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White is Professor of Classics and Christian Origins at the University of Texas
at Austin, and acted as historical consultant for "Apocalypse!" | | |
The Greek word apokalypsis (from which we get the English word
"apocalypse") literally means "something uncovered" or "revealed." It emerged
as a new genre of literature in early Jewish tradition commencing sometime in
the third century BCE. Apocalyptic thinking has been called "the child of
prophecy in a new idiom." This idea aptly reflects both its origins out of the
older prophetic tradition and its new elements. For prophecy in ancient
Israel, even down to the period of the Babylonian exile, had little to do with
predicting the future or forecasting historical events. The great prophets of
Israel, such as Isaiah or Jeremiah, were primarily concerned with delivering
the "word of the Lord," meaning oracles calling on the people to respond to
divine direction. But after the destruction of Jerusalem and Solomon's Temple
by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, things began to change. Now there began
to be oracles calling for people to hold fast, saying that there would be a
restoration of the nation and that the enemies would eventually be punished by
God. A future-looking sense of history was born, and we see these ideas
especially in some of the proto-apocalyptic writers from the end of the
prophetic tradition, such as the "Third Isaiah" writer and the compilers of
Ezekiel.
The full flowering of apocalyptic, however, required other elements, and chief
among these were influences from first the Persian culture and then the Greek,
in the period from the fifth to the third centuries BCE. In this vein,
apocalyptic has also been called "a product of hope and despair; hope in the
eternal power of God and despair over the present evil conditions of the
world." This sense of dualism, drawn chiefly from Persian
Zoroastrianism, is characteristic of the genre, but specifically looks
at time and history in dualistic categories: the present evil age will give
way to a glorious new age. The break between these two was usually termed the
"end" or "last things" (Greek: eschaton or eschata),
meaning the "end" of the present evil age. The outlook of apocalypse
literature thus recounts how the world will work itself out in this manner,
usually with some account of the cosmic conflict between God and Satan and
their respective forces. Notions of deliverer figures, such as the
messiah (an old kingship title from the Davidic period) were commonplace
in this scenario; however, not all apocalypses envision a concrete character as
such, while others, notably the Essenes of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
expected more than one messiah.
Apocalyptic thinking was extremely influential in Jewish tradition between the
second century BCE and third century CE; however, the
disastrous failure of the lltwo revolts against Rome (in 70 and 135 CE,
respectively) caused the radical political dimension of apocalyptic tradition
to undergo some key changes.
The following are some of the key examples of Apocalypse literature during this
period, showing where the Apocalypse of John (Revelation) fits into this
history.
Proto-Apocalyptic literature (5th-4th centuries BCE)
· "Third Isaiah" (= Isaiah, chapters 56-66)
· Ezekiel (esp. chapters 37-48)
Early Jewish Apocalyptic (late 3rd century BCE to 70 CE)
· I ENOCH ca. 225 BCE (and forward; 5 sections of compositions, some of
which show Christian reworking)
· DANIEL ca. 165 BCE (included in Hebrew Bible)
· BOOK OF JUBILEES ca. 150-100 BCE
· SIBYLLINE ORACLES
Book III ca. 150 BCE (and forward)
· TESTAMENT OF XII
PATRIARCHS hca. late 2nd century BCE (+)
· PSALMS OF SOLOM. ca. 48 BCE
· TESTAMENT OF MOSES
(*Assumption of) ca. 6-36 CE (but based on earlier 2nd cent. BCE text)
· MARTYRDOM OF ISAIAH 1st century CE
· DEAD SEA SCROLLS ca. 2nd century BCE to 69 CE
(selections, e.g., "The War Scroll")
· LIFE OF ADAM AND EVE or
APOCALYPSE OF MOSES ca. 70 CE
· TESTAMENT OF ABRAHAM ca. 1st century CE
· II ENOCH (*Book of Secrets of Enoch') ca. 1st century CE
Later Jewish and Christian Apocalypses
· SIBYLLINE ORACLES (Jewish)
Book IV ca. 80 CE
· II EDRAS (IV EZRA) ca. 80-90 CE (chs. 3-14) later + (chs. 1-2, 15)
· II BARUCH after ca. 90
· APOCALYPSE OF ABRAHAM ca. 70-100 CE
· APOCALYPSE OF JOHN ca. 90-95 CE
· III BARUCH ca. 2nd century CE
· SIBYLLINE ORACLES (Jewish & Christian)
Book V ca. 2nd century CE
· APOCALYPSE OF PETER (Christian) early 2nd CE
· THE SHEPHERD OF HERMAS early 2nd CE (Christian)
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