthermore, earlier in the New Testament,
the Book of Mark indicates that the advance
of the gospel may indeed precede and foretell
the apocalypse.
The color white also tends to represent righteousness
in the Bible, and Christ is in other instances
portrayed as a conqueror.However, opposing
interpretations argue that the first of the
Four Horsemen is probably not the horseman
of Revelation 19.
They are described in significantly different
ways, and Christ's role as the Lamb who opens
the seven seals makes it unlikely that he
would also be one of the forces released by
the seals.Besides Christ, the Horseman could
represent the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was understood to have come
upon the Apostles at Pentecost after Jesus'
departure from Earth.
The appearance of the Lion in Revelation 5
shows the triumphant arrival of Jesus in Heaven,
and the first Horseman could represent the
sending of the Holy Spirit by Jesus and the
advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ.Other
interpretations relying on comparative religious
research ascribe the first Horseman as guiding
for "the right path"; Mahabharata Lord Krishna
was a charioteer to Arjuna by riding on white
horses, while Arjuna himself was an archer.
=== As infectious disease ===
Under another interpretation, the first Horseman
is called Pestilence, and is associated with
infectious disease and plague.
It appears at least as early as 1906, when
it is mentioned in the Jewish Encyclopedia.
The interpretation is common in popular culture
references to the Four Horsemen.The origin
of this interpretation is unclear.
Some translations of the Bible mention "plague"
(e.g. the NIV) or "pestilence" (e.g. the RSV)
in connection with the riders in the passage
following the introduction of the fourth rider;
cf.
"They were given power over a fourth of the
earth to kill by sword, famine, plague, and
by the wild beasts of the earth."
(Revelation 6:7-8 NASB).
However, it is a matter of debate as to whether
this passage refers to the first rider, or
to the four riders as a whole.Vicente Blasco
Ibáñez, in his 1916 novel The Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse (filmed in 1921 and in 1962),
provides an early example of this interpretation,
writing "The horseman on the white horse was
clad in a showy and barbarous attire.
[...] While his horse continued galloping,
he was bending his bow in order to spread
pestilence abroad.
At his back swung the brass quiver filled
with poisoned arrows, containing the germs
of all diseases."
=== As evil ===
One interpretation held by evangelist Billy
Graham, casts the rider of the white horse
as the Antichrist, or a representation of
false prophets, citing differences between
the white horse in Revelation chapter 6 and
Jesus on the white Horse in Revelation chapter
19.
In Revelation 19, Jesus has many crowns.
In Revelation 6, the rider has just one; a
crown given, not taken.
This indicates a third person giving authority
to the rider to accomplish his work.
=== As empire prosperity ===
According to Edward Bishop Elliott's interpretation,
that the Four Horsemen represent a prophecy
of the subsequent history of the Roman Empire,
the white color of this horse signifies triumph,
prosperity and health in the political Roman
body.
For the next 80 or 90 years succeeding the
banishment of the apostle John to Patmos covering
the successive reigns of the emperors Nerva,
Trajan, Hadrian and the two Antonines (Antoninus
Pius and Marcus Aurelius), a golden age of
prosperity, union, civil liberty and good
government unstained with civil blood unfolded.
The agents of this prosperity personified
by the rider of the white horse are these
five emperors wearing crowns that reigned
with absolute authority and power under the
guidance of virtue and wisdom, the armies
being restrained by their firm and gentle
hands.This interpretation points out that
the bow was preeminently a weapon of the inhabitants
of the island of Crete and not of the Roman
Empire in general.
The Cretans were renowned for their archery
skills.
The significance of the rider of the white
horse holding a bow indicates the place of
origin of the line of emperors ruling during
this time.
This group of emperors can be classed together
under one and the same head and family whose
origins were from Crete.According to this
interpretation, this period in Roman history,
remarkable, both at its commencement and at
its close, illustrated the glory of the empire
where its limits were extended, though not
without occasional wars, which were always
uniformly triumphant and successful on the
frontiers.
The triumphs of the Emperor Trajan, a Roman
Alexander, added to the empire Dacia, Armenia,
Mesopotamia and other provinces during the
course of the first 20 years of the period,
which deepened the impression on the minds
of the barbarians of the invincibility of
the Roman Empire.
Roman war progressed triumphantly into the
invader's own territory, and the Parthian
war was successfully ended by the total overthrow
of those people.
