2. Apocalyptic What?
When I was a kid, I used to sit with my dad and listen to baseball games in the cool of his barber shop in the blistering heat of Florida summers. In our neck of the woods we could only get Yankee games (that’s the NY Yankees for those of you that are not familiar with American baseball). I would sit and listen and try to imagine what it was like to be in the park and watch Mickey Mantle play.
Often I would hear the announcer say that the batter was looking to the third base coach for a sign. I had no idea what that meant because I had never seen a live baseball game, even a high school game, at that point in my life.
Some years later after my folks bought the first TV in the little Southern community that I lived in and we finally were able to receive something beside “snow” and an occasion signal, I saw my first major league game.
Then, I understood what signs were, but did not understand what they meant. Baseball signs go all the way back to the late 1800s when a deaf player named Dummy Hoy, certainly not a politically correct way of referring to someone today, requested the third base coach to raise his left hand to indicate a ball and his right hand to indicate a strike. As a deaf player, the pitchers were quick pitching him while he was asking the umpire if the previous pitch was a ball or a strike. So “signs” in baseball was born. They developed into some pretty sophisticated stuff over the years. The purpose: to keep the other team from knowing what is going on as the next possible play.
Ever listened to quarterbacks call plays? They are in code. The players with the code in hand understand what is going to happen; the opposite team, well, they are left to guess what’s coming.
When I was serving in the military in the US Air Force, I had a Top Secret clearance. We would get coded messages and someone had to decode them. If you read the original message, you would have no knowledge about what was being said. You needed the code book to help understand it.
It is fair to say, that different arenas of life have different codes and we have all kinds of codes that we read. We can understand them because we have the code to understand them.
In the first session of Revelation, we spoke (wrote) briefly about the genre of literature of the book we call Revelation. It is Apocalyptic Literature, and it is early-coded material. If we try to read it as the Left Behind writers have done, along with hundreds of other authors trying to decipher the text, without giving due attention to what the possible codes are, we will surely misread it, misunderstand it, misuse it, and often put words into the mouth of God that he never said and does not intend to say.
When I say “code,” I do not mean some mystical code hidden deep within the words of the book that requires you to have a magic formula to decode words every so often in the text wherein the real message of the text is hidden. I’m not talking about having some kind of urban-legend-decoder ring popular in USAmerica beginning in the 1930s. Nor am I talking about the rash of recent “code” books claiming to help us uncover “hidden” meaning in the text. These books all had a rather Gnostic insiders feel to them.
Let me confess up front. I don’t have the code book. However, I do know something about the kind of literature that the book purports to be. If we get a grasp on that angle, we will have an easier time reading and understanding the text.
Why Apocalyptic Literature?
In the story of the Old Testament, we discover that Israel had an undefeated and indestructible hope that they were the chosen people of God (Genesis 12.1-9)Genesis 12. The Call of Abram
The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.
From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD. Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev (NIV).
. From Abraham forward, the Jews began to believe that they were destined to be the greatest nation in the world and would eventually have world supremacy, because they were the people of God. Solomon was viewed as the apex of this nationalistic belief.
The Hebrew prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. still cherished the hope that Israel’s repentance and renewal would lead to recovery of this lost ideal. The term day of the Lord, which denoted the desire for God to intervene and promote Israel to a superior place, was ever present in the message of the prophets. Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who were prophets of the Exile, believed that Israel would be restored and revived in her homeland. They believed that Israel, as a purified nation, would fulfill her appointed destiny in the world and she would have a new king from the family of David.
Prophetic hopes were nourished through the Babylonian Exile (586–536 B.C.). It was difficult for them to reconcile that they were God’s chosen people who were destined for world supremacy, but yet they were captive in a foreign land first by Assyria, then by Babylon, then Medo-Persia, and later Rome, with only a brief respite during the Maccabean period.
Captivity and Exposure to Zoroastrianism (A Stimuli for the Hebrews)
Added to this onset of pessimism and rejection was the contact that Israel had in the Exile with some ideas of Iranian religion. This ancient form of Persian Zoroastrianism taught:
- A cosmic struggle between good and evil.
- A hope of the sudden arrival of a god on the earth.
