Apocalyptic Literature And Politics
...their religious, spiritual, and sometimes scientific and political view of this world and beyond. Of the 66 -73 books in the bible and all the apocryphal, pseudopigraphal, and historical writings of the characters, themes, and events in the bible without a doubt the least mined source for writings and sermons in main stream religion is the writings of an apocalyptic nature. Although many ancient apocalypses still exist to this day only one full apocalyptic book made the canon. This of course is the Revelation to John. Other apocalyptic writing does exist within the canon. A large part of the book of Daniel is very apocalyptic as well as a portion of the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and many other passages of the bible fall under the apocalyptic heading. At a point in Jewish and Christian history apocalyptic literature would have been taken very seriously by the main stream of religion. This is particularly true of the years between Antiochus Epiphanes and the revolt of Bar Kokhba. These dates are generally put about the years 167 BCE and 135 CE. It was during these times that most Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature was written. This period was a time of great turmoil for the Christians and Jews. Both groups saw terrible persecution at the hands of several kings such as Antiochus Epiphanies, Nero, and Domitian. The political unrest and the terrible way that Jews and Christians were persecuted by the government the themes and images of apocalyptic literature tends to be of a political nature. The message sent about government in rarely positive in biblical literature and it is especially grim in apocalyptic literature. What is Apocalyptic literature?
Although the common use of the word apocalypse is used as meaning the end of the world this is not actually what all apocalyptic literature is about. The word Apocalypse is derived from the Greek word meaning to reveal...
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