Teks -- Revelation 6:8 (NET)

6:8 So I looked and here came a pale green horse! The name of the one who rode it was Death, and Hades followed right behind. They were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill its population with the sword, famine, and disease, and by the wild animals of the earth.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Robertson: Rev 6:8 - A pale horse

A pale horse ( hippos chlōros ).

Old adjective. Contracted from chloeros (from chloē , tender green grass) used of green grass (Mar 6:39; Rev 8:7; Rev 9:4), here for yellowish, common in both senses in old Greek, though here only in N.T. in this sense, greenish yellow. We speak of a sorrel horse, never of a green horse. Zechariah (Zec 6:3) uses poikilos (grizzled or variegated). Homer used chlōros of the ashen colour of a face blanched by fear (pallid) and so the pale horse is a symbol of death and of terror.

Robertson: Rev 6:8 - His name was Death

His name was Death ( onoma autōi ho thanatos ).

Anacoluthon in grammatical structure like that in Joh 3:1 (cf. Rev 2:26) and common enough. Death is the name of this fourth rider (so personified) and there is with Death "his inseparable comrade, Hades (Rev 1:16; Rev 20:13.)"(Swete). Hades (hāidēs , alpha privative, and idein , to see, the unseen) is the abode of the dead, the keys of which Christ holds (Rev 1:18).

Robertson: Rev 6:8 - Followed

Followed ( ēkolouthei ).

Imperfect active of akoloutheō , kept step with death, whether on the same horse or on another horse by his side or on foot John does not say.

Robertson: Rev 6:8 - Over the fourth part of the earth

Over the fourth part of the earth ( epi to tetarton tēs gēs ).

Partitive genitive gēs after tetarton . Wider authority (exousia ) was given to this rider than to the others, though what part of the earth is included in the fourth part is not indicated.

Robertson: Rev 6:8 - To kill

To kill ( apokteinai ).

First aorist active infinitive of apokteinō , explanation of the exousia (authority). The four scourges of Eze 14:21 are here reproduced with instrumental en with the inanimate things (romphaiāi , limōi thanatōi ) and hupo for the beasts (thēriōn ). Death here (thanatōi ) seems to mean pestilence as the Hebrew does (loimos - cf. limos famine). Cf. the "black death"for a plague.

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - Pale

Pale ( χλωρὸς )

Only in Revelation, except Mar 6:39. Properly, greenish-yellow , like young grass or unripe wheat. Homer applies it to honey , and Sophocles to the sand . Generally, pale , pallid . Used of a mist, of sea-water, of a pale or bilious complexion. Thucydides uses it of the appearance of persons stricken with the plague (ii., 49). In Homer it is used of the paleness of the face from fear, and so as directly descriptive of fear (" Iliad," x., 376; xv., 4). Of olive wood (" Odyssey," ix., 320, 379) of which the bark is gray. Gladstone says that in Homer it indicates rather the absence than the presence of definite color. In the New Testament, always rendered green , except here. See Mar 6:39; Rev 8:7; Rev 9:14.

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - Hell

Hell

Properly, Hades . The realm of the dead personified. See on Mat 16:18.

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - Power

Power ( ἐξουσία )

See on Mar 2:10; see on 2Pe 2:11. Rev., better, authority .

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - With the sword

With the sword ( ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ )

Another word for sword. Compare Rev 6:4, and see on Luk 2:35.

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - With death

With death ( ἐι θανάτῳ )

Or pestilence . The Hebrew deber , pestilence , is rendered by the Greek word for death in the Septuagint. See Jer 14:12; Jer 21:7. Compare the term black-death applied to an Oriental plague which raged in the fourteenth century.

Vincent: Rev 6:8 - With the beasts

With the beasts ( ὑπὸ τῶν θηρίων )

Rev., by . The preposition ὑπό by is used here instead of ἐν in or with , indicating more definitely the actual agent of destruction; while ἐν denotes the element in which the destruction takes place, and gives a general indication of the manner in which it was wrought. With these four judgments compare Eze 14:21.

Wesley: Rev 6:8 - And I saw, and behold a pale horse

Suitable to pale death, his rider.

Wesley: Rev 6:8 - And hades

The representative of the state of separate souls.

Wesley: Rev 6:8 - Followeth even with him

The four first seals concern living men. Death therefore is properly introduced. Hades is only occasionally mentioned as a companion of death. So the fourth seal reaches to the borders of things invisible, which are comprised in the three last seals.

