Revelation 6:2

A white horse. The symbols of the four horses in the first four seals (vs. 2–8) have often been compared with the four horses in Zechariah’s vision (Zech. 6:2, 3). There are some similarities in the symbolism employed, but there are also dissimilarities. The order in which the horses are named is different. In Revelation the horses bear riders; in Zechariah they draw chariots. The application of the symbols is also quite dissimilar (see on Zech. 6).

Commentators have held two main views with regard to the interpretation of the first horse and its rider. One group understands this symbol as representing the church in the apostolic age (c. A.D. 31–100), when its purity of faith (suggested by the color white) and its zeal led it forth to make the greatest spiritual conquests in Christian history. Probably no century since the first of the Christian Era has seen such brilliant expansion of the kingdom of God. The bow in the rider’s hand would symbolize conquest, and the crown (stephanos; see on Rev. 2:10), victory. So swiftly was the gospel carried that when writing to the Colossians about the year A.D. 62 Paul declared that the good news had been “preached to every creature which is under heaven” (Col. 1:23).

Another group of commentators believes that the horses and riders do not represent the church as such but that they represent various adverse conditions under which the church has lived and through which, by God’s grace, it has survived. In Biblical symbolism the horse is connected with war (see Joel 2:1, 4, 5), and the equipment of the horseman on the white horse indicates that the rider is a warrior. Both the crown of the rider and the whiteness of the horse may be understood as implying victory. Thus the first horseman is taken to represent a time when the people of God lived in a world characterized by military conquest and dominion, when Rome, going forth “conquering, and to conquer,” maintained the leading world power.

Seventh-day Adventists have generally held that the first horse represents the church in the apostolic age.

A bow. A sign of warfare.

Crown. Gr. stephanos (see on ch. 2:10).

Conquering, and to conquer. Literally, “conquering, and that he might conquer.” This implies continued victory.