Apocalypse () is a

literary genre A literary genre is a category of literature. Genres may be determined by List of narrative techniques, literary technique, Tone (literature), tone, Media (communication), content, or length (especially for fiction). They generally move from mor ...

originating in Judaism in the centuries following the

Babylonian exile The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile was the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were forcibly relocated to Babylonia by the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The deportations occurre ...

(597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a

supernatural Supernatural phenomena or entities are those beyond the Scientific law, laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin 'above, beyond, outside of' + 'nature'. Although the corollary term "nature" has had multiple meanin ...

being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imagery drawn from the

Jewish Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. ''

Book of Daniel The Book of Daniel is a 2nd-century BC biblical apocalypse with a 6th-century BC setting. It is ostensibly a narrative detailing the experiences and Prophecy, prophetic visions of Daniel, a Jewish Babylonian captivity, exile in Babylon ...

, composed during the 2nd century BCE but bearing the name of the legendary

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

from the 6th century BCE.

Eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of Contemporary era, present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic and non-Abrah ...

(from Greek ''eschatos'', last) concerns expectations of the end of the present age. Thus, 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. An apocalypse will often contain much eschatological material like the epiphany of Paul the Apostle, but need not: the

baptism of Jesus The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament ( Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghta ...

Matthew's gospel The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah ( Christ), Jesus, his resurrection, and his mission to the ...

, 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. In popular use ''apocalypse'' often means such a catastrophic end-times event, but in scholarly use the term is restricted to the visionary or revelatory event. Scholars have identified examples of the genre ranging from the mid-2nd century BCE to the 2nd century CE, and examples are to be found in Persian and Greco-Roman literature as well as Jewish and Christian. The sole clear case in the Jewish Bible (

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

) is chapters 7–12 of the

, but there are many examples from non-canonical Jewish works; the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation, also known as the Book of the Apocalypse or the Apocalypse of John, is the final book of the New Testament, and therefore the final book of the Bible#Christian Bible, Christian Bible. Written in Greek language, Greek, ...

is the only apocalypse in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, but passages reflecting the genre are to be found in the

gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

and in nearly all the genuine

Pauline epistles The Pauline epistles, also known as Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are the thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle, although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest ext ...

Definition and history

"Apocalypse" has come to be used popularly as a synonym for catastrophe, but the Greek word ''apokálypsis'', from which it is derived, means a revelation. It has been defined by John J Collins as "a genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework, in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, in that it envisages

eschatological Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of present age, human history, or the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negative world ...

salvation, and spatial, insofar as it involves another, supernatural world." Collins later refined his definition by adding that apocalypse "is intended to interpret present, earthly circumstances in light of the supernatural world and of the future, and to influence both the understanding and the behaviour of the audience by means of divine authority." The genre of Jewish and Christian apocalypse flourished c. 250 BCE–250 CE, but its antecedents can be traced back much further, in the Jewish prophetic and wisdom traditions (e.g.,

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

1–3 and Zechariah 1–6), and in the mythologies of the Ancient Near East, which have left a legacy of symbology (e.g., the sea as a symbol of chaos in Daniel 7 and Revelation 13:1).

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

dualism may also have played a role. The reasons for its rise are obscure, but there seems to be a connection to times of crisis, such as the 2nd century BCE persecution of the Jews reflected in

Daniel's final vision Chapters 10, 11, and 12 of the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament comprise Daniel's final vision. The vision describes a series of coming conflicts between an unnamed "King of the North" and a "King of the South", ...

, or the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE reflected in

4 Ezra 2 Esdras, also called 4 Esdras, Latin Esdras, or Latin Ezra, is an apocalyptic book in some English versions of the Bible. Tradition ascribes it to Ezra, a scribe and priest of the fifth century BC, whom the book identifies with the sixth-ce ...

and

2 Baruch 2 Baruch is a Jewish apocryphal text thought to have been written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is attributed to the biblical figure Baruch ben Neriah (c. 6th century BC) ...

