THE UNSEALING OF THE SCROLL
In 6.1-8.1: With the removal of each seal, we glimpse an aspect of the cosmic drama of human destructiveness, divine, justice, and eventual peace. The whole series enacts a unified action.
Read Revelation 6.1-8. In 6.1-8: The four seals of human destructiveness. The four living creatures creatures represent all of creation; see .6. The colors of the horses have their common meaning: white stands for victory or conquest; red is the color of blood shed in war; black is the color of dead vegetation and pale green is the yellowish-gray color of rotting flesh. In addition each rider is given an instrument appropriate to his task. The bow occurs only here in Revelation; it will never be an image of Jesus, and this the first rider is best seen as a military conqueror (in spite of the fact that Jesus will later appear on a white horse; 19.11). The appearance of such a conqueror leads inevitably to war, the second rider, and war leads inevitably to famine, the third rider. In verse 6: The charge, do not damage the olive oil and the wine, is uncertain but may stem from the fact that these are long-term crops not needing yearly planting and thus no as susceptible to the war-induced famine. In verse 8: Hades was Zeus'' brother and ruler of the underworld and thus by metaphor holder of the dead; see 20.13. There is an escalating destruction in the Apocalypse, beginning here with a fourth, the next series will destroy one-third (8.7), the last will destroy all (16.1-12). Comments or Questions..
No comments:
Post a Comment