Lorenzo DiTommaso - Apocalypses and Apocalypticism in Antiquity (Part I)

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Apocalypses and Apocalypticism in Antiquity (Part I)

Lorenzo DiTommaso
Currents in Biblical Research 2007; 5; 235
DOI: 10.1177/1476993X06075475
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Apocalypses and Apocalypticism in Antiquity
(Part I)
LORENZO DiTOMMASO
Concordia University, Montreal, QC, Canada
L.DiTommaso@concordia.ca
ABSTRACT
This paper, in two parts, discusses the significant scholarship on apoca-
lypses and apocalypticism in antiquity published since Mysteries and Rev-
elations: Apocalyptic Studies since the Uppsala Conference (Collins and
Charlesworth [eds.] 1991). Part 1 contains (1) the introduction, sections
on studies that address issues of (2) taxonomy and definitions, and (3)
function and settings, plus the first half of the section dealing with (4)
origins and influences, specifically Ancient Near Eastern and classical.
The bibliographies are part-specific, but their entries are integrated.
Keywords: apocalypse, apocalypticism, apocalyptic discourse, character-

istics, definitions, origins, social settings, visionary experience.
1. Introduction
A series of scholarly milestones punctuates the history of the study of
ancient apocalypses and apocalypticism. While neither materialized ex
nihilo, Käsemann’s celebrated declaration that ‘apocalyptic’ was the mother
of early Christian theology (1960) and Pannenberg’s workshop paper on
revelation and historical understanding in Judaism and Christianity (1961;
see Betz 1968) inaugurated the modern era of research. Similarly, although
the enquiry into definitions, taxonomy and origins of the phenomena did
not commence with Koch’s groundbreaking Ratlos von der Apokalyptik
(1970), Hanson’s Dawn of Apocalyptic (1975), Vielhauer’s Geschichte
der urchristlichen Literatur (1975), Collins’s Apocalyptic Imagination
(1984) or the articles in L’Apocalypse johannique et l’apocalypse dans le
Currents in Biblical Research

Copyright © 2007 SAGE Publications (London, Thousand Oaks CA and New Delhi) Vol. 5.2: 235-86
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236 Currents in Biblical Research 5.2 (2007)
Nouveau Testament (Lambrecht [ed.] 1979) or Semeia 14 (Collins [ed.]

1979), collectively these works signaled the advent of a new era in critical
scholarship.
The cardinal volume of the era, however, was Apocalypticism in the
Mediterranean World and the Near East: Proceedings of the International
Colloquium on Apocalypticism, Uppsala, August 12-17, 1979 (Hellholm
[ed.] 1983; hereafter: Uppsala Volume). Its thirty-three papers were divided
into three sections, ‘The Phenomenon of Apocalypticism’, ‘The Literary
Genre of Apocalypses’, and ‘The Sociology of Apocalypticism and the
“Sitz im Leben” of Apocalypses’, and accompanied by an introduction
and a conclusion/evaluation. The papers identified, circumscribed, and
discussed nearly all the issues concerning the study of apocalyptic literature
in antiquity, and so introduced the wider scholarly world to the topic in
its full complexity and range of enquiry. Scholars of previous generations
had tended to overlook or neglect apocalyptic literature or to denigrate it
as a late, degenerate strain. In part this was a result of a desire to associate
Judaism or Christianity with an earlier stage perceived to be uncontami-
nated by disturbing apocalyptic themes and theologies (Cross 1969: 159-60;
see also Grabbe 1998b: 193-97). When the object of attention, apocalypses
were often considered no more than repositories of midrashic traditions or
theological concepts, and such were rarely studied as religious literature
(Stone 1991a: 78). They were held to be deficient in their imaginative scope,
far too obsessed about the end of the world, or advocating a strong moral
dualism that demonized its enemies and promoted self-righteousness among
its adherents (Collins 2001b). In addition, nearly all the ancient apocalypses
were excluded from the Jewish or Christian canons in antiquity, and many
of these, marginalized in the manuscript tradition, remained lost to schol-
arship until the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries. The division between
canonical and non-canonical texts, reinforced as it was by theological
justification, scholarly inclination, and the manuscript evidence, meant that,
upon their rediscovery, most ancient apocalypses came to be subsumed
under the category of ‘Pseudepigrapha’ and therefore subject to the severe
tides of academic interest that characterize its study: there was a golden age
in the half century before 1914, followed by five or six decades of virtual
neglect, and then, since the 1970s, a complete rejuvenation (Charlesworth
1978 and 1985: 6-26; DiTommaso 2001). In this light, it is little wonder
that in 1971 Beardslee wrote, ‘…for the actual data of apocalyptic literature
we still turn to works most of which were written around fifty years ago’
(421). The Uppsala Volume and its counterparts thus effected a profound
shift in perspective, although, as with all such shifts, its effects were neither

DiTommaso Apocalypses and Apocalypticism in Antiquity 237
apprehended nor appreciated uniformly. The Uppsala Volume papers also

addressed the topic from multiple angles, confirming that the value of an
approach resides in its fruit rather than its root.
Three subsequent collections merit notice. (1) Less comprehensive
than its predecessor, with eight papers concentrating primarily on ancient
Jewish texts, Mysteries and Revelations: Apocalyptic Studies since the
Uppsala Conference (Collins and Charlesworth [eds.] 1991) is a signifi-
cant volume nonetheless. Several of its essays address topics overlooked
or only partially covered in the Uppsala Volume. (2) The Encyclopedia of
Apocalypticism (hereafter: Encyclopedia) was published at the close of
the century and is now the standard introduction to the field. The first of
its three volumes is sub-titled The Origins of Apocalypticism in Judaism
and Christianity (Collins [ed.] 1998) and includes thirteen survey-style
contributions directly relevant to the subject of this paper. While its range
and depth of enquiry remains dwarfed by the massive Uppsala Volume,
a number of the Encyclopedia’s entries address topics unexplored by the
Volume or by Mysteries and Revelations, while simultaneously updating
and providing fresh insights on familiar themes and issues. (3) The third
collection is Wisdom and Apocalypticism in the Dead Sea Scrolls and in
the Biblical Tradition (García Martínez [ed.] 2003; hereafter: Wisdom and
Apocalypticism). More specialized than either Mysteries and Revelations
or the Encyclopedia, many of its twenty-three articles investigate what has
proven to be one of this generation’s touchstone contributions to the study
of our subject.
The purpose of this paper is to identify the significant scholarship on
apocalypses and apocalypticism in antiquity published in the fifteen years
since Mysteries and Revelations. In their general introduction, the editors
of the Encyclopedia observe that more scholarship has been devoted to
the topic of apocalypticism in the past three decades than in the previous
three centuries (Collins [ed.] 1998: ix). This amount has increased since the
1990s, as the roster of monographs and articles listed in the bibliography
to this paper indicates. A selection of studies is thus inevitable: diction-
ary entries are almost entirely ignored, and even when a book or article is
admitted, space frequently permits only a brief description. The need to
provide scholarly context required the inclusion of some pre-1991 works.
Current research on specific texts like Daniel, 1 Enoch, Jubilees or Revela-
tion, or on topics extending beyond our subject, such as the expectation
of the Messiah (but note VanderKam 1998), the Antichrist, or the device
of pseudonymous attribution, was impossible to include. Each requires a
dedicated review-essay in its own right.

Although this paper contains section headings, there is no unanimity

among previous surveys regarding the topics into which the material natu-
rally divides. Indeed, the complexity of the subject belies the categorical
tidiness implicit in such headings. This complexity is a function of the
ancient evidence and underscored by recent scholarship suggesting the
existence of fundamental connexions among what were once considered
relatively discrete categories.
Several reliable surveys of scholarship have appeared over the past
fifteen years. The studies of Murphy (1994) and Decock (1999) have a
broad compass. Both are worth consulting, as is that of Beyerle (1998),
which includes a section on Daniel and the early Enochic literature (on
which, see also Hellholm 1997). Despite its 2001 date, Nápole’s long
article is confined to pre-1980 studies. Likewise, Oswalt (1999) concen-
trates mostly on the scholarship of the late 1960s to the early 1980s, but
is useful for works on the origins and characteristics of ancient Jewish
apocalypses. Hoffmann (1999: 21-70) provides the most comprehensive
overview of studies on the issues of definitions and taxonomy. In Mys-
teries and Revelations, Boccaccini (1991) covers the contribution made
by Italian scholars. Woodruff (2002) addresses the Brazilian scholar-
ship. Christophersen (2001) discusses the influence of Friedrich Lücke, a
German theologian during the revolutionary era of the nineteenth century
and a true pioneer of apocalypse research (see also Köhn 2006 on the work
of Ernst Lohmeyer). Sturm’s long paper (1989) reviews the major scholar-
ship from Lücke to the mid-1980s, with an emphasis on apocalypticism in
the New Testament and as a theological concept. Matlock (1996) traces the
history of the scholarly understanding of Pauline apocalypticism, focus-
ing on Schweitzer, Dodd, Bultmann, Cullmann, Käsemann and Beker. The
first four chapters of Lewis’s book (2004) on apocalypticism and the New
Testament are relevant. Delmaire’s introductory essay (1992a) is followed
by a partially annotated bibliography of sources from the late nineteenth
century (1992b). Knibb (1982b: 155-56) is older and brief but still quite
good. Although not a review of past research, Hahn (1998) surveys the
gamut of Second Temple and early Christian apocalyptic literature.
2. Taxonomy and Definitions

i. Attempts at Definitions
A chief source of confusion during the initial phase of the modern debate
on apocalypses and apocalypticism concerned the relationship between the
classification of the phenomena and the issues regarding their origins, con-

stitutive elements, and literary and social settings. While the relationship
appeared undeniable, it proved difficult to define. This much was made clear
through the objections leveled against early attempts to formulate the appro-
priate terms systematically. For example, several texts designated apoca-
lypses lacked a majority of the very elements nominated for the purpose,
while many of the same elements perversely appeared in compositions not
hitherto considered apocalypses (Stone 1976; Sanders 1983). Such objec-
tions stemmed in part from a growing recognition that the conceptual and
social origins of apocalypticism extended beyond what could be ascribed
to the Israelite prophetic tradition. Alternately, some felt that the categories
had become so bloated as to become meaningless (Carmignac 1983). It was
evident that the manner in which the relevant vocabulary was employed in
the ancient literature (M. Smith 1983) could not supply an unambiguous
answer. Another concern was that proposed definitions privileged eschato-
logical categories and so neglected essential mystical, historiographic, or
existential-anthropological elements (Webb 1990: 119). Further objections
were that categories or classes were imposed on the evidence, or that the
taxonomies had become so complex that each text effectively became its
own genus.
Such expostulations were largely resolved through the critical recog-
nition that ‘apocalypse’ as a genre, ‘apocalypticism’ as an ideology, and
‘apocalyptic eschatology’ were distinct entities, and that their heuristic
value, while significant, was not absolute (Hanson 1976; Stone 1976: 439-
43; Collins [ed.] 1979; note esp. Collins 1984 and the overview in Webb
1990). Among other things, this recognition situated the constituents of the
taxonomical debate and their relationship to all aspects of the literary evi-
dence at a level appropriate to the evidence itself, which was identified as
the starting-point of discussion on these phenomena. This in turn permitted
essentially modern, synthetic definitions to be applied meaningfully to the
ancient sources while simultaneously reflecting the profound complexity
and diversity of these sources. What resulted were categories that were
academically rigorous, stable, and useful, and that also were informed by
the literature, which could be investigated synchronically, as religious texts
whose contents, messages, and functions might vary widely, and diachron-
ically, as representative of genre, ideology, and (perhaps) Sitze im Leben
that were subject to historical processes.
As a result, most of the discussion on these issues over the past three
decades has proceeded from the terminology and definitions proposed in
Hanson 1976, greatly developed by the members of the Society of Biblical
Literature (SBL) Apocalypse Group in Semeia 14 (Collins [ed.] 1979), and