Roman conquest is demonstrated even in the
most mighty of these wars, the Marcomannic
succession of victories under the second Antonine
unleashed on the German barbarians, driven
into their forests and reduced to Roman submission.
=== As war ===
In some commentaries to Bibles, the white
Horseman is said to symbolize (ordinary) War,
which may possibly be exercised on righteous
grounds in decent manner, hence the white
color, but still is devastating.
The red Horseman (see below) then rather more
specifically symbolizes Civil War.
== Red Horse ==
When He broke the second seal, I heard the
second living creature saying, “Come.”
And another, a red horse, went out; and to
him who sat on it, it was granted to take
peace from the earth, and that men would slay
one another; and a great sword was given to
him.
The rider of the second horse is often taken
to represent War (he is often pictured holding
a sword upwards as though ready for battle)
or mass slaughter.
His horse's color is red (πυρρός, from
πῦρ, fire); and in some translations,
the color is specifically a "fiery" red.
The color red, as well as the rider's possession
of a great sword, suggests blood that is to
be spilled.
The sword held upward by the second Horseman
may represent war or a declaration of war,
as seen in heraldry.
In military symbolism, swords held upward,
especially crossed swords held upward, signify
war and entering into battle.
(See for example the historical and modern
images, as well as the coat of arms, of Jeanne
of Arc.)
The second Horseman may represent civil war
as opposed to the war of conquest that the
first Horseman is sometimes said to bring.
Other commentators have suggested that it
might also represent the persecution of Christians.
=== As empire division ===
According to Edward Bishop Elliott's interpretation
of the Four Horsemen as symbolic prophecy
of the history of the Roman Empire, the second
seal is opened and the Roman nation that experienced
joy, prosperity and triumph is made subject
to the red horse which depicts war and bloodshed
— civil war.
Peace left the Roman Earth resulting in the
killing of one another as insurrection crept
into and permeated the Empire beginning shortly
into the reign of the Emperor Commodus.Elliott
points out that Commodus, who had nothing
to wish and everything to enjoy, that beloved
son of Marcus Aurelius who ascended the throne
with neither competitor to remove nor enemies
to punish, became the slave of his attendants
who gradually corrupted his mind.
His cruelty degenerated into habit and became
the ruling passion of his soul.Elliott further
recites that, after the death of Commodus,
a most turbulent period lasting 92 years unfolded
during which time 32 emperors and 27 pretenders
to the Empire hurled each other from the throne
by incessant civil warfare.
The sword was a natural, universal badge among
the Romans, of the military profession.
The apocalyptic figure indicated by the great
sword indicated an undue authority and unnatural
use of it.
Military men in power, whose vocation was
war and weapon the sword, rose by it and also
fell.
The unrestrained military, no longer subject
to the Senate, transformed the Empire into
a system of pure military despotism.
== Black Horse ==
When He broke the third seal, I heard the
third living creature saying, “Come.”
I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he
who sat on it had a pair of scales in his
hand.
And I heard something like a voice in the
center of the four living creatures saying,
“A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three
quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not
damage the oil and the wine.”
The third Horseman rides a black horse and
is popularly understood to be Famine as the
Horseman carries a pair of balances or weighing
scales, indicating the way that bread would
have been weighed during a famine.
Other authors interpret the third Horseman
as the "Lord as a Law-Giver" holding Scales
of Justice.
In the passage, it is read that the indicated
price of grain is about ten times normal (thus
the famine interpretation popularity), with
an entire day's wages (a denarius) buying
enough wheat for only one person, or enough
of the less nutritious barley for three, so
that workers would struggle to feed their
families.Of the Four Horsemen, the black horse
and its rider are the only ones whose appearance
is accompanied by a vocal pronunciation.
John hears a voice, unidentified but coming
from among the four living creatures, that
speaks of the prices of wheat and barley,
also saying "and see thou hurt not the oil
and the wine".
This suggests that the black horse's famine
is to drive up the price of grain but leave
oil and wine supplies unaffected (though out
of reach of the ordinary worker).
One explanation for this is that grain crops
would have been more naturally susceptible
to famine years or locust plagues than olive
trees and grapevines, which root more deeply.The
statement might also suggest a continuing
abundance of luxuries for the wealthy while
staples, such as bread, are scarce, though
not totally depleted; such selective scarcity
may result from injustice and the deliberate
production of luxury crops for the wealthy
over grain, as would have happened during
the time Revelation was written.
