Revelation 6 Explanatory Notes

6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals. And I heard one of the four living

Benjamin West
Death on the Pale Horse

creatures saying like a sound of thunder, "Come!"
The seven seals unfold from Revelation 6 to the beginning of Revelation 8 (8:1). Then when the seventh seal is finally opened, there will be seven trumpets from 8:2-11:18. We should not take this imagery literally. It is not a videotape of how the judgment will unfold. The sevens symbolize the perfection and the finality of the judgment. There will be seven bowls of wrath later on.

The whole sequence gives us an impression, an experience, a "Gestalt." The plot is more powerful than if John had simply said, "The judgment will be really bad and you should avoid it at all costs." Yet that is something like its literal meaning. The picture gives us a much more powerful feel for the judgment rather than its literal particulars.

Now that we have seen the throne room of heaven with God and the Lamb, we are about to see the first set of metaphors for the coming judgment of the world. The Lamb opens the first of the seven seals keeping the scroll closed. This is again a single scroll, and written inside and outside on the scroll is apparently the judgment of the world. 

We are not told which living creature summons John to look, but perhaps the fact that it is one of the creatures suggests that the first judgment relates heavily to the creatures of the earth. With thunderous voice, the beast invites John to come and see. He is about to see what it looks like to fight against the God of the universe.

2. And I saw and behold, a white horse, and the one sitting on it having a bow. And a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and so that he might conquer.
There is a certain structure to the sequences of seven we are about to see. In each case, the first four of the seven and the last three of the seven go together in a certain way. Also in each case, there is a brief "intermission" of sorts after the sixth item. Then seventh then represents the finality of the judgment and the victory of God and the Lamb.

The first four seals relate to "the four horsemen of the Apocalypse." Some of the ingredients of John's vision are drawn from Zechariah 1 and 6. Zechariah 1 has four horsemen on red, brown, and white horses. In Zechariah 6, we have chariots pulled by red, black, white, and arguably pale horses. In Zechariah, they patrol the earth and, as appropriate, visit it with judgment.

As we have said, however, Revelation cooks its own recipes with the Old Testament ingredients. In Revelation, the first is the white horse, which some have suggested represents Christ. [1] Certainly Christ is on a white horse in Revelation 19:11-16. In Revelation 19, Christ has many crowns on his head and does indeed go forth to conquer. This is a strong argument, although we wonder why John does not explicitly say so here.

Assuming that Christ is the rider, we see that the judgment has now commenced. Christ leads the first image of judgment in Revelation, and Christ will begin the last picture of judgment in chapter 19. It was certainly the common Christian belief of the early church that Christ would return from the heavens and lead the judgment of the world (1 Thess. 4:16).

3. And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come!" 4. And another bright red horse came out and the one sitting on it was given to him to take the peace from the land and that they should slaughter one another and a great sword was given to him.

The second horse would seem to represent war. Here is a reminder that much of God's judgment is simply letting humanity self-destruct. War is the consummate example of humanity's self-destructive capacity. No war is ever necessary in itself. Wars only happen because of the fallenness of humanity.

We are reminded in Mark 13:7-8 of "wars and rumors of wars." In human history it has almost always been the case that someone was fighting with someone. This expression of human sinfulness is judgment in itself for those involved. Part of the judgment is God taking away the peace of the earth by letting sinful humanity destroy each other.

Again, we should not think of these horses as a sequence of events. They give us an impression, a Gestalt of how horrible it is for God to remove his presence from the earth. As Romans 1:28 implies, God's judgment often consists in "giving them up" to spiral out of control.

5. And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come!" And I saw and behold, a black horse and the one sitting on it having a pair of scales in his hand. 6. And I heard like a voice in the middle of the four creatures saying, "A choenix of wheat for a denarius and three choenix of barley for a denarius and do not harm the oil and wine." 

The third horse is famine. Economics is an area of clear interest in the book of Revelation. Chapter 18 extensively condemns the merchants of the earth who have become rich off the unrighteousness of Babylon (i.e., Rome). One image of the judgment is the removal of material prosperity and earthly wealth from the earth.

The picture we get in these two verses is one of inflation, a situation where it takes more and more money to buy the same amount of goods. We remember pictures of people in Germany in the early 1920s needing a wheelbarrow full of money to buy something as simple as a newspaper. Inflation is not a new phenomenon. 

