Revelation 6:8

ἠκολούθει μετʼ αὐτοῦ. Origen quotes this as if he read ὁ θάνατος, καὶ ὁ ᾄδης�.

ἐδόθη αὐτοῖς. B2 &c. read ἐδ. αὐτῷ.

ὑπὸ τῶν θηρ. A reads τὸ τέταρτον τε͂ν θηρίων.

8. χλωρός. “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. The colour is certainly symbolical, and 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.

ἐπάνω αὐτοῦ. For the previous riders the phrase is ἐπʼ αὐτόν; Alford remarks upon the contrast and proposes the rendering “atop of him,” perhaps taking it to suggest that the spectre (or skeleton or demon?) did not ride astride and manage his horse, but simply sat clumsily on his back.

ὄνομα αὐτῷ ὁ θάνατος. Practically a Hebraism for κέκληται ὁ θάνατος, which gives rather more emphasis to the name, while maintaining the symmetry by leaving ὁ καθήμενος in the nominative.

ὁ ᾅδης. Personified as a demon, as in Revelation 20:13-14. He follows Death, to devour those slain by him.

τὸ τέταρτον τῆς γῆς. Are we to suppose that a fourth part of the earth is a prey to each of the four riders? that the three first decimate or afflict their subjects and the last exterminates his? or that sword, famine, and pestilence, cut off the fourth part of men and deliver them to Hades? It would agree with this that a third part is smitten by the plagues of the first four trumpets and of the sixth. The difficulty of this view is that, though θάνατος in the next clause clearly stands for pestilence as in Ezekiel 14:21 (LXX.), we cannot limit it so here: the Rider on the Pale Horse is sovereign over all four modes of death, though perhaps pestilence is most closely connected with his nature.

ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ἐν λιμῷ καὶ ἐν θανάτῳ καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων τῆς γῆς. God’s “four sore judgements,” Ezekiel 14:21. “The beasts of the earth,” which have not been hinted at before, are no doubt suggested by the parallel: there is no reason to vary the preposition in English, but in Greek the instrumental Hellenistic ἐν would be ambiguous in the fourth clause, as ἐν τοῖς θηρίοις might mean “among the beasts.”