3. Καὶ ὅτε ἤνοιξε τὴν σφραγ- 4 Sa τὴν δευτέραν, ἤκουσα τοῦ δευτέρου ζῴου λέγοντος, '΄ Ερχου”..
4. Καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἄλλος ἵππος πυρρός * ἐδόθη αὐτῷ λαβεῖν τὴν εἰρήνην ἐκ τῆς γῆς καὶ 5ἵνα Ἡ ἀλλήλους ε Εσφάξουσιν ' καὶ ἐδόθη αὐτῷ µάχαιρα µεγάλη.
40. Sib. Or. iii. 176, Verg. be EMER an ca Aen. iti- καὶ τῷ καθηµένω ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν 537f. ‘ t - (Servius), am. λεγ.
ate iar, 5. Καὶ ore ¢ xii. 3, an. λεγ.
h Mk, xiii. 8, etc., Ap. Bar. Ixx. 3, 4 Esd. vi. 24, xiii. 31, Sib, Or. ii. 156.
most dreaded form for inhabitants of the Eastern provinces. There is no need to find any definite reference to the raid of Vonones (Wetstein) or of Vologesus who invaded Syria in 61-63 Α.Ρ. The simple point of the vision is that the Parthians would be commissioned to make a suc- cessful foray, carrying all before them. The bow was the famous and dreaded weapon of these oriental cavalry ; Νικήτωρ was a title of Seleucus, and νικητής of the Persian satrap. One plausible hypothesis (developed by Erbes): refers the basis of the seal-visions to (a) the triumphs of Augustus and Tiberius, (6) the bloody feuds in Palestine under Caligula, (c) the famine in Syria under Claudius (Ac. xi.), (d) the subsequent pestilence, (6) the Neronic martyrs, and (7) the agitations of the empire under Galba, etc. (for portents cf. Plin. Ef. vi. 16, 20; Tacit. Hist. i. 4). Buta similar collocation of portents is found in the reign of Titus; and apart from the mis- interpretation of the first seal, it is arbi- trary and jejune to suppose that this prophet’s splendid, free reading of provi- dence was laboriously spelt out from details of more or less recent history.
Vv. 3, 4. The second seal opened : A swordsman representing (red = martial colour) war and bloodshed, “is permitted to make men slay one another”. The allusion to the merciless weapon (Plut. de Iside, 11) of the sword as Rome’s national arm thus places the Parthian and Roman empires side by side (τῆς γῆς generally, not Judaea in particular), but the vision of war is also connected directly with the two following visions of famine (5, 6) and mortality (from pesti- lence, 7, 8). The seven punishments drawn up by rabbinic theology (Pirke Aboth, v. 11 f.) were: three kinds of famine, pestilence, noisome beasts, and captivity or exile.
Vv. 5, 6, The third seal opened = famine.
Ver. 5. The spectral figure of Hunger
25
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390
1 Cf. Lam. iv. 8-9 (blood- lessness) :
“"Epxou’”’.
αἰανής and αἶθοψ for λιμός. k Prov. xvi. x1, Ezek. iv. 16, v. 1, xlv. το. κ ἡμερή- σιος τροφή (Diog. Laert. 8, 18, cf. Herod. vii. 251).
aor. of prohibition. ο Hom. II. viii. 479.