Imagining the End: Visions of

parts of  that text. This in itself  suggests that, instead of  approaching it as

though it were essentially an organic whole, it may be preferable to regard the

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54

Origins

text as a late compilation, a book written to bring together various apocalyptic

traditions at a time when the priesthood was concerned to preserve the

essential parts of  the faith in written form. (Such a procedure would naturally

have forced the compilers to impose some sort of  logical order on this material,

giving it a superficial semblance of  coherence.) If  the extant ZWY cannot be

shown to be based on a single Avestan text but is more likely to be a composite

work, then it cannot be assumed that all its contents must go back to an

ancient Iranian tradition, and consequently it cannot be used as evidence of

an ancient Iranian origin of  the myth of  the ‘metallic ages’.

As we saw earlier, the character of  most Pahlavi texts is essentially

ahistorical. Given that no Avestan origin can be proved, views on the time of

the emergence of  the ‘metallic ages’ in the Zoroastrian tradition can therefore

be based only on considerations of  plausibility. Since no known passage of

the Avesta suggests that the appearance of  Zarathustra marked the beginning

of  a steady decline – a notion that would be wholly contrary to the spirit of

the 

Gathas

 – an ancient Zoroastrian origin can probably be excluded.

116

 There

would therefore appear to be two possible scenarios:



. Some time after the time of  the composition of  Daniel 



 in the second

century 



,

117

 but most probably after the Islamic conquest, Zoroastrians

were sufficiently impressed with a late Jewish text to incorporate it into their

tradition, and this was done so successfully that the text soon came to be seen

as part of  Zarathustra’s revelation.



. During the period following the overthrow of  the Achaemenian empire

by Alexander ‘the Accursed’, the mood of  the Zoroastrian community was

one of  gloom. As the evidence of  Theopompus (

apud

 Plutarch, see above)

suggests, the notion that the fortunes of  the ages are predetermined had

already gained at least some acceptance. At this period, when Hellenism was

becoming a dominant cultural influence in Iran, the Greek myth of  the

metallic ages was introduced there and its implied pessimism aptly reflected

the mood of  the Zoroastrian faithful, who accepted it as part of  religious

truth.

Clearly, the latter account would seem more plausible.

Conclusion

Mary Boyce

118

 defines ‘revolutionary millenarianism’ as ‘a type of  salvation-

belief  which has arisen characteristically “against a background of  disaster”,

when rapidly changing social conditions have caused suffering and disorienta-

tion for a minority, and have brought forth a prophet who assures them of

the compensation and triumphant happiness in a time to come’. She calls

Zarathustra ‘not only the fountain-head of  Iranian apocalyptic,

119

 but also the

---

55

Millennialism in the Zoroastrian Tradition

first known millenarian in the wider sense of  that term’. Moreover, she

maintains that ‘Zoroastrianism is in fact the archetypal millenarian faith, to

which most subsequent millenarian movements may well owe a historical

debt’. Whether some of  these contentions are accepted as true clearly depends

on one’s definition of  the concepts in question. However, without Zara-

thustra’s original teaching that the world will have an end – preceded by a

final battle and a moral reckoning, a retribution which will banish evil for

ever – the notion of  a preordained and ‘moral’ future of  the universe would

be unthinkable. Such beliefs of  course lie at the heart of  both millenarian and

apocalyptic ideas.

Further speculation on the Last Things, which were apparently thought

of  as ‘mirroring’ the events of  Creation and the time of  Zarathustra, led to

the development of  the concepts of  a world-saviour, Zarathustra’s son born

of  a virgin mother, and of  a physical resurrection of  the dead; again, potent

images in the history of  millenarian ideas that was to follow.

When the concept of  time came to be seen as being of  crucial importance

– partly no doubt under foreign influence – the originally vague notion that

Good would eventually vanquish Evil in a world which essentially belongs to

Ohrmazd became more defined and led to truly ‘millenarian’ speculations: a

predestined, ‘moral’ future for the world, conceived in terms of  periods and

ages of  



,



 and 



,



 years.

