sooda
Veteran Member
Is there a difference between apocalyptic literature and prophecy?
Apocalyptic literature, literary genre that foretells supernaturally inspired cataclysmic events that will transpire at the end of the world. A product of the Judeo-Christian tradition, apocalyptic literature is characteristically pseudonymous; it takes narrative form, employs esoteric language, expresses a pessimistic view of the present, and treats the final events as imminent .
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Apocalyptic literature | literary genre
Apocalyptic literature, literary genre that foretells supernaturally inspired cataclysmic events that will transpire at the end of the world. A product of the Judeo-Christian tradition, apocalyptic literature is characteristically pseudonymous; it takes narrative form, employs esoteric language, expresses a pessimistic view of the present, and treats the final events as imminent .
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Apocalyptic literature | literary genre
The earliest apocalypses are Jewish works that date from about 200 bce to about 165 bce. Whereas earlier Jewish writers, the Prophets, had foretold the coming of disasters, often in esoteric language, they neither placed these disasters in a narrative framework nor conceived of them in eschatological terms.
During the time of the Hellenistic domination of Palestine and the revolt of the Maccabees, however, a pessimistic view of the present became coupled with an expectation of an apocalyptic scenario, which is characterized by an imminent crisis, a universal judgment, and a supernatural resolution.
The most famous and influential of the early Jewish apocalypses is the last part of the biblical Book of Daniel (chapters 7–12), written about 167 bce and attributed to a revered wise man who supposedly lived some four centuries earlier at the time of the Babylonian captivity. “Daniel” recounts a series of visions, the first of which (chapter 7) is the most succinct.
He sees a succession of four terrible beasts, evidently representing a succession of earthly persecutors culminating in the contemporary Hellenistic tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the “eleventh horn” of the fourth beast).
Daniel then sees the destruction of the last beast by the “Ancient of Days” and the coming of “one like the Son of Man,” to whom is given “everlasting dominion that shall not pass away” and whose kingdom will be inhabited by “the people of the saints,” who will forever serve and obey him.
During the time of the Hellenistic domination of Palestine and the revolt of the Maccabees, however, a pessimistic view of the present became coupled with an expectation of an apocalyptic scenario, which is characterized by an imminent crisis, a universal judgment, and a supernatural resolution.
The most famous and influential of the early Jewish apocalypses is the last part of the biblical Book of Daniel (chapters 7–12), written about 167 bce and attributed to a revered wise man who supposedly lived some four centuries earlier at the time of the Babylonian captivity. “Daniel” recounts a series of visions, the first of which (chapter 7) is the most succinct.
He sees a succession of four terrible beasts, evidently representing a succession of earthly persecutors culminating in the contemporary Hellenistic tyrant Antiochus IV Epiphanes (the “eleventh horn” of the fourth beast).
Daniel then sees the destruction of the last beast by the “Ancient of Days” and the coming of “one like the Son of Man,” to whom is given “everlasting dominion that shall not pass away” and whose kingdom will be inhabited by “the people of the saints,” who will forever serve and obey him.
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It gives some history of the many, many strange divisions of the Baptist churches in USA history. They would split, and the two split churches would have names like "The Printing Baptists" and "The Non-Printing Baptists." Literally they would get divided very frequently, thousands of times over minutia; but they were very sincere believers. They were vulnerable to shenanigans by opportunistic personalities. These were hard working, decent, thoughtful people.