Θανατος = pestilence = Titus

[FransJVermeiren]

In an earlier thread I identified the riders of the four horses of Revelation 6 as the two Roman protagonists of the story. They are Roman equites, Vespasian (white + red horseman) and Titus (black + greenish horseman). There is an interesting side effect of that interpretation that I did not discuss yet: the greenish horseman is given a name, θἀνατος ( ὄνομα αὐτῳ θἀνατος: his name is thanatos). This θἀνατος is traditionally translated as ‘Death’ (with capital), in line with a symbolic interpretation of the four horsemen and of Revelation in general. But when the greenish horseman has already been identified as Titus, something else is going on. Then Revelation says that θἀνατος is a name for Titus. What kind of name could this be?

According to BDAG (p. 443) θἀνατος not only means ‘death’ but also ‘fatal illness, pestilence’ (‘pestilence’ being the obsolete word for the modern ‘epidemics’)*. Of course there is a more than plausible link between Titus and death itself, but the composition of Revelation 6 points in another direction. In verse 5-7 the black horseman is associated with famine. Therefore it would be obvious that in the following verses, that describe the greenish horseman, the phenomenon would be described that always accompanies famines: epidemics. This also creates a good parallel with verse 2-3 about Vespasian. So Titus is named after the second mortal effect of the siege: pestilence. In other words, θἀνατος serves a dual purpose: together with ‘famine’ it describes the lethal effects of the siege, and meanwhile it is a name for Titus. He is described as a plague, a curse, a pest, as a life threatening and reprehensible man. So θἀνατος might be a term of disgust for Titus.

This term of disgust significance of θἀνατος for Titus might also shed a new light on 1Cor 15. 1Cor 15:54b-55 says (referring to Isaiah and Hosea) “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?”. Two verses further 1Cor 15:57 goes as follows: But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So θἀνατος and Jesus Christ are opposed in their claim to victory.
In verse 1Cor 15:55 also the word κεντρον, ‘sting’ is used, just like in Rv 9:10 in the description of the siege of Jerusalem. (Except in Acts, where it is has a slightly different meaning, κεντρον is only used in these two occurrences.) In Revelation κεντρον seems to depict the arrow of a Roman scorpio: They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails. As Titus was the Roman commander-in-chief during the siege, it is plausible to associate this sting with him. And if θἀνατος in 1Cor 55 would describe Titus, then the contexts for the use of κεντρον would be similar, describing Titus’s ability to wound or kill.

In Revelation the two Flavians (the four horsemen) are the opponents of Jesus (the two witnesses). Maybe a similar kind of opposition is present in 1Cor 15. Titus seems to have been victorious at first sight, but the one who is victorious in the end is Jesus. A free translation of the aforementioned verses could go like this:
(54b-55) “That curse [Titus] is swallowed up by victory.” “You curse, [Titus,] where is your victory? You curse, [Titus,] where is your ability to kill?”
(57) But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That Titus is derided like this might mean that he had already died: he was not able to kill anymore. At the final settlement Jesus is victorious, because he had overcome death by surviving the certain death of his crucifixion.

In this interpretation this fragment is not genuinely Pauline. It is a late interpolation by a Christian author who knew Revelation, including the use of θἀνατος as a term of disgust for Titus in that work. Maybe θἀνατος was broadly known as a term of disgust for Titus in early Christian circles?
In my opinion not only the verses above are a late interpolation, but the whole 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians is.

*For those who have mastered Dutch see also the article “Dood” in de betekenis “pest” (“Death” in the meaning of “plague”) by A. Dirkzwager. http://www.dirkzwagerarie.be/joomla/fil ... 20pest.pdf

[Secret Alias]

Where is the actual evidence that thanatos = Titus other than your assertion of the fact?