A "choenix" was a little less than a quart or about the amount a person might eat in a day. A denarius was about a day's wage, which would be expected to feed an entire family. Some have suggested that the amounts are at least ten times as much as such things would normally cost. [2] The amount in wheat was not enough to feed a family, and the amount in barley might only feed a fraction of a family. 

What is interesting is that, at this point in the symbolism, it is the ordinary person who is affected. The oil and the wine are not touched, which are the stuff of the wealthy. It is the day laborer, the ordinary person, who is harmed in this snapshot of judgment. The ordinary person does usually suffer first in an economic crisis. But the crisis of the wealthy is coming.

The word for "harm" here is adikeo. The writer of 1 John 5:17 says that all "unrighteousness" (adikia) is sin. Revelation 6:6 gives us a window into one fundamental sense of unrighteousness--to do harm to someone or something. I would argue that we get a window here into the fundamental nature of sin in the New Testament--it is to wrong another or to do wrong. More abstract definitions like, "to miss the mark" arguably bring unnecessary philosophical and theological baggage into what is really a much simpler and more concrete sense to these words.

7. And when he opened the fourth seal I heard a voice of the fourth creature saying, "Come!" 8. And I saw and behold, a pale horse, and the one sitting on it, his name [was] Death, and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over the fourth of the land, to kill with sword and with famine and with death by the beasts of the land.

The pale horse has Death as its rider, with the realm of Death, Hades, following after. We will see these two characters at the end of Revelation too. Together they represent the current destiny of all human bodies to face physical death.

There are two words used in the New Testament that are sometimes translated "hell." The one that refers to a place of fiery torment is gehenna, and it is not actually used in the book of Revelation. Revelation uses the word hades several times in reference to the realm of all the dead, both righteous and unrighteous. This is in keeping with the way Greeks used the word. Revelation will use the expression "lake of fire" for the other sense (e.g., 20:10). 

The increments of destruction increase as we go further into the seven seals. Again, we probably should not take this sequence as a blow-by-blow of what will happen in time. The crescendo gives us a feel for the intensity of the final judgment for those who are excluded from salvation. These are a picture of its birth pains. So we begin with a fourth of the land dying. They die from war with each other, from famine, and even the animals of the earth rebel against the humanity that was intended to have dominion over them.

9. And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of incense the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony that they had. 10. And they cried with a great voice saying, "Until when, O holy and true Master, are you [going to] judge and avenge our blood [that came] from those dwelling on the land?

1. The first four seals go together, with the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Now the last three of the seven seals go together as well. The fifth seal highlights the need for justice. The souls of those who had been martyred for their faith cry out. These are not the martyred of all history but those martyred during the time of tribulation between Christ's death and his return.

We do not know how many Christians had been martyred by the time John received his vision. We think that Stephen was the first martyr. Then James the son of Zebedee, possibly the brother of the author, was the first of the apostles to die. Paul and Peter would die at the hands of Nero. We know a number of Christians also died around the year 64 at the hands of Nero. John himself mentions a man named Antipas. Presumably there were enough for John to consider the number significant.

There was no official policy of persecution toward Christians at this time. Indeed, even until Christianity became a legal religion in AD313, persecution was more local and sporadic. There were a few years of sustained persecution, such as the Decian persecution in AD250. But these came and went. Somewhere around AD112, a governor named Pliny wrote the emperor Trajan to ask if he had behaved properly in punishing a group of Christians. The letter reveals that there was no Roman policy toward Christians. 

The martyrs cry out for justice. How long will God allow the wicked to continue undeterred? This cry of "how long" reverberates from the Old Testament in the Psalms. "How long, O Yahweh? Will you forget me forever?" (Ps. 13:1). It is a cry over the problem of evil, why God sometimes allows the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer. It is the blood of Abel, that cries out for justice (e.g., Gen. 4:10).

The judgment and eternity are the ultimate answers to the problem of evil. No matter what happens to someone in this life, eternity will sort it out. The wicked may prosper in this brief moment on earth, but they will know a much more permanent verdict. Similarly, this time may be a "light and momentary affliction" (2 Cor. 4:17, KJV), but it will lead to an "eternal glory" for the redeemed. 

2. These verses also indicate clearly that John believes in a disembodied intermediate state for the dead. These are souls in the Greek sense of disembodied persons. They have died. They are not yet resurrected. 

However, the revealed point of these verses is not the precise state of the dead. The main point is that the deaths of the martyred call for justice. At the time of John, those who had put them to death might very well have still been alive. At the same time, we may add these verses to others in the New Testament that point to a conscious personal existence in between our death and our future bodily resurrection.

