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 Similar allusions are contained in the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Zechariah , written about six centuries prior. Revelation 6 tells of a book or scroll in God 's right hand that is sealed with seven seals. 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.
Christianity typically interprets the Four Horsemen as a vision of harbingers of the Last Judgment , setting a divine end-time upon the world. Then I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals , and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, "Come! The above passage is a common English translation of the rider of the White Horse sometimes referred to as the White Rider.
For the broad historical interpretation of Christ as the rider of the white horse, it is to be understood that the Antichrist does not appear until the opening of the sixth seal. Therefore, this interpretation can be seen as either partially preterist , or an instance of dual fulfillment. In the New Testament, the Book of Mark indicates that the advance of the gospel may precede and foretell the apocalypse.
Besides Christ, the Horseman could represent the Holy Spirit. 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. In , [ 14 ] when C. Zimpel defended the hypothesis that the first horseman was the Antichrist and more precisely, according to him, Napoleon Bonaparte.
