Reference: Apocalyptic Literature
Hastings
The apocalypse as a literary form of Jewish literature first appears during the Hellenistic period. Its origin is to a considerable degree in dispute, but is involved in the general development of the period. Among the Hebrews its forerunner was the description of the Day of Jehovah. On that day, the prophets taught, Jehovah was to punish the enemies of Israel and to establish His people as a world power. In the course of time this conception was supplemented by the further expectation of a judgment for Jews as well as for heathen (Am 2:3-8; 3:9-15; 5:10-13; Zec 1:2-18; 2:4-13; Joe 2:18-28; Eze 30:2 f.). The first approach to the apocalyptic method is probably to be seen in Zec 9; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14. It was in the same period that the tendencies towards the aesthetic conceptions which had been inherited from the Babylonian exile were beginning to be realized under the influence of Hellenistic culture. Because of their religion, literature was the only form of aesthetic expression (except music) which was open to the art impulses of the Jews. In the apocalypse we thus can see a union of the symbolism and myths of Babylonia with the religious faith of the Jews, under the influence of Hellenistic culture. By its very origin it was the literary means of setting forth by the use of symbols the certainty of Divine judgment and the equal certainty of Divine deliverance. The symbols are usually animals of various sorts, but frequently composite creatures whose various parts represented certain qualities of the animals from which they were derived.
Apocalyptic is akin to prophecy. Its purpose was fundamentally to encourage faith in Jehovah on the part of those who were in distress, by 'revealing' the future. Between genuine prophetism and apocalyptic there existed, however, certain differences not always easy to formulate, but appreciable to students of the two types of religious Instruction. (a) The prophet, taking a stand in the present, so interprets current history as to disclose Divine forces at work therein, and the inevitable outcome of a certain course of conduct. The writers of the apocalypses, however, seem to have had little spiritual insight into the providential ordering of existing conditions, and could see only present misery and miraculous deliverance. (b) Assuming the name of some worthy long since dead, the apocalyptist re-wrote the past in terms of prophecy in the name of some hero or seer of Hebrew history. On the strength of the fulfilment of this alleged prophecy, he forecast, though in very general terms, the future. (c) Prophecy made use of symbol in literature as a means of enforcing or making intelligible its Divinely inspired message. The apocalyptists employed allegorically an elaborate machinery of symbol, chief among which were sheep, bulls, birds, as well as mythological beings like Beliar and the Antichrist.
The parent of apocalyptic is the book of Daniel, which, by the almost unanimous consensus of scholars, appeared in the Maccab
See Verses Found in Dictionary
For a thousand years in thine eyes as the day of yesterday, for it shall pass away, and watches in the night.
Until the day shall breathe and the shadows fled away, turn, thou, it being likened to thee, my beloved, to the roe, or to the fawn of the hind upon the mountains of section.
Until the day shall breathe and the shadows fled away, turn, thou, it being likened to thee, my beloved, to the roe, or to the fawn of the hind upon the mountains of section.
Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Wail ye, Wo to the day!
I was seeing in the visions of the night, and lo, with the clouds of the heavens as the Son of man he came, and turning even to the Ancient of days; and they brought him near before him.
And Jehovah will be jealous for his land, and he will pity. for his people. And Jehovah will answer and say to his people, Behold me sending to you the grain and the new wine, and the new oil; and ye were satisfied with it: and I will no more give you a reproach among the nations. read more. And the northern I will remove far off from you, and I thrust him into a land of dryness and desolation, with his face to the east sea, and his end to the last sea; and his stink came up. and his stench shall come up, for he magnified to do. Thou shalt not fear, O land; rejoice and be glad, for Jehovah magnified to do. Ye shall not fear, ye beasts of the field, for the pastures of the desert sprang forth, for the tree bore its fruit, the fig tree and the vine gave their strength. Ye sons of Zion rejoice and be glad in Jehovah your God; for he gave to you the early rain for justice, and he will bring down to you the rain, the early and latter rain in the first. And the threshing-floors were filled with grain, and the wine-vats overflowed with new wine and new oil. And I requited to you the years which the common locust ate, the feeder, and the devourer, and the creeping locust, my great army which I sent among you. And eating, ye ate and were satisfied, and ye praised the name of Jehovah your God who did wonderfully with you: and my people shall not be ashamed forever. And ye knew that I am in the midst of Israel, and I am Jehovah your God, and none else: and my people shall not be ashamed forever. And it was after this I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters prophesied, your old men shall dream your young men shall see visions.
