APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE

• The years between 200 BC and 200 AD have witnessed

more tragic happenings in the history of ancient Israel.
• These 400 years were an era of religious persecutions.
First the Jews and then the Christians were persecuted.
• It is in this period more apocalyptic works have come
out. Nearly thirty apocalyptic works, written during this
period between the atrocities of Antiochus Epiphanus
and the Judaic revolt against Rome under Bar Kokhba
have been discovered so far.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
- J. J. Collins and his team:
– “‘Apocalypse’ is a genre of revelatory literature
with a narrative framework, in which a
revelation is mediated by an otherworldly
being to a human recipient, disclosing a
transcendent reality which is both temporal,
insofar as it envisages eschatological salvation,
and spatial, insofar as it involves another,
supernatural world” (1979)
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• People who really reflected on their life and
situation under the persecution have come to
certain conclusions.
– No imperial power can rule the world
– God has entrusted the Israelites not to dominate
anyone in the world.
– It is the God, who liberated us from the land of
Egypt and released us from the Babylonian
exile, is the one who rules the world.
– No imperial power can stand before God.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• This thinking has given hope to the persecuted
people.
• Put your trust in God and in his Kingdom. This
has been expressed through the apocalyptic
literature.
• Only those who stand with God have the
ultimate victory
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• The book of Revelation shares the question which
concerned many of the apocalyptic writings: Who
is Lord over the world?
• The righteous suffer, the wicked flourish: the
world seems to be ruled by evil, not by God.
Where is God’s kingdom?
• Despite appearances contrary to God’s reign, the
text affirms that it is God who rules world and the
time is coming soon when he will overthrow the
evil empires and establish his kingdom.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• They view the universe as divided into two
camps, one good and the other evil. These
camps are engaged in a long and fearful
struggle.
• Apocalypses usually contain predictions about
the final outcome of human affairs, focusing
on the last age of the world, when good will
triumph and evil will be judged.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• God has set a limit to the era of wickedness
and will intervene at the appointed time to
execute judgment.
• In the final battle the powers of evil, together
with the evil nations they represent, will be
utterly destroyed. Then a new order will be
established.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• The authors of apocalyptic writings give the
impression that the moment of eschaton
(end) has just begun.
• The present evil age is going to be destroyed
and the new era of goodness is going to be
established by divine intervention.
• Purpose: Giving strength and confidence to
the contemporaries of the actual authors who
were in a crisis of faith and under persecution.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
Salient features

• Usually the writer gets revelation by means of a vision

or a dream-he rises to the heavenly regions-God’s
mysteries are revealed-an angel as his guide and
interpreter.
• Use of similes, symbols, metaphors, images and myths.
• Creating special effects with the right combination of
colours, light, sound and movements.
• Use of symbolic value of Hebrew numbers.
• His contemporary believers could understand and
appreciate this highly obscure and symbolic style. This
style must have been most unpalatable to the pagan
oppressors.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• Visualize Bible as a library
• We have Law Books instructing us “to do” or “not
to do”. It appeals to the mind of a person
• Psalms: it touches the feelings of a person
• Other books, like that of the Letter to the
Romans, which addresses our intellect
• We have Apocalypse which requires our
disciplined imagination. The author of the book
has created a picturesque world with his
beautiful imagination.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• We have to understand the symbolic language which
John uses to communicate his message.
• We need to understand the symbols in the Old
Testament background (Ezekiel, Daniel, Zachariah).
• Many signs and symbols make the book mysterious
and incomprehensible.
• Author had a specific goal and therefore we shall not
take symbols and signs individually and interpret in
isolation.
• We have to take into consideration the socio-historical
and literary background of the book.
 APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE
• 1. We should take seriously what the author says:
When John said he had a vision, we need to
accept it as a vision.
• 2. John used the language of symbolism to
describe his visions; John’s word-pictures need to
be understood as symbolic representations of the
divine Word received by John.
• 3. We should not assume that the sequence in
which John received or wrote the visions has to
be the order in which the content of the visions
must be fulfilled.
 The Apocalyptic Genre
• This genre is represented in Jewish, Christian,
Gnostic, Greco-Roman and Persian literature.
• While the great majority of apocalypses come
from the Judeo-Christian tradition, it is not
possible to regard the genre as a purely Jewish
and Christian phenomenon. The Greco-Roman
apocalypses show a well-defined group of
otherworldly journeys which appear to have
developed independently in the Hellenistic
tradition.
 Apocalyptic literature
Canonical apocalypses (in OT)
Proto-apocalyptic
1. Isaiah 24–27; 33; 34–35
2. Jeremiah 33:14–26
3. Ezekiel 38–39
4. Joel 3:9–17
5. Zechariah 12–14
Apocalyptic
1. Daniel 7–12
 Apocalyptic literature
• NON-CANONICAL
1. Apocalypse of Abraham
2. Apocalypse of Adam
3. Apocalypse of Baruch (Greek)
4. Apocalypse of Baruch (Syriac)
5. Apocalypse of Daniel
6. Apocalypse of Daniel (Greek)
7. Apocalypse of Elijah
8. Apocalypse of Ezra (Greek)
 Apocalyptic literature
Apocalyptic literature in NT
• Canonical
1. Matthew 24
2. Mark 13
3. 2 Thessalonians 2
4. Book of Revelation
• Non-canonical
1. Apocalypse of James (First)
2. Apocalypse of James (Second)
3. Apocalypse of Paul
4. Apocalypse of Peter
5. Apocalypse of Stephen
6. Apocalypse of Thomas
7. Apocalypse of the Seven Heavens