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Apocalyptic thought endeavored to reconcile the oppressive and chaotic present, with the certainty of the omnipotence and justice of God, and the expectation of salvation. The standpoint of the apocalypticist was shortly before, or in, the end phase of history.⁵⁷ Apocalypticism followed from biblical prophecy by adopting important forms and content from it. But it placed these in a new context and gave them a new function. The essential difference between apocalyptic and prophecy is that prophecy was persuaded by the notion of history as the location of the saving intervention of God in world affairs, while apocalyptic assumed that salvation can come upon history only from the outside, when God puts a radical end to history. Apocalyptic also accepted ideas from biblical wisdom, and in dealing with the theodicy, addressed a wisdom problem. Wisdom was, however, interested in the edification of the world, while apocalyptic was interested in the future of the world.

Apocalyptic writings, which appeared across the whole of the Hellenistic-Roman period, contain messages revealing a transcendent divine plan of salvation, and/or interpretations of the course of the world and revelations of its anticipated end using various modes of revelation. The most important are oracles, epiphanies, dreams, and ecstatic visions experienced while awake. Despair, fantasies of revenge, longings, and hopes of its authors are manifest in apocalyptic literature. In their function as »crisis literature« the apocalyptic texts generally reflect the ongoing conflict between a foreign power and one’s own powerlessness.

The Greek Apocalypse of Baruch (ca. 2^nd cent. BCE = 3Bar)⁵⁸ tells of a heavenly journey by Baruch, scribe to the prophet Jeremiah, in which he witnesses the last judgment. A description of the heavenly temple is also given. The Jewish origin of this text, preserved only in a shortened Christian tradition, is disputed. Baruch is led by an angel through five heavenly spheres, where he sees the punishment of sinners and the reward of the righteous. The text is an example of the gradual fading of tense anticipation of the imminent end of the world; the new focus being on a transcendent heavenly world and judgment of the dead.

Apocalyptic theology is found in the Ascension of Moses, written at the beginning of the first century BCE.⁵⁹ The work is testamentary literature, and is preserved in a Latin translation (of a Greek translation of the Hebrew or Aramaic original) in a single, incomplete manu­script. Moses the seer acts as the guarantor for the age and authenticity of the message. His farewell discourses to Joshua contain revelations concerning the fortunes of Israel in a historical overview up to the return from exile, as well as prophecies about the course of history until the end of the world and the dawn of the reign of God. Typical motifs of literary apocalypses are found throughout, such as the irrelevance of human deeds for the fortunes of life, transcendental eschatology, and the hope of God’s final judgment. The perspective of the fictional narrator overlaps with that of the actual author. The intervention of God adds to the reward of the people of Israel and the punishment of its enemies. The author put into words his hope of justice in the face of the oppression being experienced by him and his readers.

The Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch⁶⁰ attempts to reconcile the catastrophe of the destruction of the temple in 70 CE with the traditional understanding of history.⁶¹ The text is preserved in full only in the Syriac translation of an almost completely lost Greek text, which in turn is based on a lost Hebrew or Aramaic model.

Baruch (cf. Jer 36) serves as a spokesperson to whom the impending end of the Jerusalem temple is revealed. The underlying idea is the typological correspondence between the destruction of the Solomonic temple in 587/86 BCE and the destruction of the Herodian temple in the year 70 CE. The book was probably written soon after this point.

The destruction of the temple was an element in God’s plan of salvation from the outset. Furthermore, the destruction of the temple is triggered by the angels of God. As a result, it looks to be a punitive, corrective act by God against his guilty people. Preservation of the most important cult objects in the temple (6:7) shows that God’s salvific intent remains permanently in place despite this punishment. Finally, the future salvific significance of the earthly temple is transferred to its transcendent and preexistent counterpart. Its destruction is therefore not only a sign of the fulfillment of the will of God, but also a sign of and precondition for the anticipated time of salvation.

In the main part of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch time does not appear as a model of salvation but as an incipient period of disaster. The author emphasizes that God’s promises of salvation relate only to the coming universal salvation. The present situation, a dark intermediate period directly before the definitive turn of the ages, becomes the locus of probation for the righteous Jew.

Chapters 72ff. speak of the coming of a Messiah who will judge all peoples. This leads to eternal life for the righteous but to death for the enemies of God. Significantly, the messianic age is not identical with the coming time of salvation but only a transitional stage on the way to the heavenly existence.

