The Revelation Explained / An Exposition, Text by Text, of the Apocalypse of St. John

by F. G. Smith

It may appear at first that taking the rider of the horse as a symbolic agent but the killing which he effected as literal, is an inconsistency and a variation from the laws of symbolic language; but such is not necessarily the case. One principle laid down in the beginning was, that the description of an object or event must necessarily be literal when no symbolic object could be found to analagously represent it. The destruction of human life could not well be represented symbolically, there being no destruction analagous to it whose meaning would be obvious; hence it must appear as a literal description. This is proved by many texts in the Revelation that will admit of no other application; such as verses [9-11] of this chapter; chapter [13:10]; [17:6]; etc.

But the literal destruction of life may be chosen as a symbol to represent a destruction to which it is plainly analagous; such as the destruction of spiritual life, the overthrow of the civil or ecclesiastical institutions of society, etc. That it is sometimes employed thus as a symbol will be shown clearly in subsequent chapters. Hence, in every instance where killing men is the work of a symbolic agent, the context, or general series of events with which it is connected, must determine whether the literal or symbolical signification is intended. In the present prophecy under consideration it is much more consistent to give it the literal application; for the devotees of Paganism did not destroy the spiritual life of the church, which would be an analagous killing; neither did they succeed in overthrowing the structure of Christianity.

5. And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

6. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

This symbol is also that of a horseman, differing from the preceding ones only in his characteristics. He is seated upon a black horse, denoting something dark or appalling in its nature, the very opposite of that of the first seal. He possesses no bow nor crown, but instead he has a pair of balances in his hand for weighing food. This he deals out only at exorbitant prices—"a measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny." The penny, or denarius, is equal to about fifteen cents of our money, and was the ordinary wages of a day laborer. In the parable of our Lord recorded in Mat. 20, the householder is represented as hiring laborers for a penny a day to labor in his vineyard. The measure, or choenix, of wheat was the usual daily allowance of food for a man. So according to the rate given, it would require a day's labor to supply food sufficient for one man, which shows an enormous price placed upon these necessaries of life. In ordinary times the penny would procure about twenty measures of wheat instead of one, and fifty or sixty measures of barley instead of three. Surely this represents famine prices.

The expression "see thou hurt not the oil and the wine" seems to have some direct connection with the exorbitant schedule of food rates. The following facts of history, as recorded by Lord, will serve to make the matter clear: "The taxes required in the Roman empire, to sustain the court and civil service, the army and desolating wars, and the hungry brood of office-holders, as well as to provide largesses to the soldiers, were excessive in the extreme, so as to prove an almost insupportable burden to the people. The ordinary and economical expenses of the government were great; but when we take into view that during a period of seventy-two years previous to Diocletian, there were twenty-six individuals who held the imperial crown, besides a great number of unsuccessful aspirants, and that each of these must secure the favor of the army and the people by large donations of money, we may well conceive that the taxes and exactions laid to raise the needed amount must have proved a crushing burden. They were so great as sometimes to strip men of their wealth and reduce them to poverty. These were laid upon everything that could be brought into service. Nothing was too insignificant to escape.... The taxes might be paid in money, or in produce, grain, fruit, oil, or whatever else it might be;... The exactions were so excessive that the people were led to avoid them in every possible mode, as men always will under such circumstances." Once in fifteen years, a Roman indiction, an assessor would go round to levy upon the products of the soil, and the assessment was made according to the amount of the yield. One method adopted to secure a lower assessment at this time was that of mutilating their fruit trees and vines. We find among the Roman laws severe enactments against such as "feign poverty, or cut a vine, or stint the fruit of a tree" in order to avoid a fair valuation, and the penalty attached was the death of the offender and the confiscation of all his property. The fact that this law existed shows that the offense was committed and also that the exactions of the government must have been of the most oppressive kind.

With these facts before us it is easy to discern the nature of the symbol, being that of a Roman magistrate prepared to enforce his severe exactions upon the people at the exorbitant rate of three measures of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, accompanied by the solemn injunction, "See thou hurt not the oil and the wine," that is, the olive-trees and the vines.

It is evident that we must, as before, go out of the department of civil and military life into the realm of ecclesiastical history to find the true fulfilment of this symbol. The black color of the horse would denote something directly opposite to that of the first seal; and since the symbol of the first seal represented the establishment of the pure gospel of Jesus Christ, this symbol must represent the great apostasy and spiritual darkness that covered the world at a later period. And if the horseman of the first seal represented the chosen ministry who went forth in a glorious mission to win trophies of grace, the horseman of this seal must represent an apostate ministry, possessing power and authority to enforce the severest exactions upon the bread of life, thus producing a desolating spiritual famine.

This marvelous change from the humble apostolic ministry to an apostate one did not occur suddenly, but by degrees; and as it has a great bearing upon other lines of truth to be brought out in subsequent chapters, it will be profitable to consider the most important steps by which this transformation was effected.

When the desire for precedence or superiority first manifested itself among the disciples, Christ repressed it (Mat. 20:25, 26), and it appeared no more in their midst; but before the close of the first century it is evident that a thirst for preeminence existed in the hearts of some who had been the servants of the church. An example of this is to be found in Diotrephes, who exalted himself above his ministerial associates. The Apostle John says concerning him: "I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words: and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church." 3 John 9, 10.