Apocalypticism: The Disclosure Of Heavenly Knowledge
In: The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New TestamentSearch for other papers by Christopher Rowland in
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Abstract
There are a range of Jewish works from the Second Temple period which offer revelations of divine secrets and are similar in form and content to the New Testament apocalypse, from which they derive their generic description 'apocalypse'. The word 'apocalypse' is used to refer to literary texts which offer revelation and the content of divine revelation. In the modern period the noun 'apocalyptic' (from the German 'Apokalyptik') has been widely used as a heuristic device which serves as a generic label for a collection of revelatory, symbolic and eschatological ideas. The two important areas for understanding the origin of apocalypticism- prophecy and wisdom-both have considerable affinities with the oldest parts of this early apocalypse. There are fragments throughout the pseudepigrapha which enable us to glimpse something of the antecedents of the theosophic and cosmological speculation which were to form the cornerstone of later Jewish belief.