Apocalypse: A History of Apocalypticism in Judaism & Christianity

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily match my own. - Dr. Bart D. Ehrman

Far from being merely a collection of end-of-the-world predictions, apocalypse is a rich and complex category of religious writings—one that seeks to pull back the curtain on veiled realities. In times of crisis, persecution, and uncertainty, apocalyptic writers offered their communities a vision of divine justice and hope.

In this article, I’ll explore what makes a text “apocalyptic,” examining the defining features of the genre and surveying other influential apocalyptic writings from Jewish and Christian traditions. By tracing the history of apocalypticism, we will see how societies facing oppression and uncertainty sometimes turned to transcendent realities to explain God’s ultimate plan.

Apocalypse Meaning: What Is an Apocalypse?

The English word apocalypse is derived from the original Greek word apokalypsis. The verb form in Greek is apokalyptein, meaning "reveal, uncover, or disclose," with  apo- meaning "off, away from" and kalyptein meaning "to cover or conceal." While the word was certainly used in the ancient world for divine revelations, it was also a mundane word, used at times in ancient Greek writings to mean simply uncovering one’s head or even, as in the case of The Life of Aemilius by the Greek philosopher Plutarch, taking off one’s clothes in public:

This is why, for example, the last book of the Christian Bible was originally known as Apokalypsis Ioannou or The Revelation of John. That entire book is about God uncovering the spiritual reality normally invisible to human beings by showing visions to John of Patmos.

What concerns us in this article, however, is that apocalypses became an important and influential literary genre in late Second Temple Judaism and early Christianity. While each apocalyptic literary work has unique features, there are certain common traits shared by most of them. In The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature, for example, Hindy Najman writes that

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In addition, Scott M. Lewis’ book What Are They Saying about New Testament Apocalyptic? notes that apocalyptic literature characteristically includes highly symbolic images from the Hebrew Bible and cynical views of the current historical moment. Most also contain arcane numerological systems like gematria, and claims of divine inspiration.

With all these features, it is not surprising that apocalyptic writings also usually focus in some sense on eschatology. This word is derived from the Greek word eschatología, which means “the study of the last things,” or the apocalyptic end of the world. In Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, Sidnie White Crawford writes that apocalyptic eschatology claims that God will bring a harsh judgment to those who didn’t act justly but will save his devoted followers and reward them for their faithfulness.

In Daniel: Introduction to Apocalyptic Literature, John J. Collins notes that although there are examples of the apocalyptic genre beginning in the 2nd century BCE and as late as the 2nd century CE, the only complete example in the Hebrew Bible canon is the second half of the Book of Daniel (more on this later). Meanwhile, Scott Lewis writes that while the Book of Revelation is the only clear-cut and complete example in the New Testament, certain passages in Paul’s letters and the Gospels also reflect or assume an apocalyptic viewpoint.

Either way, the apocalypse genre was, first and foremost, of Jewish origins. For that reason, we’ll now look at how these two canonical books, Daniel and Revelation, fit with the characteristics of the genre and then briefly explore other, noncanonical apocalyptic works.

The Book of Daniel

The first 6 chapters of the book of Daniel consist of several straightforward narratives about how the God of Israel supports and cares for the prophet Daniel and his Jewish companions during their captivity in Babylon. These include the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:16–28) and Daniel surviving the lions’ den (Daniel 6). However, from chapters 7 to 12, the book becomes a panoply of prophetic visions shown to Daniel by Yahweh.

The first vision concerns four beasts which rise out of the sea and represent various empires that have conquered the land and people of Israel. The first, said to look like a lion with eagle’s wings, likely represents the Babylonian empire, according to Pamela Milne in the HarperCollins Study Bible. The second beast, appearing like a bear, seems to represent the Median empire, known for their savage military forays. The next beast, resembling a leopard, although with four heads and four bird wings on its back, represents the mighty Persian empire, who would conquer the Babylonians and let captive Jews return to Jerusalem. Finally, the fourth beast is not compared to any known animal, and perhaps for this reason, sounds even more terrifying than its predecessors:

Milne notes that this is almost universally recognized as a representation of the empire of Alexander the Great, and its successor kingdoms. However, the vision does not end with this Greek empire.

At this point, Daniel sees a powerful figure he calls “an Ancient of Days” (7:9). This figure defeats the fourth beast, while his emissary, called “one like a son of man” (7:13) is given kingship over the whole world. While ten kings, representing the kings of the Seleucid Empire that followed Alexander’s death, would continue to persecute “the holy ones” of Israel, in the end, the Ancient of Days would judge these kings and the holy ones would be granted the eternal rule of the world.

It's important to note that this scene in Daniel fits all the criteria for an apocalypse. For instance, Daniel’s vision, divinely granted while he was sleeping, is later interpreted by one of the attendants of the Ancient of Days (an angel, perhaps?) who clearly explains the meaning of the dream, mediating between the bizarre images Daniel sees and their ultimate meaning.

The vision also includes a transcendent reality, where mythological beasts represent the “monstrous” empires who have long oppressed Israel. Finally, there is a final judgment in which the evil kings are punished and the holy ones of Israel have everlasting rule over the earth.

In addition, Daniel contains numerous numerological references, although most of them are outside of chapter 7. For example, there is a mention of 70 Weeks (Daniel 9:24–27), which has been interpreted as 490 years (70 x 7 Sabbath cycles). Some Jewish interpreters understood this number to be the time from Daniel’s visions until the Messiah would come.

