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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Revelation 6:1 - 6:1
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
And I saw (kai eidon). As in Rev 4:1; Rev 5:1. The vision unfolds without anything being said about opening the book and reading from it. In a more vivid and dramatic fashion the Lamb breaks the seals one by one and reveals the contents and the symbolism. The first four seals have a common note from one of the four zōa and the appearance of a horse. No effort will be made here to interpret these seals as referring to persons or historical events in the past, present, or future, but simply to relate the symbolism to the other symbols in the book. It is possible that there is some allusion here to the symbolism in the so-called “Little Apocalypse” of Mark 13; Matt 24 and the following chapters; and Luke 21. The imagery of the four horses is similar to that in Zec 1:7-11; Zec 6:1-8 (cf. Jer 14:12; Jer 24:10; Jer 42:17). In the Old Testament the horse is often the emblem of war (Job 39:25; Psa 76:6; Pro 21:31; Eze 26:10). “Homer pictures the horses of Rhesus as whiter than snow, and swift as the wind” (Vincent).
When the Lamb opened (hote ēnoixen to arnion). First aorist active indicative of anoigō. This same phrase recurs in rhythmical order at the opening of each seal (Rev 6:1, Rev 6:3, Rev 6:5, Rev 6:7, Rev 6:9, Rev 6:12) till the last (Rev 8:1), where we have hotan ēnoixen (hotan rather than hote calling particular attention to it).
One (mian). Probably used here as an ordinal (the first) as in Mat 28:1. See Robertson, Grammar, p. 671f.
Of (ek). This use of ek with the ablative in the partitive sense is common in the Apocalypse, as twice in this verse (ek tōn, etc.). So henos ek tōn (one of the four living creatures) is “the first of,” etc.
In a voice of thunder (en phōnēi brontēs). Old word used of John and James (Mar 3:17) and elsewhere in N.T. only Joh 12:29 and a dozen times in the Apocalypse.
Come (Erchou). Present middle imperative of erchomai, but with exclamatory force (not strictly linear). The command is not addressed to the Lamb nor to John (the correct text omits kai ide “and see”) as in Rev 17:1; Rev 21:9, but to one of the four horsemen each time. Swete takes it as a call to Christ because erchou is so used in Rev 22:17, Rev 22:20, but that is not conclusive.