Revelation 6:1. AND I SAW. This word ‘saw' is to be taken absolutely, as in Revelation 6:2, where it is repeated. WHEN THE LAMB OPENED ONE OF THE SEVEN SEALS. We have no right to translate the original word for ‘one' in this and also in the next clause, by the words ‘the first' At chap. Revelation... [ Continue Reading ]
With the beginning of this chapter we enter upon the fourth or leading section of the Apocalypse, extending to chap. Revelation 18:24. The section contains what had been described in chap. Revelation 4:1 as ‘the things which must come to pass.' Chaps. 4 and 5 have been only preparatory to these ‘thi... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:2. All the figures of this verse are those of victory, the horse and its whiteness, the crown, and the distinct statement at the close of the verse (comp. chap. Revelation 19:11; Revelation 19:14). The bow expresses the fact that the Conqueror sees and strikes down His enemies from afar... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:3-4. The second horse is red, the colour of blood (comp. 2 Kings 3:22); and he and his rider appear in answer to the second cry COME. In this seal Jesus comes just as He came in the victory of the first seal; but He comes in war and with the sword. There are two ways in which the warfar... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:5-6. The third horse is BLACK, the colour of mourning and of famine (Jeremiah 4:28; Jeremiah 8:21; Jeremiah 14:2; Malachi 3:14, margin; Revelation 6:12), and he comes forth with his rider in answer to the same cry as before, Come. Again Jesus comes in this seal just as He had come in th... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:7. The fourth horse is pale in colour, that is, with the livid paleness of a corpse. He comes forth in circumstances precisely similar to those already met by us, and he is to be looked at in the same way. As in them, so also in him and in his rider Jesus comes to judgment, The name of... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:9. AND WHEN HE OPENED THE FIFTH SEAL, I SAW UNDERNEATH THE ALTAR THE SOULS OF THEM THAT HAD BEEN SLAUGHTERED BECAUSE OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND BECAUSE OF THE TESTIMONY WHICH THEY HELD. With the opening of the fifth seal we pass into scenes of a kind in many respects distinguished from tho... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:10. AND THEY CRIED WITH A GREAT VOICE, SAYING, HOW LONG, O MASTER, THE HOLY AND TRUE, DOST THOU NOT JUDGE AND AVENGE OUR BLOOD ON THEM THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH? ‘They' cried (yet not the martyrs themselves but the blood which represents them) as the blood of Abel cried (Genesis 4:10). Th... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:11. To the cry of these martyred souls an answer is given both by deed and word. By deed; for A white robe, denoting the purity of saints perfected in Christ, was bestowed on each of them (comp. chaps, Revelation 3:5; Revelation 4:4; Revelation 7:9). This robe is the garment of _all_ wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Revelation 6:15-17. (4) These verses contain the fourth and last member of the description. Of the persons on whom the terror of God's judgments falls prominence seems to be given to the first, the KINGS. The words of the earth are associated with them, and the other appellations follow for the purp... [ Continue Reading ]