Revelation 6

6 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say, as with a voice of thunder, "Come!" 2And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and its rider had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.

The Lamb begins to open the Scroll, seal by seal, and every seal broken brings forth a judgement. The first four seals, popularly referred to as "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", seem specifically to refer to the sack of Jerusalem in AD 70, and symbolically describe the effects of a siege.

The first horseman, then, on the white horse, is the Emperor Titus.

3When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come!" 4And out came another horse, bright red; its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that men should slay one another; and he was given a great sword.

The second horseman, evidently, is the War.

5When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and its rider had a balance in his hand; 6and I heard what seemed to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; but do not harm oil and wine!"

The third horseman is the effects of the siege, the cutting off of resources to Jerusalem, resulting in famine.

7When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come!" 8And I saw, and behold, a pale horse, and its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him; and they were given power over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.

The fourth horseman is the death resulting from the first three. Scott Hahn writes about the Jewish War, saying,

...The Roman emperor Titus's armies laid siege to the city in the year A.D. 70. Siege brought on famine, pestilence, and strife, which we can see in the devastations wrought by the four angelic horsemen of Revelation 6, and by the seven angelic trumpeters of Revelation 8-9. In a manner less symbolic and more horrifically graphic, we can see these calamities described also in the writings of the Jewish historian Josephus, who was an eyewitness. Josephus describes Jerusalem so ravaged by famine that its mothers, mad with hunger, began to devour their own infants. (Hahn, Scott. The Lamb's Supper. [New York: Doubleday, 1999], p. 97.)

While the imagery is very descriptive of the Fall of Jerusalem, we should also note that the final meaning of the text is not limited to these events, but through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, typologically speak of the final judgement of the whole world. Over and over again, in the Book of Revelation, the city of Jerusalem prefigures and stands in for the entire world.

Verse 8 is also an allusion to Ezekiel 14:21, where God threatens the same punishment ("sword, famine, wild beasts and plague--to denude it of human and animal") on Jerusalem. However, in that passage, He also promises mercy and the survival of a faithful remnant ("even so, there will be a remnant left, a few men and women who come through"-Ezekiel 14:22, NJB). We will meet this remnant in Chapter 7.

9When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne; 10they cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before thou wilt judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell upon the earth?" 11Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been.

Here we have the martyrs who have died for their faith. They are found under the heavenly altar, and pray for the just judgement of God for the world. The white robe they are given, later in Revelation is described as their deeds, and they are told to wait, because more like them still had to suffer and die.

From this passage we see, for the first time, Heaven's Altar. This altar is the one on which Jesus continually presents Himself as Priest and Victim to God, and which we participate in in the Eucharist. We also see the souls of the dead there, who have been faithful to God, showing us that at death, the souls of the sanctified rest in Heaven with God. They are under the altar because their sacrifices have been joined to that of Christ, and they intercede for us in praying that God's Will be done on the earth.

Finally, we are reassured by their instruction to wait a while, for the rest "who were to be killed as they themselves had been." This is reassuring not because of their deaths, but because, through all the violence and death being described, we see first, God has a plan and is in absolute control, and second, that there is a blessed reward for the faithful, even when they must suffer for that faith.

This seal introduces these saints as further evidence against Jerusalem (and the world), pointing to their just judgement.

12When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale; 14the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the generals and the rich and the strong, and every one, slave and free, hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?"

The opening of the sixth seal gives the judgements a more definitively universal scope. Verses 12-14 allude to Isaiah 34:1-4, in which God begins to judge the world on behalf of its treatment of His people, hence this judgement following on the fifth seal and the martyrs. Verses 15 and 16 allude to Hosea 10:8 and Isaiah 2:10-19, to the judgement of the idolatry of ancient Israel. Condemnation of idolatry is a major theme in Revelation. God's final judgement is destruction on those who have traded in their worship of Him for worship of His Creation, but everlasting reward for those who have sought Him and served Him faithfully.

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