As Roman Empire prosperity įour horsemen, by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1860 It remains popular in evangelical circles today, for example with Pastor Billy Graham, for whom the horseman represented the Antichrist or false prophets in general. The Antichrist interpretation later found champions in the United States, such as R. Zimpel defended the hypothesis that the first horseman was the Antichrist (and more precisely, according to him, Napoleon Bonaparte). Still, a completely different interpretation of this character emerged in 1866, when C.F. As the Antichrist įor nearly nineteen centuries, Christians thought that the first horseman was a positive figure representing Christ or the Gospel. The appearance of the Lion in Revelation 5 shows the triumphant arrival of Jesus in Heaven, and the first Horseman may represent the sending of the Holy Spirit by Jesus and the advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit was understood to have come upon the Apostles at Pentecost after Jesus departed Earth. īesides Christ, the Horseman could represent the Holy Spirit. The color white also tends to represent righteousness in the Bible, and Christ is portrayed as a conqueror in other instances. Furthermore, earlier in the New Testament, the Book of Mark indicates that the advance of the gospel may precede and foretell the apocalypse. Various scholars have since supported this notion, citing the later appearance, in Revelation 19, of Christ mounted on a white horse, appearing as The Word of God. Irenaeus, an influential Christian theologian of the 2nd century, was among the first to interpret this Horseman as Christ himself, his white horse representing the successful spread of the gospel. White Horse Īlbrecht Dürer, Knight, Death and the Devil, 1513 '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.' Ĭhristianity sometimes interprets the Four Horsemen as a vision of harbingers of the Last Judgment, setting a divine end-time upon the world.

The fourth and final horse is pale, upon it rides Death, accompanied by Hades. The third, a food merchant, rides a black horse symbolizing famine and carries the scales. The second carries a sword and rides a red horse as the creator of (civil) war, conflict, and strife. In John's revelation the first horseman rides a white horse, carries a bow, and is given a crown as a figure of conquest, perhaps invoking pestilence, Christ, or the Antichrist. 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.

Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are figures in the Christian scriptures, first appearing in the Book of Revelation, a piece of apocalypse literature written by John of Patmos.

War the four horsemen