Alternatively, the preservation of oil and
wine could symbolize the preservation of the
Christian faithful, who used oil and wine
in their sacraments.
=== As Imperial Oppression ===
According to Edward Bishop Elliott's interpretation,
through this third seal, the black horse is
unleashed — aggravated distress and mourning.
The balance in the rider's hand is not associated
with a man's weighing out bits of bread in
scanty measure for his family's eating but
in association with the buying and selling
of corn and other grains.
The balance during the time of the apostle
John's exile in Patmos was commonly a symbol
of justice since it was used to weigh out
the grains for a set price.
The balance of justice held in the hand of
the rider of the black horse signified the
aggravation of the other previous evil, the
bloodstained red of the Roman aspect into
the darker blackness of distress.The black
horse rider is instructed not to harm the
oil and the wine which signifies that this
scarcity should not fall upon the superfluities,
such as oil and wine, which men can live without,
but upon the necessities of life — bread.In
history, the Roman Empire suffered as a result
of excessive taxation of its citizens.
During the reign of Emperor Caracalla, whose
sentiments were very different from the Antonines
being inattentive, or rather averse, to the
welfare of the people, he found himself under
the necessity of gratifying the greed and
excessive lifestyle which he had excited in
the Army.
During his reign, he crushed every part of
the empire under the weight of his iron scepter.
Old as well as new taxes were at the same
time levied in the provinces.
In the course of this history, the land tax,
the taxes for services and the heavy contributions
of corn, wine, oil and meat were exacted from
the provinces for the use of the court, army
and capital.
This noxious weed not totally eradicated again
sprang up with the most luxurious growth and
going forward darkened the Roman world with
its deadly shade.In reality, the rise to power
of the Emperor Maximin, whose cruelty was
derived from a different source being raised
as a barbarian from the district of Thrace,
expanded the distress on the empire beyond
the confines of the illustrious senators or
bold adventurers who in the court or army
exposed themselves to the whims of fortune.
This tyrant, stimulated by the insatiable
desires of the soldiers, attacked the public
property at length.
Every city of the empire was destined to purchase
corn for the multitudes as well as supply
expenses for the games.
By the Emperor's authority, the whole mass
of wealth was confiscated for use by the Imperial
treasury — temples stripped of their most
valuable offerings of gold, silver and statues
which were melted down and coined into money.
== Pale Horse ==
When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard
the voice of the fourth living creature saying,
“Come.”
I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and
he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades
was following with him.
Authority was given to them over a fourth
of the earth, to kill with sword and with
famine and with pestilence and by the wild
beasts of the earth.
The fourth and final Horseman is named Death.
Known as "Θάνατος/Thanatos", of all
the riders, he is the only one to whom the
text itself explicitly gives a name.
Unlike the other three, he is not described
carrying a weapon or other object, instead
he is followed by Hades (the resting place
of the dead).
However, illustrations commonly depict him
carrying a scythe (like the Grim Reaper),
sword, or other implement.
The color of Death's horse is written as khlōros
(χλωρός) in the original Koine Greek,
which can mean either green/greenish-yellow
or pale/pallid.
The color is often translated as "pale", though
"ashen", "pale green", and "yellowish green"
are other possible interpretations (the Greek
word is the root of "chlorophyll" and "chlorine").
Based on uses of the word in ancient Greek
medical literature, several scholars suggest
that the color reflects the sickly pallor
of a corpse.
In some modern artistic depictions, the horse
is distinctly green.The verse beginning "they
were given power over a fourth of the earth"
is generally taken as referring to Death and
Hades, although some commentators see it as
applying to all four horsemen.
=== Destroying an Empire ===
This fourth, pale horse, was the personification
of Death with Hades following him jaws open
receiving the victims slain by Death.
Its commission was to kill upon the Roman
Earth with all of the four judgements of God
— with sword, famine, pestilence and wild
beasts.
The deadly pale and livid appearance displays
a hue symptomatic of approaching empire dissolution.
According to Edward Bishop Elliott, an era
in Roman history commencing within about 15
years after the death of Severus Alexander
(in 235 AD) strongly marks every point of
this terrible emblem.Edward Gibbon speaks
of a period from the celebration of the great
secular games by the Emperor Philip to the
death of Gallienus (in 268 AD) as the 20 years
of shame and misfortune, of confusion and
calamity, as a time when the ruined empire
approached the last and fatal moment of its
dissolution.
