Apocalypse

This article is about the literary genre in Judeo-Christian religious culture. For the related genre of religious writings about "end times", see Apocalyptic literature. For contemporary fiction about cataclysm in general, see Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. For other uses, see Apocalypse (disambiguation).

Apocalypse depicted in Christian Orthodox traditional fresco scenes in Osogovo Monastery, North Macedonia
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Apocalypse (from Ancient Greek ἀποκάλυψις (apokálupsis) 'revelation, disclosure') is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In it a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary.[1] The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys,[2] and they typically feature symbolic imagery drawn from the Jewish Bible,[3] cosmological and (pessimistic) historical surveys, the division of time into periods, esoteric numerology, and claims of ecstasy and inspiration.[4] Almost all are written under pseudonyms (false names), claiming as author a venerated hero from previous centuries,[5] as with the Book of Daniel, composed during the 2nd century BCE but bearing the name of the legendary Daniel from the 6th century BCE.[6]

Eschatology, from Greek eschatos, last, concerns expectations of the end of the present age,[7] and apocalyptic eschatology is the application of the apocalyptic world-view to the end of the world, when God will bring judgment to the world and save his followers.[8] An apocalypse will often contain much eschatological material like the epiphany of Paul the Apostle, but need not: the baptism of Jesus in Matthew's gospel, for example, can be considered apocalyptic in that the heavens open for the presence of a divine mediator (the dove representing the spirit of God) and a voice communicates supernatural information, but there is no eschatological element.[9]

Scholars have identified examples of the genre ranging from the mid-2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE,[10] and examples are to be found in Persian and Greco-Roman literature as well as Jewish and Christian.[11] The sole clear case in the Jewish Bible (Old Testament) is chapters 7–12 of the Book of Daniel, but there are many examples from non-canonical Jewish works;[12] the Book of Revelation is the only apocalypse in the New Testament, but passages reflecting the genre are to be found in the gospels and in nearly all the genuine Pauline epistles.[13]

  1. ^ Carey 2012, p. 4.
  2. ^ Najman 2014, p. 37.
  3. ^ Reynolds 2011, p. 45–46.
  4. ^ Lewis 2004, p. 12.
  5. ^ Linton 2006, p. 35.
  6. ^ Redditt 2008, p. 180.
  7. ^ Carroll 2000, p. 420.
  8. ^ Crawford 2000, p. 73.
  9. ^ Foster 2020, p. 81.
  10. ^ Arnold 2007, p. 80.
  11. ^ Collins 1984, p. 106.
  12. ^ Najman 2014, p. 40.
  13. ^ Lewis 2004, p. 7.