A class of literature called apocalypse, derived from the Greek word “to uncover” or “reveal,” appears in both Old and New Testaments. This type of literature existed in Jewish circles between 250 BCE and 200 CE and was subsequently taken up by the Christian authors. Most scholars believe that the style originated with or depended upon the oracles of Israel’s prophets. In general it has the form of divine disclosures made through visions, dreams, and angelic beings.
In the Christian Bible, the two main apocalypses are Daniel and Revelation. But the Old Testament prophetic books also includes similar writings in Ezekiel 38-39, Isaiah 24-27, Zechariah 12-14, and Joel 3. Mark 13 and Matthew 24 and 25 in the New Testament also qualify as apocalyptic teaching attributed to Jesus. A number of non-biblical apocalypses appeared in both Jewish and Christian circles, including some of the Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in the mid-20th century CE. None of these were admitted to either canon.
Three main stylistic types can be identified in this genre: 1) Visionary experiences in dreams, trances or visual/physical transference to the ends of the earth or heaven. 2) Symbolic imagery. 3) Counsel for tough times resolved by God’s intervention in history. Through these literary means the authors sought to deal with issues of their own times and the anticipated end of history.
Often this involved cosmic cataclysms symbolized by earthquakes, famine, dreadful portents and holocausts. Finally, there would be a final resolution of all these troubles when history would be consummated in the reign of God, the eschaton. From this came the theological term “eschatology,” the study of end times.
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