- A resurrection and judgment of all men.
- A world destroyed by fire.
- A final victory of a god with a new beginning of world history.
The Restoration Period showed a rise in this kind of literature, (Ezek. 40-48; Daniel 7-12; and Zech. 1-14).
The Intervention of God (Intertestamental / Second Temple Judaism)
When one lives with expectations but finds no resolution for the expectations, a feeling can often rise that nothing can be done about the present situation. This happened to Israel during this long period of time. They believed that God must intervene in human affairs and fulfill his promises to them as a nation. They still held the conviction that their destiny was to be the greatest nation which would afford them world supremacy, but they discovered that they had to adjust the present situation.
The Development of Time
In this segment of their history, the Jews developed a belief about how time occurred. How were their expectations going to play out and be fulfilled? How could they understand where they were in God’s plan. From this period of turmoil in their national history, they developed the following way of thinking about time.The Present Age
The present age was wholly and totally bad. It was beyond redemption and could not be transformed. There was only one way out: total destruction. The Jews waited for the end of all things as they were.
The Age to Come
The age to come was wholly and totally good and righteous. It was the Golden Age in which God would be in charge. In this age, God’s chosen people would at last be vindicated. They would receive their rightful place in world history. Out of this development of their concept of time arose an obvious question: How was the present age to become the future age?
The Transition
What was the transition? The transition would be when God would blast the Present Age out of existence. The day when God would come to destroy the present age was called the day of the Lord.
The Day of the Lord
The day of the Lord would be a terrible time of terror, destruction, and judgment. During this time, things as they are would be totally destroyed. The day of the Lord would be the birth pangs of the new age to come. Apocalyptic Literature is set within the background of these events: the Present Age which is evil; the Transition Period which is the day of the Lord; and the Age to Come which would be the Golden age of good with God in charge.
What is Apocalyptic Literature?
Apocalyptic Literature is literature which is composed of dreams and visions. There are five features which historically mark most examples of Apocalyptic Literature.
- Visionary Experience. The visionary experience of the seer would announce the content of his message, which was usually conveyed in an extended dialogue between himself and a heavenly counterpart (e.g., Zech. 1.18f.; 4.1). The writer is visibly overcome by the situation which meets him, usually the encounter with a heavenly reality. He may fall into a trance, or lie prostrate on the ground, or manifest great agitation in his spirit.
- Ancient Names. The use of ancient names like Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and Ezra to conceal the identity of the seer is a common device, which leads to the description of Apocalyptic Literature as pseudonymous, though there was no intention on the writer’s part to deceive the reader.
- Dualistic. The present struggle between God’s people on earth and their enemies is unequal because of the cosmic setting of the real conflict. Their thought is dualistic. They see the earthly struggle of the Jewish people in light of the great rivalry between God and his enemy, Satan, or Belial, or Mastema, or Azazel. The ultimate victory of God is assuredly predetermined.
- Symbolic Language. Because the setting of the apocalyptic literature is other-worldly, it is natural that the language used is symbolic and dramatic. Angels and demons are the contestants. They engage one another through the medium of mythological and zoological figures, such as dragons, monsters, members of the animal kingdom, and species of reptiles.
- Hope and Encouragement. The apocalyptic writer addressed a message of hope and encouragement to his readers as well as a call for patience in the interim between the dark present and the glorious future.
Cryptic
It was necessary for it to be cryptic, i.e., use symbols and pictures. There was a continual attempt to describe the indescribable, to say the unsayable, and to paint the unpaintable.
Why Cryptic?
The more tyranny, the more vengeance one wanted! The more held down, the hotter the vision of deliverance. Events were written in code. They were deliberately couched in language which was unintelligible to an outsider. Many events will remain covered because the code is lost.
It would appear that the more you know about the historical background and the situation of such books, the better you can interpret and grasp their meaning.
