Kings and Commanders

Revelation has several lists of social classes. The first is given when the Lamb opens the sixth seal and the world starts coming apart at the seams (6:12-17). There is another when the land beast imposes his mark on every class of society (13:16). The last comes after the Rider on the white horse defeats His enemies and invites the birds to eat their flesh (19:18).

I am interested here in the first and last of those lists. In 6:15, the classes are 1) kings, 2) great men (megistanes), 3) commanders (chiliarchoi), 4) rich, 5) strong (ischuroi), 6) slave, and 7) free. the list in 19:18 overlaps with it: 1) kings, 2) commanders (chiliarchoi), 3) strong (ischuroi), 4) horses and riders, 5) free, 6) slave, 8) small, and 9) great. These are the only two places in Revelation that use chiliarchos, the only places where “strong” is used to describe human beings. With 13:16, these are the only passages that use the combination “slave and free.”

When we compare the two passages we can see the movement of the book as a whole. In chapter 6, the heavens are falling and everyone is running for cover. But the world doesn’t quite fall apart. At the beginning of chapter 7, an angel intervenes to stop the collapse until the 144,000 are sealed. The kings, great men, chiliarchs, etc. survive. In chapter 19, though, there is no cover and no delay. The Rider on the white horse is going to slay them with the sword of His mouth, and the birds are going to devour their flesh. The interrupted end is completed – not when the kings, chiliarchs and others are buried under rocks but when they are slain by the Word of Jesus.

The parallel has structural significance in Revelation. In chapter 6, the sequence is: Four horsemen, martyrs plead for vindication, world begins to collapse on kings, commanders, and others. In chapter 19, the sequence is: Many horseman, kings and commanders fed to the birds, and the martyrs are placed on thrones:

A. Four horsemen

B. Martyrs plead for vindication

C. World collapses on kings and commanders

…

A’. One horseman

C’. Kings and commanders devoured by birds

B’. Martyrs enthroned.

It forms a neat inclusio around the action of the book, and shows how the opening of the seals opens out into the victory of the Rider and the vindication of martyrs.