The Four Horsemen in the Book of Revelation

The apocalypse

The Book of Revelation has often been referred to as the apocalyptic book. Revelation is a translation of the Greek name apokalypsis. In Biblical terminology it has been described as a revelation in written form that reveals truths about the past, present or the future in highly symbolic terms. The apocalyptic message is given in dreams or visions that require the help of an angel to interpret. The message laden within has the intent of providing hope and encouragement for people in trials and tribulations. A scholarly description of an apocalypse is a work of literature framed as a narrative in which a revelation is passed from a superior being to a human being and discloses an impending reality which is both temporal and spatial. The Book of Revelation meets all these standards and can be regarded as an apocalyptic book ("Definitions of Apocalypse / Apocalyptic").

The Book of Revelation was written by John of Patmos in the year 96 A.D. ("When Was the Book of Revelation Written?”) At the time he was writing he was a prisoner of Rome at Patmos, an island in the Aegean Sea. He was held over his preaching about Jesus and the Roman Empire was aiming at silencing him ("Early Christians."). The roman ruler at the time was Domitian who was highly agitated that John was not killed. John was writing the Book of Revelation to Christians in the Roman Empire at a time that the early church was faced by persecution from Domitian. (“What are the seven seals, trumpets, and bowls of Revelation?”) At the time it served to interpret the various tribulations and suffering that the Christians and Christ’s martyrs were going through.

During the first century the rule of Augustus an adopted child of Caeser, the Roman Empire had ended a hundred year long civil war and gained internal peace. The coming in to power of Nerva and Trajan after Domitian was murdered further accelerated the growth of the empire. To the early Christians who were at the time facing...