Characteristics

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Apocalyptic revelations are typically mediated through such means as dreams and visions (the ancient world did not distinguish between these), angels, and heavenly journeys. These serve to connect two sets of axes, the spatial axis which has God and the heavenly realm above and the human world below, and the temporal axis of the present and the future. The revelation thus demonstrates that God rules the visible world, and that the present days are leading to an end-time in which divine justice will be done and God's rule will become visible. Mythic images with their roots in texts from the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' transcendentalism Transcendentalism is a philosophical, spiritual, and literary movement that developed in the late 1820s and 1830s in the New England region of the United States. "Transcendentalism is an American literary, political, and philosophical movement of ...

, mythology, pessimistic cosmological and historical surveys,

dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another * P ...

(including a doctrine of two ages and the division of time into periods),

numerology Numerology (known before the 20th century as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, ...

(e.g., the "

number of the beast The number of the beast (, ) is associated with the The Beast (Revelation), Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of ...

" in Revelation), claims of

ecstasy Ecstasy most often refers to: * Ecstasy (emotion), a trance or trance-like state in which a person transcends normal consciousness * Religious ecstasy, a state of consciousness, visions or absolute euphoria * Ecstasy (philosophy), to be or stand o ...

and inspiration, and

esotericism Esotericism may refer to: * Eastern esotericism, a broad range of religious beliefs and practices originating from the Eastern world, characterized by esoteric, secretive, or occult elements * Western esotericism, a wide range of loosely related id ...

. With the exception of the Apocalypse of John the authors of apocalyptic works released their books under pseudonyms (false names): the

, for example, was composed during the 2nd century BCE but took the name of the legendary Daniel for its hero. Pseudonymity may have been used to secure acceptance for the new works, to protect the real authors from reprisals, or because the authors had experienced what they believed to be genuine revelations from the famous past figure or identified with him and claimed to write on his behalf.

Jewish apocalypses

Canonical (including proto-apocalyptic)

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "Yahweh is salvation"; also known as Isaias or Esaias from ) was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. The text of the Book of Isaiah refers to Isaiah as "the prophet" ...

24–27; 33; 34–35 *

Jeremiah Jeremiah ( – ), also called Jeremias, was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish tradition, Jeremiah authored the Book of Jeremiah, book that bears his name, the Books of Kings, and the Book of Lamentations, with t ...

33:14–26 *

38–39 * Joel 3:9–17 * Zechariah 12–14 *

7–12

Non-canonical

3 Enoch The Third Book of Enoch (), also known as The Book of the Palaces, The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest and The Elevation of Metatron, and abbreviated as 3 Enoch) is a Jewish apocrypha, Jewish apocryphal book. Authorship Modern scholars desc ...

Apocalypse of Abraham The ''Apocalypse of Abraham'' is an apocalyptic Jewish pseudepigrapha (a text whose claimed authorship is uncertain) based on biblical Abraham narratives. It was probably composed in the first or second century, between 70–150 AD. It has survi ...

Apocalypse of Adam The Apocalypse of Adam is a Sethian Gnostic apocalyptic writing. It is the fifth tractate in Codex V of the Nag Hammadi library, transcribed in Coptic. The date of the original work has been a point of scholarly contention because the writing ...

Apocalypse of Moses Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...

* Apocalypse of Sedrach *

Apocalypse of Zephaniah The Apocalypse of Zephaniah (or ''Apocalypse of Sophonias'') is a 1st-century pseudepigraphic Jewish text attributed to the Biblical Zephaniah and so associated with the Old Testament, but not regarded as scripture by Jews or any Christian group. I ...

* Apocalypse of Zerubbabel * Aramaic Apocalypse * Gabriel's Revelation *

Genesis Apocryphon The Genesis Apocryphon (1Q20), also called the Tales of the Patriarchs or the Apocalypse of Lamech and labeled 1QapGen, is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1946 by Bedouin shepherds in Cave 1 near Qumran, a small settlemen ...

Greek Apocalypse of Baruch 3 Baruch or the Greek Apocalypse of Baruch is a visionary, pseudepigrapha, pseudepigraphic text written some time between the Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE), fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the third century. Scholars disagree on whether it was wr ...

