Some scholars see the first beast as an indirect allusion to Leviathan, a sea monster often associated with chaos that has precedents in ancient Near Eastern myths. Each of these animals evokes older traditions and myths to create new symbolic meanings.
In another example, a dragon, two beasts, and a lamb appear in Rev 13:1-18. Ancient apocalyptic texts often employ animal imagery symbolically, (re)using earlier traditions in order to address current concerns. Scholars often note that the author(s) of Rev 6:1-8 reused horse imagery from the book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., Zech 1:7-11, Zech 6:1-8). Usually, interpreters understand that white equals conquest, red stands for war, black for famine, and pale (a green or grey color) for disease and death in other words, the horses symbolize what might take place during the end times. Within Revelation, the horses-white, red, black, and pale-function as symbols. Though often strange to contemporary readers, animal imagery was one way that the writers of ancient apocalyptic texts addressed real-life concerns.įound only in Rev 6:1-8, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse remain among the most enduring images from the book of Revelation and continue to appear across popular culture: a regular segment was named after them on The Colbert Report, Marvel Comics uses the supervillains dubbed “Horsemen of Apocalypse,” and Viktor Vasnetov’s painting is often instantly recognized as depicting the “Four Horsemen.” Horses, lambs, rams, goats, bulls, leopards, eagles, and more-animals practically leap from the pages of ancient apocalyptic literature.
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