The mystery of the four horsemen

In the Book of Revelation we see four horsemen — apocalyptic riders who bring war, famine, and death to the whole world. But the first one doesn’t fit neatly into the scheme, and he causes a lot of headaches: this is a genuinely controversial topic.

You may want to read before

• Historical background of the book
• What type of book is this

The text

Let’s first look at the Bible text:

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest. 3 When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, ‘Come!’ 4 Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make people kill each other. To him was given a large sword. 5 When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. 6 Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A kilogram of wheat for a day’s wages, and three kilograms of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’ 7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, ‘Come!’ 8 I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a quarter of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.” Rev 6:1–8

Interpretations

There are two main interpretations, and both have their merits — and both still find serious defenders among today’s commentators:

• The first rider is a good figure: for instance, the gospel being preached all over the world.
• The first rider embodies an evil character, like the other riders.

First observations

Looking closely at the text, three strong parallels stand out.

First, a text in the prophet Zechariah describes several horses of different colors patrolling the earth. A few chapters later, four chariots of different colors are the four winds of heaven. And the description of the four plagues of God — sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence — closely resembles the activities of these four horses; note that the most direct echo is actually the fourth horseman alone, who in Rev 6:8 is given power to kill “by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts” — nearly all four Ezekiel judgments in a single verse.

Looking at the horsemen themselves, we see both similarities and differences between them. All four are called to act; none of them act on their own. Each rider is given some item to act with. Yet the first horseman is uniquely marked out by a doubled verb in the Greek — he “rides out conquering, and in order that he might conquer” — an emphatic construction not used for the others. The activity of the first rider stays vague (“conquer”), while for the others it is spelled out clearly: bring war, hunger, and death.

The third rider is different again: he lacks the clause “and it was given.” Instead, he simply holds the instrument in his hands, which stands for a divine activity or authorization in its own right, and a statement is issued from the throne, from the midst of the four living creatures, rather than being handed to him directly.

The mystery of the third horseman

“When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, ‘Come!’ I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, ‘A kilogram of wheat for a day’s wages, and three kilograms of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!’”

To understand this, we need a little background.

Food was often rationed — whether because of a coming famine, an actual famine already underway, or a prophetic warning of one. For reference: one measure of wheat was enough to feed one person for one day, and three measures of barley (cheaper, and normally used as animal feed) were enough to feed a small family for one day. A full day’s wages would normally buy far more grain than this — so prices have risen to roughly 8–16 times the normal price.

Wine and oil are not luxuries here. In the Old Testament they belong with grain to the basic food of the land, and when all of them fail, the famine is severe (Joel 1:10–11). They have nothing to do with anointing or the Lord’s Supper.

So this is a famine, serious but limited. A day’s wage buys just enough grain to live on, and nothing is left over for oil and wine, even though the trees and vines themselves are spared. That is where the injustice sits. The whole price rise falls on the food the poor live on, while oil and wine keep their price and stay on the shelves — available, and out of reach for anyone whose day’s wage now goes entirely on bread.¹ The voice “among the four living creatures” is most likely Christ’s own, since the Lamb stands “in the middle of the throne and the four living creatures” (5:6). The command comes from the throne itself, and it sets a limit to the famine.² Those hit hardest are the poor — and, as the book shows later, believers who are shut out of buying and selling (13:16–17).

The mystery of the first horseman

“I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.”

There are some reasonable arguments for reading this horseman as good:

• In the Psalms, there is a description of an Israelite king conquering his enemies with arrows, which is interpreted as a messianic reference to Jesus.
• There are references to the one who looks like the Son of Man on a white cloud with a sickle to harvest the earth, and to the victorious rider on a white horse with a crown on his head. Both point to Jesus, or at least to an angel of God — though it’s worth noting the “crown” in Rev 19:12 is a diadem (royal crown, plural), a different Greek word from the single victor’s “wreath” (stephanos) given the first horseman in Rev 6:2, which weakens the parallel somewhat.
• The term “conquest” could refer to Jesus, since he is the conqueror in other passages of the book too.
• He rides a white horse, and white is a positive symbol elsewhere in the book.
• He does nothing negative himself — he simply conquers, as the saints do — while it’s the others who bring something destructive, so this could refer to the proclaiming of the gospel before all the bad things happen.

