hotcoffee
New Member
Revelation 6:1 I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, “Come!” 2 I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Well the commentaries weren't very helpful. They seem to agree that it's doubtful the rider of the first horse is Jesus. They don't know what the rider was riding out to conquer. In fact, the commentaries hint that the rider was the anti-christ or false prophets. The problem is, why would Jesus send the anti-christ to conquer after Jesus had just conquered death for our salvation?
Here's a thought... Who put the seals on the scroll in the first place? If the scroll is the fate of mankind, then who sealed our fate? When I was a child, we made a scroll in Vacation Bible School. [Funny how some activities make an impact on children]. We wrote Bible verses on the parchment, rolled the parchment around a wooden dowel that the teacher had painted gold, and then we got to put a wax seal on it. To this day, whenever I see a seal on a document, I think of that scroll and what I learned that year in VBS.
So maybe when Jesus breaks the seal, it's not Jesus sending out the white horse and rider. Maybe we're being reminded of who sealed the fate of man in the first place. After all.... there a multitude of shades of white and I'm not sure I've ever seen a pure white.
All of the commentaries agree that the rider had a bow. They all agree the bow is a symbol of war or power or conquest. I read three commentaries and each came up with a different word for the bow.
Verse 2 says "he was given a crown". In another version [maybe KJV] it says "they gave him a crown". Who gave him a crown? I'm pretty sure it wasn't Jesus or the Father who gave this rider a crown. Seems John would have spent some time on that kind of auspicious coronation, right? But alas, that's just my interpretation.
However, one of the commentaries, does give us the original Greek word used. According to that commentary the original Greek word used was stephanos as opposed to diadema. A stephanos crown is a garland crown while a diadema crown is the standard gold crown.
On top of that, the commentaries agree that Jesus will ride a white horse later in Revelation 19. He will wear many crowns of the diadema [or gold] type.
So here's how I see it. Remember, I'm only a reader and I may be wrong, but here's how I see it. The believing in the words of the false prophets were the first seal on our fate. The false prophets rode a white horse like the one Jesus would ride, they conquered us with fake teaching that was like the teachings of Jesus, and they wore a crown like the one that was fashioned for Jesus while He was being tortured before He was crucified. Maybe this is a case of a horse of a similar color!
