Philosopher of the apocalypse_. #### **I.1** An _apocalypse_ is any literary or visual representation of the end of the world as understood by the Hebrew Bible. In particular, apocalypses usually represent the day of the Lord's visitation—i.e., the day when the messianic age will begin and God will judge the world. The origins of apocalyptic writing are unknown; however, the practice is found in ancient Canaanite, Egyptian, and Babylonian writing. Like many earlier writings, Jewish apocalyptic texts tend to be allegorical in nature and focus on future events that affect humanity or God's relationship with humanity. (Thus, the word _apocalypse_ is Greek in origin, coming from _a-_ , "away from," and _p-okalupsis_ , "enclosure.") Early Jewish apocalypses are the prophetic books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; later ones include Daniel, and the two apocalypses in the pseudepigraphical, or "spurious," books of Enoch and Jubilees. Notable Christian apocalypses include the canonical gospels and Revelation. #### **I.2** The Gospel of John is "the first apocalypse" in the truest sense of the word: the first to present a full, concrete description of the apocalyptic day of the Lord. As the apostle John's witness testifies, he had access to a range of religious and philosophical sources that helped shape his understanding of the apocalypse: in particular, the Greek translation of the Book of Daniel, the Book of Enoch, and perhaps Zoroastrianism. Early Christians viewed John's apocalypse as revelation and, by analogy, considered the day of the Lord to be a spiritual event, often associated with the death and resurrection of Jesus. Indeed, most early interpreters of John's apocalypse seem to have believed that it took place in the context of Jesus' final sojourn on earth; after all, Jesus had earlier instructed the disciples to wait for "the parousia [ _parousia_ ] of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:27). In more secular terms, the day of the Lord was understood as a cosmic battle between good and evil, and apocalyptic events were often marked by the destruction of both human and inhuman enemies—with death either preceding or following the Day of the Lord. A central theme in John's Gospel is Jesus' apocalyptic ministry, and indeed, the very nature of the apocalyptic event is defined by Jesus' message of judgment and salvation. Unlike other biblical writers (e.g., Ezekiel, Isaiah), however, John uses the language of _foresight_ to describe these "last days." Thus, the term _apocalypsis_ , which commonly means "revelation" in the English language, is actually an appropriate translation of the Greek word _apocalypsis_ , which is often used in the plural to refer to prophetic revelation. Indeed, _apocalypsis_ means "revelation," "uncovering," and "unveiling." This more basic sense of apocalypsis derives from the verb _apokalyptein_ (from _a-_ , "away from," and _kalypt-_ , "hidden" or "concealed")—that is, the process of unveiling hidden things. Similarly, Revelation 5:1 speaks of the fact that "the mystery of God, namely, the sevenfold Spirit" was not understood by "the inhabitants of the earth; for God has put [it] into their hearts to _apokalyptein_ , to hide it, in order that the _apokalypsis_ of the nations should be proclaimed." This more basic sense of apocalypsis denotes revelation of unknown, hidden things. ##### **_Suggestions for Further Reading_** Conzelmann, Hans. _The Theology of St. John_ , trans. Jerome Steinberg. New York: Herder & Herder, 1970. D'Angelo, Daniel. "Eschatology and the End of the Age in the New Testament," in _An Introduction to the New Testament_ , ed. Stanley E. Porter, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Goulder, Michael D. "Apocalypse and Discourse: Revelation 21:17," _RevExp_ 69 (1972): 277–79. Harvey, A. E. _A Preface to John's Gospel_. London: SCM, 1962. Lane, William L. _The Gospel According to John_ , 3rd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1968. Lindars, Barnabas. _The Gospel of John_ , 2nd ed. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991. Neyrey, Jerome H. _The Gospel of John_ , vol. 2 of _A Historical and Literary Study_. New York: Doubleday, 1971. Porter, Stanley E. "Apocalypse in the New Testament," _RevExp_ 66 (1971): 3–37. Ross, Allen P. "Apocalypse," _ABD_ , vol. 5. New York: Scribner's, 1981. Schweitzer, Albert. _The Quest of the Historical Jesus_ , trans. Stanley Godman. New York: Macmillan, 1983. ### **CHAPTER 2** ### **_The Johannine School of Jewish-Christian Exegesis_** #### **II.1** The last two centuries of the Common Era witnessed a vigorous scholarly effort to recover and interpret the sacred literature of the ancient Mediterranean world. In particular, Jewish apocalypses were among the first to be studied in the hope of recovering the worldview of late Second Temple Judaism. The first scholar to pay attention to apocalyptic literature was German classicist Johann Albert Fabricius, who began lecturing on the Greek texts of Daniel and Enoch in 1811 at the University of Halle in Germany. Fabricius presented his research in an influential series of articles, in which he attempted to synthesize the scholarship of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with his own work in classical philology. Fabricius posited that each book of the Bible was an independent unit of work, and that each such work represented a single perspective on a single religious idea. In so doing, he followed in the footsteps of Friedrich August Wolf and Georg Friedrich Creuzer, two of his predecessors in the study of apocalyptic literature. Like the two predecessors, Fabricius began as a philologist before turning to the study of early Christianity; in his case, he completed his studies of the Bible as an academic at Leipzig and Halle and then wrote _Die jüdische Apokalypse_ ( _The Jewish Apocalypse_ ), a book on apocalyptic literature that was published posthumously. Fabricius' successor at Halle was Theodor Zahn, who taught there from 1820 until his death in 1885. Zahn was a pioneering historian and biblical scholar who had broad interests in biblical studies. Like Fabricius, Zahn posited that the books of the Bible were independent, individual units of work, and that they expressed only one side of a theological controversy (like Daniel and Enoch). Nevertheless, Zahn attempted to bridge the gap between the history of exegesis and the actual interpretation of the Bible. In 1872 the University of Göttingen in Germany—a bastion of Protestant orthodoxy—began offering a doctorate in theology. This new academic degree was offered by German Reformed theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur, whose work on biblical interpretation—especially apocalyptic literature—was highly controversial. Among the works Baur published at Göttingen was _Die Theologie des Neuen Testaments_ ( _The Theology of the New Testament_ ). Baur's work began as a refutation of the nineteenth-century liberalism that characterized many of the German universities. Yet his work also helped to establish historical-critical methodology as a legitimate component of biblical studies. Baur's influence on Jewish-Christian scholarship is widely felt. Indeed, many Christian scholars today would acknowledge that they, like Baur, attempt to apply critical methodology to their study of the Bible. Even so, Baur's methodology is controversial to some degree, perhaps because he was a Protestant. (Ironically, some Jewish-Christian scholars believe that conservative Christian scholarship has the same problems as liberal Christian scholarship—i.e., its reliance on unprovable historical claims—which is why, in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries, many Jewish-Christian scholars feel compelled to become Jewish-Christian scholarship.) Baur rejected most of his predecessors' studies of apocalyptic literature. He argued that apocalyptic literature was a purely Jewish phenomenon that had little relevance to Christianity. Indeed, the entire concept of apocalyptic literature was entirely foreign to the historical Jesus. According to Baur, all of the key elements of early Christian apocalypticism—the idea of a transcendent figure, the resurrection of the dead, the final Day of the Lord—were borrowed from Judaism. All of these ideas, Baur believed, were introduced into Christianity by the followers of Paul. To support this point, Baur cited