The Apocalypse of John: II. The Thought, Style, and Method of Apocalyptic

Abstract

Apocalyptic flourished after prophecy had declined. Prophecy was at its best in the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries B. c.; apocalyptic reached its zenith in the second and first centuries B. c. and the first century A. D. An interval of three hundred years witnessed the decline of prophecy and the rise of apocalyptic. The change was due to the incoming of legalism. The period following the Exile was chiefly marked by the codification of the national law, the canonization of the Pentateuch, the inauguration of professional study and interpretation of the law, and the establishment of local synagogues among the people for instructing them in the law and inculcating obedience. Ezra (fl. 458 B. c.) was the founder and leader of this new era,2 but Ezekiel the prophet-priest more than a century before in Babylon had been its precursor. The priests' code, comprising a portion of Exodus and Numbers and the whole of Leviticus, grew up through the sixth century in Babylon chiefly, and was carried to Judea by Ezra. The nation, under the political suzerainty of Persia, became a hierarchy. Priests, with their law and ritual, dominated Jewish life. No wonder that prophetism declined; it was stifled by literalism and ceremonialism. Nevertheless, the dreams of future national glory revived, and in the second century B. c. flourished, in another form and under another