Revelation 6:2

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 throws little light on this: it is in fact the obscurer of the two. Here, the colours of the four horses plainly symbolise triumph, slaughter, mourning, and death; we are told expressly who the fourth Rider is: and hardly anyone doubts that the second and third represent War and Scarcity respectively. But about the first there is controversy. His white horse and golden crown resemble His Who appears in Revelation 19:11, Whose Name is called the Word of God: and hence many think that this Rider is Christ, or at least the representative of Christ's Kingdom. But is it possible that when He has come, the plagues that follow should come after him? or why should the living creatures continue to cry to Him to come, if He be come already? It would be more credible, that the first Rider is a falseChrist, just as Matthew 24:5 precedes Revelation 6:6. But on the whole it seems more reasonable to suppose that all four riders symbolise the woes before Christ's coming foretold in the two latter verses: and that the first is the spirit of Conquest: the description is like that in ch. 19, because there Christ is described as a Conqueror, and here we have a Conqueror who is nothing more. Then what is the difference between the first and the second Rider? Conquest is necessarily painful it may be unjust and cruel, but it may be beneficent even to the conquered: at least it is not necessarily demoralising to the conquerors, as war becomes, when it sinks from conquest into mere mutual slaughter. This Rider has a bow, that a sword: the first is prepared to fight, and slay if necessary, but he will do so without passion or cruelty just as it is commonly observed, that fire-arms have tended to make war less brutal, by removing the soldiers from the excitement of a personal struggle.

was given unto him Apparently he comes into view armed with the bow, but his crown (either that of an honoured soldier or of a king, see on Revelation 4:4) is given to him afterwards perhaps as his title to the dominion he is to conquer. But the phrase "was given" is from Daniel 7:4; Daniel 7:6; Daniel 7:14: which proves that it is not necessary to suppose that the Seer actually saw some one crown him.

he went forth Apparently out of the field of vision perhaps out of Heaven to carry his conquests over the earth.

conquering, and to conquer He makes war successfully, but his purpose is the securing the victory, not the excitement of the battle and carnage.