The relative peace in the Roman heavenlies of the white horse seal epoch ends suddenly in the madness and vice of Commodus. After surviving an assassination attempt in the third year of his reign, treachery, murder and bloodshed become the theme of Commodus’ rule and the subsequent age.
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Rumination has the following definitions: “the act of thinking carefully and for a long period about something” and “the act of bringing up food from the stomach and chewing it again”. Yet, are these definitions really that different? One is the ‘chewing over’ of an idea in the mind, the other of food in the stomach. The eating definition is associated with a group of animals called ruminants, including cattle, sheep, goats, deer, giraffes, camels, and llamas. Being a ruminant was one of the requirements of clean animals under the Law (Lev 11:3; Deut 14:6), where “chewing the cud” is simply another way of saying rumination.
The first seal
“Now I watched when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, ‘Come!’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer.” (Rev 6:1-2 ESV)
The white horse
Brethren Barker and Boulton[1] wrote: “The horse is intended to indicate that the events represented by the symbols were to take place within the Roman Empire. Roman coins bearing the figure of a horse and the word ‘Roma’ are referred to as supporting this view…[So] the horses of the first four seals cannot represent Rome, but certain forces which were to be in active operation against…the Roman Empire, ‘the earth’. The colours of the horses representing the character of the events rather than the state of the Empire”.
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The Apostle Peter wrote in his second letter about the enduring power and value of the prophetic word and the divine operation of the Holy Spirit on its authors.
“And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:19-21 ESV)[1].
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In our postmodern times, most people regard prophecy with a great deal of scepticism. This was not the case in the ancient Greek world. People frequently consulted an oracle to know what to do in the future. Herodotus, in the 5th century BC, records a significant number of prophecies issued by the o…
Early history
Corinth, or more accurately Korinthos, is a very ancient city, thought to have been inhabited from 900BC onwards. Homer records in The Iliad (690BC)—alluding to the mythical origins of Corinth—the list of ships that went to fight against Troy, one of which was from Corinth, which …
The Epicurians
In the previous article we considered some of the overlap of the Bible with the Stoick doctrines. In this article we will briefly consider the Epicurean doctrines. The Epicureans, like other philosophers, liked to discuss different ideas about how the world worked to find the true pu…
The fate of the Persian fleet
At the same time the battle of Thermopylae was taking place, a naval battle was taking place in the straits of Artemisium. This conflict consisted of a series of naval engagements over three days and took place simultaneously with the land battle at Thermopylae, in Aug…
Background
Athens is said to have been continuously inhabited since about 3000BC, though in reality probably not long after the flood in about 2500BC. The original city was built on a fortress shaped rock, the Acropolis. As the city grew buildings appeared around the Acropolis with the most importa…
Miletus, pronounced Milly-tos in Greek, is thought to have been inhabited from very ancient times. It was originally located on the tip of a peninsular on the western shore of Turkey overlooking a bay with good harbours. Over many years, however, silt from the nearby river Meander overflowed the bay…
