Interpretive Issues :

• What are the apocalyptic elements in this selection of the text?  What, if any, are distinctly non-apocalyptic elements?
• What are the major rhetorical elements being employed by John in this selection of the text?  What is their function?
• What are some of the important thematic connections between this section and the letters to the churches (Rev 2-3) and/or the vision of the throne (Rev 4-5)?
• Who is the rider on the white horse?  Why do both Koester and Witherington think that this is NOT Jesus (who does ride on a white horse in Rev 19)?  What do the red, black, and pale green horses represent?
• Read Zechariah 1:7-17 and 6:1-8, Isa 34:4, and Joel 2:30-31, and compare them to Revelation 6.
• Compare and contrast the 5th seal to the 6th seal.  What are the two “options” that are being presented?  How do the earthly and heavenly perspectives on these two groups compare?
• What is the meaning of the martyrs’ being placed under the altar?
• How do you know that the events of the 6th seal must come after the events that follow it in the rest of the book of Revelation?  What is the “recapitulation theory” (Witherington, 129)?  How does Witherington critique and nuance the “recapitulation theory”?
• What is the meaning / function of the seal put on the believers’ foreheads?  (Read Ezekiel 9.)
• What, if any, is the difference between the 144,000 and the great multitude?
• Compare and contrast the threats of Rev 6 with the promises of Rev 7.
• What is the significance of the silence at the opening of the 7th seal?

Theological Issues :

• What is the significance of the fact that God does not inflict destruction directly, but rather, the four horsemen are “given” (passive voice) the tools and power to destroy?
• How do you understand the martyrs’ cry to avenge their blood on the inhabitants of the earth?  Why is divine judgment / justice so important?
• What is the difference between punitive judgment and justice that is a call to repentance?