Later, when the Macedonian and Arab conquests confronted the com-

munity with catastrophe, a legend of  alien origin, that of  the metallic ages,

apparently helped the Zoroastrians deal with the trauma. As this legend

depicted the future of  the world in familiar terms of  ‘ages’, it was accepted

as part of  Zoroastrian teaching and probably facilitated the development of

a rich apocalyptic tradition.

As usually happens with oral traditions, pre-Islamic Zoroastrianism shaped

these apocalyptic and millenary accounts until they had reached the form

most relevant and satisfying to the community. After the advent of  Islam, the

second major catastrophe in the history of  the religion, these accounts came

to play an important role. In this way a tradition which for the most part had

its origin in the remote past of  the Iranian people, but some of  whose elements

came from outside Iran, eventually received the final redaction which has so

impressed many scholars in the field of  apocalyptic and millenarian studies.

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56

3

The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic

Robert R. Wilson

For centuries in the West, the Bible has provided a paradigm for the identifica-

tion and analysis of  contemporary apocalyptic movements. Even when such

movements do not explicitly invoke biblical passages or images, analysts

nevertheless usually consider a movement to be apocalyptic to the degree that

it conforms to the biblical models. Given the primary role that the Bible has

played in the history of  western apocalypticism, then, it is important to try

to understand the biblical phenomenon and the way in which it developed in

the biblical world. However, such an effort at understanding is difficult in two

respects. First, we in fact know very little about biblical apocalypticism except

through the biblical text itself, and even there apocalyptic literature is not

well represented. Biblical scholars commonly identify only Daniel 



–



 and

the Book of  Revelation as clear examples of  apocalyptic literature, although

isolated passages such as Mark 



 are occasionally added to the list. In

addition, passages such as Isaiah 



–



, Ezekiel 



–



, Joel, Zechariah 



–



 and

Malachi are sometimes thought to be ‘proto-apocalyptic’, although they do

not exhibit the structure of  the classical extra-biblical apocalypses.

Second, biblical apocalypticism is difficult to understand because the Jewish

and Christian communities that have viewed the Bible as sacred scripture

have often ignored the apocalyptic dimensions of  the text and at times even

tried to suppress it. This is undoubtedly true in the case of  the classical

rabbis of  the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods, who had little use for apoca-

lyptic or mystical forms of  Judaism. Even Christianity, which certainly began

as an apocalyptic movement, shed most of  its apocalyptic features at about

the same time that it became an acceptable religion within the Roman empire.

Although apocalyptic groups have arisen fairly regularly during the course of

Christian history, most major Christian traditions have tended to suppress

apocalypticism.

On both the Jewish and Christian sides the neglect or suppression of

---

57

The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic

apocalyptic by communities of  faith is difficult to explain with any precision,

but it may be related to the tendency for apocalyptic groups to rely on direct

revelation rather than on revelation mediated through ecclesiastical teachers

and officials or through officially interpreted texts. Revelation of  this sort can

easily be perceived by religious leaders as a threat if  it appears to challenge

the stability of  established religious communities. As a result, the communities

themselves often officially reject apocalyptic phenomena, although individual

members may remain strongly attracted to them.

The tendency to reject or ignore apocalypticism has been exhibited in

scholarly circles as well, although in this case the motives for at least some of

the neglect can easily be seen. During the last part of  the nineteenth century,

when scholars in the universities began to write accounts of  the early history

of  Judaism and Christianity, there was a strong tendency to see ancient Israel’s

religion as an evolution from ‘primitive’ nature worship through polytheism

to the ethically-oriented monotheism of  the biblical prophets. Seen against

the background of  this sort of  developmental schema, apocalyptic religion

appeared to many scholars to be a regression to earlier, less exalted religious

forms. Apocalypticism was therefore thought not to be typically Christian or

Jewish, and its origins were often sought outside the Jewish and Christian

communities. Only a theory of  borrowing could account for a religious per-

spective that seemed so out of  touch with scholarly reconstructions of  ‘pure’

Jewish or Christian faith. As a result of  this scholarly perspective, until fairly

recently Jewish scholars simply ignored the study of  mystical or messianic

Judaism, while the great Christian biblical scholars of  the late nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries found apocalyptic literature to be something of  an

embarrassment. Only with the discovery of  the literature of  a Jewish apoca-

lyptic community at Qumran on the Dead Sea has scholarly interest in

apocalypticism been revived.

