The Scripture itself interprets the meaning of the symbols. (The First Four Seals, 96-300 AD, pg. 23.)
For the Scriptural interpretation of the colors and symbols of the first four seals, as traditionally understood by the church, there is no better source than Albert Barnes, who employs minute detail in his explanation of each symbol, in Notes on the New Testament … : Revelation, pp. 132-158.
“I have also spoken unto the prophets,
and I have multiplied visions;
and by the ministry of the prophets have I used similitudes.”Hos 12:11 [Hos 12:10 in Christian Bibles], Jewish Publication Society Bible.
A similitude, according to Webster’s, is a
“counterpart, double; a visible likeness, image; an imaginative comparison, simile; correspondence in kind or quality, a point of comparison.”
A symbol, the term most modern Christian Bibles use in Hos 12:10, according to Webster’s, is
“something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance; especially : a visible sign of something invisible.”
Similitude : synonyms, related words : likeness, resemblance, similarity, semblance.
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