The author of the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch aims to comfort and encourage his readers by impressing upon them that the righteous stand at the threshold of salvation (6:9). The catastrophe that has happened is expounded theologically being preordained by God. One’s misfortunes and current suffering should be borne positively and patiently; both can even be viewed as evidence that salvation is at hand.

Fourth Ezra⁶² is a Jewish writing from the time after the destruction of the Jerusalem temple (70 CE), whose author picked up older apocalyptic traditions, interpreting them theologically. This interpretation is a mediation between theodicy and a call to Torah observance. The Latin text, preserved in full, goes back to a Greek translation of a no longer preserved Hebrew or Aramaic original. The Jewish Grundschrift was copied and revised by Christians, and supplemented by the addition of two preceding (5 Ezra) and two following (6 Ezra) chapters. This revision explains why all text editions and translations of the book begin at chapter 3.

The fictional author of the book is the Jewish priest and Persian plenipotentiary Ezra (Ezra 7; Neh 8). The narrative time of the event is the 30^th year after the fall of Jerusalem (557 BCE); the location is Babylon under the Persians. This fictional situation mirrors the actual situation of the ancient author and his addressees.

4 Ezra contains seven visions of the future of Israel and of the end of the world. The literary representation of his insights into the heavenly world can be subdivided into a dialogical part (visions 1–3) and a visionary part (visions or auditions 4–7). The fourth vision is accorded a bridging function.

In 4 Ezra we meet key motifs of apocalyptic literature such as a dualism of aeons, a retributive end-time judgment, the question of divine justice, as well as considerations on the cause of sin and the sufferings of the righteous. For the author, creation and election are no longer valid orientation points for God’s future act of salvation. By emphasizing that there are righteous people who will attain salvation by virtue of their obedience to the law, he calls upon his addressees to wait confidently for the coming redemption and in this hope to act in strict accordance with the Torah.

4 Ezra invites its readers to identify with its protagonist, which leads them to the recognition that the evil nature of man and the unredeemed history of this world are integral components of a predetermined course of history. It makes it clear to them that the covenant promise is valid only for the age to come. The problem that then arises is how people can be motivated to behave responsibly; paradoxically combining the notions of (a) salvation that is to be attained exclusively through God’s grace and exclusively in the world to come with (b) the salvation which individual and self-motivated Torah observance is able to bring in this world. The hiddenness of God in world affairs reveals itself only to the righteous person whose assurance of election is based on the gift of the Torah and whose hope of salvation is realized in faithfulness to the Torah. Only by keeping the God-given law can the righteous bring individual exemption from eschatological judgment.

The Apocalypse of Abraham,⁶³ a Christian-revised writing composed in Hebrew in Palestine at (or before) the beginning of the second century CE, contains a description of a heavenly journey by Israel’s patriarch. After abolishing idolatry, he is taken to the highest realms in the company of the angel Iaoel. There he views the heavenly hosts and finally the fiery throne of God, before which true Israel worship their eternal creator and protector. Abraham recognizes the predetermination of human fate and is told about the course and end of the history of the corrupt earthly world, and the world to come, reserved for the righteous. In this book of consolation, the current superiority of the ungodly peoples in historical affairs—evidenced especially in the destruction of the Herodian temple—stands in diametrical opposition to their future overthrow by the intervention of God.

Ethiopic Enoch (= 1 Enoch)⁶⁴ contains an extensive collection of apocalyptic traditions from a variety of times and origins. The work has come down to us completely only in a medieval translation from the Greek into the literary language of the Ethiopian church (Ge’ez).⁶⁵ The discovery of Aramaic fragments of Enoch at Qumran⁶⁶ suggests that the writing was probably originally written in Aramaic. 1 Enoch presents the biblical figure of the antediluvian patriarch Enoch (Gen 5:24) as an idealized bearer of revelation. The text is a assemblage of insights which Enoch gains during his cosmic journey and records for posterity. 1 Enoch is a collection of various pieces of text which were combined and handed down only later under the name of Enoch. Its final composition probably took place in the first century CE. The collection’s place of origin is Jerusalem or Judea. The most original components of the book, as the Qumran text discoveries suggest (4Q208), came into being before the crisis under Antiochus IV. The bulk of the text, however, dates from the second and first centuries BCE.