On the other hand, there are indications pointing to the exact opposite:

• God will strike the bow out of the hands of Gog, identifying the bow as the weapon of the end-time enemy.
• Jesus is not the only one with a crown: the demonic locusts from the Abyss also wear something like crowns.
• The theme of conquering is used elsewhere to refer to the beast overpowering the two witnesses.
• Just as the four horses and chariots in Zechariah likely form a single unit, the four horses in Revelation likely form a unity of some kind too — though note that in Zechariah the horses are God’s own patrol agents reporting back to him, so this parallel alone doesn’t settle whether the horsemen are evil or simply agents carrying out God’s judgment; the case for “evil” has to rest on other evidence.
• Some interpreters also see the first four trumpets and first four bowls as forming similar units, which would support reading the first four horsemen the same way — though this observation is suggestive rather than decisive on its own.

This is confusing — why are there references pointing to both a good and an evil meaning? Let’s look at the last two pieces of evidence more closely:

• A bow is first used as a weapon in the Bible in the story of Jacob's deception of his father, when Esau is sent to hunt with his bow — though the very first mention of a bow at all, the rainbow of Genesis 9:13, is a positive covenant sign, so this observation should be weighed as suggestive rather than decisive.
• The three speeches Jesus gives about the end times, in Mark, Matthew, and Luke, follow the same order found in Revelation: all three open with something like “Beware that you are not deceived, because many will come in my name.” War always comes second, then famine, and in Luke this is followed by “pestilence” as well.

The resolution

It becomes clear that the first horseman is evil but pretends to be good — to be like Jesus. That also makes sense in light of the context: the previous chapter Jesus was revealed as the only one worthy of opening the scroll, and now the devil’s true nature is revealed in response — moving from a great promise (to conquer), to war (persecution of those who will not go along), to hunger (the third horseman), to finally death and destruction. That is why the very next seal describes the cry of the righteous: “How long this will go on?” The evil nature of all four horsemen is now clear. This is a disputed point, and the positive reading of the first rider still has able defenders.³

The fifth seal follows at once. Those who were killed for their testimony cry out: “How long … until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?” (6:10). “Those who live on the earth” is Revelation’s name for the people who have been taken in — the same people the second beast deceives (13:14). The answer is not what we expect. The martyrs are told to wait until their fellow witnesses have finished their testimony (6:11). And when the book returns to their question, it is the two witnesses who answer it: the very people who gloated over their death (11:10) are shaken, and most of them give glory to God (11:13).⁴ Vengeance is not cancelled. It falls on those who still refuse, and above all on Babel, the power that deceived them: “he has avenged on her the blood of his servants” (19:2).

And now the reference to God's plagues — wild beasts, sword, famine, and pestilence — also makes sense. Beyond the direct echo already noted in the fourth horseman’s own description (Rev 6:8), we can also map each rider suggestively as follows:

• The first horseman represents the wild beasts: he is the deceiver who looks like Christ and only conquers (deception). His false promise returns in the two beasts of chapter 13: power and control from the first, wealth and security from the second.
• The second horseman represents the sword given to him — he attacks anyone who doesn’t buy into those promises, just like the first beast in chapter 13.
• The third horseman represents hunger, because the poor will suffer under him. This can also be seen as economic pressure on nonconformists, impoverishing them — echoed later by the second beast’s ban on buying and selling (13:16–17) and by the harlot’s trade in chapter 18.
• The last horseman sums up the effect of this evil trinity.

Remember this: no matter how attractive the devil’s offer may look, and no matter how much it may resemble something from Jesus, don’t go for it — it will end in disaster. Be wise instead, and God will give you the wisdom you need.

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