A. K. Chidgzey

“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” Said Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore, played by Robert Duvall, in the movie Apocalypse Now, a movie set during the Vietnam War that portrayed with extreme prejudice the utter horror of the war and the immense psychological turmoil of the whole endeavor. The title of the movie – Apocalypse Now – clearly indicates the mood of the film, but also the general popular understanding of that word apocalypse. Vietnam had become hell on earth and they were experiencing the nightmares that were to accompany the end of the world.

The horror. The horror.   

But is this what the word apocalypse means?

Today the word is associated with destruction, with death, with a fiery and horrific end of the world. But the original use of the word, though generally relating to the end of the world, is a little different.

The word is originally Greek, apocalypsis, which is translated as revelation. When we break the word down, it’s made up of the words for cover and away, and so means to pull away the cover or veil to reveal whatever was hidden behind that veil. So what was not normally known or knowable by humans is now being made known. And it wasn’t always negative, or dealing with horrific, end of the world events. It’s used in Luke ch. 2 in reference to the Messiah being a light to the Gentiles, in Romans ch.16 in reference to the gospel message, and in 1 Cor. 14 when Paul is discussing speaking in tongues.

But it’s used in the first verse of the book we call Revelation, where the author introduces the book as the apocalypse, or revelation, of Jesus Christ. That’s how the book got the title revelation, and ever since the word apocalypse became associated with all the end-time, eschatological imagery of Revelation.

The book of Revelation is such an interesting, crazy, and wildly misunderstood book, and I plan on doing a series of episodes on various aspects of Revelation, starting with next week’s episode on the millennium and then looking at the beast in the following week. So we’ll be looking at things like the dragon, the mark of the beast, 666, all of that fun stuff. Spoiler: the millennium is allegorical and the beast was the Roman emperor Nero. But we’ll get to that. It’s helpful to understand the idea of apocalypse before we dive into those.

Defining the word apocalypse, beyond the Greek idea of revelation, is quite difficult and contentious, but it was used in a lot different ways, and was applied to a whole variety of different things, including literature, social movements, and eschatological expectations.

In academic discussions, it’s usually divided into three common terms, apocalypse, apocalypticism, and apocalyptic. An apocalypse is a literary genre, it’s a type of writing that shares common themes, but we’ll explore that in a moment. The term apocalypticism is sometimes used to refer to a worldview or a social movement. This one is actually contentious; it’s actually unlikely that there was a group of people who ascribed to a shared movement or practice that we might call apocalypticism. So that word doesn’t actually get used much in academic discourse except when referring to the literature that we might call, or might call itself, an apocalypse. And to use the adjective apocalyptic is to refer to related imagery or eschatological motifs. So if we were to say that Jesus’ preaching was apocalyptic, it means it shares some similarities with the literary genre.

Let’s have a closer look at apocalypse.

As a genre, apocalypticism was never a formalized genre, until the book of Revelation, which calls itself an apocalypse. There are a couple of others texts which are written around the same time as Revelation, these are second and third Baruch, and they both call themselves apocalypses – The Apocalypse of Baruch and the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch, respectively. And these texts have a fair bit in common, and share a lot of similarities with a whole bunch of other texts. And so people, in modern times, started referring to these texts as apocalypses, taking the name from Revelation. So not technically a formal genre, that people at the time would have recognized, but this literature nevertheless developed in similar circumstances, addressing similar issues, using similar imagery, so it does indicate that the people who wrote this literature and those who read it and passed it along viewed it as a legitimate way of thinking.

We might say that one of the first, if not the first, was a book called the Book of the Watchers, which is pseudonymously ascribed to Enoch and comprises the first 36 chapters of the book 1 Enoch. This Book of the Watchers was probably composed in the 3^rd century BCE.

Another of the earliest apocalyptic texts is a more familiar text, and is the book of Daniel, or at least the second half. Daniel was probably written in the second century BCE, but places the events of the narrative in the 6^th century BCE during the exile in Babylon.

Apocalyptic literature emerged during times of crisis, within the Hellenistic period, a period when the ancient Greeks they occupied a lot of the Mediterranean and beyond following the conquests of Alexander the Great, bringing their culture and practices with them. And so Apocalyptic literature emerged as a way to resist the new imperial context and its accompanying occupation, taxation, and submission to foreign powers. In particular, the king of the Seleucid Empire, which was the eastern part of Greek control, including Jerusalem, Persia, and right up to India, a man named Antiochus Epiphanes persecuted the Jews quite heavily. It was common practice for Greek rulers to allow the people to practice their respective religions, and the Seleucids had allowed the Jews to practice their religion, so long as they paid their taxes. And initially, Antiochus Epiphanes followed this policy.

