88 Iwan M. Whiteley The colour is only mentioned once more in Revelation 12:3, ‘a big red dragon.’ There is no natural link between the colour red and ‘dragons’ in biblical or classical literature. Therefore, the original reader would have initially been confused at the image and their natural reaction would be to think back through the book to find a suitable conceptual pool to associate with the imagery. The inevitable conclusion is that they would refer back to the ἵππος πυρρός in Revelation 6:4. The dragon is a key feature of chapter 12 and this would suggest that the ambiguity of the rider on the red horse is being clarified in detail in this chapter. Both passages refer to similar themes; the rider on the red horse takes peace away from the earth and makes people kill each other, the red dragon and stars are flung to the earth (12:4, 9), the former being very angry (12:12), taking away peace for the people of God. He gives authority to a beast who uses a sword against the people of God (13:10). The initial reference to ‘sword’ in 6:4, in the context of the red horse, is unusual. John says ἐδόθη αὐτῷ μάχαιρα μεγάλη, ‘and was given to him a large [short sword]. Μάχαιρα refers to a short Roman sword.57 Con- sequently μάχαιρα μεγάλη sounds self-defeating and one wonders why John did not just say ῥομφαία, a long sword. Μάχαιρα is only used three times in Revelation, in 6:4 and 13:10, 14. The second mention in 13:10 is referring to Jer 15:2, LXX ‘Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword (μάχαιρα), to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.’ This would suggest that the reason that John chose μάχαιρα in 6:4 was because he was going to connect 6:4 with Jer 15:2 in chapter 13. This adds further evidence to suggest that 6:4 is in cataphoric relationship to Rev 12-13. It appears that the initial mention of the colour red and μάχαιρα were written within a context that needed further clarification in the minds of the readers and as a consequence John reintroduces these subject matters later in his book. The colour μέλας, ‘black’ is relatively rare in biblical use and the reference to a black chariot in Zech 6:2 does not appear to help in under- standing Rev 6:5. Beale argues that black represents famine, based upon one reference in Targum Jeremiah 14:2. The difficulty is that there is no evidence that Jeremiah 14 is in the mind of the author, or that black gene- rally communicated the idea of famine. Smalley sees black as referring to the underworld,58 and Thomas says that it points to a time of lamentation and mourning59. Aune simply says that it had ‘strong negative connota- Contra Thomas, Revelation, 429. 57 Smalley, The Revelation, 152. 58 Thomas, Revelation 1-7, 430; also C. Anderson Scott, The Book of the Revelation 59 (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1905) 175.