The Meaning of the Book of Revelation: the Four Horsemen
By 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.
(References: 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
De Verbo (The Word) #4
4. IV. The Word is holy, even in its characters and points.
I once had a paper sent me from heaven written in the Hebrew alphabet, but as in the most ancient texts, where the letters, which today are to some extent composed of straight lines, were then curved with serifs pointing upwards. An angel who was with me said that he knew whole meanings simply from the letters, and each letter has its own particular meaning. They knew this from the curves of the lines in each letter, in addition to the subject which they knew separately from the letter as a whole. He then explained to me the meaning of yod (י), aleph (א) and he (ה), the two letters separately and when put together. He said that he, which is in [YHWH], and which was added to the names of Abraham and Sarah [Genesis 17:5, 15] meant what is infinite and eternal. He said that in many places the Word is so written; and when it is read in the Hebrew text by a Jew or a Christian, the meaning of the individual letters is known in the third heaven. For the angels of the third heaven have the Word written in such letters, and they read it letter by letter. They said that in the sense to be drawn from the letters the Word deals only with the Lord. The reason is that the curves in the letters derive from the flow of heaven, which influences especially the angels of the third heaven. Those angels therefore have an innate knowledge of this script, because they are subject to the order of heaven and live altogether in accordance with it. 1
[2] They explained to me also the meaning of Psalm 32:2 in the Word from the letters or syllables alone, and said that their meaning might be summarised as 'the Lord is merciful even to those who do evil'. They went on to say that the vowels there are to denote the sound corresponding to the affection. They could not pronounce the vowels i and e, but for i they pronounce y 2 or eu, for e they say eu. They use the vowels a, o and u, because these vowels give a full sound, but i and e a close sound. Also they do not pronounce some consonants with a hard, but a soft sound, and hard letters such (daleth) and (qoph), 3 etc. have no meaning for them unless pronounced softly. This too is the reason why many hard letters are also used with points inside them, meaning that [they are pronounced with a hard sound, but without a point] they are pronounced with a soft sound. 4 They added that hardness in letters is in use in the spiritual heaven, because those there are in possession of truths, and have understanding by their means. But in the celestial heaven all are in possession of the good of love and consequently of wisdom, and truth allows hardness, but good does not. These facts may establish what is the meaning of the Lord's saying that not a jot or a tittle or a serif will pass away from the Law (Matthew 5:18; Luke 16:17); and it is also clear from these facts that the Lord's Divine Providence ensured that all the letters in the Hebrew text of the Word were counted by the Massoretes.
Footnotes:
1. On the heavenly scripts see further, in nos. 14[4] and 26[3] in this version of this translation. In the printed version see nos. 33, 62. [NCBS Editor's note: This online version of Dr. Chadwick's translation was renumbered to match others on the site, with fewer main sections, and more subsections nested in them.]
The Author uses language appropriate to the alphabetical scripts he knew, but it is clear that he is really describing ideographic scripts similar to Chinese, where each character has a meaning rather than primarily a sound. -Translator
2. As in French u or German. -Translator
3. Probably an error for kaph. -Translator
4. The letters b, g, d, k, p, t seem to be meant, since in Hebrew these are pronounced as spirants except when they have a dot in the middle. The correction is due to B. Rogers. -Translator