further clarified, refined, and to some extent defended in Collins’s subse-

quent publications, including his introduction to the subject, The Apocalyp-
tic Imagination (1984). This assessment in itself is too simplistic; not every
taxonomical problem has been resolved! Rather, the studies of Hanson,
Collins, and others have effectively answered Koch’s call (1970) for a reso-
lution to the definitional dilemma and provided a foundation solid enough to
allow the academic discussion to proceed to higher-order issues. We would
do well to recall that Hanson also restricted the label ‘apocalyptic’—an
Everest of confusion, particularly when it was employed as a descriptive
noun—to certain adjectival applications. Note the earlier comments of
Glasson (1970) on this matter, and also Collins (2003c): ‘The point, then, of
making “apocalypse” rather than “apocalyptic” the primary category, was
that we could now refer to a specific group of texts, rather than to an inde-
terminate body of literature with vague family resemblances’ (46).
It is useful to reiterate Collins’s definitions (esp. 1979a; 1979b; 1984),
since they remain the best known and most often cited.
An apocalypse is a literary genre ‘of revelatory literature with a narra-
tive framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being
to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both tem-
poral, insofar as it envisions eschatological speculation, and spatial insofar
as it involves another, supernatural world’ (1984: 5). There are two basic
types: those marked by revelatory visions relating ex eventu information of
a historical nature, and those featuring otherworldly journeys, which are
more inclined to cosmological speculation.
Apocalypticism is ‘the ideology of a movement that shares the concep-
tual structure of the apocalypses’, and endorses ‘a worldview in which
supernatural revelation, the heavenly world, and eschatological judgment
played essential parts’ (1984: 13; cf. 1998: 147; 2003c: 46). Scholars
normally employ ‘ideology’ and ‘worldview’ interchangeably. Since the
purpose of this paper does not permit an extended discussion of this topic,
I follow this usage, although the terminology perhaps requires further
study, especially with respect to apocalyptic historiography and theol-
ogy of history. On apocalypticism as worldview, see again Collins: ‘The
crucial elements of this worldview are (1) the prominence of supernatural
beings, angels and demons, and their influence on human affairs and (2) the
expectation of a final judgment not only of nations but of individual human
beings’ (1998: 147), and ‘I have argued on occasion for the use of the noun
“apocalypticism” to refer to the worldview of the apocalypses: a world-
view that emphasizes the activity of supernatural agents and that looks to
the eschatological judgment beyond history, that included the judgment

of the individual dead’ (2003c: 46). Although apocalypticism is the ideol-

ogy/worldview of the apocalypses, it transcends the genre. It circumscribes
more than eschatological concerns, but its coordinates are set principally
by eschatological expectation and the supernatural world (1991: 16).
Apocalyptic eschatologies are as distinct as the literary compositions
of which they are part, but at their core is a transcendence that ‘looks for
retribution beyond the bounds of death’ (1984: 11; see also Collins 1974,
a foundational study in this regard). According to Collins, the anticipa-
tion of the post-mortem judgment of individuals discriminates apocalyptic
eschatology from other future-time expectations (2003c). These definitions
assume—correctly, in my view—that apocalyptic eschatology is one type
of eschatology, while eschatological matters are frequently the primary but
by no means exclusive subject of apocalypses. On the topic, consult the
discussion about prophetic and apocalyptic eschatologies to appear in Part
II, §4 of this paper.
While literary genres are difficult to define, Collins argues that they are
not totally resistant to definition (1991: 18; contra Fowler 1971), nor does
an inconsistency in their application undermine their intrinsic utility. At the
same time, ideologies and genres defy perfect descriptions, and seeking
to isolate the quintessential element of either is to disregard the complex,
historically dynamic nature of the evidence. I would add that it is unrea-
sonable to expect a perfect definition of the genre of any sufficiently large
group of texts composed over a significant period of time. Finally, although
apocalypticism cannot be reduced to a literary genre or apprehended solely
as a literary convention, any analysis of these phenomena must initiate
with the ancient texts themselves (Collins 1991; cf. 2003c: 47; 2005b:
59; cf. Adler 1996a). As Koch (1970) correctly understood, these texts are
products of a historical movement, and so must be apprehended as such.
This dictum is ignored by several studies that discuss the social contexts
of ancient apocalypses with little reference to the texts themselves or their
historical Hintergrund.
Despite several problems, including a tendency to mold to its contents,
the label ‘apocalyptic literature’ remains a common and useful if general
term, although it should be restricted to instances where precise definitions
are unneeded or inappropriate. It potentially encompasses apocalypses
proper, texts operating as apocalypses but which are not formal examples
of the genre, and, characteristically, a nebula of associated compositions
whose definitions remain in dispute but which for certain purposes may
be included in a broader category. As Collins contends, it is the responsi-
bility of those who employ the designation to identify in which ways its

constituents resemble the core corpus of apocalypses (2003c). The designa-

tion ‘apocalyptica’, employed sparingly in this paper, describes a category
of texts that admits apocalypses proper and closely related compositions
such as apocalyptic oracles or testaments, which functioned as apocalypses
while lacking an aspect of the formal definition of the genre, for instance
the mediation of the revelation by an otherworldly figure. The designa-
tion sufficiently describes the corpus of late antique and early mediaeval
texts, characteristically attributed to the prophet Daniel, the emperor Leo
VI, or the bishop Methodius, that reveal the history, nature and eschatologi-
cal resolution of the text’s current political situation (DiTommaso 2005a).
Bockmuehl observes that ‘the most common genre in “apocalyptic litera-
ture” may well be that of testament rather than apocalypse’ (1990: 24 n. 2,
italics original). If, however, we account for the non-Jewish examples of the
Hellenistic age and the post-biblical Jewish, Christian, and Islamic apoca-
lyptica, I suspect that the most common literary vehicle actually would
be the oracle. I do not dispute the value in secerning formal apocalypses
from, for example, apocalyptic oracles, particularly to illuminate aspects of
the historical development of the genre. At the same time, the manuscript
evidence suggests that the distinction was apparently irrelevant to, e.g.,
Byzantine-era authors and audiences. The appropriateness of a category
sometimes depends on what sort of questions one asks of the texts.
ii. Resistance and Response

The SBL/Collins definitions have not gone unchallenged. Several papers
contributing to the discussion appear in the Uppsala Volume (Carmignac
1983; L. Hartman 1983; Sanders 1983), although the conference partici-
pants were unable to agree on a common definition. Of these, Sanders’s
contribution is possibly the most critical. Reacting to an apparent inability
on the part of many examples of the genre to reflect a majority of its char-
acteristic elements, he advances an ‘essentialist’ definition of apocalypse
centering on revelation and the promise of group redemption or vindica-
tion (1983: 456). This definition is broad enough to include many of the
prophetic writings and is the probable reason why scholars have failed to
embrace it. Sanders also understands covenantal nomism, which in his
famous book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977), he distinguishes as
the pattern of religion common to ancient Judaism, as a central element
of apocalypses such as 1 Enoch. Collins (2002) cites numerous texts to
dispute Sanders’s claim and observes that the claim of special revelation
made by apocalypses is largely incompatible with the concept of the publi-
cally available Torah. It also is the basis for the creation of and adherence

to a distinct identity, which explains why, sociologically, apocalypticism

tends to incline towards sectarianism.
Rowland (1982) proposes a different kind of essentialist argument.
Rather than excising specific elements from the definition of the genre, he
advocates the elimination of the entire category of content. What remains
is a genre defined solely by its literary form, which he distinguishes as
the revelation of heavenly mysteries (12). Significantly, his definition does
not link apocalypses to eschatology (cf. Carmignac 1979–81; Stegemann
1983), although it does propose a connexion with mysticism (see Part II, §6
of this paper).
On the one hand, most scholars have not accepted Rowland’s thesis. An
obvious objection is that the revelation of heavenly mysteries character-
izes a comprehensive spectrum of forecasting literature, including divina-
tion, prophecy, and oracles, and so one is still left with the problem of
differentiating the genre apocalypse from these other modes. (This objec-
tion has been answered by Malina 1995 and Grabbe 2003b, among others.)
Moreover, an appreciation of content discriminates apocalypses from the
broader category of the revelation of heavenly mysteries, and since apoca-
lypses are overwhelmingly concerned with eschatology, it is ‘one-sided’
to omit this concern from the definition (Collins 1984: 10; 1991: 15; see
Webb 1990). In a dedicated investigation of esoteric wisdom and eschatol-
ogy, Owen (2004) concludes that Second Temple apocalyptic literature is
abundantly concerned with eschatology, to which an interest in heavenly
secrets is subordinate.
On the other hand, Rowland’s work has proven a catalyst for several
insightful examinations of definition and taxonomy, and particularly the
formal relationship between apocalypses and other forms of revelatory
knowledge. Davies, for example, modifies Rowland’s definition of the
genre with some of Collins’s elements: it is ‘a literary communication of
esoteric knowledge, purportedly mediated by a heavenly figure to (usually)
a renowned figure of the past’ (1989: 254). This definition includes formal
elements that might separate apocalypse from, for instance, prophecy,
while simultaneously avoiding any mention of the contents of the com-
munication of the esoteric knowledge. Bauckham adds some content to the
central concept of revelation: ‘The apocalypses are a literature of revela-
tion in which seers receive, by heavenly agency, revelation of the myster-
ies of creation and the cosmos, history and eschatology’ (2001: 135). Like
Rowland, Grabbe focuses his attention on the notion of the disclosure of
divine secrets (2003b: esp. 123), but sees this as a common element in
prophetic, apocalyptic, and mantic literature. Sturm (1989) concentrates on

the theological concept (which I take to mean a variation of ‘worldview’)

