Imagining the End: Visions of

partially answer one of  Ezra’s complaints. Ultimately, however, this apocalypse

insists that the Most High made not one world but two, and full retribution

can be expected only after the resurrection, in the world to come. It should

be noted that 



 Ezra has virtually no interest in the heavenly world, despite

the role of  the revealing angel. There is no sense that the other world is

already present, as it is in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Nevertheless, like all apoca-

lypses, it requires the belief  that this world is not all there is; hope is based

on belief  in an alternative universe.



 Baruch is in many ways a companion piece to 



 Ezra.

53

 It is similar in

structure and contains both dialogues and visions. Baruch also raises questions

about the justice of  God, but he does not probe them the way Ezra does. He

is more easily satisfied that justice is served by a judgment based on the law:

(‘justly do they perish who have not loved thy law’; 



 Baruch 



: 



). Like

Ezra, Baruch asks, ‘O Adam what have you done to all those who are born

from you’ (



: 



), but a little later he answers his own question: ‘Adam is

therefore not the cause, save only of  his own soul, but each of  us has been

the Adam of  his own soul’ (



: 



). In the end, Baruch warns the tribes that

‘we have nothing now save the Mighty One and His law’ (



: 



). The message

of  the book is that the Jewish people should keep the law and trust in the

justice of  God. The teaching accords well with that of  mainstream rabbinic

Judaism.

This message is framed, however, by an eschatological teaching very similar

to that of  



 Ezra. ‘The youth of  the world is past, and the strength of  the

creation already exhausted and the advent of  the times is very short’ (



: 



).

There is an elaborate division of  history into twelve periods in a vision of  a

cloud that rains alternately black and white waters (chapters 



–



). The

twelfth period, however, is not the last, but the restoration after the exile.

This in turn is followed by a dark period, which presumably includes the

time of  the real author. Finally comes the messianic age, symbolized by

lightning. In chapters 



–



 the time of  tribulation is divided into twelve

woes. Then the messiah is revealed, but after a time ‘he will return in glory’.

This presumably corresponds to the death of  the messiah in 



 Ezra, although

it is expressed in more positive terms. The resurrection and judgment follow.

---

87

Eschatological Dynamics in Early Judaism

In chapters 



: 



–



, 



 there is an allegorical vision, in which a vine rebukes

a cedar. The vine, representing the messiah, rebukes the cedar, just as the lion

rebuked the eagle in 



 Ezra. Although there is no allusion to Daniel in the

vision, the interpretation identifies a sequence of  four kingdoms (chapter 



).

Like 



 Ezra, 



 

Baruch shows no awareness of  the Enoch tradition, but

integrates the eschatology of  Daniel and of  traditional messianism into a

Deuteronomic theology.

Yet here again the argument of  the book is ultimately dependent on the

reality of  a hidden world. This idea is seen most clearly seen in the account

of  the destruction of  the Jerusalem temple, near the beginning of  the book:

Do you think that this is the city about which I said, On the palms of  my hands

have I engraved you? This building which now stands in your midst, is not the

one that is to be revealed, that is with me now, that was prepared beforehand

here at the time when I determined to make Paradise, and showed it to Adam

before he sinned (though when he disobeyed my commandment it was taken

away from him, as was also Paradise). And after this I showed it to my servant

Abraham by night among the divided pieces of  the victims. And again I showed

it also to Moses on Mount Sinai when I showed him the pattern of  the taber-

nacle and all its vessels. And now it is preserved with me, as is also Paradise.

(



Baruch 



: 



–



)



 Ezra and 



 Baruch can be seen as two voices in the discussion of  theodicy

in the wake of  the destruction of  Jerusalem. Both have much in common with

emerging rabbinic Judaism, and place a high value on the law, although neither

deals with specific halachic issues. The common eschatological presuppositions

of  these works show that such ideas were widely shared in Palestinian Judaism

at the end of  the first century. Whatever role apocalyptic ideas may have

played in stirring up revolutionary fervour at the outbreak of  the war, they

are not used for that purpose in these books. Here eschatology becomes an

element in theological reflection. Although both books assure us that the time

is short, neither conveys a great sense of  urgency. What is important is that

there will be an eventual judgment, that will establish that God is in control.

Hope is sustained, but deferred. There is a clear attempt here to integrate

different strands of  Jewish eschatology, providing both for national restoration

on earth and for the resurrection of  the dead in a new creation.

A quite different reaction to the destruction of  Jerusalem can be found in

the Greek apocalypse of  



 Baruch, which was most probably composed in

Egypt.

54

 This text opens with Baruch grieving over the destruction of  Jeru-

salem. An angel appears to him and tells him: ‘Do not be so distressed about

the condition of  Jerusalem … argue with God no more, and I will show you

other mysteries greater than these … Come and I will show you the mysteries

---

88

Judaism, Christianity and Islam

of  God.’ The angel then escorts Baruch on an upward tour of  five heavens.

(There has been much speculation as to whether there were originally seven,

the usual number in apocalypses of  this period, but there is no good reason

to believe that anything has been lost. Rather, Baruch’s revelation is limited

in so far as he is not taken up to the highest heaven.) In the course of  this

ascent he sees various cosmological mysteries and also the places where the

dead are rewarded and punished. In the fifth heaven he sees the archangel

Michael, who takes the merits of  the righteous up to the presence of  the

Lord. It appears that people are judged strictly on their individual merits

regardless of  their membership of  a covenant people. The final chapter of

the apocalypse indicates that Israel has suffered the curses of  the covenant:

‘inasmuch as they angered me by what they did, go and make them jealous

and angry and embittered against a people that is no people, against a people

that has no understanding. And more – afflict them with caterpillar and

maggot and rust and locust and hail with flashes of  lightning and wrath and

smite them with sword and with death, and their children with demons. For

they did not heed my voice, neither did they observe my commandments nor

do them’ (



 Baruch 



: 



–



). The reference to ‘a people that is no people’

alludes to Deuteronomy 



: 



, while the remainder of  the passage recalls the

curses of  the covenant (Leviticus 



: 



; Deuteronomy 



: 



). A Jew might

take some comfort in the thought that the Romans are ‘a people that is no

people’, but there is little consolation for Israel here. Where 



 Ezra and



Baruch had held that individuals who broke the law deserved to perish,



Baruch seems to hold that Jerusalem deserved its fate on the same grounds.

All that is left in this apocalypse is the merit of  individuals and the consolation

of  pondering the heavenly mysteries.

Conclusion

Of  the late first-century apocalypses, 



 Baruch is most similar to those of  the

second century 



 in its focus on the heavenly mysteries, although I can see

no direct dependence on the older apocalyptic texts. In all of  these texts,

however, the essential dynamic of  apocalyptic eschatology remains. This world

is not all there is. There is another hidden reality that can only be perceived

by aid of  angelic revelation. Life must be lived