Apocalyptic Eschatology

Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld

1. “Eschatology”

The adjective “eschatological” and the noun “eschatology” come from the Greek

adjective eschatos which means “last,” or “final.” “Eschatology” has to do with

understandings of “the end,” or “last things.” The “end” of what? The end of the world?

Or the end of life “as we know it,” marked by death, violence, and sin?

Many ancients viewed material reality with a great deal of suspicion, even

hostility. Death was viewed as release from material captivity, and release into a spiritual

non-material and eternal state. But Jews for the most part did not. They hoped for an end

to the “old age,” marked by corruption ever since sin and death entered creation with

Adam and Eve. And they hoped for a renewed and restored creation. Which is why Paul

speaks of the resurrection of the body, as we will see.

2. “Apocalyptic”

The terms “apocalypse” and “apocalyptic” are a part of the larger topic of eschatology.

Today these terms usually carry overtones of calamity and destruction. “Apocalyptic”

does not mean disaster, cataclysm, or meltdown, however. It means, literally,

“uncovering,” or “revelation.” That is why the last book of the Bible is called both

“Revelation” (derived from Latin) and the “Apocalypse” of John (derived from the

Greek).

There are many apocalypses both inside and outside the Bible, Jewish writings

from around the time of Jesus, give or take two or three centuries. Within the Bible we

might think of Daniel, Ezekiel, some sections of Isaiah (chaps. 24-27) in the Old

Testament, or of Matthew 24 and Mark 13 in the New Testament. Outside the Bible there

are numerous apocalypses associated with ancient figures such as Adam, Enoch,

Abraham, Elijah, and Ezra, and in the post Jesus era with Thomas, Peter, and Paul.

Importantly, apart from “apocalypses” a good deal of the New Testament, most certainly

the writings of Paul, has been shaped by apocalyptic thinking. The followers of Jesus

would not have been the only Jews who thought this way. Those who wrote the Dead Sea

Scrolls were no less apocalyptic.

3. Characteristics of an apocalyptic orientation

a. “over-the-top” imagery

A reader of apocalyptic literature is immediately impressed by the dramatic imagery,

often of catastrophic and bizarre natural phenomena, or of bizarre mythological imagery

of dragons, strange animals, and exhibiting a love of mysterious numbers. While this is

more characteristic of the Apocalypse of John than of Paul, you will see some of this

ambience reflected in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11 and especially in 2 Thessalonians.

b. dualism

Apocalyptic thought views reality in highly “dualistic” terms as a struggle between God

and Satan, light and darkness, truth and error, good and evil. The present world cannot be

fixed through gradual reformation, only by dramatic divine intervention. This might

come about through God’s messiah, God’s agent of change, or through the archangel

Michael, or through divine armies of angels fighting the evil powers. Imagery of combat

and warfare fits in very well (you will see this in places like Rom 13:12; 16:20; Eph 6:10-

20; 1 Thess 5:1-11). It is taken from very ancient myths of the combat of the gods, shared

with other peoples in the ancient Near Eastern world.

c. “revelation”

One of the features that marks this literature is that it “reveals” what will happen at the

“end.” It was written in times of great crisis, when it looked very much like chaos and

evil were winning the battle. This perspective asserts that despite all appearances, God is

in control. Shaping this way of viewing both history and the future is the fundamental

Jewish conviction of the sovereignty of God: God has known all along that there would

be times of great violence and suffering—“woes,” these writers sometimes call them.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 7 of the “present distress”. Such “distress” only increases as

the time of God’s saving and judging intervention draws near (see Rom 13:11-14). The

Jewish apocalypses make this point by having God “reveal” this conflictual future to

ancient “seers” or visionaries such as Adam, Enoch, Ezra, or Daniel, who are then asked

to write down their visions and dreams so that people can read them when those foretold

times of chaos and pain arrive. Such woes are, to be sure, only the necessary prelude to

what Paul calls the “new creation” (e.g., 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

d. resurrection and spirit

Highly anticipated phenomena of the big moment of transformation and new creation is

in this literature and theology are the resurrection of the dead and the forceful arrival and

pouring out of the Spirit of God. Both leave their mark on Paul’s way of perceiving the

present moment. For the early followers to be convinced that Jesus was raised from the

dead means not only that he himself is alive, but that the cosmic revolution, of which

resurrection is an essential component, has begun. More, as Acts 2 describes with the

events of Pentecost, and as Paul says again and again (see, e.g., Romans 8, 1 Corinthians

12, and 2 Corinthians 3), the coming of the Spirit is evidence that the turning of the ages

is taking place. In individual lives and in the life of the communities, made up of Jews

and non-Jews, the manifestations of this Spirit are found not only in the speaking of

tongues (1 Corinthians 12, 14), but also in the changed ways in which Paul expects

people to live (e.g., 1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5). In short, early believers in Jesus

believed themselves to be living in the midst of the revolution brought about in the

intervention of God through his son, Jesus, the messiah/Christ, and through the palpable

presence of the Spirit.

e. the “earth-shattering” imagery of apocalyptic

As mentioned above, apocalyptic images are very dramatic: the sun will no longer shine,

the moon will turn dark, and the mountains will melt. Even if in Paul’s letters such

imagery is used very sparingly, if at all, he holds to no less a dramatic view (see 1

Corinthians 15). This language has lead many to hold that apocalyptic thinking

anticipates the end of a space-time universe.

However, we are likely much closer to 1st century Jewish thinking if we view

apocalyptic language as expressing in highly dramatic and picturesque mythological

imagery the conviction that God will not allow injustice, oppression, disease, and sin to

continue, and that God will intervene dramatically through his Messiah, through the

judgment of the nations, through resurrection, to bring about “a new heaven and a new

earth,” that is to say, God will bring creation—both heaven and earth—back to its

intended whole—what Paul calls the “new creation.” This does not bring history to a

close; it brings history as we know it to a close. It does not bring an end to the

relationship between humanity and God; it brings to an end to rebellion and alienation.

This is not the cessation of the ages; it is the breaking in of a “new age”. The radical

changes anticipated in apocalyptic imagery will be “earth-shattering,” even if what will

be shattered will be the forces that wreck creation through greed, oppression, and

violence. Creation itself can’t wait! (Rom 8:18-25).

f. apocalyptic: a theology of resistance and hope

Paul and his co-religionists saw themselves as the vanguard of the impending invasion of

God’s future. They thus believed the structures of the “old world” to be caving in and

disappearing, even if that was not obvious to those with a grip on the levers of imperial

power (see 1 Thess 5:1-11; 1 Cor 15:20-28). Rome’s days were numbered, as were those

of the puppet master, Satan (Rom 16:20). This is Jewish resistance theology, having

passed through the prism of Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection, and the shaped by

the intense expectation of the Messiah’s imminent appearing to complete the revolution

(1 Thess 4:13-14).

See also Thomas R. Yoder Neufeld, Recovering Jesus: the Witness of the New Testament

(Brazos, 2007), pp. 133-36, parts of which are adapted here.