The altar that is mentioned is the altar of incense (thysiastērion) rather than the sacrificial altar. This altar will feature several times in the book of Revelation. In particular, it relates to the prayers of God's people--apparently both those who are alive and dead. Of course the dead seem to speak to God directly, while we might pray to the God that we cannot see.

In the Old Testament, the altar of incense was located in the outer room of the sanctuary, the "Holy Place" (Exod. 40:5). However, in Hebrews 9:4 it is in the Most Holy Place, the inner room, perhaps reflecting a tradition at the time of the New Testament. It would fit for the altar of incense to be in the Most Holy Place because surely God's throne room represents the innermost sanctum of the cosmos. The prayers of God's people thus now go directly to God. 

11. And a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they might rest for a little time yet until their fellow-servants might be fulfilled and their brothers [and sisters] who are about to be killed as also they themselves.

They are given a white robe, a robe that indicates their purity and their honor. But it is not time yet for justice to be dispensed. There are more to be martyred before the end comes. Certainly over the last two thousand years many believers have died for their faith at the hand of the wicked.

Even though they cry for justice, we should note that they are at rest. They are not in torment. Indeed, as these are not literal pictures, we should not think that the righteous dead are lacking in anything. We can remember the image of Lazarus in Abraham's Bosom in Luke 16:22. Those who die in Christ will not suffer any more in any way.

12. And I saw when he opened the sixth seal and, behold, a great earthquake came and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the whole moon became as blood. 13. And the stars of the sky fell to the land like a fig tree casts its unripe figs as it is shaken by a great wind.

The image of the sun darkening and the moon turning to blood originates in Joel 2:10. In addition to mention of the earth shaking, the verse evokes the imagery of eclipses. In a solar eclipse, the sun goes dark behind the shadow of the moon. In a lunar eclipse, the moon goes red when the earth comes between it and the sun. Such events were quite scary to many ancients and were often thought to be portents of judgment or disaster.

Again, the point is the overall feel of the impending judgment. Revelation may or not be predicting actual eclipses immediately preceding Christ's return. In Acts 2:20, imagery of these eclipses seems to be related to the Day of Pentecost, for example. Sackcloth sometimes symbolizes mourning or repentance in Scripture (e.g., Gen. 37:34; 2 Sam. 3:31; 1 Kings 20:31). These are appropriate attitudes and postures prior to the judgment.

The stars were not seen as burning balls of gas millions of miles away. Sometimes they were seen as heavenly beings. At other times they were lights fixed in the dome of the sky (Gen. 1:15). Of course "shooting stars" or meteors were well known. Later in Revelation we will hear about the fall of angels from heaven, from the sky (Rev. 12:9). 

The fall of stars is clearly a bad foreshadowing of what is coming. They are like unripe figs shaken by a mighty wind. Perhaps this is an allusion to the fall of the wicked angels, "unripe." As we will see, Revelation does not talk about the fall of angels early in the creation but the dethroning of Satan and the angels as part of the victory of Christ and the impending judgment. In any case, the fall of such figs must have been a well-known event in John's day.

14. And the sky split open like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from their places. 15. And the kings of the earth and the great ones and the chiliarchs and the rich and the strong and every servant and free person hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

As we have suggested, Jews and others saw the heavens as layers of sky. For the sky to split open like a scroll being rolled up is for the highest heaven to be exposed to the earth and for the world to see the glory of God. The sinful, wicked earth is exposed to the holiness of God. 

In the face of such unbearable glory, the mountains and islands are moved from their places. If Isaiah fell on his face before the glory of God in Isaiah 6, imagine how the wicked of the earth would feel in the presence of the Almighty God. Those who thought themselves great suddenly recognize their complete and utter insignificance. Kings, people considered larger than life, military generals who commanded thousands--they want to hide. The rich, the mighty, and certainly the servant as well will know for the first time who they truly are.

16. And they say to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall upon us and hide us from the face of the One sitting upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17. for the great Day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?

Again, this is a picture, but it is crystal clear. No one can hide from the penetrating sight and glory of God (cf. Heb. 2:12-13). Far better than facing the unadulterated truth of God's presence would be for rocks and mountains to hide and crush the wicked. "Who may abide the Day of his coming?"

The final verse reveals what this chapter and these seven seals are about. They are a kaleidoscopic picture of what it will be like to meet one's Maker as the enemy. There will be no resistance. God's glorious truth will penetrate every person to the core.

[1] Robert Muholland, Revelation, 168.  

[2] Robert Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997), 144