Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 32 (1/2)
iv. _Apocalyptic as distinguished from Prophecy._--We have already dwelt on certain notable differences between apocalyptic and prophecy; but there are certain others that call for attention.
(a) _In the Nature of its Message._--The message of the prophets was primarily a preaching of repentance and righteousness if the nation would escape judgment; the message of the apocalyptic writers was of patience and trust for that deliverance and reward were sure to come.
(b) _By its dualistic Theology._--Prophecy believes that this world is G.o.d's world and that in this world His goodness and truth will yet be vindicated. Hence the prophet prophesies of a definite future arising out of and organically connected with the present. The apocalyptic writer on the other hand despairs of the present, and directs his hopes absolutely to the future, to a new world standing in essential opposition to the present. (_Non fecit Altissimus unum saeculum sed duo_, 4 Ezra vii. 50.) Here we have essentially a dualistic principle, which, though it can largely be accounted for by the interaction of certain inner tendencies and outward sorrowful experience on the part of Judaism, may ultimately be derived from Mazdean influences. This principle, which shows itself clearly at first in the conception that the various nations are under angelic rulers, who are in a greater or less degree in rebellion against G.o.d, as in Daniel and Enoch, grows in strength with each succeeding age, till at last Satan is conceived as ”the ruler of this world” (John xii. 31) or ”the G.o.d of this age” (2 Cor. iv. 4). Under the guidance of such a principle the writer naturally expected the world's culmination in evil to be the immediate precursor of G.o.d's intervention on behalf of the righteous, and every fresh growth in evil to be an additional sign that the time was at hand. The natural concomitant in conduct of such a belief is an uncompromising asceticism.
He that would live to the next world must shun this. Visions are vouchsafed only to those who to prayer have added fasting.
(c) _By pseudonymous Authors.h.i.+p._--We have already touched on this characteristic of apocalyptic. The prophet stood in direct relations with his people; his prophecy was first spoken and afterwards written.
The apocalyptic writer could obtain no hearing from his contemporaries, who held that, though G.o.d spoke in the past, ”there was no more any prophet.” This pessimism and want of faith limited and defined the form in which religious enthusiasm should manifest itself, and prescribed as a condition of successful effort the adoption of pseudonymous authors.h.i.+p. The apocalyptic writer, therefore, professedly addressed his book to future generations. Generally directions as to the hiding and sealing of the book (Dan. xii. 4, 9; 1 Enoch i. 4; a.s.s. Mos. i. 16-18) were given in the text in order to explain its publication so long after the date of its professed period. Moreover, there was a sense in which such books were not wholly pseudonymous. Their writers were students of ancient prophecy and apocalyptical tradition, and, though they might recast and reinterpret them, they could not regard them as their own inventions. Each fresh apocalypse would in the eyes of its writer be in some degree but a fresh edition of the traditions naturally attaching themselves to great names in Israel's past, and thus the books named respectively Enoch, Noah, Ezra would to some slight extent be not pseudonymous.
(d) _By its comprehensive and deterministic Conception of History._--Apocalyptic took an indefinitely wider view of the world's history than prophecy. Thus, whereas prophecy had to deal with temporary reverses at the hands of some heathen power, apocalyptic arose at a time when Israel had been subject for generations to the sway of one or other of the great world-powers. Hence to harmonize such difficulties with belief in G.o.d's righteousness, it had to take account of the role of such empires in the counsels of G.o.d, the rise, duration and downfall of each in turn, till finally the lords.h.i.+p of the world pa.s.sed into the hands of Israel, or the final judgment arrived. These events belonged in the main to the past, but the writer represented them as still in the future, arranged under certain artificial categories of time definitely determined from the beginning in the counsels of G.o.d and revealed by Him to His servants the prophets. Determinism thus became a leading characteristic of Jewish apocalyptic, and its conception of history became severely mechanical.
II. OLD TESTAMENT APOCALYPTIC
i. Canonical:--
Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii.; x.x.xiii.; x.x.xiv.-x.x.xv.
(Jeremiah x.x.xiii. 14-26?) Ezekiel ii. 8; x.x.xviii.-x.x.xix.
Joel iii. 9-17.
Zech. xii--xiv.
Daniel.
We cannot enter here into a discussion of the above pa.s.sages and books.[1] All are probably pseudepigraphic except the pa.s.sages from Ezekiel and Joel. Of the remaining pa.s.sages and books Daniel belongs unquestionably to the Maccabean period, and the rest possibly to the same period. Isaiah x.x.xiii. was probably written about 163 B.C. (Duhm and Marti); Zech. xii.-xiv. about 160 B.C., Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. about 128 B.C., and x.x.xiv.-x.x.xv. sometime in the reign of John Hyrca.n.u.s.
Jeremiah x.x.xiii. 14-26 is a.s.signed by Marti to Maccabean times, but this is highly questionable.
ii. Extra-canonical:--
(a) _Palestinian_:--
(200-100 B.C.) Book of Noah.
1 Enoch vi.-x.x.xvi.; lxxii.-xc.
Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs.
(100 B.C. to 1 B.C.) 1 Enoch i.-v.; x.x.xvii.-lxxi.; xci.-civ.
Testaments of the XII. Patriarchs, i.e. T. Lev. x., xiv.-xvi., T. Jud.
xxi. 6-xxiii, T. Zeb. ix., T. Dan. v. 6, 7.
Psalms of Solomon.
(A.D. 1-100 and later.) a.s.sumption of Moses.
Apocalypse of Baruch.
4 Ezra.
Greek Apocalypse of Baruch.
Apocalypse of Zephaniah.
Apocalypse of Abraham.
Prayer of Joseph.
Book of Eldad and Modad.
Apocalypse of Elijah.
(b) _h.e.l.lenistic_:--
2 Enoch.