1

Although in recent years significant work on apocalypticism has been

published by Paul Hanson, John J. Collins and Stephen Cook, among others,

much work remains to be done, and in a sense the study of  biblical apoca-

lypticism remains in its infancy.

2

 In the discussion that follows I will indicate

what the main lines of  research have been and where scholarly disagreements

still remain.

The Problem of Terminology

As John J. Collins and others have noted, scholars have not always been clear

in their use of  language when discussing biblical apocalypticism. This is

particularly true in the case of  the word ‘apocalyptic’ itself, which functions

in the scholarly literature both as an adjective and as a noun. While the

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58

Origins

word’s use as a noun retains a certain vague quality which is sometimes

useful, in the interest of  clarity I will follow Collins’s suggestion that ‘apoca-

lyptic’ be used only as an adjective.

3

 Accordingly I will distinguish three

aspects of  biblical apocalypticism: apocalyptic religion, apocalyptic literature

and apocalyptic eschatology. These three aspects overlap to a certain extent

and are interrelated, but for the purpose of  analysis it will be helpful to

discuss them separately.

Apocalyptic Religion

Apocalyptic religion involves a particular cluster of  beliefs about the nature

of  reality and the behaviours that are based on those beliefs. Some aspects of

the apocalyptic worldview were widely held in the biblical world, while others

seem to have been confined to particular apocalyptic groups. Although there

is a good bit of  variety in the beliefs attested in the biblical texts, there are

nevertheless some constants that are present in all examples of  apocalyptic

religion.



. Practitioners of  apocalyptic religion believe that reality extends beyond

the visible world to include a supernatural world of  some sort populated by

powers that have a direct impact on life in this world. In the traditional

biblical perspective God is the chief  power in the supernatural world, although

late texts also know of  other powers, including a variety of  angelic messengers

and evil forces. These supernatural powers influence human affairs either by

intervening directly in them or by acting out in heaven events that are

somehow mirrored on the earth (Daniel 



:



–



, for example).



. Practitioners of  apocalyptic religion think of  themselves as a group that

has been specially selected by God to play a key role in the running of  the

world. Apocalyptic religion is therefore not in the first instance a matter of

individual belief  but a group phenomenon which requires the social support

of  the group in order to flourish. In the biblical texts apocalyptic writers refer

to their groups in various ways, but their special status is always evident.

They are the ‘true’ Israel (or as the Apostle Paul would put it, ‘the Israel of

God’), the servants of  God, the ‘wise’, the ‘saints of  the most high’, the true

priests, those written in the Lamb’s Book of  Life, and the inhabitants of  the

New Jerusalem. In any case they are set apart from the rest of  their society

by virtue of  what they know and ultimately what they are to do.



. Members of  apocalyptic religious groups experience a sharp disjuncture

between the role they feel they are to play in the cosmos and daily life as they

actually experience it. Their view of  their self-identity is at odds with their

actual lives in the world. This experience of  disjuncture is sometimes ex-

plained by anthropologists through the use of  relative deprivation theory,

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59

The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic

which, in spite of  some of  its difficulties, has been used increasingly by

biblical scholars to analyse their material.

4

According to relative deprivation theory, apocalyptic religious groups are

made up of  people who are on the periphery of  society. They lack political,

religious and social power and have little social status. Furthermore, they

know

 that they are on the periphery. They feel repressed and deprived of

something which they might reasonably expect to possess. The feelings of

deprivation that these people experience may come from various sources.

Peripheral individuals may lack food, clothing, useful work, or adequate

housing. They may be politically powerless or socially ostracized, feeling that

they no longer have a voice in the way in which the society is run. They may

even believe that they can no longer control their own lives and destinies. On

the other hand, they may simply have the vague feeling that the quality of

their lives is poorer than it was in a real or imagined past. The sort of

deprivation involved in apocalyptic groups is rarely absolute but is usually

measured in relation to something else. People may measure their present

situation against the situation of  others in the same culture or in neighbouring

cultures, or they may measure their present situation against their own past

situation.

