The seven seals
1 ① I saw the Lamb opening the first of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures cry out, with a voice like thunder, “Come and see!”
2A white horse appeared, and its rider had a bow. He was crowned, and he went out as a conqueror, and he will conquer.
3When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature cry out, “Come!” 4Then, another horse the color of fire, came out. Its rider was ordered to take peace away from the earth, that people might kill one another; so he was given a great sword.
5When he opened the third seal, I heard the third creature cry out, “Come!” This time, it was a black horse, and its rider held a balance in his hand. 6Then from the midst of the four living creatures, a voice was heard: “A measure of wheat for a piece of silver, and three measures of barley for a piece, as well! Do not spoil the oil or the wine.”
7When he opened the fourth seal, I heard a cry from the fourth living creature, “Come!” 8A greenish horse appeared, its rider was called Death, and the Netherworld rode behind him. He was allowed to utterly destroy, by sword, famine, pestilence and wild beasts, a fourth of the inhabitants of the earth.
9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw, under the altar, the spirits of those who proclaimed the word of God and were slain for its sake. 10They began to cry aloud, “Holy and righteous Lord, how long will it be before you render justice and avenge our blood on the inhabitants of the earth?” 11Then each one of them was given a white garment, and they were told to wait a little while, until the number of their brothers and sisters, and fellow servants who would be killed, as they had been, would be completed.
12And my vision continued. When the Lamb opened the sixth seal, there was a violent earthquake. The sun became black as a mourning dress, and the whole moon turned blood-red, 13and the stars in the sky fell to the earth, like dry figs falling from a fig tree shaken by a hurricane. 14The sky was folded up like rolled parchment; there was no mountain or continent that was not removed from its place. 15The kings of the earth and their ministers, the generals, the rich and the powerful, and all the people, slaves, as well as free persons, hid in caves, or among rocks on the mountains, 16saying, “Fall on us, mountains and rocks, and hide us, for we are afraid of him who sits on the throne, and of the wrath of the Lamb. 17The great Day of his wrath has come, and who can endure it?”
- Rev 6,1 The Lamb opens the seals. The risen Christ explains the great forces that give an impulse to sacred history. At the time of John's writing, the birth of the Church meant that the Old Testament centuries were over and, on the other hand, the Jewish nation had been ruined. This was the time to think things over. The four horses symbolize the forces shaping biblical history. The rider of the white horse is the word of God. It represents God's words given to the prophets in the Old Testament. Christ, who is the word of God had not yet come; he would come later, riding the same white horse (Rev 19:11). The other three horses represent war, hunger and the plague. These are the great plagues troubling sinful people: they make them experience the need for God's salvation. With the fifth seal another invisible power is discovered, one that moves sacred history: the demand for justice for the blood of martyrs. These martyrs, prior to Christ, already share in his victory (that is why they wear a white garment); yet they must wait to be joined by other martyrs, the Christian martyrs of the early Church, for God to bring about his justice (see Mt 23:35). With the sixth seal we have the appearance of the signs and plagues which the prophets announced for the Day of the Lord, and which would be fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem (Mk 13:24).