Until he went to war with Egypt, or rather the Ptolemaic Kingdom. And so he went through Israel to get there, was backwards and forwards a little bit and there was some controversy and some misunderstanding – all of which needs a lot longer to unpack – but Antiochus thought a revolt was happening and sent an army to Jerusalem, killing and enslaving many.

But then he implemented some policies of suppression, rededicating the Jewish temple to a Pagan god, either Baal or Zeus, sacrificed a pig on the altar in the holy of holies, and forced some of the Jewish leaders to eat pork. Remember that eating pork was, and is, prohibited in Jewish religious law.

There was a group of Jews, who became known as the Maccabees, after Judas Maccabeus, who escaped and hid out in the mountains until they were in a position were they could revolt and take back Jerusalem, which they did in the year 164 BCE. The cleansing of the temple is what is remembered in the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

It’s during this period that apocalyptic literature started to thrive, such as the Books of the Maccabees. Second Maccabees, ch. 7 recounts a tale of a mother with seven children. This chapter names Antiochus who orders them to eat pork. If they refuse, they would be tortured. But each of the sons, with their mother encouraging them, refused. It wasn’t about the pork, but about upholding God’s laws. One by one, they refused, and one by one they were killed. One of them stated, “You dismiss us from this present life, but the King of the universe will raise us up to a renewal of everlasting life.” And another stuck out his tongue, held out his hands, and said, “I got these from God, and because I do not disobey him, he will give them back to me.”

This is a fictional story, but was written to encourage the people at the time to continue to obey God and to resist Antiochus. It portrays Antiochus as wicked and says that God will bring punishment and reward.

The Book of Daniel is generally said to have been composed at this time, and the book is filled with a lot of imagery that symbolize what’s going on in the 2^nd century BCE, but that also needs a whole episode to unpack. But like the Books of the Maccabees, it is written to encourage the people to stay strong. As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar’s golden statue, don’t offer tribute at Antiochus’ pagan altar. Be like Daniel and stand firm on your principles. One day, judgement and resurrection will come. Hold on to that hope.

In a lot of these texts, Hellenistic myths are inverted. For example, the Book of Watchers narrates a heavenly journey, recounting various Hellenistic wars and depicts an alternative geography and cosmology, and presents an alternative ideology of dominance, placing God on the throne and sets the scene for the coming Messiah.

Skipping to the end of the first century or start of the second century CE, Fourth Ezra was written in response to the destruction of the Jewish temple by the Romans in the year 70 CE, and calls Rome Babylon, Israel’s great ancient nemesis. It describes the present, sinful world, and the future, transformed, perfect world. There are angels, there is resurrection, there is a new kingdom, and there are lots of cosmic signs.

Around the same time comes Second Baruch, which narrates the fall of the Jewish temple, but in the historical context of the Babylonian destruction of the temple, many centuries prior. All the same sort of themes come up here as well. Then there’s the Apocalypse of Abraham, also interested in the fall of Jerusalem to the Romans, and the Book of Jubilees, which rewrites Genesis but talks about an eschatological future. And there’s a whole bunch of others, but the most famous, from which the genre derives its name is the last book of the Christian Bible, Revelation.

And we’re going to unpack various images and symbols in Revelation in upcoming episodes, but, like these other apocalypses, it portrays an alternative reality, where their oppressive persecutors are punished and those who remain faithful and obedient are rewarded. Revelation basically portrays a parody of the Roman Empire, turning it upside down to reveal that it is not the true kingdom. Rather, God’s is the true kingdom and Jesus is the true king. It’s a reminder of God’s sovereignty and encouragement during times of persecution under oppressive Roman emperors, Domitian in particular.

Revelation is such a misunderstand book. It’s filled with so much imagery and symbolism, and is quarried for codes and dates and has been weaponized by people of almost every generation since it was written to vilify others, to say that this person over here is the antichrist, or that the COVID vaccine is the mark of the beast, or something along those lines. Whereas many others think it too intimidating, too esoteric, or think it’s all about some far off future and think it irrelevant. Which is a shame; it’s such a good book. But like every good book, it can really only be understood when its genre is understood. And its genre is apocalyptic. So we’ll explore some of the images in later episodes and hopefully make it less intimidating and more interesting and relevant.

But back to apocalypticism. Jewish apocalyptic is influenced by Israel’s exposure to foreign civilizations. A lot of the themes common to apocalyptic are actually drawn from other religions, particularly Zoroastrianism which comes from Persia, which the Israelites were exposed to during the Babylonian exile. But there’s also Greek influences, a touch of Mesopotamian and Canaanite, all mixed in of course with Jewish tradition. There are a lot of overlaps with Jewish prophecy and wisdom literature, and the Torah tends to have a very central role.