rather than on the genre apocalypse, an approach that illuminates the central
concept of revelation. Bilde states that ‘the core of the apocalyptic message
and the apocalyptic books may be described as the unmasking of the other-
wise secret plans of God’ (1994: 20, italics original).
Some have criticized the SBL definition of the genre apocalypse as ahis-
torical: see here K. Rudolph (1983), Tigchelaar (1987), and, in an essay
that covers much ground, García Martínez (1986). Collins (1991) responds
by underscoring the fundamentally historical nature of the definition and
elements of its study, and, indeed, the complementary synchronic and dia-
chronic aspects of the study of any genre. Hellholm’s dense essay in Mys-
teries and Revelations (1991) advocates a far more structured definition of
the genre. He discusses paradigmatic and syntagmatic approaches to the
analyses of texts as generic entities, the definitions of individual and generic
texts, and the relationship between revelation and apocalypse. Hierarchic
definitions, he states, are the key to understanding genres. Specifically,
the genre apocalypse is a species of the genus revelatory writing, which
includes prophetic writing and oracles and which consists of three sub-
genres: apocalypses with, without, and both with/without an otherworldly
journey. The thirteen-element ‘master-paradigm’ and six-fold typology
promulgated by the SBL group in Semeia 14 (see esp. Collins 1979b)
occasionally was later applied too rigorously by those who perhaps did not
understand the function of paradigm or typology or appreciate the precise
relationship of either to the literary evidence. To be fair, the members of the
SBL group tended not to employ or even cite the full spectrum of paradigm
or typology in their later publications. Collins himself remarks that while
the finer distinctions of the original classification remain accurate, ‘I have
found them less significant in my further work’ (1991: 14).
Although widely accepted, distinctions among apocalypse, apocalypti-
cism, and apocalyptic eschatology have not been embraced globally. Fre-
quently this is the result of an uncritical use of the terminology—a problem
most acute among New Testament scholars—or, as may be deduced in some
cases, because some languages have yet to formulate precise equivalents.
With respect to critical erudition, Collins opines that British scholarship
seems most inclined to resist the tripartite division (2003c: 44-45). Here
Rowland’s influence is at its greatest, although I suspect that this is less
directly causal and more the result of a general diffusion over a specific
terroir. Bauckham, for example, writes that ‘apocalyptic is not an ideology
but a genre’ (2001: 135). Barton’s definition of the genre (1986), like Row-
land’s, does not extend past the formal. Grabbe continues to utilize the noun

‘apocalyptic’ to describe a body of literature (1998b; 2003b), although he

also employs ‘apocalyptic literature’, which may or may not be a substitute
for ‘apocalyptic and related writings’ (1998b: 197). Davila also employs
the noun ‘apocalyptic’ to refer to a collection of literary texts (2005: 36).
Collins criticizes both Grabbe and Davila on this matter (2005b: 59-60).
Bloomquist (1999) retains the label ‘apocalyptic’ in light of his criti-
cism of the inadequacy of the current definitions (see §2, iii, below). García
Martínez also prefers the term, ‘for want of a better name’ (1992: x). He
defines it as a conceptual current originating in the prophetic or wisdom
traditions but shaped over a long period of time within the cultural and reli-
gious contexts of Second Temple Judaism, wherein it reacted interactively
with other currents of thought, and in the different works that we designate
‘apocalypse’ (1992: x n. 9). In his essay for Mysteries and Revelations,
Boccaccini (1991) describes the contribution of Italian scholarship to the
study of ancient apocalypses and apocalypticism, wherein to some degree
the starting-point of the discussion was the ideology rather than the genre.
Dimant defines an apocalypse as ‘a discourse in the first person relating
divine revelation granted to a wise seer and interpreted through divine
wisdom’ (1994: 179). For Tigchelaar (1996), ‘apocalyptic’ is properly a
mode of thought rather than a literary mode. It may be applied to a kind of
eschatology, but only with the realization that apocalyptic eschatology is
neither monolithic in type nor limited to apocalypses in its manifestations.
On genre and ideology, he writes,
The very distinction between a genre ‘apocalypse’ and an apocalyptic
mode is just a model to account for the vast differences between texts
which are all called apocalyptic for one reason or another. A rigid appli-
cation of this model has two drawbacks. The model does not serve to
explain these texts themselves, but only their relation to a problem arising
from other texts. Therefore this approach is not likely to yield a new
outlook on the problem of apocalyptic. Finally, the proposed distinction
between a genre apocalypse and an apocalyptic mode may not correspond
at all to the aspects of form and content in the so-called proto-apocalyptic
texts. First of all, one may wonder to what degree genre corresponds to
form and mode is related to content. Second, the traditional distinction
between form and content may be useful in some ways, but since these
are categories of different kinds it will not be possible to clearly differen-
tiate between them in any particular text (1996: 243-44).
As noted, Sturm (1989) focuses on the theological concept of apocalypti-

cism. For Saebø, ‘Apocalyptic’ is simultaneously a theological and literary
phenomenon and stands in some relation to both ‘Prophecy’ and ‘Wisdom’

(1994: 85-87). Similarly, Bockmuehl employs ‘apocalyptic’ to describe

both the literary genre and the ‘theological perspective’ (1990: 24). S.L.
Cook argues that ‘apocalypticism’ is at once genre, worldview, and social
and historic phenomenon (2003: 85). These represent only a small sam-
pling of multiple variations on a theme.
Sim (1996) holds that apocalypses and apocalypticism are not neces-
sarily linked: some classic expressions of apocalyptic eschatology do not
appear in apocalypses, while several apocalypses contain almost no escha-
tological material. He questions Collins’s distinction between historical
and otherworldly apocalypses, and finds that a close examination of each
type leads to the conclusion that the basic problem is that there are actually
two types of apocalypticism. The first, eschatological, envisions the end
of history, while the second, mystical, looks forward to individual post-
mortem reward. Sim assumes there was a distinct stream of Second Temple
Judaism behind each type. To my mind, the present form of Daniel 10–12
and any pre-70 ce form of 1 Enoch that contains the Book of Watchers and
the Animal Apocalypse undermine this argument. However, Sim’s views
on two streams of Judaism bring to mind, albeit in a different form, the
important ongoing research of Boccaccini.
Other conceptions of apocalypticism augment or supplement those pro-
posed by Hanson or Collins. Detecting the continued emphasis on political-
historical elements as characteristic of apocalyptic eschatology, Himmelfarb
asks ‘if transcendence is the key to the apocalypses, we still need to ask,
what kind of transcendence?’ (1986: 109). On the subject of 1 Enoch, but
referring to apocalypticism generally, Nickelsburg remarks that revelation
is an ‘inextricable part’ of the worldview (1991). To the three basic compo-
nents of the definition, Elgvin adds the social element of ecclesiology: the
relationship between revelation and the chosen eschatological community
privy to it (2000b: 16). Aune adds to Hanson’s definition of apocalypticism
the component of the language of apocalyptic eschatology, that is, ‘themes
and motifs found in a variety of literary settings but no longer used in the
structural context of a coherent apocalyptic worldview’ (2003: 56; see also
§2, iii, below). To the spatial and temporal dimensions of Collins’s defini-
tion of the genre, Humphrey (1995) adds that of identity, that is, people
who are in the sight of God. Kreitzer (1997) adds a third dimension as well,
but in his case it is the anthropological. J.W. Marshall defines the apoca-
lyptic worldview as ‘the breadth of context, the reach beyond empirical
modes of knowledge, the particular intertextual habitus, the expectation
of a boundary-crossing intervention, and the strong moral concern’ (2005:
70). Gruenwald posits three branches of apocalypticism, one with links

to the stories of Genesis, another connecting to prophets from Moses to

Zephaniah, and a third tied to figures contemporary with the destruction of
the First or Second Temple (2002: 213). In a later essay (2005) he reduces
this number to two: pre-diluvian times and post-destruction situations.
The subject of apocalyptic eschatology has strong points of contact with
several other significant issues, and will be addressed at various points
throughout both parts of this paper rather than as a separate topic. The
expectation of individual post-mortem judgment as a defining characteristic
of apocalyptic eschatology is likely to be qualified by one’s perspective on
the interpretation of critical passages such as Isa. 26.14, 19 and Ezek. 37.1-
14, and perhaps, too, on the value of the category ‘proto-apocalyptic’. Many
of the salient questions concerning apocalyptic eschatology are raised in
Nickelsburg’s prescient, programmatic essay on revelation and its function
at Qumran (1999: esp. 112-13). Some questions are fundamental, such as
the relation between eschatology and genre, and have been answered satis-
factorily. Others point to paths down which twenty-first-century scholarship
is presently traveling: (1) whether the designation ‘apocalyptic’ should be
reserved for texts which clearly presume or posit revelation; (2) whether it
ought to be applied to texts whose revelatory base is actually an apocalypse;
(3) whether dualistic, mythic eschatology derives from revelatory texts (or
apocalypses per se), and (4) whether authority is granted to the authors of
such texts by such revelation.
iii. Apocalyptic Discourse

Apocalyptic language and discourse are intimately related to and are an
extension of the worldview that presupposes and endorses the ideology of
apocalypticism and that ultimately plays a role in the production of apoca-
lypses. See Wilder (1971) for an early study on the subject, and O’Leary
(1993; 1994) on the rhetoric of apocalypticism in the mediaeval period. The
language of the apocalypses is poetic, expressive, repetitive, full of scrip-
tural and mythological allusions, and, from a modern perspective, incon-
sistent or even incoherent (Collins 1984). According to Aune and Stewart
(2001), eschatological speculation in Second Temple apocalyptic literature
‘seems resistant to consistency and coherence’, since it contains what to the
modern eye might appear to be an amalgam of disorderly, contradictory,
or inconsistent scenarios (175). In addition, the vocabulary of apocalyp-
tic texts is characteristically cryptic and projects a degree of mystery and
indeterminacy that allows for multiple and often concurrent understandings
and appreciations. These qualities are significant in three ways. First, the
high degree of repetitiveness and inconsistency renders strict form-critical

methods less effective as tools for analysing the history and redaction of the
text. Textual repetitions or inconsistencies, for example, are not prima facie
evidence of multiple literary strata (Collins 1984). The strict application of
this argument, however, is potentially incompatible with the function of
apocalypses of the historical type. Second, the cryptic and allusive quali-
ties of the revealed data permit the repetition of expected events or motifs,
often from divergent points of view. This device, whose formal designation
is recapitulation, plays a significant part in several apocalypses that feature
historical-political elements, including the book of Revelation (Yarbro
Collins 1998). Third, these qualities allow multiple or even sequential
interpretations. Daniel 9 reinterprets the seventy weeks of Jer. 25.11-12;
29.10; the Eagle Vision of 4 Ezra reinterprets the fourth beast of Daniel
7. In the late antique and early mediaeval periods, this process contin-
ues with the recycling of oracles in the production of political-historical
apocalyptica.
Yarbro Collins’s book, Crisis and Catharsis (1984), is an early and
important attempt to understand the function of the language of apoca-
lypses, specifically the rhetoric of Revelation (note also her 1983 contribu-
tion to Uppsala Volume). She contends that through its use of language,
symbols, and narrative techniques, Revelation evokes and reinforces a
response of fear and resentment of the Roman order among its intended
audience. At the same time, the veil that conceals the hidden reality of the
exalted Jesus, the controller of history and destiny, is removed, and the
true order of things is revealed. This allows for the book’s cathartic intent,
whereby the destruction of the enemies of the faithful and the assured
eschatological restoration of the powerless oppressed permits the audience
to rid themselves of emotionally traumatic feelings with this supernatu-
ral resolution to their current dilemma. On the function of early Christian
apocalyptic language, see also Schüssler Fiorenza (1983). Yarbro Collins
returns to the subject of apocalyptic rhetoric in an essay on apocalyptic
themes in biblical literature (1999a). She remarks that there are two kinds
of apocalyptic themes in biblical literature. The first is intrinsic to the genre
apocalypse and includes formal elements like otherworldly journeys and
claims to revelatory visions, plus fundamental ideas concerning the ful-
fillment of history found in many of the exemplars. The second contains
themes such as the Antichrist and the combat myth, less closely related
to the genre but still significant. The power of apocalyptic language, she
writes, is partially based on its use of colourful, mythic, and wildly vivid
themes and images to address specific tensions and universal concerns on
the part of its audience.

