—5-
βροντὴς, ° “"Epxou”’.
‘ . “| 5 2. Kat εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἵππος “λευκός, καὶ © *¥!
389
Vel es i
κ ‘ A \ ed 6 καθήµενος ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν ἔχων "τόξον ' καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ στέφανος, καὶ να
ἐξῆλθε νικῶν καὶ ἵνα νικήση.
g Cf. on iii. 9.
Wiss. (1907), 290-316. But the proofs are fanciful and vague, though they converge upon the view that the colours of the steeds at least had originally some planetary significance. The series, as usual, is divided into the first four and the second three members. The general contents of vi. 1-8 denote various but not successive phases of woe (only too familiar to inhabitants of the astern provinces) which were to befall the em- pire and the East during the military convulsions of the final strife between Rome and Parthia. The ‘‘ primum omen,” for John as for Vergil, is a white horse, ridden by an archer.
Ver. 2. White = royal and victorious colour, cf. the white horse of the Persian kings (Philostr. Vit. Ap. i.). The tri- umphant figure of the mounted bowman is by no means to be identified with that of the Christian messiah or of the gospel. It would be extremely harsh and con- fusing to represent the messiah as at once the Lamb opening the seal and a figure independently at work. The initial period of the gospel was not one of irresistible triumph, and matters have become too acute for John to share the belief voiced in Mark xiii. 10. Besides, the messiah could hardly be described as preceding the signs of his own advent, nor would he be on the same plane as the following figures. The vision is a tacit antithesis, not an anticipation, of xix. 11 f.; the triumph of the world which opens the drama is rounded off by an infinitely grander triumph won by Christ.—vicov κ. κ.τ.λ. John was too open-eyed to ignore the fact that other forces, besides the Christian gospel, had a success of their own on earth. What is this force? Not the Roman Empire, as if the four steeds represented the first four emperors (so, variously, Renan, Spitta, Weiz- sacker), but a raid of the Parthians (so most edd. from Vitringa to Erbes, Vdlter, Holtzm., Bousset, Bruston, Ramsay, Scott), which represented war in its