The Meaning of the Book of Revelation: the Four Horsemen
Par Jonathan S. Rose, Curtis Childs
Transparency is needed to sort things out. Before big change happens, God first reveals what’s really going on.
In the Book of Revelation - the last book of the Word - the apostle John describes a series of apocalyptic visions that he experienced during his exile on the Isle of Patmos, in the Aegean Sea.
In one of these visions, he saw four horsemen, the first riding a white horse, the second a red horse, the third a black, and the fourth - named Death - riding a pale horse. These "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" - oft-pictured - are described in Revelation 6:1-8.
What do these horses, and their riders, represent? What do they have to do with us, today? Watch as Curtis Childs and Jonathan Rose explore the hidden Bible meaning of the Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation, in this video from the Swedenborg and Life Series, from the Swedenborg Foundation.
Plus, to go straight to the source, follow the links below to the places in "Apocalypse Revealed" where Swedenborg explained the inner meaning of this famous Bible story. A good place to start would be Apocalypse Revealed 298.
(références: Apocalypse Explained 315; Apocalypse Revealed 262-263, 301, 306, 314, 316, 320, 322-323)
This video is a product of the Swedenborg Foundation. Follow these links for further information and other videos: www.youtube.com/user/offTheLeftEye and www.swedenborg.com
Arcana Coelestia #7711
7711. 'And there will be thick darkness over the land of Egypt' means total deprivation of truth and good. This is clear from the meaning of 'thick darkness' as total deprivation of truth and good. Various places in the Word mention 'darkness' (tenebrae) and also at the same time 'thick darkness' (caligo), and in those places 'darkness' has reference to falsity and 'thick darkness' to evil together with it. But the word that is used in this verse to express thick darkness denotes pitch-black darkness (tenebrae densissimae), which in the internal sense means the kinds of falsities that well up from evil. Such falsities arise with those who have belonged to the Church and led an evil life contrary to the commandments of religious belief which they knew. The evil from which those falsities well up is the opposite of the Church, the opposite of heaven, the opposite of the Lord, and so the direct opposite of goodness and truth. This state is now described by 'thick darkness'.
[2] The fact that 'darkness' and 'thick darkness' are mentioned together in the Word, and that 'darkness' means the deprivation of truth, while 'thick darkness' means the deprivation of both truth and good, may be recognized in the following places: In Isaiah,
Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us. We wait for light, but, behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in thick darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and as if without eyes we grope; we stumble at midday as if it were twilight; among the living we are like the dead. Isaiah 59:9-10.
'Judgement is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us' stands for the fact that there is no truth, and no good either, 'judgement' being used to refer to truth and 'righteousness' to refer to good, see 2235, 3997. 'Waiting for light' stands for awaiting truth, and 'waiting for brightness' stands for awaiting the good of truth since the brightness of light is derived from good. The fact that the expression 'darkness' is used in those verses as the opposite of 'light' and 'judgement', and so of truth, and 'thick darkness' as the opposite of 'brightness' and 'righteousness', and so of good, is self-evident. So it is that 'darkness' is the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' the deprivation of both truth and good. In Amos,
Is not the day of Jehovah darkness and not light, and thick darkness, [and] no brightness in it? Amos 5:20.
Here the meaning is similar. In Joel,
The day of Jehovah is coming, a day of darkness and thick darkness, a day of cloud and gloom. Joel 2:2.
[3] In Zephaniah,
The day of Jehovah a day of vastation and devastation, a day of darkness and thick darkness. Zephaniah 1:15.
'Darkness' stands for the deprivation of truth, and 'thick darkness' for the deprivation of both truth and good. If 'thick darkness' were no different in meaning from 'darkness' it would be a pointless repetition, which is far from being a feature of the holy Word. In the Word it is common for a pair of expressions to describe one particular thing, the first having reference to truth or falsity, the second to good or evil. A like example occurs in Isaiah,
He will look to the earth, and behold, anguish and darkness; [he will be one] benighted by anguish, and by a thick darkness of colliding. 1 Isaiah 8:11.
[4] 'Darkness' also means ignorance of the truth, such as exists among gentiles, and 'thick darkness' ignorance about what is good, in Isaiah,
On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of thick darkness and out of darkness the eyes of the blind will see. Isaiah 29:18.
In the same prophet,
If you satisfy the afflicted soul, your light will rise in the darkness, and your thick darkness will be as midday. Isaiah 58:10.
'Darkness' is falsities, see 7688.
Notes de bas de page:
1. The Latin caligine impulsus may mean collided with in darkness, or - as Swedenborg's reference to this text in 7711 can only mean - a thick darkness of colliding.
