Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

This article is about the concept in the Bible. For other uses, see Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (disambiguation).
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an 1887 painting by Viktor Vasnetsov.
From left to right are Death, Famine, War, and Conquest; the Lamb is at the top.
Marcin Kitz, Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1941)
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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse[1] are figures in the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible, a piece of apocalypse literature attributed to John of Patmos, and generally regarded as dating to about AD 95. Similar allusions are contained in the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Zechariah, written about six centuries prior. Though the text only provides a name for the fourth horseman, subsequent commentary often identifies them as personifications of Conquest (Zelos), War (Martius), Famine (Limos), and Death (Thánatos or Móros).

Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Lamb of God/Lion of Judah opens the first four of the seven seals, which summons four beings that ride out on white, red, black, and pale horses. All of the horsemen save for Death are portrayed as being human in appearance.

In John's revelation the first horseman rides a white horse, carries a bow, and is given a crown as a figure of conquest,[2][3] perhaps invoking pestilence, or the Antichrist. The second carries a sword and rides a red horse as the creator of (civil) war, conflict, and strife.[4] The third, a food merchant, rides a black horse symbolizing famine and carries the scales.[5] The fourth and final horse is pale, upon it rides Death, accompanied by Hades.[6] "They were given authority over a quarter of the Earth, to kill with sword, famine and plague, and by means of the beasts of the Earth."[7]

Christianity typically interprets the Four Horsemen as a vision of harbingers of the Last Judgment, setting a divine end-time upon the world.[8][9]

  1. ^ "four horsemen of the apocalypse". Britannica. Archived from the original on 2023-01-13. Retrieved 2022-07-19.
  2. ^ Flegg, Columba Graham (1999). An Introduction to Reading the Apocalypse. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780881411317. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
  3. ^ Hieronymous Sophronius, Eusebius (405). Biblia Sacra Vulgata (in Latin). Apocalypsis 6,2.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lenski was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference RMounce was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Apocalypse of John", The King James Bible, retrieved 2023-11-05
  7. ^ "Revelation, Chapter 6". United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archived from the original on 2023-01-13. Retrieved 2020-03-21.
  8. ^ Compare: Flegg, Columba Graham (1999). An Introduction to Reading the Apocalypse. Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. p. 90. ISBN 9780881411317. Retrieved 2021-10-27. The sword, famine, and pestilence are the traditional list of the three plagues of God's wrath, which we find in Ezechiel 6; and in Ezekiel 14 we read of God's judgments upon Jerusalem in the forms of the sword, famine, the noisome beast, and pestilence, together with the promise that a remnant shall be spared – another important theme in the Apocalypse.
  9. ^ "CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Apocalypse". Newadvent.org. 1907-03-01. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12. Retrieved 2021-10-27. At the opening of four seals, four horses appear. Their colour is white, black, red, and pale/sallow (chloros, piebald). They signify conquest, slaughter, dearth and death. The vision is taken from Zechariah 6:1–8.