Apocalyptic Eschatology Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld 1.

Eschatology

The adjective eschatological and the noun eschatology come from the Greek adjective eschatos which means last, or final. Eschatology has to do with understandings of the end, or last things. The end of what? The end of the world? Or the end of life as we know it, marked by death, violence, and sin? Many ancients viewed material reality with a great deal of suspicion, even hostility. Death was viewed as release from material captivity, and release into a spiritual non-material and eternal state. But Jews for the most part did not. They hoped for an end to the old age, marked by corruption ever since sin and death entered creation with Adam and Eve. And they hoped for a renewed and restored creation. Which is why Paul speaks of the resurrection of the body, as we will see. 2. Apocalyptic

The terms apocalypse and apocalyptic are a part of the larger topic of eschatology. Today these terms usually carry overtones of calamity and destruction. Apocalyptic does not mean disaster, cataclysm, or meltdown, however. It means, literally, uncovering, or revelation. That is why the last book of the Bible is called both Revelation (derived from Latin) and the Apocalypse of John (derived from the Greek). There are many apocalypses both inside and outside the Bible, Jewish writings from around the time of Jesus, give or take two or three centuries. Within the Bible we might think of Daniel, Ezekiel, some sections of Isaiah (chaps. 24-27) in the Old Testament, or of Matthew 24 and Mark 13 in the New Testament. Outside the Bible there are numerous apocalypses associated with ancient figures such as Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Elijah, and Ezra, and in the post Jesus era with Thomas, Peter, and Paul. Importantly, apart from apocalypses a good deal of the New Testament, most certainly the writings of Paul, has been shaped by apocalyptic thinking. The followers of Jesus would not have been the only Jews who thought this way. Those who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls were no less apocalyptic. 3. a. Characteristics of an apocalyptic orientation over-the-top imagery

A reader of apocalyptic literature is immediately impressed by the dramatic imagery, often of catastrophic and bizarre natural phenomena, or of bizarre mythological imagery of dragons, strange animals, and exhibiting a love of mysterious numbers. While this is more characteristic of the Apocalypse of John than of Paul, you will see some of this ambience reflected in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 and especially in 2 Thessalonians.

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dualism

Apocalyptic thought views reality in highly dualistic terms as a struggle between God and Satan, light and darkness, truth and error, good and evil. The present world cannot be fixed through gradual reformation, only by dramatic divine intervention. This might come about through Gods messiah, Gods agent of change, or through the archangel Michael, or through divine armies of angels fighting the evil powers. Imagery of combat and warfare fits in very well (you will see this in places like Rom 13:12; 16:20; Eph 6:1020; 1 Thess 5:1-11). It is taken from very ancient myths of the combat of the gods, shared with other peoples in the ancient Near Eastern world. c. revelation

One of the features that marks this literature is that it reveals what will happen at the end. It was written in times of great crisis, when it looked very much like chaos and evil were winning the battle. This perspective asserts that despite all appearances, God is in control. Shaping this way of viewing both history and the future is the fundamental Jewish conviction of the sovereignty of God: God has known all along that there would be times of great violence and sufferingwoes, these writers sometimes call them. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7 of the present distress. Such distress only increases as the time of Gods saving and judging intervention draws near (see Rom 13:11-14). The Jewish apocalypses make this point by having God reveal this conflictual future to ancient seers or visionaries such as Adam, Enoch, Ezra, or Daniel, who are then asked to write down their visions and dreams so that people can read them when those foretold times of chaos and pain arrive. Such woes are, to be sure, only the necessary prelude to what Paul calls the new creation (e.g., 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). d. resurrection and spirit

Highly anticipated phenomena of the big moment of transformation and new creation is in this literature and theology are the resurrection of the dead and the forceful arrival and pouring out of the Spirit of God. Both leave their mark on Pauls way of perceiving the present moment. For the early followers to be convinced that Jesus was raised from the dead means not only that he himself is alive, but that the cosmic revolution, of which resurrection is an essential component, has begun. More, as Acts 2 describes with the events of Pentecost, and as Paul says again and again (see, e.g., Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 12, and 2 Corinthians 3), the coming of the Spirit is evidence that the turning of the ages is taking place. In individual lives and in the life of the communities, made up of Jews and non-Jews, the manifestations of this Spirit are found not only in the speaking of tongues (1 Corinthians 12, 14), but also in the changed ways in which Paul expects people to live (e.g., 1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5). In short, early believers in Jesus believed themselves to be living in the midst of the revolution brought about in the intervention of God through his son, Jesus, the messiah/Christ, and through the palpable presence of the Spirit.

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the earth-shattering imagery of apocalyptic

As mentioned above, apocalyptic images are very dramatic: the sun will no longer shine, the moon will turn dark, and the mountains will melt. Even if in Pauls letters such imagery is used very sparingly, if at all, he holds to no less a dramatic view (see 1 Corinthians 15). This language has lead many to hold that apocalyptic thinking anticipates the end of a space-time universe. However, we are likely much closer to 1st century Jewish thinking if we view apocalyptic language as expressing in highly dramatic and picturesque mythological imagery the conviction that God will not allow injustice, oppression, disease, and sin to continue, and that God will intervene dramatically through his Messiah, through the judgment of the nations, through resurrection, to bring about a new heaven and a new earth, that is to say, God will bring creationboth heaven and earthback to its intended wholewhat Paul calls the new creation. This does not bring history to a close; it brings history as we know it to a close. It does not bring an end to the relationship between humanity and God; it brings to an end to rebellion and alienation. This is not the cessation of the ages; it is the breaking in of a new age. The radical changes anticipated in apocalyptic imagery will be earth-shattering, even if what will be shattered will be the forces that wreck creation through greed, oppression, and violence. Creation itself cant wait! (Rom 8:18-25). f. apocalyptic: a theology of resistance and hope

Paul and his co-religionists saw themselves as the vanguard of the impending invasion of Gods future. They thus believed the structures of the old world to be caving in and disappearing, even if that was not obvious to those with a grip on the levers of imperial power (see 1 Thess 5:1-11; 1 Cor 15:20-28). Romes days were numbered, as were those of the puppet master, Satan (Rom 16:20). This is Jewish resistance theology, having passed through the prism of Jesus ministry, death, and resurrection, and the shaped by the intense expectation of the Messiahs imminent appearing to complete the revolution (1 Thess 4:13-14). See also Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld, Recovering Jesus: the Witness of the New Testament (Brazos, 2007), pp. 133-36, parts of which are adapted here.