We have looked at the 2nd, Red Horse(man) and given 3 possible past/present/future candidate matches. We will now look at the 3rd, Black Horse(man).
Revelation 6:
"And when he opened the seal (the) 3rd I heard the 3rd living creature (man/angel) saying come! And I looked and behold a horse black and the (one) sitting on it having a pair of scales/balances in the hand of him. And I heard (something) like a voice in (the) midst of the 4 living creatures saying a choenix/silver-piece / measure/litre/quart/kilogram of wheat for a denarius/penny/day's-wages and 3 choenixes of barley for a denarius/penny/days-wages and the oil and the wine not you should injure."
Zechariah 6:
"In the 1st chariot (were) red horses; and in the 2nd chariot black horses; .... .... The black horses which are therein go forth/out into/toward the north country; and the white will go forth after them; and the grissled/dappled go/went forth toward the south country."
The 3rd Black Horseman of Revelation 6 is usually/often presumed to be "famine". This might be right, but I have some doubts and am not so certain as others are. The verses do not necessarily imply famine, they could imply inflation or other similar things.
We have these possible candidates for the Black horseman:
famine/starvation.
inflation / (Great) depression / slump.
Industrial Revolution / Industrialism.
Capitalism.
The Black Plague/Death.
Libra.
Let us look at some reasons for each candidate.
Famine/starvation is possible because:
The wheat and barley for a penny/day's-wages may imply shortage of grain due to famine or war.
Famine can come after war (red horse?) Alot of Europeans were suffering starvation after WW2.
The black colour of the horse could relate to death which is associated with starvation, and/or with plague (which came after war (red horse?)).
3rd horseman could match 3rd world (which has more problems with food shortage and famine)?
Barley could link with barley sugars (40 hour famine).
The 4th "pale" horseman verses also mention famine.
Inflation/Recession/Depression/Slump/Crash is possible because:
The verses speaking of scales and a measure of wheat/barley for a penny could be due to either shortage of wheat/barley (famine) or a prices/wages/employment/production/trade problem (inflation).
Inflation and the Great Depression/Slump (black horse?) came after WWI (red horse?)
The voice coming from amidst the 4 living creatures could relate to the stock market, and/or inflation & the Great Depression/Slump (which effected 28 or more countries around the 4 quarters of the world)?
The black colour could relate to Black Thursday and Black Tuesday & the Great Depression or Black Friday 1873 & Long Depression. "Black friday also refers to any particularly disastrous day on financial markets. The first Black Friday (1869)...." In the financial world the term black day often refers to a dramatic drop in the stock market. The term Black day usually refers to a tragic date. The Latin niger "black" also meant "bad, impropitious". Black also relates to mourning and evil/darkness which both fit the depression and suffering of many people.
The 3rd horseman could relate to Tuesday being the 3rd day of week in biblical world view. Wheat that is mentioned in the biblical verse also figures in the Great Depression: "Hardest hit were wheat, ...", "world prices for commodities such as wheat... plunged" (ref Great Depression, Wikipedia). Wheat is also especially associated with bread which may represent daily bread and livelihood/income.
The oil and wine part of the Black Horse verses might imply the rich/wealthy who were presumably not as hurt by the Great Depression as the poor. The wine might also link with "The Grapes of Wrath" associated with the Great Depression?
"Galloping inflation" could also match the black horse of the 3rd horseman of Revelation?
The Great Depression of 1929 seems a good candidate. But there are also some other candidates: Black Friday 1869, the Long Depression 1873, the severe economic crisis following the collapse of the USSR (red horse?) 1990s, the Great Recession 2008. But they are not all associated with Black and not all following a great world war (red horse).
The Industrial Revolution and Industrialism are possible because:
Inflation is associated with industrialism.
The colour black could be from coal or soot or smog/pollution.
Industrialism came before/during/after socialism (red horse?) came (some time between Napoleon and WWI).
The black horse in Zechariah is toward the north, which is where Europe & the US in some other biblical passages, and it is in Europe & USA where industrialism & capitalism originated, and were the Great Depression hit the most.
Capitalism is possible because:
The scales and day's wages and "don't harm the oil and wine" can relate to gap between rich/wealthy/haves/elite and the poor/disadvantaged.
The 3rd horseman is associated with the 3rd living creature which has face of a man/angel which could fit capitalism?