Ideas such as dualism, such as light and dark, day and night, wicked and righteous, as well as themes of heaven and hell, cosmological, eschatological battles, dream visions, and even resurrection, are all drawn from Zoroastrianism. In apocalyptic literature, they take on a very Jewish flavour and then develop in Christian expressions. That is not to say that these themes cannot be found in earlier Jewish traditions as well, but that Zoroastrianism, and other surrounding religions, had a major influence in the development of these ideas.

The purpose of apocalyptic literature was to console and encourage the people of God amidst difficult times. Hope is presented in the form of the faithfulness of God, justice, and reward for those who remain faithful, while punishment is promised for the wicked. It is an exhortation to continued obedience and a rebuke of unrighteousness.

Where today’s movies and popular understandings of the idea of apocalypse might have a nice, peaceful setting that an apocalyptic calamity descends upon, between roughly the third or fourth century BCE into the second or third century CE, it’s actually the other way around. The setting is already one of calamity and disaster, and apocalyptic literature presents a solution to that disaster.

So how can you tell if a text is apocalyptic? Some of the key characteristics include the following.

First, it is usually written under a pseudonym, that is, a different name. Pseudonymity was a common writing practice in the ancient world, where someone would use the name of a famous or well know person, appealing to that person’s authority as well as placing their own arguments within a particular traditional context. It was also an act of self-preservation; if you’re critiquing an imperial power and calling them names and stuff, you would probably want to remain hidden. So some of the apocalyptic literature are attributed to some of the heroes of the Jewish faith, including Ezra, the Maccabees, even Moses himself.

Another characteristic is portraying the unseen or invisible world, the spiritual realm, if you like. The name itself, apocalyptic, as mentioned earlier, is the Greek word, apocalypsis, and means to unveil what was previously hidden.

Third, it often describes future events. This is not necessarily predicting exactly what the future will look like, or how, precisely, things will turn out, but narrating the present hope. And it’s a way of saying, “Just on hold tight for now. Things will get better.”

Apocalyptic literature often narrates divine revelation given to a human recipient by a heavenly figure, often disclosing a transcendent reality, as an alternative to the present, empirical reality.

Sometimes it’s narrated historically, surveying a broad sweep of history culminating in a final, divine judgment, and sometimes it’s an otherworldly journey, where the recipient of the revelation is whisked up into heaven or somewhere else. Revelation is an otherworldly journey.

The theme of resurrection flourished within apocalyptic literature. It’s not really present in much of the Hebrew Bible, there’s only a few passages where it may or may not be resurrection. The most explicit expression of resurrection in the Hebrew Bible is in Daniel. But it’s very common in apocalyptic literature and then basically taken for granted in the New Testament. The theology of resurrection was the focus of my PhD, so I’m sure we’ll explore it more in the future, but basically it emerged as a hopeful expectation for the vindication of those unjustly martyred. Those who remained faithful but were killed by a tyrannical ruler.

Now, Revelation is not the only example of apocalyptic literature that was canonized in the New Testament. Mark ch.13 is often called The Little Apocalypse, because it has a decidedly apocalyptic flavour. We don’t have time to really unpack this chapter, but it’s got everything – predictions of the future, the destruction of the Jewish temple, reference to the desolating sacrilege (which was probably referring to Titus, the Roman general and future emperor who destroyed the Jewish temple in the year 70CE), and reference to the Son of Man, which is drawn from Daniel. The moon turns red, there’s war and earthquakes and judgement. It’s pretty crazy.

A common interpretation of this is that Jesus’ whole message was apocalyptic and that Jesus fully expected the end of history to arrive imminently. As did John the Baptist and the Apostle Paul. In Paul’s earlier letters it seems very much like he was expecting Jesus to return and that God’s eschatological kingdom would be inaugurated within his own lifetime.

This is suggested in verse like 1 Thessalonians 4.17 where he says, “When we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will be with the Lord forever.” And in 1 Corinthians 15.51 he says, “We will not all die.”

Jesus’ resurrection was, in my opinion, the ultimate fulfilment and expression of Jewish apocalyptic hope, but as time dragged on, the further they got from the resurrection, as Christians started to die, and Jesus had not yet returned, they started to realize that, maybe, Jesus wasn’t returning any time soon. And, well, 2000 years later we know that he still has not yet returned.

I think understanding the idea of apocalypse is pretty important for understanding the New Testament, because apocalyptic themes pervade pretty much the whole thing. If you’ve listened to my episode on eschatology, I think that everything has an eschatological aspect, and that is very much tied in with this idea of apocalypse. I hope I’ve explained it well enough, but it make actually make more sense once we’ve dived into some of the apocalyptic imagery of Revelation, which we’ll get into over the next couple of episodes, starting with the millennium next week and the beast the week after. Those are going to be fun episodes.