worsened the situation if the oppressing power could have understood these dreams. Such writings would have seemed the works of rebellious revolutionaries. These books, therefore, were frequently written in code, deliberately couched in language which was unintelligible to the outsider; and inevitably there are many cases in which they remain unintelligible because the key to the code no longer exists. But the more we know about the historical background of such books, the better we can interpret them.
The Book of Revelation
All this is the precise picture of our Revelation. There are any number of Jewish apocalypses – Enoch, the Sibylline Oracles, the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Assumption of Moses, the Apocalypse of Baruch, 4 Ezra. Our Revelation is a Christian apocalypse. It is the only one in the New Testament, although there were many other similar writings which did not gain admission. It is written exactly on the Jewish pattern and follows the basic idea of the two ages. The only difference is that, for the day of the Lord, it substitutes the coming in power of Jesus Christ. Not only the pattern but also the details are the same. The Jewish apocalypses had a standard sequence of events which were to happen at the last time; these events all have their place in Revelation.
Before we go on to outline that pattern of events, another question arises. Both apocalyptic and prophecy deal with the events which are to come. What, then, is the difference between them?
Apocalyptic and Prophecy
The difference between the prophets and the writers of apocalyptic was very real. There were two main differences – one of message and one of method.
(1) The prophets thought in terms of this present world. Their message was often a cry for social, economic and political justice, and was always a summons to obey and serve God within this present world. To the prophets, it was this world which was to be reformed and in which God’s kingdom would come. This has been expressed by saying that the prophets believed in history. They believed that, in the events of history, God’s purpose was being worked out. In one sense, the prophets were optimists – for, however sternly they condemned the present state of affairs, they nonetheless believed that things could be put right if men and women would accept the will of God. To the apocalyptists, the world was beyond help in the present. They believed not in the reformation but in the destruction of this present world. They looked forward to the creation of a new world when this one had been shattered by the avenging wrath of God. In one sense, therefore, the apocalyptists were pessimists, for they did not believe that things as they were could ever be cured. True, they were quite certain that the golden age would come – but only after this world had been destroyed.
(2) The message of the prophets was spoken; the message of the apocalyptists was always written. Apocalyptic is a literary production. Had it been delivered by word of mouth, people would never have understood it. It is difficult, involved, often unintelligible; it has to be pored over before it can be understood. Further, the prophets always spoke under their own names; but all apocalyptic writings – except our New Testament one – are pseudonymous. They are put into the mouths of great ones of the past, like Noah, Enoch, Isaiah, Moses, the Twelve Patriarchs, Ezra and Baruch. There is something rather sad about this. Those who wrote the apocalyptic literature had the feeling that greatness had gone from the earth; they did not have the confidence in their own position and authority to put their names to their works, and attributed them to the great figures of the past, thereby seeking to give them an authority greater than their own names could have given. As the New Testament scholar Adolf Jülicher put it: ‘Apocalyptic is prophecy turned senile.’
The Pattern of Apocalyptic
Apocalyptic literature has a pattern: it seeks to describe the things which will happen at the last times and the blessedness which will follow; and the same pictures occur over and over again. It always, so to speak, worked with the same materials; and these materials find their place in our Book of Revelation.
(1) In apocalyptic literature, the Messiah was a divine, pre-existent, other-worldly figure of power and glory, waiting to descend into the world to begin his all-conquering career. He existed in heaven before the creation of the world, before the sun and the stars were made; and he is preserved in the presence of the Almighty (1 Enoch 48:3, 48:6, 62:7; 4 Ezra 13:25–6). He will come to put down the mighty from their seats, to dethrone the kings of the earth and to break the teeth of sinners (1 Enoch 42:2–6, 48:2–9, 62:5–9, 69:26–9). In apocalyptic, there was nothing human or gentle about the Messiah; he was a divine figure of avenging power and glory before whom the earth trembled in terror.
(2) The coming of the Messiah was to be preceded by the return of Elijah, who would prepare the way for him (Malachi 4:5–6). Elijah was to stand upon the hills of Israel, so the Rabbis said, and announce the coming of the Messiah with a voice so great that it would sound from one end of the earth to the other.
(3) The last terrible times were known as ‘the travail of the Messiah’. The coming of the messianic age would be like the agony of birth. In the gospels, Jesus is depicted as foretelling the signs of the end and is reported as saying: ‘All this is but the beginning of the birth pangs’ (Matthew 24:8; Mark 13:8).
(4) The last days will be a time of terror. Even the mighty will cry bitterly (Zephaniah 1:14); the inhabitants of the land shall tremble (Joel 2:1); people will be terrified and will seek some place to hide and will find none (1 Enoch 102:1, 102:3).
(5) The last days will be a time when the world will be shattered, a time of cosmic upheaval when the universe, as we know it, will disintegrate. The stars will be extinguished; the sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood (Isaiah 13:10; Joel 2:30–1, 3:15). The firmament will crash in ruins; there will be a torrent of raging fire, and creation will become a molten mass (Sibylline Oracles 3:83–9). The seasons will lose their order, and there will be neither night nor dawn (Sibylline Oracles 3:796–806).
(6) The last days will be a time when human relationships will be destroyed. Hatred and enmity will reign upon the earth. People will turn against their neighbours (Zechariah 14:13). Brothers will kill each other; parents will murder their own children; from dawn to sunset they shall slay one another (1 Enoch 100:1–2). Honour will be turned into shame, strength into humiliation, and beauty into ugliness. Jealousy will arise in those who did not think much of themselves, and passion will take hold of those who were peaceful (2 Baruch 48:31–7).
(7) The last days will be a time of judgment. God will come like a refiner’s fire – and who can endure the day of his coming (Malachi 3:1–3)? It is by the fire and the sword that God will plead with people (Isaiah 66:15–16). The Son of Man will destroy sinners from the earth (1 Enoch 69:27), and the smell of brimstone will pervade all things (Sibylline Oracles 3:58–61). The sinners will be burned up as Sodom was long ago (Jubilees 36:10–11).
(8) In all these visions, the Gentiles have their place – but it is not always the same place.
(a) Sometimes the vision is that the Gentiles will be totally destroyed. Babylon will become such a desolation that there will be no place for the wandering Arabs to plant their tents among the ruins, no place for the shepherds to graze their sheep; it will be nothing more than a desert inhabited by the beasts (Isaiah 13:19–22). God will trample down the Gentiles in his anger (Isaiah 63:6). The Gentiles will come over in chains to Israel (Isaiah 45:14).
(b) Sometimes one last gathering of the Gentiles against Jerusalem is depicted, and one last battle in which they are destroyed (Ezekiel 38:14–39:16; Zechariah 14:1–11). The kings of the nations will throw themselves against Jerusalem; they will seek to ravage the shrine of the Holy One; they will place their thrones in a ring round the city, with their faithless people with them; but it will be only for their final destruction (Sibylline Oracles 3:663–72).