Carey (1999) defines apocalyptic discourse, a category greater than the

‘apocalyptic language’ of Collins, as
the constellation of apocalyptic topics as they function in larger early
Jewish and Christian literary and social contexts. Thus, apocalyptic dis-
course should be treated as a flexible set of resources that early Jews
and Christians could employ for a variety of persuasive tasks. Whenever
early Jews and Christians appealed to such topics as visions and revela-
tions, heavenly journeys, final catastrophes, and the like, they were using
apocalyptic discourse (1999: 10).
It is not limited to genre, ideology, or eschatology, but instead operates

as this ‘flexible set of resources’. The essays in Carey and Bloomquist’s
1999 volume, for which Carey’s paper forms the introduction, employs
rhetorical analysis to illustrate ways that apocalyptic discourse could serve
a variety of purposes, including how apocalyptic texts worked as ‘acts of
persuasion’ (Carey 1999: 15). In another paper, Carey (1998) emphasizes
the rhetorical means by which apocalyptic discourse establishes authority
for the author and the message of the text. Bloomquist (1999) examines
the methodological criteria for the study of apocalyptic rhetoric. His view
is that attempts to define ‘apocalyptic’—a term he uses deliberately—are
arbitrary and have been undermined by the fact that the ancient authors did
not distinguish among genre, ideology, and perspective. Instead,
we should be creating a broad-based ‘innertextual’ database of repetition
of lexica, sounds, meter, and rhythm from among the various Second
Temple (including Christian) and Greco-Roman literatures… [plus] a
database of rhetorical argumentation that will…identify contextually
(that is, within rhetorical argumentation) the innertexture or rhetorics
such as apocalyptic rhetoric (1999: 190).
A book-length study on the topic of apocalyptic language is Plowshares

and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and
Apocalyptic, by Sandy (2002). The key word in the title is ‘biblical’, as
Sandy restricts his reconsideration of the topic to texts in the Protestant
canon. In his view, ‘apocalyptic’ is one of three sub-types of the genre
prophecy. It is distinct from oracles of salvation and announcements of
judgment in its use of graphic and cryptic images instead of direct speech;
in its focus on the faithful remnant; in its assertions that the world is too
evil for the efficacy of repentance, that God himself is displeased, and that
he will intervene and judge the world via supernatural means; and in its
emphasis on totalizing solutions. According to Sandy, apocalyptic is crisis
literature and the function of its language is to transmit several messages:
a call to worship and purity, hope for the persecuted, comfort that God

remains in control and final victory is assured, and insight into cosmic
issues.
The New Testament has become a chief vehicle for the study of apoca-
lyptic discourse, due in no small part to Robbins, a pioneer in the study of
ancient rhetoric and rhetorical approaches to ancient texts. A recent paper
of his, on apocalyptic discourse in the Gospel of Mark, appears in a col-
lection of essays, The Intertexture of Apocalyptic Discourse in the New
Testament (Watson [ed.] 2002; cf. Boomershine 1989). Other contributions
to the volume discuss Luke (Bloomquist 2002), Q (Sisson 2002), Paul
(Oropeza 2002), 1 Thessalonians (Hester 2002), 2 Corinthians (Humphrey
2002), the Letter of James (Wachob 2002), Jude and 2 Peter (Watson 2002),
and Revelation (DeSilva 2002). Hester’s paper follows his earlier article on
the subject (2000). Kuck’s monograph (1992) applies a rhetorical approach
to the study of Paul’s ‘apocalyptic judgment language’ in 1 Corinthians,
while Nongbri (2003) discusses apocalyptic language and Graeco-Roman
rhetoric in Hebrews 6. Hall (1996) urges scholars to look beyond such
classical contexts and to ‘indigenous’ apocalyptic rhetoric when explaining
Paul’s argumentation in Galatians. Wolter (2005) argues that certain speech
forms, located in several New Testament passages, are characteristic of
‘Apokalyptik’.
Mythic elements play a prominent role in apocalyptic language, and
myths themselves are reflected in the contents of certain apocalypses, par-
ticularly the earlier exemplars (see, esp., Hanson 1975). I will address the
subject of myth and apocalypse at various places in the sections below.
3. Function and Social Settings

Arguably the most serious challenge to the definition of the genre apoca-
lypse formulated in Semeia 14 (Collins [ed.] 1979) is that it overlooked a
functional component. This objection was soon modulated by the realiza-
tion that literary and social functions might differ, as might generic and
ideological functions. Also, since apocalypse was a literary genre, roles
of agency and intent were affected by the broader discussion within the
field of biblical studies regarding approaches to a text. Early reflections on
the issue of function include Meeks (1983), Aune (1986), and Hellholm
(1986), who concludes that, along with form and content, function must
be a constituent of the genre. With the publication of Semeia 36 (Yarbro
Collins [ed.] 1986) and partially as a result of the aforementioned delib-
erations, the SBL Apocalypse Group modified its definition of the genre
with the addition that an apocalypse ‘was intended to interpret present,

earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future,

and to influence both the understanding and the behavior of the audience by
means of divine authority’ (Yarbro Collins 1986: 7). Collins (1991) readily
accepts the amendment to the definition, but reminds scholars that the
genre can accommodate a variety of social settings, which are established
by historical study and not by inference from a literary genre.
i. Crisis, Consolation, and Beyond

The function of ancient apocalypses depends on the definition of the genre,
since this can determine the extent of the corpus, as well as one’s view on
their origin and social settings. Freedman (1969) summarizes the traditional
perspective. Apocalypses are underground texts of crisis and consolation
focusing on history and politics. Formed or refined in the crucible of the
Maccabean era, they were formulated to express, in mythic and exotic lan-
guage, the fervent expectation of an oppressed, marginalized community
for an imminent crisis-resolution which was articulated as an eschatologi-
cal overthrow of the ruling powers and a justification of the community.
This view rested partially on the assumption that Daniel was the earliest
example of the genre, followed closely by other historical apocalypses such
as the Apocalypse of Weeks. Stone’s re-dating of the early Enochic mate-
rial (1978), based on the Qumran Enoch fragments, forced a re-evaluation
of much conventional wisdom about apocalypses, including their origin
and purpose. The historiologic function could no longer serve as the sole
explanation for the composition of apocalypses.
Aune calls apocalypses ‘protest literature’ (2005: 235; see the classic
study: Eddy 1961), which, while related to crisis literature, is not always the
same thing. In the Uppsala Volume, Lebram (1983) discusses the hortatory
purpose of apocalypses; Maier (1997) and Prostmeier (1999) concentrate
here on early Christian examples. According to Hellholm, apocalypses are
intended ‘for a group in crisis with the purpose of exhortation and/or con-
solation, by divine authority’ (1986: 27). Collins remarks that while most
scholars would probably agree with this view, it must be qualified in several
ways (1998: 158-59; 1999b: 40). For example, exhortation is not consola-
tion, and nothing in the generic form implies the precise sort of exhortation
it might convey. Ibáñez Ramos (1996) speaks of the political and institu-
tional crisis of post-exilic Judaism that focused attention on an expected
kingdom of God. On the basis of his study of Ezekiel and 4 Ezra, Daschke
(2002) identifies apocalypses as texts of cultural loss, wherein ‘the presence
of God in a divinely determined universe’ (162), so lacking in the author’s
time, becomes eschatological expectation. Yarbro Collins states that ‘each

apocalypse contains a program for life’ with two dimensions: how to exist
in the material world and how to transcend it (1996b: 8).
The view that apocalypses and apocalypticism precipitated from the
matrix of historical crisis is more textured than it may initially appear.
For one thing, it involves postulates, frequently left implicit, regarding the
historiologic function of apocalyptic literature, which is a subject I will
address in Part II, §5 of this paper. It is also clear that the apocalypses
exhibit diverse eschatological foci, and that these were grounded in the
circumstances of their composition. One text might define the crisis and
its resolution more from a corporate perspective, another from the view of
ultimate personal destiny, while a third, such as the book of Daniel, might
include both. Agourides (2000) understands the corporate emphasis to be a
product of the national concerns of the Jewish wisdom tradition. He rejects
the view, however, that the Second Temple Jewish apocalypses contained
two distinct eschatologies, national and dualistic, which might reflect these
foci. Collins (1998), though, correctly recognizes that the utility of the sig-
nifier ‘group in crisis’ is limited: parts or all the Jewish people were in
crisis throughout antiquity, and the types of crises differed. The same logic
may be applied to the explanation of relative deprivation. Tigchelaar identi-
fies several serious methodological flaws with the crisis hypothesis (1996:
264-65). Still, Collins admits that consolation and exhortation are primary
functions of apocalypses, and were to a great part due to a sense that the
world was ‘out of joint’ and in the grip of hostile powers. Horsley (1998)
speculates that ‘the rise of apocalyptic literature was the Judaean scribes’
creative response to the pressures against the traditional Israelite way of
life presented by Western imperialism’ (341).
In an essay on apocalyptic timetables, L. Hartman (1975–76) observes
that of all the ancient Jewish apocalypses, only the book of Daniel contained
information as to the precise date of the end. He argues that these time-
tables performed various purposes—informative, religious, exhortative, a
test of faith, an explanation of the presence of evil in the world—each of
which supported a function of the text. Critically, such texts informed their
audiences that the end was imminent. Such a message is easily linked to
the view that historical apocalypses functioned to console and/or exhort,
which in turn implies certain social characteristics about their audiences.
Newsom (1984: 50) remarks that from a historical perspective, Daniel’s
timetable proved to be a blunt instrument, yet believers could and did con-
sider discrepancies between revelation and reality an interpretative matter.
We see this quite clearly in Adler’s (1996b) survey of the ways in which
an apocalyptic timetable like the seventy weeks of Daniel 9 played a major