Although it is normal for some feelings of  deprivation to exist in every

society, certain conditions tend to intensify those feelings and to create larger

numbers of  dissatisfied and deprived individuals. Such conditions are present

particularly in times of  rapid social change. Wars, famines, climatic changes,

national economic reversals, and the shock of  sudden cross-cultural contact

can all lead to unusually widespread and severe feelings of  deprivation. Not

only do such periods of  social upheaval produce political and social inequities

that lead to genuine cases of  deprivation, but crises such as wars and clashes

with other cultures provide opportunities for people to compare their own

situation with that of  outsiders. These comparisons may lead to feelings of

relative deprivation and fuel social unrest. Times of  social crisis frequently

give rise to apocalyptic groups, for in such times feelings of  deprivation are

increased beyond tolerable levels.

The use of  relative deprivation theory at first glance seems to be a helpful

way to understand the feelings of  disjuncture expressed by the Bible’s

apocalyptic groups. Since the Bible’s apocalyptic texts come primarily from

times of  major social upheaval if  not actual persecution, it would be relatively

simple to understand how the trauma of  the Israelite exile could have en-

gendered feelings of  political powerlessness that would have led to the visions

of  Daniel or how the Roman persecution of  early Christians could have led

them to take refuge in a faith based on a hope for the supernatural bloody

defeat of  Rome envisioned in the Book of  Revelation. Furthermore, relative

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60

Origins

deprivation theory would fit well with work such as that of  Paul Hanson, who

traces the rise of  Old Testament apocalyptic to the conflicts between prophetic

and priestly groups that arose in the religious reversals of  the post-exilic

period.

5

There are, however, some major problems both with the theory itself  and

with its application to the biblical material.

6

 While these problems should not

completely discourage the theory’s use, they should urge caution in its appli-

cation. First, the theory at most offers a way of  understanding the social

setting of  individuals who participate in apocalyptic groups. It cannot predict

which conditions of  deprivation will lead to the formation of  successful

groups and which will not. Nor can the theory explain why social deprivation

sometimes does not lead to the formation of  an apocalyptic community at all.

Second, it is not always easy to demonstrate that all members of  apocalyptic

groups are in fact deprived, although the term ‘relative’ in the phrase ‘relative

deprivation theory’ does provide the somewhat circular grounds for the

interpreter to insist that these individuals must be deprived whether they

recognize it or not. In fact, in some apocalyptic groups deprivation is far

from being obvious. To point to some biblical cases, recent research on early

Christian groups in the second century suggests that some members were

fairly well off  socially and economically, thus suggesting that Christianity was

not wholly a religion of  the dispossessed, as some scholars have suggested.

7

Similarly, it is worth noting that the biblical apocalypses were undoubtedly

the productions of  literate elites, even though all of  the users of  this material

may not have been in the same category. Finally, there are hints in the texts

that the conflicts engendering them may have been conflicts between relative

equals. Thus a book like Malachi might reflect conflicts within the priesthood

rather than a conflict between priest and prophet, although as with all biblical

texts any reconstruction of  the text’s background is difficult and uncertain.

This remark naturally leads to a third problem with applying relative depriva-

tion theory to the biblical texts. Any attempt to analyse the conditions which

produced the texts must necessarily involve a good bit of  pure guesswork.

Although this fact should not discourage the attempt, the tentative nature of

the project from the outset needs to be recognized.



. A fourth feature of  apocalyptic religion is that it provides a way of

resolving the disjuncture experienced by the group and reinforcing its belief

that it does indeed occupy a special position in the cosmos, even though daily

experience may suggest the contrary. In practical terms this means that the

group believes that the world it experiences is not the real world or that there

will soon be a reversal of  the group’s fortunes, either in this world or in some