And I cut off the judge from the midst of her, and I will slay all her chiefs with him, said Jehovah. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn it back from him, for their rejecting the instructions of Jehovah, and they watched not his laws, and their lies caused them to err which their fathers went after them. read more. And I sent a fire upon Judah, and it devoured the palaces of Jerusalem. Thus said Jehovah: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn it back, for their selling the just one for silver and the needy for shoes; Panting for the dust of the earth upon the head of the poor, and they will turn away the way of the humble: and a man and his father will go to the same young girl to profane my holy name: And upon garments taken in pledge they will turn by every altar, and they will drink the wine of the amerced in the house of their God.
Cause to be heard upon the palaces in Ashdod, and upon the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Be ye gathered together upon the mountains of Shomeron, and see the great tumults in the midst of her, and the oppressed in the midst of her. And they knew not to do the straight, says Jehovah, storing up violence and oppression in their palaces. read more. For this, thus said the Lord Jehovah: An adversary and round about the land; and he brought down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces were plundered. Thus said Jehovah: As the shepherd will deliver from the mouth of the lion two legs, and part of an ear, thus shall the sons of Israel be delivered dwelling in Shomeron in the extremity of a tribe, or in Damascus under a roof. Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, says the Lord Jehovah, God of armies. For in the day of my reviewing the transgressions of Israel upon him, and reviewed upon the altars of the house of God: and the horns of the altar were broken, and they fell to the earth. And I struck the house of autumn with the house of summer; and the houses of ivory perished, and the great houses were taken away, says Jehovah.
They hated him setting right in the gate, and they will abhor the perfect word. For this, because of your treading upon the poor one, and ye will take away the liftings up of wheat from him: ye built houses of hewn stone, and ye shall not dwell in them; ye planted vineyards of desire and ye shall not drink their wine. read more. For I knew your many transgressions, and your strong sins: pressing upon the just, taking a ransom, and they turned away the needy in the gate For this the prudent one shall be silent in that time, for it is an evil time.
Jehovah was angry with our fathers with anger. And thou saidst to them, Thus said Jehovah of armies: Turn back to me, says Jehovah of armies, and I will turn back to you, said Jehovah of armies. read more. Ye shall not be as your fathers which the former prophets called to them, saying, Thus, said Jehovah of armies: Turn back now from your evil ways and your evil doings: and they heard not, and they attended not to me, says Jehovah. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, shall they live forever? But the words and the laws which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not reach your fathers? and they will turn back and say, As Jehovah of armies purposed to do to us according to our ways and according to our doings, so he did with us. In the twenty and fourth day to the eleventh month, this the month Sabat, in the second year to Darius, was the word of Jehovah to Zechariah, son of Barachiah, son of Iddo the prophet, saying, I saw by night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood beween the myrtles which were in shady place; and after him red horses, bay, and white. And saying, What these, my lord? And the messenger speaking with me, will say to me, I will cause thee to see what these are? And the man standing between the myrtles will answer and say, These which Jehovah sent to go about in the earth. And they will answer the messenger of Jehovah standing between the myrtles, and they will say, We walked about in the earth, and behold, all the earth sat and rested. And the messenger of Jehovah will answer and say, O Jehovah of armies, how long wilt thou not compassionate Jerusalem and the cities of Judah with whom thou wert very angry this seventy years? And Jehovah will answer the messenger speaking with me good words, consoling words. And the messenger speaking with me, will say to me, Call thou, saying, Thus said Jehovah of armies; I was jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy. And I am angry with great anger against the nations living in quiet: for I was angry a little and they helped for evil. For this, thus said Jehovah: I turned back to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it, says Jehovah of armies, and a cord shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem. Yet call, say, Thus said Jehovah of armies: My cities shall be spread abroad for good; and Jehovah yet comforted Zion and yet chose Jerusalem. And I shall lift up mine eyes, and see, and behold, four horns
And he will say to him, Run, speak to this youth, saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited an open country from the multitude of men and cattle in the midst of her. And I will be to her, says Jehovah, a wall of fire round about, and I will be for glory in the midst of her. read more. Alas! alas! and flee ye from the land of the north, says Jehovah: for as the four winds of the heavens I spread you abroad, says Jehovah. Alas, O Zion, deliver thyself inhabiting the daughter of Babel. For thus said Jehovah of armies: After glory he sent me to the nations spoiling you: for he touching upon you touched the gate of his eye. For behold me waving my hand upon them, and they were a spoil to their servants: and ye knew that Jehovah of armies sent me. Shout for joy and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for behold me coming, and I dwelt in the midst of thee, says Jehovah. And many nations joined themselves to Jehovah in that day, and they were to me for a people: and I dwelt in the midst of thee, and thou knewest that Jehovah of armies sent me to thee. And Jehovah inherited Judah his portion upon the holy land, and he yet chose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, from the face of Jehovah: for he was raised from the habitation of his holiness.