role in the elements of apocalypticism of later Jewish and Christian authors,

and also in the concept of the translatio imperii (see Podskalsky 1972;
S. de Boer 1985), whose ultimate biblical antecedent was Daniel 2 and 7.
Irshai (2000) discusses the apocalyptic calculations of Jewish and Christian
writers in late antiquity.
In his contribution to Wisdom and Apocalyptic, Lange (2003) extends the
scope of the discussion on apocalypticism and its origins in crisis beyond
its traditional confines. He examines a broad group of apocalyptic and
oracular material, including the Qumran pesharim, biblical texts such as
Jeremiah and Daniel, some of the odd vaticinia from Ptolemaic Egypt, and
classical Greek oracles. His point is that these texts share a distinctive exe-
getical method in the atomization and contextualization of the data, which
assumes the understanding that to some degree the interpretation itself was
considered revelation. Here we find perhaps a faint echo of Pannenberg’s
thesis that in apocalyptic historiography—a term he does not use but whose
meaning is nevertheless quite clear—God’s plan is revealed in the reflec-
tion of historical events, and all the more so when we consider the function
of the periodization of history in the ex eventu reviews. In any case, one
corollary of Lange’s argument is that the distinctive method and its atten-
dant hermeneutic were not features either peculiar to or developed solely
in the context of second-century bce Judaism. While many of the texts he
examines were the product of crises historical and/or cultural, Lange con-
tends that the evidence connotes that such a setting was not inevitable.
In a series of articles later assembled in book form (1990; cf. 1995a;
1995b), Sacchi proposes that apocalypses developed principally from an
intense concern about the origin of evil. In a fashion this idea was antici-
pated not only by scholars such as Crenshaw (1971) and others, for whom
the apocalyptic and wisdom literatures were functional responses to a pro-
phetic reluctance to address the problem of evil, but also, as I mentioned,
in the recognition that the earliest Enoch materials were also the earliest
apocalypses. As Sacchi sees it, the application of the genre permitted the
radical extension of spatial and temporal horizons and so enabled the origin
of evil to be located as an otherworldly event in the primordial past. The
result of this event corrupted creation and thus was understood to have had
a subsequently desultory effect on human free will. The concern with evil’s
origin, and the eschatological resolution to its effects, is articulated in the
early Enochic material (see Collins 1995a and Lupieri 1995, among many)
and expressed in various formulations in some Qumran texts and later
apocalypses (see Stuckenbruck 2000). The primary objections to Sacchi’s
claim are that a single motif or theme cannot define the genre apocalypse,

and, more concretely, a concern with theodicy is not present in many of its
examples (Collins 1984/98: 11; but see Segal 1999: ‘The one universal in
all these [apocalypses] seems to me to be that everyone addresses the issues
of theodicy’ [61]). Note also Marconcini’s reply to Sacchi (1995).
Sacchi’s work, however, stemming as it does from an enquiry of
the early Enoch literature, underscores the fact that while a connexion
between apocalypticism and historical crisis might be suitable as a general
explanation for the production of political-historical apocalyptica, it does
not seem as applicable to those texts concerned with heavenly ascents and
related issues. Indeed, one of Sacchi’s major points is that the Enochic
perspective differs from non-Enochic apocalyptic literature, such as the
historical-political apocalypses (note the collected responses to Sacchi’s
work in Gianotto, et al. 1998, and Sacchi 2002, an overview). The point is
also evident in the case of the early Christian apocalypses of the second,
third, and fourth centuries ce (see Part II, §6), which are predominantly of
the otherworldly type. As Collins (1991) remarks, the theory that apoca-
lypses were produced by and composed for groups in crisis fits some apoc-
alypses, but not all of them, and apocalypses featuring heavenly ascents
do not always fit the mold. In a related issue, the ‘groups in crisis’ theory
appears ill-suited to explain the interest of certain apocalypses in scien-
tific-sapiential knowledge and thus to delineate the function of these texts
(Stone 1984). I will return to this topic in a discussion of the prophetic and
sapiential antecedents of the genre.
In his Encyclopedia paper on these early Christian apocalypses (1998),
Frankfurter isolates several motivations for the use of the genre. First, it
maintained the legendary and literary authority of traditional heroes within
the new ideologies of the regional Christianities characteristic to the period.
Second, the genre’s forms allowed for the creation of highly personalized
and frequently hybridized compositions such as the Shepherd of Hermas
and the Book of Elchasai. Third, Christian apocalypses of the first few cen-
turies ce ‘served to relate religious situations in this world to paradigms in
the other world’ (1998: 433).
ii. Sitz(e) im Leben

Apocalypticism and the worldview it presupposes and endorses are fre-
quently, if implicitly, made to shoulder the burden of linking literary form
and function with social settings and purposes. With the traditional view
of apocalypses as underground literature of crisis and consolation came
a proposition of the social contexts from which they precipitated. Plöger
(1962) and Vielhauer (1964) described apocalypses as expressions of the

eschatological hopes of small conventicles of liminal, disenfranchised

groups. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and their initial affiliation
with an apocalyptic community of fundamental Jews living on the margins
of a society to which they stood in opposition surely contributed to this
assessment. Hengel (1969) identified the hasidim of several second-century
bce compositions as the authors of an entire range of apocalyptic texts. (For
a more recent formulation of this perspective, see Lacocque 1993; for one
response to Hengel on this issue, see Collins 1993a: 67-69.)
The scholar with whom the idea of conventicles is most characteristi-
cally associated is Hanson (1975/79; 1976), whose principal thesis con-
cerns the development of apocalyptic eschatology. In short, Hanson traces
the split between two social groups of the immediate post-exilic era. On the
one hand was the priestly establishment, whose members collaborated with
the Persian authorities and whose Temple theology was ideological and
circumscribed by earthly and historical horizons. On the other hand was
a smaller, visionary group, which opposed the rebuilding of the Temple
and which, in the face of the increasing dominance of the hierocratic hege-
mony, became oppressed and disenfranchised. As a result its members
increasingly formulated their expectations in utopian conceptions and
mythological language and transferred them to the eschatological arena.
The priestly group produced literature such as Haggai, Zechariah 1–8 and
Ezekiel 40–48, while the visionaries are represented by Isaiah 56–66.
Research since Hanson has questioned this view of the social context
of apocalypses and apocalypticism, and has offered fresh insight into what
constitutes an apocalyptic group or movement. The characteristics of this
research are: a hesitation to describe the social background of apocalyptic
literature, and thus its functions, in monolithic or binary terms; a willing-
ness to employ the fruit of other disciplines, particularly the social-scientific
studies of modern millennial movements; and, to paraphrase Nickelsburg
(1994: 729), a recognition that thinking about the past now requires a reso-
lutely holistic appreciation of its many elements. In later studies, Hanson
himself questioned whether in some cases apocalypticism might have been
employed by others besides oppressed minority groups (1987).
While conceding that the roots of apocalypticism are to be found in early
post-exilic Judaism, Albertz (1992) suggests that social-economic pres-
sures, rather than theological disputes, were the source of the movement
among certain groups towards eschatological expectation. In an interest-
ing essay whose chronological scope transcends our topic, Baun (2000)
wonders whether the tours of hell in Byzantine apocalypses are not a form
of social reply by an oppressed community of outsiders regarding the issue

of theodicy. The earthly double standard that consistently saw the rich and
powerful escape punishment for their crimes but the poor suffer for every
minor infraction would be reversed in the age to come, where a temporary
purgatory awaited sinners of the marginalized and excluded groups but
where eternal damnation was the lot for all the insiders.
For Webb (1990), Hanson’s definition of apocalypticism blurs distinc-
tions between ideology and social movement, and so should be restricted
to the former. The social movements expressing this ideology, tradition-
ally described as ‘apocalyptic’, ought instead to be labeled ‘millenarian’,
a sociological classification anticipated by Davies (1989) and employed
by Esler (1993). Sappington (1994) in a sense may be said to follow from
Webb. He isolates two major literary functions of the Jewish apocalypses,
and systematically discusses their relationship to the content and functions
of the texts. The first is the consolation/encouragement of the righteous,
supported through a variety of transcendent revelations: (1) the future
blessedness of the righteous and condemnation of the wicked; (2) the sov-
ereignty and faithfulness of God; (3) the orderliness of the cosmos; and
(4) the experience of the glory of God and/or consolation. The second
function is the exhortation to continued obedience, expressed through
multiple transcendent revelations: (1) the blessedness of the righteous and
condemnation of the ungodly; (2) the orderliness of the cosmos; and (3)
the example of the righteous. These functions were meant ‘to console and
encourage the righteous and to exhort them to obey diligently the com-
mandments of God’ (117). A third function, manifested only in 1 Enoch,
is the admonition or rebuke of the unrighteous. Sappington concludes by
suggesting that Yarbro Collins’s hesitation (1986: 6) to emphasize the
terms ‘exhort’ and ‘console’ too strongly is misplaced, since these func-
tions are obvious, characteristic, and definitional.
According to Tigchelaar, ‘function, contrary to setting, can be seen as a
possible generic property. But…function can be of many kinds’ (1996: 4).
Setting is an extra-literary phenomenon, and one cannot expect a highly
complex genre like apocalypse to fit with only one Sitz im Leben, and all
the more since the setting in which the genre originated is not necessarily
the same as that of later specimens. Collins (1999a) is even bolder: for him,
the evidence denotes a multiplicity of small apocalyptic groups rather than
one monolithic movement. In response, Lange (2005), while acknowledg-
ing differences between certain texts, posits a shared social milieu based on
symbols and visionary techniques and related to Israel’s wisdom tradition.
Collins (2005b) replies that there is a difference between a common world-
view expressed through a literary form and shared social milieu, and that it