supra-historical world to come. This belief  is usually expressed in the form

of  some sort of  programme designed to explain how the great reversal is to

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61

The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic

take place. It is a peculiar feature of  such apocalyptic programmes that they

cannot be discovered through simple observation of  the world or through the

exercise of  the intellect. Rather the programme becomes clear only when it

is revealed, either by a human catalyst, who becomes the leader of  the group,

or by some sort of  heavenly revealer or intermediary (whose revelation is

often mediated through the human catalyst). This revealed knowledge of  the

programme and how it is to be interpreted is available only to members of

the group, and this knowledge separates them from the rest of  their society

and affirms their special status. In the biblical texts these programmes and

their interpretations vary a good bit in their details, and they require various

degrees of  involvement by the members of  the group. At one extreme would

be programmes that require the concerted activities of  group members for

the reversal of  fortunes to take place, while at the other end of  the spectrum

would be visions of  massive divine intervention without human help. Most

biblical examples illustrate some combination of  the two. The great reversal

will take place as a result of  God’s direct activity, but the faithful are still

required to do something in the meantime. The notion that some action

is required on the part of  the group seems to be important in maintaining

group cohesion, for it allows the group to do something constructive while

awaiting the end, which is often notoriously slow in coming.

Apocalyptic Literature

In a general sense, apocalyptic literature is simply literature produced by a

person or group holding apocalyptic religious views. As such, it is highly

variable and can be expected to reflect the normal language and perspectives

of  the people who produced it. Thus, for example, an apocalyptic group

composed primarily of  prophets would produce literature which reflects some

form of  the prophetic tradition, while Persian bureaucrats of  the sort des-

cribed in the early chapters of  Daniel would use the language of  the Persian

royal court.

Beyond this general observation, however, there is in early Jewish and

Christian literature a specific literary genre known as an apocalypse, although

the form of  the genre shows a good bit of  variability.

8

 It is in the apocalypses

that many of  the literary features often associated with apocalypticism are to

be found, although it is worth noting that not all features are found in all

examples of  the genre, and some features are found in other literary genres

as well. Included among these features are descriptions of  the means by

which the particular revelation came, sometimes with accounts of  heavenly

guides or interpreters or of  supernatural travels; a description of  the human

recipient of  the revelation, often a well known figure from the distant past;

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62

Origins

accounts of  past events and prophecies of  things to come. These accounts are

sometimes clear and precise (although often short on details), but sometimes

specific descriptions are mixed with narratives made up of  graphic but obscure

symbolism requiring further interpretation from earthly or heavenly in-

terpreters. Examples of  the latter would include the use of  animal imagery,

numerology, and cosmogonic language and motifs drawn from the ancient

Near East’s vast store of  mythological materials. These features tend to cluster

in various combinations in apocalypses and help to give them their distinctive

character. Finally, apocalypses often include instructions concerning what the

recipient is to do with the revelation and how believers are to act while

awaiting the promised end of  the current age.

Apocalyptic Eschatology

The word ‘eschatology’ is usually used by theologians and biblical scholars to

refer to the themes and motifs associated with Jewish and Christian beliefs

about the end of  the temporal world and the beginning of  a new world to

come. Although non-specialists sometimes equate eschatology with apoca-

lypticism, in fact the two are not identical. In the interests of  clarity, therefore,

it is best to follow Paul Hanson’s suggestion to use the more specific phrase

‘apocalyptic eschatology’ to refer to the themes and motifs associated with the

end of  the world in apocalyptic literature.

9

 Having made this useful clari-

fication, however, it is important to recognize that the Bible’s apocalyptic

texts actually have very little to say on this subject, and it is certainly the case

that there is no unified biblical view of  the world’s final moments. To be sure,

the biblical apocalypses do mention traditional eschatological motifs, such as

the resurrection of  the dead, the coming of  the messianic king, the final

judgment, the punishment of  the wicked, the defeat of  the evil powers, the

messianic banquet, and the reward of  the righteous, but these motifs appear

in non-apocalyptic biblical literature as well. They are woven together into a

comprehensive scenario only in post-biblical Jewish and Christian thinking.

Without referring to specific details, it is sometimes asserted that even though

the Bible’s apocalyptic groups did not share a common eschatology they at

least believed that history would end and that the hoped-for transformation

of  reality would take place only in a new non-historical world to come.

