Greek: "Behold a green horse..."

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Checking with the Blue Letter Bible resource, the literal translation of Apocalypse 6:8 is:

“Behold, a green horse/chloros, and his name is death, and hell followed afterwards. And power was given to him over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with a sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

Green is the traditional logo color of Islam. Here’s Imam Khomeini’s tomb:
 
nordskoven said:
Checking with the Blue Letter Bible resource, the literal translation of Apocalypse 6:8 is:

“Behold, a green horse/chloros, and his name is death, and hell followed afterwards. And power was given to him over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with a sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

Green is the traditional logo color of Islam. Here’s Imam Khomeini’s tomb:
Click to expand...
Okay, I will remember that… anyway, though there is an explanation to it, there was that video during the Arab Spring Protests in Cairo where it appeared there was an image of a horse rider in the film.
 
Or the environmentalists are going to develop a universal militia…
 
Or we are just over-analyzing it and there really will be an evil green horse 🤷
 
GEddie said:
Green is also a color of decaying dead flesh.

ICXC NIKA
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This. Chloros wasn’t the grass/tree-green color that the Muslims use; it is the pale green color of a corpse. Thus – death.
 
DaveBj said:
This. Chloros wasn’t the grass/tree-green color that the Muslims use; it is the pale green color of a corpse. Thus – death.
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Or of really old bronze - maybe it’s saying that a bronze statue of a horse will come to life? 🤷
 
Its probably worth remembering that literal translation isn’t always going to give the intended meaning. Today, there are many expressions for instance that we understand culturally but that if you translated it literally into another language, you would not be understood.
 
There is another usage of “green” in the NT (Jesus, to the women of Jerusalem: “If they do this in the green wood, what will they do in the dry?”), but this refers to damp, sappy tree-wood, not to the color green. In the OT the phrase “under every green tree” occurs several times, and in the LXX the word appears to be daseos, but I don’t have wherewithall to determine if that means “green = leafy” or “green = color.”

As an aside, my ability for biblical word studies has been rolled just about back to zero. For several decades I have depended on software from PC Study Bible, but my Windows XP netbook had a fatal hard drive crash over the weekend, and the version of the software I have won’t install on anything newer than XP. Replacing with a newer version will cost several hundred dollars, and I’m not sure I want to do that.
 
Welcome to the wonderful world of comparative color linguistics!

Every culture has different reference points for colors on the spectrum, and where those colors are considered to begin and end. For example, in Japan, aoi is the color which includes both green and blue. When the language needed a new generic green color, they chose “midori”, melon color. (Like a honeydew melon.)

“Chloros” is a sort of pale yellow/green color, or a yellow/green color that is bright or intense. For example, “chlorine” is a yellow gas, but the names “Chloe” and “Chloris” referred to young sprouting vegetation. In Roman times, blonde slavewomen were often named things like “Chloris.”

Here’s some info on color names for green in Greek.
 
Mintaka said:
Welcome to the wonderful world of comparative color linguistics!

Every culture has different reference points for colors on the spectrum, and where those colors are considered to begin and end. For example, in Japan, aoi is the color which includes both green and blue. When the language needed a new generic green color, they chose “midori”, melon color. (Like a honeydew melon.)

“Chloros” is a sort of pale yellow/green color. For example, “chlorine” is a yellow gas, but the names “Chloe” and “Chloris” referred to young sprouting vegetation. In Roman times, blonde slavewomen were often named things like “Chloris.”

Here’s some info on color names for green in Greek.
Click to expand...
And I’ve heard too and as someone else alluded too, it’s perspective. Green, Red and Blue and all the other colors might not be perceived the same way in various cultures.
 
If I recall it had to do with inner fighting between the two remaining sects of Judaism. If I remember off the top of my head it involved a guy named John of Gishala? You may be able to google John of Girshala and find some info on the green horse 🙂
 
onemangang said:
If I recall it had to do with inner fighting between the two remaining sects of Judaism. If I remember off the top of my head it involved a guy named John of Gishala? You may be able to google John of Girshala and find some info on the green horse 🙂
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He was the leader of the Zeaolts in Jerusalem in AD70. Presumably, he was long dead by the time Rev was written (AD100?)

ICXC NIKA
 
BroomWagon said:
And I’ve heard too and as someone else alluded too, it’s perspective. Green, Red and Blue and all the other colors might not be perceived the same way in various cultures.
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I’ve held off on this, but no one else has picked up on it, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

No matter how you look at it, it’s definitely a horse of a different color.

There. Now I feel better 😃
 
DaveBj said:
I’ve held off on this, but no one else has picked up on it, and I can’t hold it in any longer.

No matter how you look at it, it’s definitely a horse of a different color.

There. Now I feel better 😃
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Good One!!
 
nordskoven said:
Checking with the Blue Letter Bible resource, the literal translation of Apocalypse 6:8 is:

“Behold, a green horse/chloros, and his name is death, and hell followed afterwards. And power was given to him over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with a sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.”

Green is the traditional logo color of Islam. Here’s Imam Khomeini’s tomb:
Click to expand...
And this wasn’t even from a Jack Chick cartoon!:eek:
 
onemangang said:
If I recall it had to do with inner fighting between the two remaining sects of Judaism. If I remember off the top of my head it involved a guy named John of Gishala? You may be able to google John of Girshala and find some info on the green horse 🙂
Click to expand...
It’s not so much “two remaining sects” as “rival Zealot factions” which fought amongst themselves over the control of Jerusalem. John of Gischala was the leader of one faction, Simon bar Giora that of another, and Eleazar bar Simon the leader of a third. Their infighting was partly to blame for the weakening of Jewish resistance against Rome.

In case you’re curious, John surrendered was arrested when Jerusalem fell, shipped off to Rome where he was paraded in chains, and lived the rest of his life in prison.
 
Mintaka said:
Welcome to the wonderful world of comparative color linguistics!

Every culture has different reference points for colors on the spectrum, and where those colors are considered to begin and end. For example, in Japan, aoi is the color which includes both green and blue. When the language needed a new generic green color, they chose “midori”, melon color. (Like a honeydew melon.)
Click to expand...
Here the sun is orange-red (although yellow is also recognized), and the ‘go’ signal in traffic lights are called ao-shingou, even if they are actually green.

Fun question. Is white a funeral color?
 
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