Within post-exilic Judaism prophetic hope became juxtaposed with
priestly dominance
Priestly dominance - geared to the law and the cult as providing a
stable framework which could guarantee a right relationship between God and the people -
most people accepted this perspective
Prophetic hope - geared to prophetic eschatology and thus to a hope
for a world transformed by God - only a few accepted this perspective
As time passed, those who clung to a prophetic hope became
disenchanted with the priestly leadership - they basically cut their moorings with reality
and disappeared into a world of visions about the future - these became the
apocalypticists
Apocalyptic literature proved to be especially helpful in times of
persecution and distress
During such times people could not see God working actively in
history (especially if they considered themselves to be chosen and righteous and yet were
suffering) so they concentrated on God working behind the scenes in the heavenly realm and
His plans for the end times
Such literature obviously was written by and for those who were
oppressed
Characteristics
Primary
Two ages - present age is evil, future age is to be good
God is so far above the world (transcendent) he is almost distant
Deterministic - history has been set by God in the past and now
simply plods automatically on
Filled with mystery and secrecy
Concerned only with the last generation of history rather than with
history itself - the writers always believed they were living in the last generation of
history
Secondary
Pseudonymous - usually the author wrote using the name of a famous
person from the distant past
Angels and demons are active
Visions are commonplace with typically a being from the heavenly
world to interpret the vision although some parts are not interpreted - there are always
elements that remain hidden
Use of numerical and animal symbolism
Expect a catastrophe before the end of time
Not particularly concerned with social justice and ethics - much more
concerned with persevering to the end times
Paul D. Hanson's Views ("Jewish Apocalyptic Against its Near
Eastern Environment," Revue Biblique, 78 (1971), 31-58)
Method - "'contextual-typological' since it attempts to
interpret the proto-apocalyptic and apocalyptic compositions within the sociological
context of the community struggle visible behind the material and since it applies the
typological tools of prosody, Gattungen and the development of religious ideas to
establish relative dates for the compositions studied" (p. 33)
Primary factors for development of apocalyptic out of classical
Israelite prophecy (p. 34)
Self-identification of its originators with classical prophetic
tradition
Their borrowing of archaic league and royal traditions which
originally stemmed from the world of myth
A setting in a crisis-ridden post-exilic community struggling to
adjust to loss of nationhood, and finally split into two contending factions, one
visionary and the other hierocratic
Apocalyptic (eschatology) - "disclosure (usually esoteric in
nature) to the elect of the prophetic vision of Yahweh's sovereignty (including his future
dealings with his people, the inner secrets of the cosmos, etc.) which vision the
visionaries have ceased to translate into the terms of plain history, real politics and
human instrumentality because of a pessimistic view of reality growing out of the bleak
post-Exilic conditions in which the visionary group found itself, conditions seeming
unsuitable to them as a context for the envisioned restoration of Yahweh's people"
(p. 35)
Hanson's circle (p. 58)
Early Myth (Egypt and Early Sumer) - negation of history
Classical Mesopotamia -
history a mere reflection of the mythic realm
Israelite League - tension between myth and history
Prophetic Yahwism - affirmation of history as context of divine
activity
Apocalyptic - indifference to restraints of history
Gnosticism - negation of history
John J. Collins' Views ("Introduction: Towards the Morphology of
a Genre," Semeia, 14 (1979), 1-20)
History - explicit recollection of the past or ex eventu
prophecy
Present salvation through knowledge - characteristic of Gnostic texts
Eschatological crisis - persecution, other eschatological upheavals
Eschatological judgment and/or destruction - upon sinners (in Gnostic
texts the ignorant), world, otherworldly beings
Eschatological salvation - cosmic transformation, personal salvation,
resurrection, other forms of afterlife
Spatial axis - otherworldly elements - otherworldly regions,
otherworldly beings
Paranesis
Concluding elements
Instructions to the recipient - to conceal or publish the revelation
Narrative conclusion
Constant elements in the master paradigm (p. 9)
Narrative framework in which the manner of revelation is described
Otherworldly mediator and a human recipient
Both an eschatological salvation which is temporally future and
present otherworldly realities
Eschatological salvation always definitive in character and marked by
some form of personal afterlife
Spatial, otherworldly realities always involve the activity of
otherworldly, angelic or demonic beings
Existence of another world beyond what is accessible to humans by
natural means
Apocalypse - "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" (p. 9)
Types of apocalypses (pp. 13-15)
Those with no otherworldly journey
"Historical" - most widely recognized type (e.g., Dan.
7-12)
Cosmic and/or political eschatology but no historical review (e.g.,
Revelation) - no Jewish apocalypse of this type
Only personal eschatology - only in Christian and Gnostic works
Those with an otherworldly journey
"Historical" - very rare - no Christian apocalypse of this
type
Cosmic and/or political eschatology but no historical review - widely
attested