10

 This

assertion can also be debated, although the debate is difficult to resolve because

of  the ambiguity of  the evidence. Certainly when the Book of  Revelation

describes the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven, the biblical writer

seems to envision something that transcends the historical city (Revelation



:

 

–



, 



). On the other hand, the goals of  some apocalyptic groups seem

quite bound to this world, and their members seem to be intent on exercising

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63

The Biblical Roots of Apocalyptic

very temporal power in a world quite like the existing world. Furthermore,

Jewish and Christian interpreters throughout the ages have read the biblical

apocalypses as referring to events in the interpreters’ own historical time and

have often identified themselves as the ‘saints’ who would soon rule over a

very temporal kingdom (Daniel 



: 



). Such interpretations could of  course

be quite different from the original beliefs of  the biblical writers, but they do

raise the possibility that not all apocalyptic eschatology involved a new world

beyond the present historical world of  time and space.

The Roots of Biblical Apocalypticism

Because of  the general embarrassment that scholars have felt over biblical

apocalypticism, there has often been a tendency to see it as a foreign import

rather than as an inner-biblical development. Until recently it was common

for scholars to argue that apocalypticism was primarily of  Persian origin and

entered Jewish religion during the exilic period. In support of  this argument

scholars have noted the importance in Zoroastrianism of  such apocalyptic

motifs as dualism, angels and demons, life after death and the resurrection of

the dead, and the division of  world history into periods. In recent years,

however, scholars have been more cautious in their assessment of  the role

that Persian thought might have played in the shaping of  biblical apoca-

lypticism. There are two primary reasons for this caution. First, most of  the

Persian sources that deal with eschatological and cosmological thought are in

fact quite late and were written long after the biblical period. This fact has

led to numerous debates among Persian specialists concerning the extent to

which these late texts actually reflect ancient Persian practices and beliefs.

Second, the parallels that some scholars have seen between biblical and Per-

sian eschatological motifs operate at a very general level. For example, Persian

literature does indeed seem to be the earliest ancient Near Eastern source for

the division of  history into specific eras, a feature of  some Jewish apocalypses

which is not found in earlier biblical literature. However, having made that

general point, it is important to recognize that the divisions themselves are

very different in the two types of  literature. The same is true in the case of

belief  in a cosmic dualism and in resurrection of  the dead, both of  which are

not clearly attested in biblical literature until the Persian period. In these

instances too, however, the details differ greatly, and it is clear that if  Jewish

communities did borrow Persian eschatological ideas, those ideas received a

distinctive Jewish development. Thus, while Persian influence on biblical

apocalypticism cannot be ruled out, that influence seems to have been quite

general and may have involved indirect borrowing from the increasingly

complex mix of  cultures that made up the Hellenistic world.

11

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64

Origins

Setting aside the older notion that biblical apocalypticism was heavily

influenced by Persian beliefs, some scholars have recently noted apparent

literary parallels to biblical apocalypses in both Mesopotamia and Egypt.

The Mesopotamian texts in question have been variously labelled

prophecies, apocalypses, and ‘fictional Akkadian royal autobiographies’. In

form they seem to have been composed as complete unified texts rather than

as collections of  oracles delivered on different occasions. With minor variations,

all of  the known texts follow roughly the same organizational pattern. They

seem to have begun with an identification of  the speaker, although this point

is not altogether certain since the beginnings of  some of  the texts are poorly

preserved. In at least two texts the speaker is either a god (Marduk) or a

deified king (Shulgi), although this may not be typical of  the whole genre.

Following the introduction, the speaker gives an overview of  coming political

events. This historical survey is structured by the repeated use of  a formula

such as ‘a prince/king will arise’. The rulers are never explicitly named, but

sometimes their countries are identified and the exact length of their reigns

indicated. Each reign is then evaluated positively or negatively. Usually the

evaluation is given in general terms using stereotypical phrases drawn from

omen apodeses, but sometimes there are specific references to military ex-

peditions, building activities or internal political affairs. The texts seem to

have ended with an elaboration of  the reign of  the ruler who was the real

focus of  the writer’s interest. It is clear that these texts are ‘predictions after

the fact’ (