is clear that all the apocalyptic texts did not share it. He also questions the
simple use of ‘wisdom’, and reminds readers that for some time scholars
have recognized that some elements of the ancient Near Eastern sapiential
traditions were more important to apocalypticism than others.
Although now slightly dated, Nickelsburg’s paper in the Uppsala Volume
(1983) remains a sound introduction to the major social aspects of ancient
Jewish and Christian apocalypticism. He surveys the past literature, sum-
marizes the state of the question, identifies two methodological problems
(the appropriate use of ancient sources and the possible danger of imposing
theoretical models), and outlines a potential approach and applies it to a
test text, the Epistle of Enoch. Most importantly, Nickelsburg advocates
the study of an individual text in its own right, asking a systematic series
of questions designed to elicit its possible social settings, and only then
comparing groups of texts to uncover potential interrelationships. He also
rightly stresses that ‘primary attention must be given to the documents
themselves…models must not become a die that shapes ancient materials
or a filter that highlights or obliterates textual data in a predetermined way’
(1983: 648). This is not to say that texts exist in isolation from the reader,
nor that Nickelsburg suggests this. Unlike some social-scientific studies of
apocalypticism or millennial movements, Nickelsburg’s paper is bereft of
specialist jargon and unnecessarily arcane terminology.
It was precisely such social-scientific study, however, particularly the
investigation of contemporary new religious movements (Dawson 1998),
that challenged traditional notions about the social aspects of ancient apoc-
alypses and apocalypticism and served as a foundation for new hypoth-
eses as to what constituted apocalyptic movements. Although the use of
anthropological or social-scientific studies or theoretical models in biblical
studies was not unknown before 1989 (Isenberg 1974; Hanson 1975; Gager
1975; J.Z. Smith 1978), two influential papers published in this year set
the score and established the tenor for subsequent scholarship: Davies’s
‘Social World of Apocalyptic Writings’ (1989) and Grabbe’s ‘Social Setting
of Early Jewish Apocalypticism’ (1989).
For Davies, Second Temple apocalypse was neither the literary heir to
prophecy or (deutero-)prophetic eschatology nor the fruit of marginalized
conventicles, identified variously with the Hasidim and/or Essenes. Nor
was it the child of wisdom, at least not ‘the court-based worldly instruc-
tion of Proverbs based on observation and deduction, and promoting
social order’ (1989: 260). Instead, the fundamentally mantic quality of the
apocalypses, particularly as it is manifested in the book of Daniel and the
Astronomical Book, denotes a scribal setting. Moreover, this literature is,

in the main, not the product of persecuted or oppressed groups, but rather
reflects elements of the ruling clique or establishment. ‘Appeal to esoteric
knowledge, heavenly revelation and the use of myth’, he writes, ‘are all
equally, if not more, characteristic of the methods by which ruling cliques
justify their status and exercise ideological control’, while the authors
of Daniel are ‘most probably aristocratic, even priestly, scribes’ (258).
Again: ‘The social background of apocalyptic writing thus furnished is
more fully described and precisely documented by the activity of politi-
cally “establishment” and culturally cosmopolitan scribes than of vision-
ary “counter-establishment” conventicles’ (263, italics original). While it
would be disingenuous to suggest that all Davies’s conclusions have had
a substantive impact on the field—indeed, many of them are question-
able—his emphasis on sociological contexts and the investigation of the
mantic elements of apocalyptic literature have proven rewarding. Note
here, too, Reid (1989), who employs a variety of anthropological studies,
principally but not limited to those of African cultures, to illuminate the
mantic aspects of early Jewish apocalypses.
Grabbe’s programmatic essay addresses the methodological trap wherein
apocalypses are often interpreted in light of the social situation established
by the texts themselves. Among his many points, he affirms that apocalypti-
cism’s literary and social aspects are distinct, and that ‘there is no necessary
connection between apocalypses and apocalyptic communities’ (1989: 29).
Apocalypticism, Grabbe suggests, is not always the province of the pow-
erless, marginalized, or oppressed. Figures within the scribal or priestly
establishment (cf. Stone 1980a, acknowledged by Grabbe 2003a: 5) may
have composed apocalypses, which ‘have arisen in a variety of settings’
(1989: 39), since the categories of prophecy, manticism, and apocalypti-
cism are not as mutually distinct as traditional scholarship holds. This last
is a constant theme throughout Grabbe’s recent work on the subject. The
implication of his paper is that sociological-anthropological studies of mil-
lenarian groups are sometimes better suited to the task of illuminating the
social background of ancient apocalyptic movements and their literature
than the apocalypses themselves.
Esler (1993) examines social-scientific research on historical examples
of the interaction between colonial powers and indigenous societies, and
applies its perspectives to the study of ancient Jewish texts reflecting a
common social and religious background. These texts were composed in
response to the crises of 167–64 bce or 67–73 ce and are concerned with his-
torical data of a geo-political bent. For Esler, they are examples of absolute
deprivation (‘the actual removal of physical necessities and other perceived

goods’, 188), a modern analogy being the Ghost Dance of the American
Indians. Moreover, Esler sees in Daniel 7–12, which he claims was not
composed for a millennial movement, more than the simple hope for a
glorious future or, against Collins, the transcendance over death: ‘Rather,
the futurist myth, like other myth, functions to create an experience in the
present of the realities it depicts across a wide range of human experience,
but especially in relation to the maintenance of social identity at a time of
grievous hardship’ (191). Esler also posits that ‘introversionism’, one of
sociologist Bryan Wilson’s types of attitudes to the world exhibited among
new religious movements, helps to understand the social context from
which 4 Ezra sprang. Esler returns to issues of colonialism and apocalypti-
cism in his 2005 survey paper that investigates Rome in early Jewish litera-
ture, principally the classic apocalyptic texts from the immediate post-70
ce period: 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and the Apocalypse of Abraham (on which, cf.
Stone 1981, a seminal study; Stone 1985; Nickelsburg 1987). Esler charac-
terizes the type of reflection in this literature as ‘post-colonial’.
Zerbe (1993) considers several of the same ancient texts but from a dif-
ferent perspective. He concludes that four ‘apocalyptic writings’—Daniel,
the Testament of Moses, 2 Baruch and Revelation—advocate what might
be called ‘passive resistance’ and encourage faithfulness and endurance.
None of them advocates a military response or expects that the elect will
participate in the final battle. Rather, final victory is the promise and respon-
sibility of God and his agents. Zerbe contends, however, that to label these
texts ‘pacifistic’ transcends the evidence, particularly since no text explic-
itly rejects the military option. In this he differs somewhat from Cristofani
(1994), who claims that at least a segment of the group(s) behind these
apocalypses were millennial, pacifistic, and quietist. Cristofani also sees
the social origins of apocalypticism residing with the maskilim, the catalyst
being the suffering of the people (esp. children) under Antiochus’s persecu-
tion. Yet even among the limited context of a few Second Temple historical
apocalypses, Reid (1989) discerns a greater variety of social settings than
admitted by this hypothesis.
S.L. Cook’s book, Prophecy and Apocalypticism (1995) applies social-
scientific methods and research into millennial movements to the study of
the development of apocalypticism. His focus is on three ‘proto-apocalyptic’
texts, Ezekiel 38–39, Zechariah 1–8, and Joel, and he is well-armed with
sociological models and data. Cook argues that not all ancient or modern
groups producing apocalypses (1995: 46) are peripheral or deprived, regard-
less of whether the deprivation is absolute or relative. Instead, ‘the millennial
group [is] the Sitz-im-Leben of apocalyptic literature’ (52). Echoing Davies

and Grabbe, and in opposition to the propositions of Hanson, Cook asserts

that such groups need not be situated on the fringes of political power or
the social establishment, nor do they need to be in conflict with authority.
Deprivation may or may not be a component of the self-understanding of
such groups. In fact, a primary argument of his book is that Zadokite groups
occupying a central societal position were responsible for the three texts
under discussion. Locking the elements together is an apocalyptic world-
view, shared by these groups, which fuses a linear conception of history
with a futuristic eschatology envisioning a radical imminent change in the
present order (26). Notably, Cook maintains a central role for eschatology in
his conception of this worldview. No less than six social arenas—‘a spectrum
of social, economic, religious, and political components’ (53)—precipitate a
variety of Sitze im Leben, including the one specific to apocalyptic literature,
the millennial movement, which in turn is linked to the genre apocalypse via
form criticism.
Baumgarten suggests two types of millennial movements. The first
stemmed from a sense of deprivation. The second was triumphalist, in the
sense that the victors had achieved their victory, that things were finally
set aright, and that humans and God were now moving together in the final
march of history towards ‘the most glorious of all possible new worlds’
(1997: 165). The latter type was exemplified by Haggai, Zechariah, and the
Maccabaean movement. Collins, who questions Baumgarten’s triumphalist
examples, distinguishes among three ‘modalities’ of millennial expectation:
‘the triumphalism of imperial power regarded as the fulfillment of history;
the deferred eschatology of those who look for an eventual utopia but are
submissive to the current powers for the present; and the revolutionary
perspective of radical, imminent expectation’ (2003d: 29). He notes that
examples of deferred eschatology in ancient Jewish apocalypses are atypi-
cal, and that there are no true Second Temple analogues to the triumphalist
modality, since the Jews were never in the political position which would
have fostered this attitude. Instead there was a radical, revolutionary per-
spective that was harshly critical of its contemporary political situation and
awaited its imminent resolution. This perspective was essentially quietist
and concentrated on the distinctions between the oppression and corruption
of the present, which it rejected and condemned bitterly, with the purity of
the expected future world. It is worth noting, however, that the triumphalist
mentality is sometimes a factor in mediaeval Christian eschatology (see,
e.g., Magdalino [1993]).
In his contribution to Knowing the End, Sweeney amplifies Cook’s
reconstruction of the Zadokite social background by examining the role of

inner-biblical citations and allusions in the proto-apocalyptic texts (2003).