Wesley: Rev 6:8 - And power was given to him over the fourth part of the earth

What came single and in a lower degree before, comes now together, and much more severely. The first seal brought victory with it: in the second was "a great sword;" but here a scimitar. In the third was moderate dearth; here famine, and plague, and wild beasts beside. And it may well be, that from the time of Trajan downwards, the fourth part of men upon the earth, that is, within the Roman empire, died by sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts. "At that time," says Aurelius Victor, "the Tyber overflowed much more fatally than under Nerva, with a great destruction of houses and there was a dreadful earthquake through many provinces, and a terrible plague and famine, and many places consumed by fire." By death - That is, by pestilence wild beasts have, at several times, destroyed abundance of men; and undoubtedly there was given them, at this time, an uncommon fierceness and strength. It is observable that war brings on scarcity, and scarcity pestilence, through want of wholesome sustenance; and pestilence, by depopulating the country, leaves the few survivors an easier prey to the wild beasts. And thus these judgments make way for one another in the order wherein they are here represented.

What has been already observed may be a fourfold proof that the four horsemen, as with their first entrance in the reign of Trajan, (which does by no means exhaust the contents of the four first seals,) so with all their entrances in succeeding ages, and with the whole course of the world and of visible nature, are in all ages subject to Christ, subsisting by his power, and serving his will, against the wicked, and in defence of the righteous. Herewith, likewise, a way is paved for the trumpets which regularly succeed each other; and the whole prophecy, as to what is future, is confirmed by the clear accomplishment of this part of it.

JFB: Rev 6:8 - pale

"livid" [ALFORD].

JFB: Rev 6:8 - Death

Personified.

JFB: Rev 6:8 - Hell

Hades personified.

JFB: Rev 6:8 - unto them

Death and Hades. So A, C read. But B and Vulgate read, "to him."

JFB: Rev 6:8 - fourth part of the earth

Answering to the first four seals; his portion as one of the four, being a fourth part.

JFB: Rev 6:8 - death

Pestilence; compare Eze 14:21 with the four judgments here, the sword, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts; the famine the consequence of the sword; pestilence, that of famine; and beasts multiplying by the consequent depopulation.

JFB: Rev 6:8 - with the beasts

Greek, "by"; more direct agency. These four seals are marked off from the three last, by the four living creatures introducing them with "Come." The calamities indicated are not restricted to one time, but extend through the whole period of Church history to the coming of Christ, before which last great and terrible day of the Lord they shall reach highest aggravation. The first seal is the summary, Christ going forth conquering till all enemies are subdued under Him, with a view to which the judgments subsequently specified accompany the preaching of the Gospel for a witness to all nations.

Clarke: Rev 6:8 - A pale horse

A pale horse - The symbol of death. Pallida mors , pale death, was a very usual poetic epithet; of this symbol there can be no doubt, because it is immediately said, His name that sat on him was Death

Clarke: Rev 6:8 - And hell followed with him

And hell followed with him - The grave, or state of the dead, received the slain. This is a very elegant prosopopaeia, or personification

Clarke: Rev 6:8 - Over the fourth part of the earth

Over the fourth part of the earth - One fourth of mankind was to feel the desolating effects of this seal

Clarke: Rev 6:8 - To kill with sword

To kill with sword - War; with hunger - Famine; with death - Pestilence; and with the beasts of the earth - lions, tigers, hyenas, etc., which would multiply in consequence of the devastations occasioned by war, famine, and pestilence.

Defender: Rev 6:8 - pale horse

The "pale" horse is actually "green" (Greek chloros), the same word used for "green grass" in Rev 8:7. This also may be divine irony; green is normally associated with life, but the green horse is now ridden by Death.

Defender: Rev 6:8 - Hell

The Lord Jesus Christ now has the keys to Death and Hell, according to His assertion in Rev 1:18. So it is clear that this fourth horseman, like the others, is unleashed by Him to judge the earth. Those who yield to the killing sword of the second horseman and the starvation brought by the third will be overtaken by Death, and Hades will swallow up their souls. There also will be many other causes of death (pestilence, suicide), so that a quarter of the world's population will die in the first year or two of the seven-year period of tribulation. This will amount to at least a billion people.

Defender: Rev 6:8 - beasts

The word for "beasts" here is theerion, meaning "wild beasts." It is quite different from zoon, the word translated as beasts in Rev 4:1-11. It could suggest a proliferation of venomous snakes during this period. However, it is the same word used for "beast" in describing the coming Antichrist and his false prophet (Rev 13:2, Rev 13:11), so it could well refer to the fierce persecutions that will be carried out during this time by various regional dictators, all of whom will eventually yield their power to the Satan-possessed Beast, the most wicked and ruthless of all (Eze 14:21; Rev 13:7; Rev 17:13; Rev 20:13)."