Black horse could link with prevalence of black/charcoal/dark & grey or brown suits/clothes in modern corporate/business world (esp in some places like NZ) (and by extension black shirts/uniforms of fascism which some group with capitalism), and with the soot/smog/pollution of industrialism which is associated with capitalism. Black can also relate to evil/darkness and power/authority and conspiracy and elegant fashion and anti-social and servitude/slavery which all link with capitalism/corporatism/commercialism/consumerism. "Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving Day...) is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. ... "Black Friday" indicates the point in the year that retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black", because of the large volume of sales on that day." Black is also the most common colour for limosines and official cars of government officials. The tuxedo was always black until the 1930s.
Libra is possible because:
The scales/balance could match Libra.
Libra might link with statue of Liberty of America (which country is especially linked with capitalism, and stock market, and great depression etc, as well as also with crops agriculture).
The reasons why the Black Plague/Death may have been possible are because:
Black is the colour of death.
The Black Plague is depicted as a reaper riding a pale horse in a medieval/modern painting, and the "Black" of the name Black Plague/Death is the same word as the "Black" of the Black Horse in the Revelation verse.
However this candidate is not possible because it is a different kind of event type details (plague) to that in the Revelation verse (famine or inflation), and the horse in the painting is not black.
The Great Depression seems the best candidate of the six.
So in conclusion so far the most likely matches for the 2nd Red Horseman and 3rd Black Horseman are World War One (&/or Two?) and the Great Depression. (This means we may already in the "future" chapters of Revelation after the 7 Churches?* Though the horses might not just be one event but series of wars and depressions of last 1-2 centuries.) With the candidates for these two horseman we can now look more easily at candidates for the 1st, White Horseman and the 4th/last "Pale" Horseman.
(* The 4 Horsemen are often assumed to be still future events. However they might have already been and/or already be here/around. Some think the 4 horsemen match the later Roman empire, or they could match between then and now, or they could have come after the 7th church Laodicea (Victorian London?) between about Napoleon and now, or they could be future. Considering the evidence for Laodicea matching London, and the red & black horse matching World War1 & Great Depression it is tentatively feasible we are already in the "future" chapters of Revelation 4-22, which would be special/edifying. But don't believe me, weigh and watch and read and pray and discuss it yourselves.)
Revelation 6:
"And when he opened the seal (the) 3rd I heard the 3rd living creature (man/angel) saying come! And I looked and behold a horse black and the (one) sitting on it having a pair of scales/balances in the hand of him. And I heard (something) like a voice in (the) midst of the 4 living creatures saying a choenix/silver-piece / measure/litre/quart/kilogram of wheat for a denarius/penny/day's-wages and 3 choenixes of barley for a denarius/penny/days-wages and the oil and the wine not you should injure."
Zechariah 6:
"In the 1st chariot (were) red horses; and in the 2nd chariot black horses; .... .... The black horses which are therein go forth/out into/toward the north country; and the white will go forth after them; and the grissled/dappled go/went forth toward the south country."
The 3rd Black Horseman of Revelation 6 is usually/often presumed to be "famine". This might be right, but I have some doubts and am not so certain as others are. The verses do not necessarily imply famine, they could imply inflation or other similar things.
We have these possible candidates for the Black horseman:
famine/starvation.
inflation / (Great) depression / slump.
Industrial Revolution / Industrialism.
Capitalism.
The Black Plague/Death.
Libra.
Let us look at some reasons for each candidate.
Famine/starvation is possible because:
The wheat and barley for a penny/day's-wages may imply shortage of grain due to famine or war.
Famine can come after war (red horse?) Alot of Europeans were suffering starvation after WW2.
The black colour of the horse could relate to death which is associated with starvation, and/or with plague (which came after war (red horse?)).
3rd horseman could match 3rd world (which has more problems with food shortage and famine)?
Barley could link with barley sugars (40 hour famine).
The 4th "pale" horseman verses also mention famine.
Inflation/Recession/Depression/Slump/Crash is possible because:
The verses speaking of scales and a measure of wheat/barley for a penny could be due to either shortage of wheat/barley (famine) or a prices/wages/employment/production/trade problem (inflation).
Inflation and the Great Depression/Slump (black horse?) came after WWI (red horse?)
The voice coming from amidst the 4 living creatures could relate to the stock market, and/or inflation & the Great Depression/Slump (which effected 28 or more countries around the 4 quarters of the world)?
