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Rev_6:7-8. The fourth form of horseman is recognizable not only by the entire description, but also his name is expressly mentioned: ὄνομα αὐτῷ ὁ Θάνατος . The text is thus as contradictory as is possible to all allegorizing interpretations of mortal heresy,[2071] of the complete falling away from Christ as spiritual death,[2072] of the Saracens and Turks,[2073] of the Roman people with the Emperor Domitian, whom “Hell follows,” because immediately after his death he entered it.[2074] Incorrect, also, as in Rev_6:5-6, is the limited reference of the whole to any special case, as possibly to the diseases and rapine which occurred at the time of the Jewish war in consequence of the famine (Rev_6:5-6),[2075] or to the devastations made by the flavi Germani, and other nations of the migration.[2076] As already by the ancient prophets, in addition to the sword[2077] and hunger,[2078] pestilence[2079] and also wild beasts[2080] were called grievous divine judgments, so the Lord also enumerates pestilences ( ΛΟΙΜΟΊ ) among the signs of his coming. Yet it does not follow thence that the horseman, who has the name Ὁ ΘΆΝΑΤΟς , is the plague;[2081] but it corresponds with those types, that death personified, just as the shedding of blood personified, and famine personified, should enter because of the Lord’s going forth to his victorious goal, and that the means mentioned (Rev_6:8) should ascribe to him deadly efficacy. This horse has the color which agrees with his work. χλωρός designates not only the fresh green of the grass,[2082] but also the greenish pallor of fear[2083] and of death.[2084]
ὁ καθήμενος . The loose but forcible construction in which the preceding nom. is absorbed by the following dat. ( ὌΝ . ΑὐΤῷ Ὁ ΘΑΝ .), as in Rev_3:12; Rev_3:21.
ΚΑῚ Ὁ ἍΙΔΗς ἨΚΟΛΟΎΘΕΙ ΜΕΤʼ ΑὐΤΟῦ . The ΜΕΤΆ with ἈΚΟΛ . as Luk_9:48. To understand Hades by metonymy for the inhabitants of Hades, the host of those swept away by death,[2085] is an assumption which not only gives a monstrous idea, but also especially avoids the correct reading ἘΔΌΘΗ ΑὐΤΟῖς . The incorrect explanation, as well as the incorrect reading ΑὐΤῷ , depends upon the failure to recognize the fact that Hades, i.e., the place belonging to death,[2086] because filled by the agency of death, is represented here like death itself, as a person following death. The idea of locality, which especially belongs to Hades, is also in Rev_1:18 decisive as to the idea of death; conversely here and in Rev_20:13 sqq., Hades is personally considered, which suits better the idea of death. But to regard Hades only as the place of torment for the damned,[2087] is only possible if the plagues indicated in Rev_6:8 are misunderstood as though pertaining to unbelievers alone. The contrary is decided partly by the entire tendency of all four seal-visions, and partly, especially in this place, by the express extension of the dominant power granted death and hell following it, to the fourth part of the earth, and therefore of all inhabitants of the earth, believers—who have patiently endured and hoped for the coming of the Lord—as well as unbelievers.[2088]
ΤῸ ΤΈΤΑΡΤΟΝ . The schematic number gives the idea of a considerably great portion of the whole; a still greater part is designated by the schematic three.[2089]
ἘΝ , as a designation of the instrument or means,[2090] stands properly with ῬΟΜΦΑΊᾼ , ΛΙΜῷ , and ΘΑΝΑΤῷ ; while to ΘΗΡΊΩΝ , as the beasts themselves are active, ὙΠΌ is attached,[2091] which in other cases also is combined in classical Greek with the active.[2092] The ῥομφαία , Rev_6:8, has as little to do with the ΜΆΧΑΙΡΑ , Rev_6:4, as the ΛΙΜΌς concurs with the famine, Rev_6:5-6; on the contrary, such means to kill are to be ascribed to Death personally portrayed with Hell, as already in the O. T. are threatened as destructive means of punishment prior to God’s judgment. Because of the juxtaposition of ἘΝ ΘΑΝΆΤῼ with ἘΝ ῬΟΜΦΑΊᾼ and ἘΝ ΛΙΜῷ , the ΘΑΝΆΤῼ is readily taken specially as a designation of the plague, especially as the LXX., in similar connections, use ΘΆΝΑΤΟς where the Heb. text has ãÆáÆø ;[2093] but if John had wished to designate this precise idea, the expression ΛΟΙΜΌς [2094] would scarcely have escaped him. As in Rev_2:23, the general conception must be maintained also in this passage,[2095] which also appears the more suitable as the ἘΝ ΘΑΝΆΤῼ occurs in a certain exclusive way to the two preceding conceptions which are likewise furnished with the prep. ἘΝ , while the attached ὙΠῸ Τ . ΘΗΡΊΩΝ Τ . Γ ., as also the change of prep. shows, connects it again with a certain independence to the three preceding conceptions. [See Note XLIX., p. 235.]
[2071] Beda, who mentions especially Arius; Zeger, etc.
[2072] Stern.
[2073] Vitr., C. a Lap.
[2074] N. de Lyra.
[2075] Wetst., Grot., Herd., Böhmer.
[2076] Huschke.
[2077] Cf. Rev_5:3 sqq.
[2078] Cf. Rev_6:5 sqq.
[2079] ãÆáÆø . LXX.: θάνατος , Jer_21:7; Jer_14:12.
[2080] Lev_16:22; Eze_14:21.
[2081] “Pestis nomine mortis” (Eichh.).
[2082] Rev_8:7, Rev_9:4; Mar_6:39.
[2083] Il. vii. 479.
[2084] Pallida mors.
[2085] Eichh., Ebrard.
[2086] Cf. Rev_1:18, Rev_20:13 sqq.
[2087] Hengstenb.
[2088] Beng., Ew.
[2089] Rev_8:7.
[2090] Cf. Rev_2:16.
[2091] Cf. Ew., De Wette.
[2092] Matth., Ausführ. Griech. Gramm., § 592.
[2093] Vitr., Beng., De Wette, etc.
[2094] Mat_24:7.
[2095] Hengstenb., Ebrard.
XLIX. Rev_6:2-8