Every instant of time in every province of
the Roman world was afflicted by military
tyrants and barbarous invaders — the sword
from within and without.
According to Elliott, famine, the inevitable
consequence of carnage and oppression, which
demolished the produce of the present as well
as the hope of future harvests, produced the
environment for an epidemic of diseases, the
effects of scanty and unwholesome food.
That furious plague (the Plague of Cyprian),
which raged from the year 250 to the year
265, continued without interruption in every
province, city and almost every family in
the empire.
During a portion of this time, 5000 people
died daily in Rome; and many towns that escaped
the attacks of barbarians were entirely depopulated.For
a time in the late 260s, the strength of Aurelian
crushed the enemies of Rome, yet after his
assassination certain of them revived.
While the Goths had been destroyed for almost
a century and the Empire reunited, the Sassanid
Persians were uncowed in the East and during
the following year hosts of central Asian
Alani spread themselves over Pontus, Cappadocia,
Cilicia and Galatia, etching their course
by the flames of cities and villages they
pillaged.As for the wild beasts of the earth,
according to Elliott, it is a well-known law
of nature that they quickly occupy the scenes
of waste and depopulation — where the reign
of man fails and the reign of beasts begins.
After the reign of Gallienus and 20 or 30
years had passed, the multiplication of the
animals had risen to such an extent in parts
of the empire that they made it a crying evil.One
notable point of apparent difference between
the prophecy and history might seem to be
expressly limited to the fourth part of the
Roman Earth, but in the history of the period
the devastations of the pale horse extended
over all.
The fourth seal prophecy seems to mark the
malignant climax of the evils of the two preceding
seals to which no such limitation is attached.
Turning to that remarkable reading in Jerome's
Latin Vulgate which reads "over the four parts
of the earth," it requires that the Roman
empire should have some kind of quadripartition.
Dividing from the central or Italian fourth,
three great divisions of the Empire separated
into the West, East and Illyricum under Posthumus,
Aureolus and Zenobia respectively — divisions
that were later legitimized by Diocletian.Diocletian
ended this long period of anarchy, but the
succession of civil wars and invasions caused
much suffering, disorder and crime which brought
the empire into a state of moral lethargy
from which it never recovered.
After the plague had abated, the empire suffered
from general distress, and its condition was
very much like that which followed after the
Black Death of the Middle Ages.
Talent and art had become extinct in proportion
to the desolation of the world.
== Interpretations ==
=== Prophetic interpretation ===
Some Christians interpret the Horsemen as
a prophecy of a future Tribulation, during
which many on Earth will die as a result of
multiple catastrophes.
The Four Horsemen are the first in a series
of "Seal" judgements.
This is when God will judge the Earth, and
is giving the World a chance to repent before
they die.
=== Historicist interpretation ===
According to E.B.
Elliott, the first seal, as revealed to John
by the angel, was to signify what was to happen
soon after John seeing the visions in Patmos
and that the second, third and fourth seals
in like manner were to have commencing dates
each in chronological sequence following the
preceding seal.
Its general subject is the decline and fall,
after a previous prosperous era, of the Empire
of Heathen Rome.
The first four seals of Revelation, represented
by four horses and horsemen, are fixed to
events, or changes, within the Roman Earth.
=== Preterist interpretation ===
Some modern scholars interpret Revelation
from a preterist point of view, arguing that
its prophecy and imagery apply only to the
events of the first century of Christian history.
In this school of thought, Conquest, the white
horse's rider, is sometimes identified as
a symbol of Parthian forces: Conquest carries
a bow, and the Parthian Empire was at that
time known for its mounted warriors and their
skill with bow and arrow.
Parthians were also particularly associated
with white horses.
Some scholars specifically point to Vologases
I, a Parthian shah who clashed with the Roman
Empire and won one significant battle in 62
AD.Revelation's historical context may also
influence the depiction of the black horse
and its rider, Famine.
In 92 AD, the Roman emperor Domitian attempted
to curb excessive growth of grapevines and
encourage grain cultivation instead, but there
was major popular backlash against this effort,
and it was abandoned.
Famine's mission to make wheat and barley
scarce but "hurt not the oil and the wine"
could be an allusion to this episode.