The black colour could relate to Black Thursday and Black Tuesday & the Great Depression or Black Friday 1873 & Long Depression. "Black friday also refers to any particularly disastrous day on financial markets. The first Black Friday (1869)...." In the financial world the term black day often refers to a dramatic drop in the stock market. The term Black day usually refers to a tragic date. The Latin niger "black" also meant "bad, impropitious". Black also relates to mourning and evil/darkness which both fit the depression and suffering of many people.
The 3rd horseman could relate to Tuesday being the 3rd day of week in biblical world view. Wheat that is mentioned in the biblical verse also figures in the Great Depression: "Hardest hit were wheat, ...", "world prices for commodities such as wheat... plunged" (ref Great Depression, Wikipedia). Wheat is also especially associated with bread which may represent daily bread and livelihood/income.
The oil and wine part of the Black Horse verses might imply the rich/wealthy who were presumably not as hurt by the Great Depression as the poor. The wine might also link with "The Grapes of Wrath" associated with the Great Depression?
"Galloping inflation" could also match the black horse of the 3rd horseman of Revelation?
The Great Depression of 1929 seems a good candidate. But there are also some other candidates: Black Friday 1869, the Long Depression 1873, the severe economic crisis following the collapse of the USSR (red horse?) 1990s, the Great Recession 2008. But they are not all associated with Black and not all following a great world war (red horse).
The Industrial Revolution and Industrialism are possible because:
Inflation is associated with industrialism.
The colour black could be from coal or soot or smog/pollution.
Industrialism came before/during/after socialism (red horse?) came (some time between Napoleon and WWI).
The black horse in Zechariah is toward the north, which is where Europe & the US in some other biblical passages, and it is in Europe & USA where industrialism & capitalism originated, and were the Great Depression hit the most.
Capitalism is possible because:
The scales and day's wages and "don't harm the oil and wine" can relate to gap between rich/wealthy/haves/elite and the poor/disadvantaged.
The 3rd horseman is associated with the 3rd living creature which has face of a man/angel which could fit capitalism?
Black horse could link with prevalence of black/charcoal/dark & grey or brown suits/clothes in modern corporate/business world (esp in some places like NZ) (and by extension black shirts/uniforms of fascism which some group with capitalism), and with the soot/smog/pollution of industrialism which is associated with capitalism. Black can also relate to evil/darkness and power/authority and conspiracy and elegant fashion and anti-social and servitude/slavery which all link with capitalism/corporatism/commercialism/consumerism. "Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving Day...) is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. ... "Black Friday" indicates the point in the year that retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black", because of the large volume of sales on that day." Black is also the most common colour for limosines and official cars of government officials. The tuxedo was always black until the 1930s.
Libra is possible because:
The scales/balance could match Libra.
Libra might link with statue of Liberty of America (which country is especially linked with capitalism, and stock market, and great depression etc, as well as also with crops agriculture).
The reasons why the Black Plague/Death may have been possible are because:
Black is the colour of death.
The Black Plague is depicted as a reaper riding a pale horse in a medieval/modern painting, and the "Black" of the name Black Plague/Death is the same word as the "Black" of the Black Horse in the Revelation verse.
However this candidate is not possible because it is a different kind of event type details (plague) to that in the Revelation verse (famine or inflation), and the horse in the painting is not black.
The Great Depression seems the best candidate of the six.
So in conclusion so far the most likely matches for the 2nd Red Horseman and 3rd Black Horseman are World War One (&/or Two?) and the Great Depression. (This means we may already in the "future" chapters of Revelation after the 7 Churches?* Though the horses might not just be one event but series of wars and depressions of last 1-2 centuries.) With the candidates for these two horseman we can now look more easily at candidates for the 1st, White Horseman and the 4th/last "Pale" Horseman.
(* The 4 Horsemen are often assumed to be still future events. However they might have already been and/or already be here/around. Some think the 4 horsemen match the later Roman empire, or they could match between then and now, or they could have come after the 7th church Laodicea (Victorian London?) between about Napoleon and now, or they could be future. Considering the evidence for Laodicea matching London, and the red & black horse matching World War1 & Great Depression it is tentatively feasible we are already in the "future" chapters of Revelation 4-22, which would be special/edifying. But don't believe me, weigh and watch and read and pray and discuss it yourselves.)