As we’ll see, the book of Revelation contains these elements as well, even poaching some of the images from Daniel’s vision.

The Book of Revelation (a.k.a. the Apocalypse of John)

While the book of Revelation is an early Christian document, its vision of Christianity is also very Jewish, as is most of the imagery its author, John of Patmos, uses. Like Daniel, John also has a vision, and encounters “one like a son of man,” here represented as Christ, who instructs him to write down what he sees. John’s description of Christ—with hair completely white—mirrors that of the Ancient of Days in Daniel. In other words, Christ is both the son of man and the Ancient of Days, a description which shows a very high Christology.

The subsequent visions will be mediated not only by Christ but also at different times by angels, all of whom explain the true meaning of the images to John. The entire series of visions, including Christ’s opening dictation of letters to seven churches, occurs in a heavenly reality. This reality opens in a spatial way as well: John, who is “in the Spirit,” hears a loud voice behind him. When he turns to the voice, he begins to see the visions. It’s as if the transcendent realm begins at a line behind John’s back.

Additionally, Revelation 20:11–15 reveals the nature of the last judgment in a powerful scene:

Moreover, the New Jerusalem descends, providing the eternal home for the faithful after the judgment:

Finally, Revelation has perhaps the most famous example of numerology in all of Biblical literature, based on a system known as gematria which gave numerical value to letters and words. A multi-horned beast, reminiscent of one of Daniel’s beasts, rises out of the sea to rule and be worshipped. John then writes the name of the one the beast represents without really saying it:

This 666 number is made by calculating the value of the name “Caesar Nero” in Hebrew. Since gematria was such a common point of reference in the ancient world, most readers would have understood this immediately.

So, although the author of Revelation lived more than two centuries after the author of Daniel, both texts employed remarkably similar apocalyptic themes. In fact, some modern Christians still turn to Revelation for eschatological signs of the Rapture.

So what other apocalyptic works, those which were not included in most biblical canons, were written in a similar historical time frame?

Other Apocalyptic Writings

I noted above that Daniel and Revelation are the only complete apocalypses in the biblical canon. However, there are other books in the Hebrew Bible that contain apocalyptic elements. For example, take a look at this passage from Joel 3:9–12:

The reference to the judgment is certainly reminiscent of apocalypses, although it’s a brief mention. There are similar apocalyptic themes found in

Ezekiel 38–39
Jeremiah 33:14–26
Zechariah 12–14
Isaiah 24–27; 33; 34–35

However, most of the books we classify as apocalypses are deeply Jewish and come from the Second Temple Period. While I don’t have the time or space to write about all of them here, I’ll give you a brief description of one of the better-known ones and then list others you can investigate if you’re so inclined.

In the Second Temple Period and beyond, some authors took what appeared to be a minor but mysterious character from Genesis 5:21–24 and made him into a major apocalyptic figure. Three books of Enoch were written, each by a different author. However, the Enoch of 3 Enoch is more than just a man who pleased God.

At the beginning of the book, Enoch ascends to heaven in a “storm chariot,” somewhat reminiscent of the fiery chariot in which Elijah ascended to heaven. However, once he has left the earthly realm and entered the heavenly, transcendent reality, he is transformed into a highly-exalted angel called Metatron. As such, he is given the secrets of the universe appropriate to his new status. In fact, that’s the crux of the story, Enoch’s transformation and the accompanying knowledge. As you can see, it doesn’t fit our entire criteria, but it does involve a transcendent reality and an experience mediated by God and his angels.

Below is a list of other Jewish apocalyptic books for your consideration:

Sefer Elijah
Apocalypse of Sedrach
Apocalypse of Zephaniah
Apocalypse of Moses
Apocalypse of Zerubbabel
Aramaic Apocalypse
Apocalypse of Abraham
Gabriel's Revelation
Genesis Apocryphon
Greek Apocalypse of Baruch
Greek Apocalypse of Daniel
Greek Apocalypse of Ezra
Apocalypse of Adam
Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch

There are also some noncanonical Christian apocalypses:

Apocalypse of Golias
Apocalypse of Peter
Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun
Apocalypse of Paul
Apocalypse of Thomas
Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius
Coptic Apocalypse of Elijah
Apocalypse of Stephen

Conclusion

The word apocalypse was derived from a Greek word meaning to uncover or reveal. Its meaning in Greek is not necessarily mystical, but from the 2nd century BCE to the rise of Christianity, the mystical meaning began to predominate and came to represent an entire genre of literature, most of which was written between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE.

What makes an apocalypse? Scholars have figured out some criteria shared by many or most of the books that are so labeled. These include a vision or dream mediated by divine figures, a spatial and temporal shift from the mundane earthly realm into the transcendent heavenly realm, and a final judgment. In addition, the images used, often referring to the Hebrew Bible, are highly symbolic, while many of the books also employ some form of numerology.

The two most obvious apocalyptic books in the Bible are Daniel and Revelation. In fact, much of Daniel’s prophetic vision of the future is taken and rearranged by John of Patmos to fit his new, Jewish-Christian reality. While other prophetic books, as well as the Gospels and the letters of Paul, have apocalyptic snippets, only these two books provide complete examples in the biblical canon.