Revelation of John in Extra Biblical Literature

It is believed that the OT prophetic books were written between the fifth and sixth centuries B.C. Hundreds of years later, however, the Apocalyptic genre is thought to have been "invented" in the third or second century B.C. After the silent era in Jewish history, during which there was neither a "open vision" nor a "spoken word from God," this would occur. Some claim that the purpose of the Apocalypses was to reassure Jews of their destiny and to uplift them during difficult times. I am aware of a Jewish genre that went by this name. So are they to be understood in the same sense as the writings of the prophets? Do their images and styles differ enough to warrant using various hermeneutic approaches? Should we read Revelation as an instruction manual or as a prophecy?

Find more posts tagged with

Desktop App

Comments

Dave Hooton

Some claim that the purpose of the Apocalypses was to reassure Jews of their destiny and to uplift them during difficult times. I am aware of a Jewish genre that went by this name. So are they to be understood in the same sense as the writings of the prophets? Do their images and styles differ enough to warrant using various hermeneutic approaches?

Christian, you need to ask how these questions could be researched in Logos.

You need to research Apocalypses, starting with Factbook (assuming that is the "Jewish genre"), and any books of that title in your library e.g. a filter title:Apocalyp OR subj:Apocalyp came up with "Symbols and Reality: A Guided Study of Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Visionary Literature".

A book Search of hermeneutic NEAR Apocalypse (with Match all forms) should get some useful results, although some could well be for the book of Revelation, even Daniel!.

Should we read Revelation as an instruction manual or as a prophecy?

That answer will depend on your hermeneutical system e.g. amillennial, post-millennial, pre-millennial or plain Futurist.

EDIT: also Preterist, Historicist, Spiritual, Dramatic...

Dave Hooton

Do their images and styles differ enough to warrant using various hermeneutic approaches?

To give you an idea of the minefield you have gotten into --- "Schutter argues that the body opening of the letter reflects “homiletic midrash” rooted in a Jewish hermeneutic. He sees the closest parallels in Jewish apocalyptic sectarian groups, in which a pesher hermeneutic is employed." Schreiner, T. R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Vol. 37, p. 44). Note that he is commenting on 1 Peter.

Dave Hooton

Should we read Revelation as an instruction manual or as a prophecy?

What did you mean by "Revelation of John in Extra Biblical Literature"?

Christian Alexander

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1276842#Comment_1276842

Dave this was a rabbit trail I was tracing. I wanted to see how the Book of Revelation was recepted within the extra biblical period and the biblical period. This is something that I will have to put at the back burner. I am studying on Atonement in Paul and this is moderately inferior to that topic. Thanks for your help always.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1276893#Comment_1276893

This is something that I will have to put at the back burner.

I was a little curious myself ... your question. Revelations had mixed reception early on, so how it'd be used would be ... curious.

1. Searching is not straight-forward, unless the quote is tagged with a Bible ref. In general, searching for 'Apocalypse' does considerably better than 'Revelations' (a common noun).

2. Below is from my Church Fathers resource tagging (not very accurate; only looking at full books). But interesting:

- The 'west' picks up pretty early; Justin Martyr. The 'east' is a bit later. Both primarily quote phrases that 'seem' from Revelations, but most could easily be jewish quotes in general.

- Interestingly, most early quotes are from Rev 1 and certain specific verses (again, hard to say if indeed Rev as a source). I didn't look for a full commentary on Rev.

Rick Brannan

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1276893#Comment_1276893

Christian —

RE: Apocalypses, you probably want to look into Semeia 14: Apocalypse: The Morphology of a Genre. This gets into Jewish Apocalypse, Early Christian Apocalypse, and others. There's a great article by Adela Yarbro Collins that provides a typology of apocalypses that is handy (and referred to several times in NT Apocrypha discussions of apocalyptic literature).

The NT Apocrypha is another good place to look. Vol 2 of Tony Burke's New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures has a few different apocryphal apocalypses of John (disclaimer: I wrote the intro/translation for 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John in this book) that would also provide some of the background you appear to be looking for.

EDIT: Forgot to add this link. If you have access to the NASSCAL Handbook of Christian Apocryphal Literature, there are some introductory articles on three different apocryphal apocalypses of John available. Link is to the first, the next two scroll after: https://ref.ly/logosres/fbeclavis?hw=1+Apocryphal+Apocalypse+of+John

- Rick