A theme oft recurs in biblical prophecy,
Jewish apocalyptic, and Christian apocalyptic: in the wake of destruction, transcendent
renewal is expected. The end result will outstrip any hitherto known reality. The
hope for a surpassing palingenesis, rather than a mere restoration of past
glory, is characteristic of numerous strands of biblical, ancient Jewish, and
early Christian literature.
Hope for a healing of history is commensurate
with that which Rebecca’s
children have come to know of the God they worship. It is not clear how a
Jew or a Christian could be bereft of such a hope, and still call themselves a
believer.
Predictions of transcendent renewal are found
in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Obadiah, Micah, and Zechariah.
The expectations touch on disparate dimensions of existence and differ among
themselves enormously in terms of content. A survey of relevant texts in Isaiah
makes this abundantly clear: 2:2-5; 4:2-6; 10:33-12:6; 19:19-25; 33:17-24;
65:17-24; 66:10-24.
Even the book of Amos, modest as it is in its
positive expectations, expresses more than a merely restorative hope. It
predicts not only the recovery of state sovereignty, but an end forever to the
threat of exile hanging over the nation’s head (9:11-15).
Jewish apocalypses often describe the course
and consummation of history and the distribution of deserved outcomes to the
righteous and to the wicked in a postmortem context. A surpassing palingenesis
of heaven and earth is foreseen in 1 Enoch, Daniel, Jubilees, 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra,
and Apocalypse of Abraham.[1]
4 Ezra, Apocalypse of Abraham, and Ascension
of Isaiah, works of Jewish origin, received substantial re-elaborations within
a Christian context. These texts in final form, along with the Apocalypse of
John in the New Testament, look forward to a healing of history according to
Christian coordinates.
A vast array of other ancient texts composed
by Jews or Christians, while not reports of revelations in the strict sense,
preannounce the course of history. These texts also predict much more than a
return to a glorious past: a transcendent future is imagined, whether or not
reference is made to a new heaven and a new earth and to postmortem existence
after resurrection. Jewish examples include Sibylline Oracles, Testaments of
the Twelve Patriarchs, and Testament of Moses. All these works exhibit a
complex history of development spanning the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and
one or more Christian redactions. Autonomous Christian examples of prophetic
discourses include Matt 24-25; Mark 13; Luke 17:2037; 21:1-36; 1 Thess
4:13-5:11; 2 Thess 1:5-10; 2:1-12; 2 Pet 3:1-18; Didache 16; and the visions in
the Shepherd of Hermas.
Rabbinic Judaism, if we leave to one side the
Hekhalot compositions, did not allow the production of texts presenting
themselves as revelations. Rabbinic Judaism nevertheless appropriated
conceptions of historical and metahistorical teleology which find a systematic
expression in Jewish apocalyptic of the same and preceding centuries.
As J. Klatzkin and J. Kaufmann correctly
asserted, “Pharisaic-Talmudic Judaism is apocalyptic in essence. The chief affirmations of apocalyptic literature are foundational to its belief
structure.”[2]
In an upcoming post, I will demonstrate the validity
of Klatzkin and Kaufmann’s claim by way of a discussion of Massekhta
Wayassa 5,66-77 in Mekhilta deRabbi Ishmael.
[1] For an overview of expected historical consummation in 2
Baruch, an apocalypse with close affinities to 4 Ezra and Revelation, see John
F. Hobbins, “The Summing Up of History in 2 Baruch,” JQR 89 (1998)
45-79.
[2] “Das pharisäisch-talmudische Judentum ist eigentlich ‘apokalyptisch,’
da es die Hauptanschauungen der apokalyptischen Literatur zur Grunldlagen des
Glaubens erhob, in “Apokalyptik,” Encyclopedia Judaica (Berlin, 1928)
1:1142-1161; reprinted in Apokalyptik, ed. Klaus Koch (Darmstadt, 1982)
242.
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