A List of Jewish Apocalypses
The Book of Enoch contains visions of world history and the history of Israel, from the time of Enoch to the present-day, and looks toward the impending end. The Sibylline Oracles were written in Greek by a Hellenistic Jewish apologist who was thought to imitate the pagan oracles. The Ascension of Isaiah has a definitely Christian character and contains a prediction of the prophet’s death, being sawed in two. The Assumption of Moses was written originally in Aramaic but extant only in a Latin translation or an earlier Greek translation. Moses is portrayed as predicting the history of Israel from the time of the entry into Canaan to the time of the writing. The Apocalypse of Baruch contains a discussion on the problem of suffering and evil and provides an answer: the present evil age will soon pass from existence and the Messianic age will come. Fourth Ezra records seven visions given to Ezra in Babylon. It contains much imagery and phraseology that appear in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Revelation.
NOTE: Place you mouse on any of the items below to read more information.
- Book of Enoch.Known as 1 Enoch or Ethiopic Enoch, dating from c. 170 B.C. and following. It contains visions of world history and the history of Israel, from the time of Enoch to the present-day, and looks toward the inpending end. It is by far the most important of the nonbiblical apocalypses. Read the Book of Enoch here.
- The Sibylline Oracles.Written in Greek by a Hellenistic Jewish apologist who was thought to imitate the pagan oracles. Words are put into the mouth of a prophetess named Sibyl who is identified as Noah’s daughter-in-law, who purports to predict the course of world history and the coming of the Messianic age with its peace and prosperity. Read The Sibylline Oracles here.
- The Ascension of Isaiah.It has a definitely Christian character and contains a prediction of the prophet’s death by being sawed in two. Read The Ascension of Isaiah here.
- The Assumption of Moses.It was written originally in Aramaic but extant only a Latin translation or an earlier Greek translation. Its date is somewhere between A.D. 6–30. Moses is portrayed as predicting the history of Israel from the time of the entry into Canaan to the time of the writing. The book centers on the persecution under Antiochus Epiphanes (169-164 B.C.) and has a pronouncement concerning the coming Kingdom of God and the end of the world. Read The Assumption of Moses here.
- The Apocalypse of Baruch.This book is closely related to 2 Ezra’s dating (A.D. 100-130). It contains a discussion on the problem of suffering and evil and provides an answer: the present evil age will soon pass from existence and the Messianic age will come. Read The Apocalypse of Baruch here.
- Fourth Ezra.This book is a mixture of Jewish and Christian thoughts. Dating A.D. 90–100, it records seven visions given to Ezra in Babylon. It contains much imagery and phraseology which appears in the NT especially in the book of Revelation. Read Fourth Ezra here.
Christian Apocalypse: REVELATION
Revelation was written using the pattern of two ages (the Present Evil Age and the Age to Come) with a Transition period (the day of the Lord). The major difference between the Jewish and Christian Apocalyptic is the Second Coming in Revelation is often thought to equal the day of the Lord in Jewish Apocalyptic writings.
This Bible Study is brought to you by Dr. Winn Griffin. DrWinn has been teaching Scripture for many years and loves helping folks get a bit of scholarship along their journey of living in God's Story. Have fun!
15 Comments »
May 6, 2007
Toni Shrout :
Dear Dr.Winn,
Is “The day of the Lord” as you have defined it for us the same time referred to in the New Testament as, “The end of the age?”
Zoroastrianism:
Wow! As a lay person this is a term I had never heard before. So of course I had no idea this ancient religion influenced the world view of the Hebrews and some of the Old Testament authors.
Do you feel some pastors keep such historical information from their flock because they are afraid such information will cause the lay person to doubt that the bible is the Word of God?
Apocalyptic literature:
This introduction to Apocalyptic Literature is raising some broader thoughts and questions in my mind. For example, I can see why critics of the bible and those who don’t believe the bible is the unique word of God find reason to question it’s divine inspiration and authorship due to such outside cultural influences as Zoroastrianism.
Thanks,
Toni S.
May 11, 2007
DrWinn :
Toni,
In response to your question under Zoroastrianism:
I’m sure there are many reasons why folks in the church have not been exposed to historical material. Your suggestion is as good as any. In addition, there are those who are given to teaching who have never been exposed to historical material, so it would be difficult to pass on something one does not know.
It is my opinion that the “popular” writers that get the most press today are those who view this book with dispensational theological glasses which often focuses one to take the English words on the page in a very wooden fashion while using the word “literal” to state their beliefs. It is difficult to have a life-exposure to “one point of view” and then be asked to view the same information from a different point of view. We often feel secure in what we have been taught and don’t want the mental and spiritual struggle to make any changes.