* Greek Apocalypse of Daniel *

Greek Apocalypse of Ezra The ''Greek Apocalypse of Ezra'', also known as the ''Word and Revelation of Esdras'', is a pseudepigraphal work written in the name of the biblical scribe Ezra. It survived in only two Greek copies and is dated between the 2nd century and the 9th ...

* Sefer Elijah *

Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch 2 Baruch is a Jewish apocryphal text thought to have been written in the late 1st century CE or early 2nd century CE, after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. It is attributed to the biblical figure Baruch ben Neriah (c. 6th century BC) ...

Christian and gnostic apocalypses

Canonical (New Testament)

Matthew 24 Matthew 24 is the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It commences the Olivet Discourse or "Little Apocalypse" spoken by Jesus Christ, also described as the Eschatological Discourse, which c ...

The Sheep and the Goats The Sheep and the Goats or "the Judgement of the Nations" is a pronouncement of Jesus recorded in chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew, through which Jesus strongly encourages his followers to take action to help those in need. With this speech ...

Mark 13 Mark 13 is the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains the "Markan Apocalypse": Jesus' predictions of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and disaster for Judea, as well as Mark's v ...

* 2 Thessalonians 2 *

1 Timothy 4 The First Epistle to Timothy is one of three letters in the New Testament of the Bible often grouped together as the pastoral epistles, along with Second Epistle to Timothy, Second Timothy and Epistle to Titus, Titus. The letter, traditionall ...

2 Peter 3 2 Peter 3 is the third (and final) chapter of the Second Epistle of Peter in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author identifies himself as "Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ". The epistle is traditionally attribut ...

*Jude 14–15 *

Non-canonical

* Apocalypse of Golias *

Apocalypse of Paul The Apocalypse of Paul (, literally "Revelation of Paul"; more commonly known in the Latin tradition as the or ) is a fourth-century non-canonical apocalypse and part of the New Testament apocrypha. The full original Greek version of the Apoc ...

Apocalypse of Peter The Apocalypse of Peter, also called the Revelation of Peter, is an early Christian text of the 2nd century and a work of apocalyptic literature. It is the earliest-written extant work depicting a Christian account of heaven and hell in detail ...

Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius Written in Syriac in the late seventh century, the ''Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius'' shaped and influenced Christian eschatological thinking in the Middle Ages.Griffith (2008), p. 34.Debié (2005) p. 228.Alexander (1985) p. 13.Jackson (2001) p ...

* Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun * Apocalypse of Stephen * Apocalypse of Thomas * Coptic

Apocalypse of Elijah The Apocalypse of Elijah is an early Christian work written in the Coptic language commonly held to be a documentation of the oral presentation of multiple original and classical manuscripts. Presented in part as the direct word of the Hebrew God, ...

Gnostic

Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter The Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter, also known as the Coptic Apocalypse of Peter and Revelation of Peter, is the third tractate in Codex VII of the Nag Hammadi library. The work is associated with Gnosticism, a sect of early Christianity, and i ...

First Apocalypse of James The First Apocalypse of James is a Gnostic Apocalypse, apocalyptic writing. Its initial rediscovery was a Coptic language, Coptic translation as the third Masekhet, tractate of Codex V in the Nag Hammadi library. Additional copies were later foun ...

* Second Apocalypse of James *

Coptic Apocalypse of Paul The Coptic ''Apocalypse of Paul'' (Sahidic Coptic: ⲧⲁⲡⲟⲕⲁⲗⲩⲯⲓⲥ ⲙ̄ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ), also known as the ''Revelation of Paul'', is a Gnostic apocalyptic writing. It was originally written in Koine Greek, but the surv ...

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * {{Doomsday Christian genres Christian terminology Mythology hr:Kraj svijeta

Definition and history

Characteristics

Jewish apocalypses

Canonical (including proto-apocalyptic)

Non-canonical

Christian and gnostic apocalypses

Canonical (New Testament)

Non-canonical

Gnostic

See also

References

Sources