Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear in the Book of Revelation, a New Testament work of apocalyptic writing credited to John of Patmos and thought to have been composed around AD 95. Earlier echoes of these figures can be found in the Old Testament books of Ezekiel and Zechariah, which were written hundreds of years before. While the biblical text itself names only the fourth rider, later interpretations have commonly labeled them as Conquest, War, Famine, and Death.

According to Revelation chapter 6, a scroll sealed with seven seals rests in God’s right hand. When the Lamb of God, also called the Lion of Judah, breaks the first four seals, four beings are summoned, each riding a horse of a different color: white, red, black, and pale. Except for Death, all the horsemen are described as having human forms.

The first rider appears on a white horse, carrying a bow and receiving a crown, representing conquest—possibly linked to the Antichrist. The second rides a red horse, wielding a sword, and embodies war, conflict, and strife. The third, a merchant of food, rides a black horse and carries a pair of scales, symbolizing famine.

Destroying an empire

The fourth horse is pale, and its rider is Death, accompanied by Hades. These four are granted authority over a quarter of the earth to kill by sword, famine, plague, and wild beasts. In Christian tradition, the Four Horsemen are generally seen as heralds of the Last Judgment, signaling a divine end to the world.

As Christ, the Gospel, or the Holy Spirit

The white horse and its rider are described in a common English translation: when the Lamb opens the first seal, one of the four living creatures calls out, “Come!” A white horse appears, and its rider holds a bow and is given a crown, going out to conquer. The rider is sometimes interpreted as Christ, the Gospel, or the Holy Spirit. In this view, the Antichrist does not appear until the sixth seal, and the earlier horses represent events in Christian history.

The color white often symbolizes righteousness in the Bible, and Christ is elsewhere portrayed as a conqueror. Alternatively, the rider could represent the Holy Spirit, sent to the Apostles at Pentecost after Jesus’s ascension. Another interpretation, popular in evangelical circles, identifies the first horseman as the Antichrist or false prophets—a view championed by figures like C. F. Zimpel in 1866, who specifically linked it to Napoleon Bonaparte, and later by R. F. Franklin, W. C. Stevens, and Billy Graham.

As Roman Empire prosperity

Some commentators see the white horse as symbolizing war waged on moral grounds, while the red horse represents civil war. In Edward Bishop Elliott’s reading, the four horsemen foretell the history of the Roman Empire: the white horse signifies a period of prosperity under emperors Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius.

As infectious disease

This era saw expansion, good governance, and military victories, such as Trajan’s conquests of Dacia, Armenia, and Mesopotamia, and the successful conclusion of the Parthian and Marcomannic Wars. Another interpretation, found as early as 1906 in the Jewish Encyclopedia, associates the first horseman with pestilence and infectious disease, a view common in modern popular culture. The origin of this reading is unclear, though some Bible translations render “plague” in related passages.