TSK: Rev 6:8 - pale // was Death // unto them // over // kill

pale : Zec 6:3

was Death : Rev 20:13, Rev 20:14; Isa 25:8; Hos 13:14; Hab 2:5; 1Co 15:55 *marg.

unto them : or, to him

over : Rev 8:7-12, Rev 9:15, Rev 9:18, Rev 12:4

kill : Lev 26:22-33; Jer 15:2, Jer 15:3, Jer 16:4, Jer 16:16, Jer 43:11; Eze 5:15-17, Eze 14:13-21

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Rev 6:8 - A pale horse // Death // And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth // To kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth

A pale horse a horse of the colour of his rider,

Death which makes men look pale, and bringeth them into the state of the dead, (here translated hell ), whether heaven or hell, as they have lived.

And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth over a great part of the earth.

To kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth to kill men all manner of ways, with the sword, famine, pestilence, and by throwing them to wild beasts. Interpreters judge that here was prophesied what should happen to the Roman empire, and the church within it, from the time when Maximinus was made emperor, which was about the year 237, to the time of Aurelianus, which was about 271. Some extend it to Dioclesian’ s time, which ended about 294; but Mr. Mede rather reserveth that for the fifth seal. If the former time only be taken in, there was within it the seventh, eighth, and ninth persecutions; Dioclesian began the tenth and greatest of all. Within this time this prophecy was eminently fulfilled: Maximinus destroyed all the towns in Germany, for three or four hundred miles. There was a plague lasted fifteen years together in the time of Gallus, who had the empire Anno 255. Three hundred and twenty thousand Goths were slain by Flavius Claudius. Maximinus and Gallienus were both great butchers, both to their own subjects that were heathens, and to Christians. Gallienus is said to have killed three or four thousand every day. Such wars and devastations could not but be followed with famine; besides that we are confirmed in it, both by the testimony of Eusebius and Cyprian, the latter of whom lived within this period.

Haydock: Rev 6:7-8 - The fourth seal....a pale horse

The fourth seal....a pale horse, the rider's name death . It is also expounded of trials, afflictions, persecutions, and especially of plagues, over four parts of the earth, by which may be denoted the great power and extent of the Roman empire. In the Greek we read, over the fourth part of the earth; which some reconcile, by observing that the Roman empire had dominions under it in all the four parts of the world, east, west, north, and south; and that its dominions might be said to comprehend the fourth part of the world. (Witham) ---

By the pale horse, and the rider, death, who sat upon it, followed by hell, are meant that dreadful mortality which ever attends famines, &c. He had power to kill with sword, with famine, &c. All these evils came upon the Roman people, and history has preserved the memory of them, to shew the truth of the prophecy here delivered by St. John. (Grotius; Calmet)

Gill: Rev 6:8 - And I looked, and behold a pale horse // and his name that sat on him was Death // and hell followed with him // and power was given unto them // over the fourth part of the earth // to kill with the sword // and with hunger // and with death // and with the beasts of the earth

And I looked, and behold a pale horse,.... An emblem either of the state of the church, pale not with persecution, as some think, for through that it was red; but with the hypocrisy and superstition of many of its members, who were paving the way for the man of sin, and on account of whom the church was grown sickly and dying; or rather this is an emblem of the sickly and dying state of the Pagan Roman empire, through a complication of judgments upon it, hereafter mentioned, as war, famine, pestilence, and wild beasts:

and his name that sat on him was Death; not Satan, who has the power of death, but death itself; who is represented as a person, as he elsewhere is, sometimes as a king, Rom 5:14; and as an enemy, 1Co 15:25; see Isa 28:15; and this was a very ancient way of speaking of death among the Heathens; in the theology of the Phoenicians, according to Sanchoniathon ^k, who wrote before the Trojan wars, a son of Saturn by Rhea was called Muth, whom the Phoenicians sometimes called Death, and sometimes Pluto; which is manifestly the same with the Hebrew word מות, "death"; the name of the rider of this horse may well be called Death, both with respect to the various kinds of death under this seal, and with respect to the short lives of the emperors; for in less than fifty years' time, which is the period of this seal, namely, from Maximinus, A. D. 235, or 237, to Dioclesian, A. D. 284, or 286, there were more than twenty emperors, and who most of them were cut off by violent deaths; besides the thirty tyrants who sprung up under one of them, as so many mushrooms, and were soon destroyed. This is the only rider that has a name given him; and from hence we may learn what to call the rest, as the rider of the white horse "Truth", or Christ, who is truth itself; the rider of the red horse "War"; and the rider of the black horse "Famine": and because both the last, with other judgments, meet together under this seal, the rider of this horse is emphatically called "Death":