All these texts are Zadokite, he argues: each reuses earlier Pentateuchal
and prophetic material to define core priestly perspectives and effect the
essential function of teaching Torah. In some cases, such as Joel, Ezekiel
38–39, and Zechariah, this is patent. In others, such as Isaiah 24–27 and
55–66, their affirmation of the centrality of the Temple, use of mythology,
and stress on themes of transformation and restoration (of Israel and cre-
ation) mark them as Zadokite compositions. This argument, representative
of a line of thought suggested or pursued by several scholars, is appealing
on several levels, although more work is required. For example, since such
inner-biblical allusions, citations, and themes also appear in the classic
Jewish apocalypses of a later period, one wonders whether they, too, ought
to be considered products of the Zadokite priesthood. If not, as is probably
the case, then what were the historical processes leading to the abandon-
ment of this worldview by the Zadokite establishment and/or to its subse-
quent appropriation by other groups?
Davies, Grabbe, and many others hold that the eschatologization of
wisdom actuated from scribal circles (whether its constituents were marginal-
ized and/or opposed to the priestly hierarchy is another matter). Tigchelaar’s
Prophets of Old and the Day of the End (1996) examines the relationship
among Zechariah, Deutero-Zechariah and the Book of Watchers, and offers
several contributions to the debate over terminology, definitions, and social
settings. Zechariah and the early Enoch material exhibit a similar concern
with a wide variety of knowledge that is not easily separated into religious
and scientific categories. For Tigchelaar, this is part of the body of evidence
suggesting a movement whereby scribes succeeded the prophets. Elgvin
(2000a) suggests that the Dead Sea text 4QInstruction was related to circles
responsible for the early Enochic material. A different approach is taken by
Gruenwald (2002; cf. 2005), who views ‘Enoch-apocalypticism’—not to
be confused with Boccaccini’s Enochic Judaism—as the literary reflection
of a cultural lifestyle. While ‘city life is not rejected across the board in
Apocalypticism’ (2002: 217), nor was urbanization always seen in a nega-
tive light, Gruenwald posits that 1 Enoch especially stresses the stories
of the patriarchs, which idealize a tribal-nomadic lifestyle. Resistance to
urbanization, centralization, and monarchy were part of the patriarchal nar-
ratives and a component of the prophetic arsenal. According to Gruenwald,
these issues also became significant to the Qumran community.
Grabbe returns to the discussion of social realities in another program-
matic essay (1998b), which was later reprinted in the volume, Knowing
the End (Grabbe and Haak [eds.] 2003). He unequivocally states that ‘the

prophetic writings and the apocalyptic and related writings are all scribal
works in their present form…’ (1998b: 197, italics original). In the same
volume, Cook examines the topos of the cosmic tree in Native American
apocalypticism and in Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4 (2003). Of course he makes
no claims for cross-pollination; rather, he asks whether a sociological model
derived from the study of Native American culture might help clarify the
role of mythology in the development of Second Temple apocalypticism.
For Cook, the movement of the cosmic tree from ‘an archetypical, tran-
scendent reality’ to ‘a realistic, eschatological entity’ is common to the
communities that produced this literature and represents a shift towards
‘apocalyptic thinking’ (2003: 103).
The widespread use of sociological data and models to illuminate the
social setting(s) of genre or ideology has not escaped criticism, and it is a
mistake to assume that its advocates are monolithic in their assumptions or
conclusions. It is also a mistake to divide the scholarship into two opposing
camps, those who utilize the fruit of social-scientific research and those
who do not. Few question the value of this research; under debate are the
terms of its use. For example, while strongly affirming the potential utility
of the sociological approach, Sim (1995) cautions against its misuse, for
example when model-driven theories improperly inform the evidence. Sim
questions Grabbe’s (1989) prima facie assumption that ancient Jewish
apocalypticism can be classified and as such studied under the broad rubric
of millenarianism, and lists doubts about the sources supporting Grabbe’s
postulate that there is no automatic linkage between millennial groups and
the production of apocalypses. At the same time, and citing Nickelsburg’s
useful dictum that models must not shape the textual evidence in a prede-
termined fashion, Sim argues that Grabbe fails to account for a cornucopia
of literary evidence that would actually support some of his theses, thereby
providing the required ancient evidence which in its turn would permit the
supplementary evidence of the sociological studies (for Grabbe’s reply, see
2003b: 108-109 n. 4).
Grabbe himself rejects the use of relative deprivation as the sole expla-
nation for apocalypticism (1989) or millenarian movements (2003b), and in
a review of Cook (1995) questions the latter’s assumption that apocalypses
and related writings are necessarily products of millenarian communities
(1998a). This line of questioning is followed by others, particularly against
Hanson’s view of the social origins of the so-called proto-apocalyptic texts.
In her monograph on Zechariah 9–13, Larkin (1994) concludes that apoca-
lyptic eschatology is not necessarily a product of social conflict. Boeve
(2001) understands apocalypticism as a metaphor for the ‘ultimate kick’,

wherein a resort to the extraordinary or the unusual is one response to the

individual need to define oneself within a context of communal indistinct-
ness. Finally, and even though the studies of Hanson and Cook arrive at
divergent conclusions as to the social background of the proto-apocalyp-
tic texts, Polaski (2001) criticizes both for assuming that literature merely
reflects society and its ideologies rather than also helping to create social
realities.
As we have seen, the view that apocalypticism was perhaps associated
with establishment circles enjoys a certain traction in the scholarly world.
Barker (1998) offers one of the more idiosyncratic formulations. For her,
the Temple’s Holy of Holies was eternal and atemporal, while the veil
which screened it was the boundary between earth and heaven. Drawing
liberally from prophetic texts, apocalypses, and various ancient and medi-
aeval authors, she argues that apocalyptic reviews of history include the
future because the nature of the Holy of Holies allowed the high priests
(or those who functioned like them) to see beyond the limitations of space
and time. Since the Temple was a microcosm of creation, the apocalypticist
was also privy to the mysteries and processes of creation. Lest the reader
be unclear about her meaning, she concludes:
First, the mixture of subjects in the apocalyptic texts…can be explained:
throne visions, lists of the secrets of creation and surveys of history
which deal not only with the past but also with the future are the knowl-
edge given to those who passed beyond the veil of the temple. Second, it
suggests that the material in the apocalypses originated with high priests
since they were the ones who passed through the veil into the holies
(1998: 19-20, italics original).
iii. The Visionary Experience

The past decade has witnessed some exciting work on the subject of
the visionary experience, whose points of contact with other disciplines
include psychological and physiological research as well as the now-famil-
iar sociological and anthropological models. An early example is Merkur’s
(1989) examination of the visionary practices of the authors of the Jewish
apocalypses. Yarbro Collins (1996b) remarks that many elements of the
seer’s emotional and physical state are reflected in the states experienced
by those in ecstatic religious movements. She identifies the seer’s prepara-
tory devices, as those in the revelatory visions of the book of Daniel, and
in particular the importance of mourning and grief. Strong emotions can be
powerful psychologic agents, especially when they are experienced over a
sustained period of time, as is common with great grief. According to her,

prolonged grief may precipitate associated conditions, psychologic and

physiologic, whose elements combine to produce a depression that could
initiate an unconscious process that leads to a waking dream.
Segal (1999) discusses RIBAs, or Religiously Interpreted States of Con-
sciousness, in the Hebrew Bible. The category encompasses dreams and
visions, but in its vocabulary and imagination intersects with phenomena
such as sleep, trances, ecstasy, and spirit possession. Segal discusses the
rituals and techniques for inducing (or producing) such states. He stresses
that the content of the apocalypses cannot simply be the result of exegesis,
but must be due to the seer’s experience as well. He cites the example of
the vision of the Ancient of Days and ‘one like a human being’ in Daniel
7, which he calls a ‘dream-vision’. They are not, according to Segal,
midrashim, homilies, targumim, or pesharim. This medium of revelation
was taken seriously by the Jews of Daniel’s time, and by those of preced-
ing and succeeding centuries. Its purpose was primarily one of consolation,
and should not be considered either an invention or a fiction.
The most provocative study is that of Stone (2003). He states that schol-
ars tend to ignore or are uncomfortable with the explicit claim by prophets
and seers that they are reporting something which they actually experi-
enced. See, for example, Himmelfarb in Mysteries and Apocalypses, who
boldly states that ‘apocalypses are literature, indeed one might even say
fiction’ (1991: 87), and in another paper denies that the ascent apocalypses
reflect the author’s own experience (1995). Stone lists the objections raised
against such claims: (1) pseudonymous attribution is, to one degree or
another, conventional to apocalypses; (2) descriptions of revelatory expe-
riences are drawn from a common, traditional stock of terminology and
descriptions; (3) the use of such stock terms speaks against the vocabulary
of spontaneity one would assume should accompany authentic reports; and
(4) the heavy use of the preceding three elements would quickly submerge
any kernel of authenticity beyond recovery. However, using the example of
4 Ezra, the subject of his Hermeneia commentary (1990), and following a
line of thought he developed there and in his contribution to Mysteries and
Revelations (1991), Stone systematically demonstrates that ‘nearly all of
[these objections] disappear the moment the “reality” of the religious expe-
rience can be demonstrated’ (2003: 177). He argues that the sophistication
of the reports denotes their genuineness, and notes that literary convention
and stock elements do not contradict the reality of the experience. Stone
does not distinguish between the ‘Ezra’ of the text and the author of the
text: the source of the description of the revelation is ‘direct or mediated
knowledge of religious experience’ (178). This description could only be

communicated in culture-specific language that used and reused certain

words and images, since ‘there is no other language for them to use’ (179,
italics original). Moreover, such language would have been cultivated and
perhaps even formalized if we consider the apocalypticists to have been
part of distinct groups or schools (cf. Newman 2005, which while discuss-
ing visions in mediaeval culture touches on related issues).
4. Origins and Influences

The work of many scholars, including Betz (1966; 1968), Cross (1969), and
especially Hengel (1969), established a strong foundation for the modern
study of the origin and development of ancient apocalypses and apoca-
lypticism. The influence of the essays in the Uppsala Volume also cannot
be over-estimated. Despite this noble heritage, however, we still lack firm
consensus on several of the finer details.
That being said, the results of the recent scholarship continue to refine
the parameters of ongoing investigations and chart new avenues of
approach. There is a greater appreciation of the fluidity of geographic,
ethnic, and chronological boundaries, and for the transmission of ideas
across them. The debate is no longer formulated, for example, in elemen-
tary terms of intramural evolution or conflict versus extramural influence
or osmosis (unfortunately, the length of the present paper demanded the
presence of headings to this effect), nor is the issue whether Jewish or
non-Jewish elements are identifiable in a given text as meaningful as it
once was.
i. Ancient Near Eastern and Classical Traditions

In the main, the issue whether Near Eastern or Mediterranean apocalyptic
literature should be considered when studying Jewish and Christian mate-
rial has been resolved (see Collins 1991: 20-22). Two points of contention
still colour the debate over Persian/Iranian influences specifically on the
origins of ancient Jewish apocalypticism: first, whether the earliest por-
tions of the mediaeval Zoroastrian literature, preserved in Pahlavi, are suf-
ficiently ancient to function as potential sources of influence; and second,
whether such influences are demonstrable even if permitted by the chro-
nology. Both points are addressed in essays in the Uppsala Volume (Hult-
gård 1983; Widengren 1983), whose affirmative interpretation of the data
informs their contributions to their 1995 book, Apocalyptique iranienne et
dualisme qoumrânien, co-authored with Philonenko (see Widengren 1995,
on the four-age/-kingdom schema, and Hultgård 1995).

