Behold a Green Horse (Published in:- Hyponoia: Or, Thoughts on a Spiritual Understanding of the Apocalypse 1844)
'And lo, a pale horse.'—The word translated pale, CLWROS, is elsewhere rendered green; as Matt. vi. 39, Rev. viii. 7, green grass: and Rev. ix. 4, "every green thing." This Greek term occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and in the Septuagint it is cited only to express the colour, green. The reason for rendering the word pale in our translation, may be, that the term is supposed to be applicable to pale green; but grass green is not pale green, and we find it as much used in the description of dark green colours as of light. Our translators would probably say, that no one had ever seen a green horse, and, therefore, this could not be green; but they might as well say, that no one had seen an animal with seven heads and ten horns, and therefore the description in the Greek of the great red dragon should be rendered by some other terms. ["And I looked, and beholde a grene horsse, and his name that sat on him was Deeth."—(The Tyndale version of 1534, according to Bagster's Hexapla.)]
Green, however, is the colour here, and there must be as much reason for the green colour of this horse, as there is for the black, red, and white of the other horses. Metaphorically, green may be put for fresh, and signify strength; or, if it be a yellowish green, it may be put for fear, or something of a pallid colour; but according to the Septuagint, this word CLWROS, so far from signifying a pallid colour, is applied to a green flourishing tint, in opposition to a fading, or pale hue. It is not only applied to herbs, grass, and trees, it is used for them; as Gen. ii. 5, and Deut. xxix. 23, (see Trommii Concord. 687.)
The colour of a thing, in Scripture, is frequently put for the thing itself; as Gen. xxv. 30, give me some of that red, (that is, red pottage.) So, red is put for blood, white for light, and black for sackcloth. Grass, or herbage, generally is the covering of the earth, it is also the food furnished by the earth and it is strictly and immediately a product of the earth. Its beauty, and its goodness, are but transient; in the morning it springeth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth: as it is said, "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth." So, a drought destroys its nutritious qualities—it is incapable of withstanding the scorching heat of the sun. In all these particulars, there is an analogy between this green clothing of the earth and the pretended clothing of self-righteousness. Man weaves a garment of salvation, as he supposes, of his own merits, which endures but for a little time, and then vanishes away. The manifestation of the sun of righteousness is as the scorching heat to it—it is incapable of standing in the day of trial, when the fire of revealed truth burns as an oven. It is incapable, too, of furnishing the means of eternal life. Instead of sustaining the sinner, it sustains and gives power to the principles of his everlasting destruction. Thus the power, or horse, represented in this exhibition, is a figure of the power or tendency of self-righteous systems. This horse is distinguished by the clothing, the covering, the uniform, or livery, of these systems. The rider of this horse is sustained by this tendency of man's self-justification; as the rider of the white horse was sustained by the opposite principle of justification by the righteousness of Christ.
'And lo, a pale horse.'—The word translated pale, CLWROS, is elsewhere rendered green; as Matt. vi. 39, Rev. viii. 7, green grass: and Rev. ix. 4, "every green thing." This Greek term occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, and in the Septuagint it is cited only to express the colour, green. The reason for rendering the word pale in our translation, may be, that the term is supposed to be applicable to pale green; but grass green is not pale green, and we find it as much used in the description of dark green colours as of light. Our translators would probably say, that no one had ever seen a green horse, and, therefore, this could not be green; but they might as well say, that no one had seen an animal with seven heads and ten horns, and therefore the description in the Greek of the great red dragon should be rendered by some other terms. ["And I looked, and beholde a grene horsse, and his name that sat on him was Deeth."—(The Tyndale version of 1534, according to Bagster's Hexapla.)]
Green, however, is the colour here, and there must be as much reason for the green colour of this horse, as there is for the black, red, and white of the other horses. Metaphorically, green may be put for fresh, and signify strength; or, if it be a yellowish green, it may be put for fear, or something of a pallid colour; but according to the Septuagint, this word CLWROS, so far from signifying a pallid colour, is applied to a green flourishing tint, in opposition to a fading, or pale hue. It is not only applied to herbs, grass, and trees, it is used for them; as Gen. ii. 5, and Deut. xxix. 23, (see Trommii Concord. 687.)
The colour of a thing, in Scripture, is frequently put for the thing itself; as Gen. xxv. 30, give me some of that red, (that is, red pottage.) So, red is put for blood, white for light, and black for sackcloth. Grass, or herbage, generally is the covering of the earth, it is also the food furnished by the earth and it is strictly and immediately a product of the earth. Its beauty, and its goodness, are but transient; in the morning it springeth up, in the evening it is cut down and withereth: as it is said, "The grass withereth, and the flower thereof fadeth." So, a drought destroys its nutritious qualities—it is incapable of withstanding the scorching heat of the sun. In all these particulars, there is an analogy between this green clothing of the earth and the pretended clothing of self-righteousness. Man weaves a garment of salvation, as he supposes, of his own merits, which endures but for a little time, and then vanishes away. The manifestation of the sun of righteousness is as the scorching heat to it—it is incapable of standing in the day of trial, when the fire of revealed truth burns as an oven. It is incapable, too, of furnishing the means of eternal life. Instead of sustaining the sinner, it sustains and gives power to the principles of his everlasting destruction. Thus the power, or horse, represented in this exhibition, is a figure of the power or tendency of self-righteous systems. This horse is distinguished by the clothing, the covering, the uniform, or livery, of these systems. The rider of this horse is sustained by this tendency of man's self-justification; as the rider of the white horse was sustained by the opposite principle of justification by the righteousness of Christ.
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