and hell followed with him: that is, the grave, which attended on death, or followed after him, and was a sort of an undertaker, to bury the dead killed by death; so these two are put together, Rev 1:18;

and power was given unto them; to death and hell, or the grave, or rather to death only, for the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, read, "to him": and the power that was given him reached

over the fourth part of the earth; not of the church, which is never called the earth in this book, but is distinguished from it, Rev 12:16; nor the land of Judea, but the Roman empire; some understand it of Europe, the fourth part of the world:

to kill with the sword; Maximinus, with whom this seal begins, was of a very barbarous disposition, and a more cruel creature, it is said, was not upon earth; and besides his persecution of the Christians, he acted a most inhuman part to the Pagan Romans themselves, so that the senate dreaded him; and the women and children at Rome, having heard of his barbarities, deprecated his ever seeing that city; and he was called by the names of the worst of tyrants; more than four thousand men he killed without any charge or judicial process against them, and yet his blood thirsty mind was not satisfied ^l: Gallienus, another emperor after him, emptied many cities entirely of men, and killed three or four thousand a day of his own soldiers, whom he understood had thoughts of a new emperor ^m; under him thirty tyrants sprung up together in the empire, who made great havoc before they were cut off; and in his time the Alemanni (a people in Germany) having wasted France, broke into Italy; Dacia, which beyond the Danube was added by Trajan (to the Roman empire) was lost; Greece, Macedonia, Pontus, and Asia, were destroyed by the Goths; Pannonia was depopulated by (the people called) Sarmatae and Quadi; the Germans penetrated into Spain, and took the famous city of Tarracon; the Parthians having seized Mesopotamia, began to claim Syria to themselves; so that, as the Roman historian observes ⁿ, things were now desperate, and the Roman empire was almost destroyed: not to take notice of the multitudes that were killed in after wars and persecutions, under other emperors, during this seal:

and with hunger; or famine; there was a grievous famine in the times of Gallus and Volusianus, which Dionysius bishop of Alexandria makes mention of ^o; and Cyprian, who lived under this seal, also speaks of famine, and indeed of all these three, war, famine, and pestilence, as then imputed to the Christians, and to their irreligion, which charge he removes ^p:

and with death; that is, with the pestilence, which, by the Targumist ^q, and other Jewish writers ^r, is commonly called מותנא, "death", because it sweeps away and carries off such large numbers with it: now in the reign of the last mentioned emperors was a very noisome pestilence, which raged most cruelly; the Roman historian says ^s, that their reign is only known, or was famous, for the pestilence, diseases, and sicknesses; Hostilianus, who was created emperor by the senate, died of it ^t; Dionysius of Alexandria has given a most shocking account of it, who lived at the same time ^u; it began in Ethiopia, and went through the east, and through all parts of the Roman empire, and lasted fifteen years; to which perhaps, for its large extent and long duration, there never was the like:

and with the beasts of the earth; by which many of the Christians were destroyed in the persecutions of those times; and is also one of God's four judgments, and which goes about with the sword, famine, and pestilence, Eze 14:21, and may be literally understood of destruction by wild beasts, as Arnobius, who lived at this time, observes ^w; or allegorically, of men comparable to wild beasts, as Herod is called a fox, and Nero a lion; and such savage creatures were most of the Roman emperors, and particularly the thirty tyrants under Gallienus: so the Targum on Jer 3:12; interprets "the beasts of the field", מלכי עממיא, "the kings of the nations". The Alexandrian copy reads, "and upon the fourth part of the beasts", as if the power of death reached to them as well as to men. Under this seal all the judgments of God on Rome Pagan meet together; and it is observable that Maximinus, a Roman emperor, and one of the last of the Pagans, boasted, that for worshipping of the gods, and persecuting Of the Christians, neither pestilence, famine, nor war, were in his times, when on a sudden all these three came together at once ^x; to which may be added the following observation, that though the several steps and methods which God took to punish, weaken, and destroy the Roman Pagan empire, were remarkably seen in the distinct periods to which these first four seals belong, yet they must not be entirely restrained and limited to these periods, as if they were not made use of in others; so though the Gospel proceeded with remarkable success under the first seal, in the times of the apostles, to the subduing of multitudes in the Roman empire, it was also preached with great success under the following seals; and though there were most grievous wars under the second seal, in the times of Trajan and Adrian, so there were also in after times; that was not the only period of war, though it was remarkably so; likewise there was a famine in the times of Claudius, under the first seal, Act 11:28; and in the time of Trajan, under the second seal ^y, and of Commodus ^z as well as under the third; and there were pestilences also in those times, as well as under the fourth seal; and because God did by each of these weaken, break, and at last bring to ruin that empire, they are showed to John one after another.