The red horse and its rider, who take peace
from the earth, might represent the prevalence
of civil strife at the time Revelation was
written; internecine conflict ran rampant
in the Roman Empire during and just prior
to the 1st century AD.
=== LDS Interpretation ===
Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints believe their first prophet, Joseph
Smith, revealed that the book described by
John "contains the revealed will, mysteries,
and the works of God; the hidden things of
his economy concerning this earth during the
seven thousand years of its continuance, or
its temporal existence" and that the seals
describe these things for the seven thousand
years of the Earth's temporal existence, each
seal representing 1,000 years.About the first
seal and the white horse LDS Apostle Bruce
R. McConkie taught, "The most transcendent
happenings involved Enoch and his ministry.
And it is interesting to note that what John
saw was not the establishment of Zion and
its removal to heavenly spheres, but the unparalleled
wars in which Enoch, as a general over the
armies of the saints, ‘went forth conquering
and to conquer’ Revelation 6:2; see also
Moses 7:13–18" The second seal and the red
horse represent the period from approximately
3,000 B.C. to 2,000 B.C. including the wickedness
and violence leading to the Great Flood.The
third seal and black horse describe the period
of ancient Joseph, son of Israel, who was
sold into Egypt, and the famines that swept
that period (see Genesis 41–42; Abraham
1:29-30; 2:1, 17, 21).
The fourth seal and the pale horse are interpreted
to represent the thousand years leading up
to the birth of Jesus Christ, both the physical
death brought about by great warring empires
and the spiritual death through apostasy among
the Lord's chosen people.
=== Other interpretations ===
Artwork which shows the Horsemen as a group,
such as the famous woodcut by Albrecht Dürer,
suggests an interpretation where all four
horsemen represent different aspects of the
same tribulation.American Protestant Evangelical
interpreters regularly see ways in which the
horsemen, and Revelation in general, speak
to contemporary events.
Some who believe Revelation applies to modern
times can interpret the horses based on various
ways their colors are used.
Red, for example, often represents Communism,
the white horse and rider with a crown representing
Catholicism, Black has been used as a symbol
of Capitalism, while Green represents the
rise of Islam.
Pastor Irvin Baxter Jr. of Endtime Ministries
espouses such a belief.Some equate the Four
Horsemen with the angels of the four winds.
(See Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel,
angels often associated with four cardinal
directions).
Some speculate that when the imagery of the
Seven Seals is compared to other eschatological
descriptions throughout the Bible, the themes
of the horsemen draw remarkable similarity
to the events of the Olivet Discourse.
The signs of the approaching end of the world
are likened to birth pains, indicating that
they would occur more frequently and with
greater intensity the nearer the event of
Christ's return.
With this perspective the horsemen represent
the rise of false religions, false prophets
and false messiahs; the increase of wars and
rumours of wars; the escalation of natural
disasters and famines; and the growth of persecution,
martyrdom, betrayal and loss of faith.
== Other Biblical references ==
=== Zechariah ===
The Book of Zechariah twice mentions colored
horses; in the first passage there are three
colors (red, speckled/brown, and white), and
in the second there are four teams of horses
(red, black, white, and finally dappled/"grisled
and bay") pulling chariots.
The second set of horses are referred to as
"the four spirits of heaven, going out from
standing in the presence of the Lord of the
whole world."
They are described as patrolling the earth,
and keeping it peaceful.
It may be assumed that when the tribulation
begins, the peace is taken away, so their
job is to terrify the places in which they
patrol.
=== Ezekiel ===
The four living creatures of Revelation 4:6-8
are very similar to the four living creatures
in Ezekiel 1:5-12.
In Revelation each of the living creatures
summons a horseman, where in Ezekiel the living
creatures follow wherever the spirit leads,
without turning.
In Ezekiel 14:21, the Lord enumerates His
"four disastrous acts of judgment" (ESV),
sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence,
against the idolatrous elders of Israel.
A symbolic interpretation of the Four Horsemen
links the riders to these judgments, or the
similar judgments in 6:11-12.
== See also ==
The Book with Seven Seals
Events of Revelation (Chapter 6)
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in popular
culture
Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse, an analogous
usage in the use of computers
== 
References ==
== External links ==
The dictionary definition of four horsemen
of the apocalypse at Wiktionary
Media related to Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
at Wikimedia Commons
