Apocalypticism Explained I. the Jews and the Birth of Apocalyptic Thought
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Apocalypticism Explained information from PBS web site about Frontline Program “Apocalypse!” www.pbs.org, November 23, 1999 copyright © 1999 pbs online and wgbh/frontline I. The Jews and the Birth of Apocalyptic Thought development of Jewish theology as they began to think, what went wrong? Has God abandoned us? Is [the Babylonian god] The Political History of the Jewish People more powerful than our God? Or is there some other reason why L. Michael White: Professor of Classics and Christian Origins this fate has befallen us? Maybe it's not God's fault. Maybe it's at the University of Texas at Austin, and historical consultant for our fault. Maybe it's our sins that have caused this. And in the "Apocalypse!" process of this thinking they start to take the trauma of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and turn it inward as Tell me the story about how the Jews and the Israelites theological reflection. There's a profound effect on all later ended up being defeated and enslaved by the Babylonians. Jewish and Christian theology. Answer: It's important if we're going to understand apocalyptic Babylon and Jerusalem now stand for two polar opposites in thinking to realize that the political history of the Jewish people terms of good and bad. Tell us what Jerusalem and Babylon is central to the story. And it really begins in the year 586 B.C came to symbolize since then. when the Babylonians, under the famous King Nebuchadnezzar, conquer the city of Jerusalem itself and in the process destroy So if we think about the political struggle that has just taken Solomon's Temple. This particular event really is what separates place with the defeat of the Israelites' Jerusalem, the city of God the period of ancient Israel's freedom and national identity from has been conquered by Babylon, the city of the enemy of God's what will become Judaism. And in the process also sets in people. Jerusalem and Babylon then forever thereafter will stand motion this thinking about what will be the future of this city, as the symbols of this opposition. The forces locked in a battle of Jerusalem, in the plan of God for the people of Israel. good and evil for all eternity. If we imagine the experience of the exiles living in Babylon, the idea of Babylon itself comes to After Nebuchadnezzar defeated the Israelite armies and symbolize enslavement. Oppression. The notion of exile or Jerusalem was destroyed, quite a large proportion of the Israelite alienation. In contrast to Jerusalem which is home. So these two people were deported to Babylon itself. And the estimates vary symbols, really--Jerusalem home; Babylon exile, enslavement, significantly. Some say as few as ten percent. Some of the oppression--will always be at the center of a lot of the trauma of numbers that we get from the ancient history say almost all the apocalyptic experience. And the hope that it also provides for people were taken away. No matter how many were actually that idea of release, triumph and going home. taken, it is a significant experience that the people had to go away and live in a foreign land. And we have quite a number of As a result of the defeat by the Babylonians, Jewish tradition poignant scenes from the Hebrew scriptures which reflect the both during and after the exile really has to rethink its history. trauma of this event of being separated from Jerusalem, and how And this rethinking of history of the story of the people from we will worship our lord in a foreign land. times past is carried out by actually writing or in some cases rewriting parts of the biblical text itself. And so in fact much of What kind of a place was Babylon in those days? what we think of as the Hebrew scriptures or the Old Testament Answer: Babylon was a magnificent city for its day. It's perched as it is called by Christians is really a product of the re-thinking right on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in an that occurs after the Babylonian exile. extremely important strategic location. And it's a massive city The process of re-writing the scriptures is somewhat easy to with huge stone walls, great wooden gates, studded with gold understand if you think about it. Here is a story that starts with and bronze and decorated with these enormous gorgeous God choosing Abraham and leading the people out of exodus pictures of winged beasts and powerful images of the kings of and into a land of promise, and selecting a king, David. But after the Babylonian empire. If you think about the imagery of the fall of Jerusalem that story now obviously continues. At the demons and dragons and winged beasts that we find so same time though that they continue writing the history they go commonly in apocalyptic literature, some of it comes from this back and reflect on how the earlier story must be understood. So very experience of seeing the powerful images of the enemy of whereas earlier it's a story of God's promise to Abraham and Babylon. David, after the exile the new theology tends to emphasize, well, And then when the Jewish people found themselves subject that promise is conditional. If we don't live up to our end of the to this all-powerful Babylon and these great images of power bargain, if we don't remain faithful to God, God will allow us to did this lead to a sort of agonizing reappraisal about what be punished. And this new way of thinking about the theology-- their own God was worth or meant or how powerful he must what we call the covenant theology--is an important new be? dimension of Jewish thinking. And it's filtered through all of the biblical books that are put together in this period after the exile. The destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar had a profound effect on Jewish thinking and theology. For one thing, the Now, in a sense the Jewish oppression at the hands of the promises that had been given to David now had to be Babylonians didn't last very long because, what, about fifty questioned. What did God mean by saying the throne of David years later or so the Persians overran Babylon. In your own would last forever, when obviously it had just been toppled? So words, tell us how the Persians conquered Babylon and what the Babylonian exile is really an important watershed in the happened to the Jews. The Babylonian empire that conquered the nation of Israel, the Middle Eastern world all the way over to the Indes River despite its opulence, nonetheless had a rather a short reign Valley. Egypt, Syria, Palestine, all fall under Alexander's power. thereafter. Within approximately fifty years after the destruction One of Alexander's self-conscious policies is, as far as we can of Jerusalem, the Babylonian empire, itself, had been see, to bring Hellenistic culture to these conquered peoples. overthrown by the Persians who had moved into the There's a great deal of emphasis on imparting Greek ideals and Mesopotamian region from farther east beyond the Persian Gulf. Greek culture throughout this new empire of Alexander. One The Persians overran the city. It's quite an amazing story. As the good example of the emergence of Greek influences in Jewish story goes, they actually dam up the canals that feed the city and tradition, after the conquest of Alexander the Great, is the come in through the water channels, invade the city secretly, document that we know as First Enoch. Now First Enoch was throw the gates open and a massacre ensues. So this great city of written somewhere between around 250 BCE and 200 BCE, in Babylon, the city that conquers everyone else all of a sudden is the early phase of Greek control of the Middle East. And First conquered itself. And this reversal, this rapid change, comes to Enoch reflects the tensions that face Jewish tradition as a result be viewed in a new way even by the Jewish people. God got his of these Greek influences. On the one hand, First Enoch is revenge at last. For example, in Isaiah, chapters 44 and 45--a extremely, intensively Jewish. It is a retelling of the biblical portion of the book of Isaiah actually written during the exile creation story and the early chapters of Genesis with an idea of itself--we hear of Cyrus the great Persian king referred to as our God being in control. So in that sense, it's very traditional. God's anointed one. The Lord's Messiah. And it even goes on to On the other hand, the way it tells that story of Genesis clearly say he will be a shepherd for my people. Now this is God has elements of Greek influence within it. It's the story of Enoch, speaking. He, Cyrus, will be a shepherd for my people and he one of those characters before the flood. Genesis Chapter 5. And will be the one to rebuild Jerusalem. in this story Enoch is taken away to heaven. Now what he sees So here's what this text from Isaiah is beginning to show us. A then is something that the biblical story doesn't describe. He sees new way of thinking. Now instead of just feeling traumatized the rebellion of the angels. This too is based on Genesis, from over the destruction of Jerusalem, now one can look back and the story in Genesis 6 where the sons of God rape daughters of say, "Oh, maybe there was a plan of God all along.