I am currently doing a course on Revelation run by the excellent Trinity Theological College (based in Perth) and my lecturer explained to us that apocalyptic literature is present in parts in the OT but really developed in the inter-Testamental period. It was written by various Jewish groups during their persecution and was a way of encouraging people without giving them something that will get them in trouble. Thus all the codes and symbolism. It was a way of teaching people stuff without giving the persecutors evidence of wrongdoing.

Like everything, it depends what you mean by apocalyptic genre?

According to Tom Wright (and G.B. Caird, Moule and the rest of that school), apocalyptic language is taking political and historical events and endowing them with their theological significance.

With this definition, Daniel and Revelation are merely the statring point for ‘apocalyptic genre’.

[quote author="Matthew Moffitt"]Like everything, it depends what you mean by apocalyptic genre?

According to Tom Wright (and G.B. Caird, Moule and the rest of that school), apocalyptic language is taking political and historical events and endowing them with their theological significance.

With this definition, Daniel and Revelation are merely the statring point for ‘apocalyptic genre’.

However, it would be possible to argue that Kings and Chronicles also endow historical and political events with theological significance. If the definition is too vague, the category becomes meaningless.

Lee Herridge - 10 August 2007 04:47 PM

...apocalyptic literature is present in parts in the OT but really developed in the inter-Testamental period. It was written by various Jewish groups during their persecution and was a way of encouraging people without giving them something that will get them in trouble. Thus all the codes and symbolism. It was a way of teaching people stuff without giving the persecutors evidence of wrongdoing.

Hello Lee

Based on that definition, Daniel and Revelation can’t be classed as apocalyptic. The inter-Testament apocalyptic authors just aped the style.

Even without naming names, Revelation is seditious. Its message is not hidden. Jesus used OT language and the hypocrites knew exactly what he was getting at. “You are a new Babylon! A new Egypt! Your unbelief will see you missing the ark! Your destruction will be just as sudden!”

We get confused by the canonical visions and their New Testament allusions because we are ignorant of the potent Old Testament language based on the historical narratives and the previous visions. The Bible’s symbol language keeps building on itself right to the end. Daniel refers to the desolation of Jerusalem as coming like a flood. Revelation alludes to every OT book.

Translation adds to the confusion. Try reading Revelation through but substituting the word “Land” for “earth”. It’s a whole new book!

Genre classifications are helpful, but some use them to undermine the Bible’s authority. Bible books aren’t pigeon-holed quite that easily. Interpreting them in their historical context and chapter order is much more helpful. An example would be the mysterious Ezekiel 38-9 interpreted not as predicting some future armageddon but actually the events in the book of Esther, which were relatively near. I believe Revelation should be interpreted the same way - relying less on genre and more on historical context.

Revelation wasn’t written in symbols to hide the message. It brings to a final fulfilment all of the object lessons and ‘dark sayings’ of the lunar (night time) Old Covenant and refers to them deliberately as their destruction is described. The book is liturgical, a temple service. The irony is it describes the destruction of the temple, and its replacement by a spiritual one, the one raised up in three days. It is not about the end of the world, but the beginning of a new spiritual one under the rule of Christ: Isaiah’s “new heavens and new earth” where righteousness dwells - Christ in us, the hope of glory. Revelation is about the soon coming of Christ, his coming to his throne (Daniel 7). And he did “come quickly” as he said. It’s history. But from that throne he is yet to judge the living and the dead.

Kind regards

THE FOLLOWING PRESENTATION IS RATED PG.
IT CONTAINS SUPERNATURAL THEMES THAT MAY FRIGHTEN YOUNGER VIEWERS.

“If the angelic armies literally seen in the clouds at AD 66 were the fulfillment of ‘every eye shall see Him’ (Rev. 1:7) as Sproul has allowed as a possibility, then it was also the fulfillment of Acts 1:11”

Josephus (A.D. 75) - Jewish Historian:

“Thus were the miserable people persuaded by these deceivers, and such as belied God himself; while they did not attend, nor give credit, to the signs that were so evident, and did so plainly foretell their future desolation (1); but, like men infatuated, without either eyes to see or minds to consider (2), did not regard the denunciations that God made to them (3). Thus there was a star resembling a sword, which stood over the city, and a comet, that continued a whole year (4). Thus also, before the Jews’ rebellion, and before those commotions which preceded the war, when the people were come in great crowds to the feast of unleavened bread, on the eight day of the month Xanthicus, [Nisan,] and at the ninth hour of the night, so great a light shone round the altar and the holy house, that it appeared to be bright day-time; which light lasted for half an hour (5). This light seemed to be a good sign to the unskilful, but was so interpreted by the sacred scribes as to portend those events that followed immediately upon it.”

1. Isaiah 47:13-15
2. Matthew 13:14-15; Deut 29:4; Isaiah 6:9-10
3. Revelation 9:20-21
4. Isaiah 34:5; Luke 21:11; Matthew 24:29
5. Zechariah 14:7; Isaiah 30:26

“Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind”
- Jeremiah 4:13

“For, behold, the Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.”
- Isaiah 66:15, cf. 19:1

“There will be terrors and great signs from heaven”
- Luke 21:11

“And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.”
- Mark 9:1

“Jesus told him, You said it. I am telling you then, that henceforth you shall see the Son of Man sitting from the right of the Power and coming over the clouds of heaven.”
- Matthew 26:64 (Aramaic Bible)

Josephus again…

“Besides these signs, a few days after that feast, on the twenty-first day of the month Artemisius, [Jyar,] a certain prodigious and incredible phenomenon appeared; I suppose the account of it would seem to be a fable, were it not related by those that saw it, and were not the events that followed it of so considerable a nature as to deserve such signals; for, before sun-setting, chariots and troops of soldiers in their armour were seen running about among the clouds, and surrounding of cities. Moreover, at that feast which we call Pentecost, as the priests were going by night into the inner court of the temple, as their custom was, to perform their sacred ministrations, they said that, in the first place, they felt a quaking, and heard a great noise, and after that they heard a sound as of a great multitude, saying, “Let us remove hence” (Jewish Wars, VI-V-3).

Tacitus (A.D. 115) - Roman historian:

“Prodigies had occurred, but their expiation by the offering of victims or solemn vows is held to be unlawful by a nation which is the slave of superstition and the enemy of true beliefs. In the sky appeared a vision of armies in conflict, of glittering armour. A sudden lightning flash from the clouds lit up the Temple. The doors of the holy place abruptly opened, a superhuman voice was heard to declare that the gods were leaving it, and in the same instant came the rushing tumult of their departure. Few people placed a sinister interpretation upon this. The majority were convinced that the ancient scriptures of their priests alluded to the present as the very time when the Orient would triumph and from Judaea would go forth men destined to rule the world.” (Histories, Book 5, v. 13).

Dan Harden

“The imagery is exactly the same—Christ would return the way He left, on the clouds.”