From you second comment, we are all influenced by culture. There is not a “neutral” way of thinking. That, in my opinion, is thinking in a very “thin” place. I am, you are, and anyone else reading this is influenced by the culture that we live in and God often helps us along the journey with the influences that we are exposed to. It is an interesting presupposition that is held that God’s word is somehow “pure” of cultural influence. Why do we have trouble considering the Hebrew or Greek culture as influence but not some other culture?
Just a few thoughts…
Winn
May 12, 2007
Robert Pooley :
I was thinking about about the writer’s writing in code. Years ago, I was skipping through the tv channels and happened upon a well known author and speaker talking about end times. He was on a prominent Christian network and he was taking phone calls. One caller referred to a passage talking about Cobra Attack Helicopters in the book of Daniel… and the unnamed author/speaker said, “Oh yes… what that is talking about is…” and then went on to explain how Daniel was seeing the end battles and Cobra attack helicopters… Anyway, I wonder if this author/speaker got a bad decoder ring?
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May 13, 2007
Dave Owens :
Zoroastrians… weren’t they a chivalrous lot that would ride around with black masks and…. or am I thinking of something else?
On the subject of genre, ‘literal’ interpretation and ‘truth’, a prof once asked us if we thought that the TV program, the Simpsons was ‘true’. After a very short discussion, all agreed that it certainly was, in the sense that it reflected accurately aspects of our society and behaviour.
Then he said, “So, having established the Simpsons is truth, are you telling me there’s a place called Springfield in the US where people are yellow with purple hair?”
Clearly, while almost all of us adapt to genre effortlessly in everyday life (journalism, cartoons, allegory etc), we need some common sense basics when it comes to scripture.
Thank you for providing that.
May 15, 2007
DrWinn :
Response to Robert
Yep, I’ve heard the same stuff. Imagination is a wonderful thing and it has been used to see some pretty grotesque things in Scripture especially Daniel and Revelation. Here’s a headline I found on a website: “The Bible reveals next and last Pope will be a Devil impersonating John Paul II” All you need to do is understand Revelation 17. This group believes that the number 666 is attributed to the Pope because the official title of the Pope when assigned the number values of the Latin add up to 666.
DrWinn :
Response to Dave
Thanks for your “Simpsons” anecdote. It’s true!
Winn
May 17, 2007
Rick Shrout :
Hi Robert,
It amazes me as well how so many of these “prophetic” Bible teachers can decode the symbols through today’s headlines with such unequivocal confidence. To me this borders on arrogance of the highest order.
Perhaps there is a sense of security that comes along with having everything concerning the future figured out in minute detail, thus making dispensationalism and the “Left Behind” apocolyptic view very popular with well-intentioned and unsuspecting fundamentalists and evangelicals.
Rick
Andrea Estes :
Dr. Winn, I have a question for you on the Day of the Lord. I believe what I have seen in the OT prophets is a continual reference to the day of the Lord (sometimes little d, sometime big d) which I believe was part of forming the Jews theology on the subject. It seems to me that “the Day” had two elements consistently throughout the prophets..historical judgement (for those who disobeyed God) and/or historical blessing (for those who walked in repentance and obedience) and also eschatological judgement and eschatological blessing (maybe that’s four elements). Anyway, does the Jewish understanding in the first century of the Day of the Lord also contain the two-sided picture of the Day as judgement (for God’s enemies) and blessing (for God’s people)? It seems to me that both are important in the message of Revelation, written to a suffering and persecuted Church who need hope that God is sovereign.
Also, by calling the Present Age (as you defined) totally evil, would they be discounting God’s presence and interaction in the world in the midst of the Present Age? Again, the picture of God remaining present and involved seems important to His people.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Andrea Estes :
Oh, yes. One more question. I have heard it said in the context of a teaching on the book of Revelation, that most of the imagery in the book is a visual representation of truths we already see and know throughout the New Testament (with a few additions perhaps)….basically that the book is a visual representation of the gospel message. Your thoughts on that?
Thanks!
