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16 - Apocalyptic writings

from Part IV - Subcollections and genres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2016

Stephen L. Cook
Affiliation:
Virginia Theological Seminary
Stephen B. Chapman
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Marvin A. Sweeney
Affiliation:
Claremont School of Theology, California
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Summary

The eschatological hope of apocalypticism centers on God's renewal of the cosmos, nature, and humanity, thus establishing perfect shalom and joy. The renewal is physical and material, not symbolic and ethereal. It ushers in a marvelous world beyond anything that humans have ever known (see, e.g., Zech 14:6–7; Isa 25:8; 26:19). Heretofore, few indeed have glimpsed God's resurrected world (see 2 Kgs 2:11–12), and even prophets have struggled to accept a vision of Sheol's defeat (2 Kgs 2:16–18).

Within the Hebrew Bible, Daniel (especially chapters 2, 7–12) is the primary “apocalypse,” a type of writing attested more fully in the wider Jewish and Christian world of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman times. The book of Daniel includes a visionary, with angels’ help, grappling with the “Beyond.” The seer (Daniel) explores a superior reality, parallel to human experience, which is on a collision course with history. The writings of the book have little to do with the tried and true. Rather, Daniel's apocalyptic imagination exposes transpersonal evil, uncovers primal conflicts of existence, and evokes humanity's awe before God.

The visions of Daniel 7–12 disclose a heavenly world and an imminent culmination to history. They contain pulsing images on a mythic scale; they predict the ultimate triumph of good over evil. A steady increase of worldwide evil is inevitable, according to the visions, but there will follow an end-time triumph of God over its forces. God is about to intervene in history, destroying the dehumanizing spirit embedded within the world's empires. When that happens, God will overthrow wholesale all imperial systems of control, establish an everlasting dominion on earth, and reward the faithful.

Beyond Daniel, the First Testament also contains an assortment of texts enlivened by an apocalyptic imagination but lacking the standardized features of the Hellenistic apocalypses. These texts exhibit apocalyptic thinking and may be designated as early apocalyptic or “protoapocalyptic” literature. They presuppose a cognitive grid for interpreting the world where the contested reign of God verges on manifesting itself in open power, ushering in a transformation of embodied existence. Radical additions to several prophetic books fall under the rubric “protoapocalyptic” (e.g., Ezekiel 38–9; Isaiah 24–7), as do the entire books of Haggai, Zechariah, Joel, and Malachi.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

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References

Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Opening the Sealed Book: Interpretations of the Book of Isaiah in Late Antiquity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006.
Carey, Greg. Ultimate Things: An Introduction to Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic Literature. St. Louis, MO: Chalice, 2005.
Collins, John J. The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature, 2d ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998.
Cook, Stephen L. The Apocalyptic Literature (IBT). Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2003.
Cook, Stephen L“Eschatology of the OT,” pp. 299–308 in The New Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2. Edited by Sakenfeld, K. et al. Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2007.
Cook, Stephen L“Mythological Discourse in Ezekiel and Daniel, and the Rise of Apocalypticism in Israel,” pp. 85–106 in Knowing the End from the Beginning: The Prophetic, the Apocalyptic and their Relationships (JPSup 46). Edited by Grabbe, L. and Haak, R.. London: T & T Clark, 2003.
Cook, Stephen L Prophecy and Apocalypticism: The Postexilic Social Setting. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1995.
Grabbe, Lester L., and Haak, Robert D., eds. Knowing the End from the Beginning: The Prophetic, the Apocalyptic and their Relationships (JPSup 46). London: T & T Clark, 2003.
Hill, Craig C. In God's Time: The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002.
Levenson, Jon D. Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006.
Sweeney, Marvin A. Form and Intertextuality in Prophetic and Apocalyptic Literature (FAT 45). Tübingen, Germany: Mohr Siebeck, 2005.
Tigchelaar, Eibert J. C. Prophets of Old and the Day of the End: Zechariah, the Book of Watchers, and Apocalyptic (OtSt 35). New York: Brill, 1996.

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