In a sharply worded review-essay of this book, however, Gignoux argues

that, among other things, his research and Cereti’s critical edition of the
Bahman Yašt, also known as the Zandī Wahuman Yasn (Cereti 1995), dem-
onstrate that the earliest stratum of the Pahlavi texts cannot antedate the Sas-
sanids, who ruled Iran during the four centuries before the coming of Islam
(Gignoux 1999). Cohn’s Cosmos, Chaos, and the World to Come (1993)
stands at the other terminus of the spectrum from Gignoux. According to
Cohn, it was Zoroaster himself who, between 1500 and 1200 bce, adapted
the common ancient Near Eastern myth of the agelong struggle between
the god(s) of order and the forces of chaos by means of a linear theology
of history whose climax was the decisive battle, where chaos would be
defeated for all time (cf. Cohn 1995). Although Zoroastrian historiography
did not penetrate Israelite Yahwism, as a result of the Babylonian Exile it
directly influenced the conceptions of history of various early Jewish and
Christian groups. Whether Cohn demonstrates convincing proof for each of
the many areas of influence he claims is debatable.
To many, Hultgård’s essay in the Encyclopedia (1998) will represent a
more sober evaluation of the evidence than either of these two extremes, and
should be consulted alongside his paper on the Bahman Yašt in Mysteries
and Revelations (1991) and Boyce’s earlier study (1984). Hultgård intro-
duces the important Pahlavi texts, including the Dēnkard and the Bahman
Yašt. He discusses the articulation of Iranian apocalyptic traditions within
Zoroastrian mythology and details several ‘apocalyptic-eschatological’
themes relevant to its anticipation of the end. These include the expectation
of end-time signs and tribulations, the millennium of Zoroaster, the final
confrontation of good and evil, and the restoration of the world, along with
elements pertaining to otherworldly journeys. According to Hultgård, these
themes were based in the earlier Avestan traditions, which antedate the
third century bce, the oldest portions of which, the Gāthās and the ‘Yasna
of the Seven Chapters’, precede the Persian Empire. The diffusion of these
traditions in antiquity, he observes, is indicated through descriptions of
Zorastrianism by Plutarch and other classical authors, and by ancient com-
pilations such as the Oracle of Hystaspes that bear a strong Iranian imprint.
In short, while allowing for a certain obscurity inherent in the evidence
and the possibility of the historical adaptation of religious ideas, Hultgård
concludes that many eschatological and cosmological traditions preserved
by the Pahlavi compilers originated in ancient Iranian thought. As to the
influence of this thought on ancient Jewish and Christian apocalypticism,
an area covered in greater detail in Hultgård (1978) and Boyce and Grenet
(1991), he states that no direct borrowing occurred. All the same, the devel-

opment of apocalypticism was consistently influenced by the concerns and

tenor of Persian apocalypticism. In the end, the Pahlavi texts stand in the
ancient and medieval worlds, and as such are important to the study of
apocalypticism in both (Hultgård 1991: 134).
A related topic is the ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern apocalyp-
tic literature. Semeia 14 was groundbreaking in this regard (see Attridge
1979; Collins 1979c; and Saldarini 1979), and the Uppsala Volume also
contains a wealth of papers on the topic. One Uppsala paper addresses
a collection of late third- to mid-first-millennium bce collection of ex
eventu Akkadian mantic texts that derive predicative information via
omens (Ringgren 1983). A second investigates the Oracle of Trophonius
and the historical development of its attendant mythos (Betz 1983). A third
is devoted to the subject of apocalypticism in classical Greece (Burkert
1983), while a fourth concerns the libri fatales of Rome (Cancik 1983; cf.
Gladigow 1983). The Romans’ devotion to divination, oracles, and other
forecasting paraphernalia penetrated multiple aspects of their private and
public functions and was largely a legacy of the Etruscans. Cancik returns
to Graeco-Roman eschatology and apocalypticism in his contribution to
the Encyclopedia (1998). Here he covers divination, oracles, and cults, and
discusses ideas pertaining to time and its end in Greek and Roman myth,
history, and philosophy.
Yet another Uppsala Volume paper on ancient Mediterranean apocalypti-
cism surveys the Egyptian apocalyptica of the Hellenistic period, including
the Story of Nectanebus, the Demotic Chronicle, the Prediction (or Proph-
ecy) of the Lamb under Bokkhoris, and the Oracle of the Potter (Griffiths
1983). Much of this material is the subject of Attridge’s earlier yet still
useful survey article in Semeia 14 (1979), which also includes material
later covered by Cancik (1998). Bergman’s Uppsala paper (1983) is intro-
ductory (see also Assman 1983), while Simon’s in the same volume (1983)
addresses the earliest Jewish Sibyllines, products of Ptolemaic Egypt. In
studies too numerous to list, Collins has addressed most of the relevant
aspects concerning these Jewish Sibyllines. Apokalyptik und Ägypten, a
collection of essays dedicated to the subject of its title, surfaced in 2002
(Blasius and Schipper [eds.] 2002). Although it concentrates on specific
texts, it contains a useful prelude to the topic (Schipper and Blasius 2002)
and a substantive concluding essay (Blasius and Schipper 2002). Schip-
per co-edits another interesting collection, this devoted to the wider topic:
Apokalyptik in Antike und Aufklärung (Brokoff and Schipper [eds.] 2004).
González Blanco’s overview of Mediterranean apocalypticism (1997)
contains few references to the core secondary studies. However, he extends

a line of thought on the Sitz im Leben of apocalypses established by Raphäel

(1977), among others, postulating that ‘la apocalíptica’ is a phenomenon
effected by a state of political oppression (1997: 224). As I have mentioned,
whereas this may very well be the case with the historical apocalyptica, the
link with the otherworldly stream of the genre is not as obvious. More
thorough is Clifford’s paper in the Encyclopedia (1998), which surveys the
roots of apocalypticism in the myths of Mesopotamia, Canaan, and ancient
Israel. He highlights the recurrent elements that play a significant role in
the early apocalypses. Among these are the ancient Near Eastern combat
myth, the theme of the victory of order/heaven over the forces of chaos/the
sea, and the literary form of ex eventu prophecies. Also in the Encyclopedia
is Lincoln’s excellent paper (1998) concerning early Persian inscriptions,
which while not apocalypses exhibit parallels with the genre in their myth-
ological imagery and general theological outlook. Charlesworth (1991)
explores folklore in apocalyptic literature, concentrating on the theme of
humour, with special reference to the Apocalypse of Abraham, and on the
images and iconography of fantastic winged creatures in the larger ancient
Near Eastern milieu. Collins (1981) demonstrates that elements of the rich
ancient Near Eastern mythological complex are integral to some visions
in Daniel, and a similar case has been made for other texts. Abusch (1995)
discusses the phenomenon of ascent to the stars in Mesopotamian ritual, a
topic which has formal connexions to otherworldly journeys and thematic
ones to the knowledge about dreams and astronomy.
The Akkadian predicative material provides a test-case group of texts
where the distinction among categories is not always clear. From the time
the first group of them was published in 1964, they have been categorized
by a wide variety of labels. In his aforementioned essay in the Uppsala
Volume (1983), Ringgren argues that the Akkadian texts represent an early
stage in the development of apocalypticism. VanderKam points out that
they contain many features similar to Second Temple apocalypses, includ-
ing pseudonymity, a penchant for cryptic language, and ex eventu prophecy
(1995). The most recent study of their character, by Nissinen, appears in
Knowing the End (2003). He argues that neither prophecy nor apocalypse
is an adequate definition. Despite some similarities, the simple predica-
tive quality of the Akkadian material cannot justify their being labeled
prophecies, and all the more so given the strict, formal qualities of biblical
prophecy. While links between apocalypticism and the Akkadian texts are
stronger—in addition to the elements mentioned by VanderKam, Nissinen
cites the periodization of history and other features shared with Daniel—
their lack of a transcendent eschatology and attendant features disqualify

them as formal examples of the genre. Nissinen settles on the designation

‘literary predicative texts’, and understands the Akkadian material as part
of a complex, Hellenistic-era process where various (and often related)
modes of predicative expression were developed and formulated.
Fröhlich (1992) contends that the Mesopotamian setting of the Exile con-
tributed three traditions to Second Temple Judaism: (1) the interpretation of
dreams and visions, which he identifies by the terms pishra (Aramaic) or
pesher (Hebrew) and which he sees in several of the court-tales of Daniel;
(2) scientific revelation through divination and astrology, which stands
behind the Enochic traditions; and (3) the vision of heavenly throne, again
a feature of some of the early Enochic booklets. All three traditions, he
holds, co-existed and frequently intermingled in the literature of Judaism
of the Hellenistic era, and especially in the early apocalypses.
In a fine article, VanderKam (1995) surveys the full range of ancient
Near Eastern prophetic material (from Mari, Assyria, Egypt, Khatti, Syro-
Phoenicia, and Israel and Judah) and apocalyptic texts (from Hellenistic
Egypt, Persia, and Second Temple Judaism). On the one hand, the literary
evidence indicates that apocalyptic literature was partly a response to a
widespread Near Eastern sense of the loss of sovereignty to the Greek king
Alexander and his Hellenistic successors (see also Eddy 1961). At the same
time, he notes that there are numerous points of contact among all these
apocalyptic texts and also between the Jewish apocalyptic literature and
older, autochthonous antecedents. These are principally the prophetic and
the sapiential traditions of ancient Israel, which I shall discuss in Part II of
this paper.
[Research for this paper was funded in part by a grant from the Social Sci-
ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. My thanks to Ms Carla
Sulzbach, doctoral candidate at McGill University, for her assistance in
identifying and securing the sources. I am grateful also to Professor John
J. Collins for responding to my request for a list of his recent publications
on the subject.]
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Currents in Biblical Research

Apocalypses and Apocalypticism in Antiquity (Part I)

The online version of this article can be found at:

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Keywords: apocalypse, apocalypticism, apocalyptic discourse, character-

Currents in Biblical Research

Nouveau Testament (Lambrecht [ed.] 1979) or Semeia 14 (Collins [ed.]

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apprehended nor appreciated uniformly. The Uppsala Volume papers also

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Although this paper contains section headings, there is no unanimity

2. Taxonomy and Definitions

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further clarified, refined, and to some extent defended in Collins’s subse-

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of the individual dead’ (2003c: 46). Although apocalypticism is the ideol-

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constituents resemble the core corpus of apocalypses (2003c). The designa-

ii. Resistance and Response

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to a distinct identity, which explains why, sociologically, apocalypticism

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the theological concept (which I take to mean a variation of ‘worldview’)

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‘apocalyptic’ to describe a body of literature (1998b; 2003b), although he

As noted, Sturm (1989) focuses on the theological concept of apocalypti-

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(1994: 85-87). Similarly, Bockmuehl employs ‘apocalyptic’ to describe

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to the stories of Genesis, another connecting to prophets from Moses to

iii. Apocalyptic Discourse

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Carey (1999) defines apocalyptic discourse, a category greater than the

It is not limited to genre, ideology, or eschatology, but instead operates

A book-length study on the topic of apocalyptic language is Plowshares

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3. Function and Social Settings

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earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future,

i. Crisis, Consolation, and Beyond

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role in the elements of apocalypticism of later Jewish and Christian authors,

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ii. Sitz(e) im Leben

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eschatological hopes of small conventicles of liminal, disenfranchised

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and Grabbe, and in opposition to the propositions of Hanson, Cook asserts

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inner-biblical citations and allusions in the proto-apocalyptic texts (2003).

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wherein a resort to the extraordinary or the unusual is one response to the

iii. The Visionary Experience

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