May 18, 2007
DrWinn :
Andrea,
The “Day of the Lord” is a huge subject. I am attaching three PDF for your reading pleasure. Of course, they only scratch the surface.
By calling the Present Evil Age totally evil I think they were reflecting on their belief that it was not redeemable, i.e., it was to be destroyed and replaced by a new heavens and earth. I don’t think that calling it “evil” meant for them that God was not present with them in their time.
Happy Reading!
Day of the Lord: New Bible Dictornary
Day of the Lord: Dictionary of Biblical Imagery
Eschatology and Apocalyptic Teaching: Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels
On your second question, that’s an interesting concept. The problem that I would have with it is that it is a stand alone book and that way of looking at it is based on a view of the book within the canon which was not available to the readers at the time of the writing and reading of Revelation. It is an interpretation “after the fact” so to speak. At least it’s a thought.
Winn
Andrea Estes :
Thank you for your comments. To be honest, I know very little of canonization of the Bible…only big picture. I’m not sure what you mean by Revelation being a “stand alone book”…I see a lot of thematic connection between the content of Revelation and other parts of the Bible, although it’s style is unique.
That’s probably why I do give consideration to the idea that Revelation depicts visually the content of the gospel (the gospel being largely about Jesus) A couple reasons why I do is the author and the stated purpose at the beginning of Revelation. Revelation starts out with “the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place”. I guess there’s a couple ways to read that first verse. I tend to read it as the revelation about Jesus, not the revelation from Jesus. Perhaps I’m off-base on that. There is also lots of emphasis in the book on Jesus as The Ultimate Hero of history. As to the author, John the apostle “who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw” (Rev. 1:1-2), which sounds similar to the beginning of the gospel of John and also the first paragraph of 1 John…John knew Jesus well and intimately, which qualified him to write about who Jesus was. I love that John addresses the recipients in 1:4 on Jesus’ behalf…”grace to you and peace…from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and the ruler of the kings of the earth”. It seems to me the emphasis on describing Jesus as John does would really connect with the original recipients of this book…believers suffering for their faith.
Anyway, those are my thoughts…they are still very much in process.
DrWinn :
Andrea,
What I was referring to is that the Canon of Scripture as we have it in the Protestant Bible, (the Catholic Bible is basically the same in the New Testament but different in the Old Testament) did not come together until the late 300s. When the recipients of Revelation received the book, they may have had some of the other writings of what would become the New Testament but they did not have a complete New Testament as we have it bound together today. The books were written independently of each other, often for ad hoc reasons. While authors would write similar their purpose for each book/letter would have been different.
With that in mind, the church at Ephesus would have had Ephesians in had, but we cannot be sure what other, if any, writings of the New Testament, they were exposed to. Of course, they were exposed to “oral tradition” about Jesus but may not have had any writings about Jesus as we do today. Thus, each book must stand on its own. We must try and understand what the author’s intent and the reader’s possible understanding framework was. We have a luxury that they didn’t have, but if the meaning is cast in what they could have understood, then we may be ill eased to use specific references to books/letters that they may not have had in hand to help understand the text before them.
Surely, the text is about Jesus. Of course it is about the Jesus of the Gospels, but it may not be the story of Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus is the apex of God’s story arriving in the midst of time. I don’t mean by that the exact middle of time.
Again, Revelation as a visualizing of the content of the Gospels is an interesting concept. But, if the hearers/readers did not know that story in the way you can read it today in Scripture, but only had bits and pieces of the story, then it would be difficult for the readers/hearers of Revelation to see something visually in Revelation that they were not aware of in the story of Jesus.
I think it is safe to start with the concept that the first readers/hearers are the key for understanding what the text meant. Since their exposure is not what our exposure is, we must reframe ourselves back to what they could have understood in order to understand. It seems to me that any other way of approaching this would be open to “reading into the text” something that is not really there.
Thanks for your conversational tone and your “thoughts…in process.” So the above is just a few more thoughts from me, also in process!
Winn
Andrea Estes :
Thank you for your comments….some good things to think about. I do believe that hearing and seeing from the original audience’s perspective is very important…and an exciting part of the Bible study process. Emphasis on the process.
May 28, 2007
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