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 your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.
Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of Bether.
"Son of man, prophesy, and say, 'Thus says the Lord GOD: "Wail, 'Alas for the day.'
I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.
Then the LORD was jealous for his land, And had pity on his people. The LORD answered his people, "Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. read more. But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise." Surely he has done great things. Land, do not be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things. Do not be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before. The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you. You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise the name of the LORD, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed. You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the LORD, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed. "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.
and I will cut off the judge from their midst, and will kill all its officials with him," says the LORD. Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have rejected the LORD's law, and have not kept his statutes, and their lies have led them astray, after which their fathers walked; read more. But I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem." Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Israel, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; They trample on the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and deny justice to the oppressed; and a man and his father use the same maiden, to profane my holy name; and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Proclaim in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, "Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria, and see what unrest is in her, and what oppression is among them." "Indeed they do not know to do right," says the LORD, "Who hoard plunder and loot in their palaces." read more. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "An adversary will overrun the land; and he will pull down your strongholds, and your fortresses will be plundered." Thus says the LORD: "As the shepherd rescues out of the mouth of the lion two legs, or a piece of an ear, so shall the children of Israel be rescued who sit in Samaria on the corner of a couch, and on the silken cushions of a bed." "Listen, and testify against the house of Jacob," says the Lord GOD, the God of Hosts. "For in the day that I visit the transgressions of Israel on him, I will also visit the altars of Bethel; and the horns of the altar will be cut off, and fall to the ground. I will strike the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory will perish, and the great houses will have an end," says the LORD.
They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly. Forasmuch therefore as you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine. read more. For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins?you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the courts. Therefore a prudent person keeps silent in such a time, for it is an evil time.
"The LORD was very displeased with your fathers. Therefore tell them: Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'Return to me,' says the LORD of hosts, 'and I will return to you,' says the LORD of hosts. read more. Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Return now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings;' but they did not hear, nor listen to me, says the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did not they overtake your fathers? "Then they repented and said, 'Just as the LORD of hosts determined to do to us, according to our ways, and according to our practices, so he has dealt with us.'" On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the LORD came to Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying, "I had a vision in the night, and behold, a man riding on a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle trees that were in a ravine; and behind him there were red, brown, and white horses. Then I asked, 'My lord, what are these?'" The angel who talked with me said to me, "I will show you what these are." The man who stood among the myrtle trees answered, "They are the ones the LORD has sent to go back and forth through the earth." They reported to the angel of the LORD who stood among the myrtle trees, and said, "We have walked back and forth through the earth, and behold, all the earth is at rest and in peace." Then the angel of the LORD replied, "O LORD of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years?" The LORD answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting words. So the angel who talked with me said to me, "Proclaim, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy. I am very angry with the nations that are at ease; for I was but only a little angry, but they added to the calamity." Therefore thus says the LORD: "I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy. My house shall be built in it," says the LORD of hosts, "and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem."' "Proclaim further, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: "My cities will again overflow with prosperity, and the LORD will again comfort Zion, and will again choose Jerusalem."'" I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, four horns.
and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,' says the LORD, 'will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. read more. Come. Come. Flee from the land of the north,' says the LORD; 'for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,' says the LORD. 'Come, Zion. Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.' For thus says the LORD of hosts: 'For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a spoil to those who served them; and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent me. Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you,' says the LORD. Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you. The LORD will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the LORD; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation."