[Of Falling Stars and Multi-headed Monsters:]
Understanding the Apocalyptic Tradition
By Darren King

If you’re a regular, or even sporadic reader of Precipice, you may have noticed that we often return to this issue of Apocalyptic literature and its implications for New Testament eschatology. N.T. Wright, a former university professor and current Bishop of Durham for the Anglican Church, has served as a great influence in these matters. Prior to Wright, many scholars assumed that all that apocalyptic talk by Jesus (and others) was referring to the end of the world- even more, the end of the space-time universe as we know it. And this assumption not only affected (and, unfortunately, continues to affect) our envisioning of  ”ultimate things”, but it has also led to some very unfortunate policy decisions, not only amongst (primarily) Evangelical pastors, but even in terms of pressure exerted on the U.S. government itself.

But more on that later… First, to the issue of the Apocalyptic tradition…

The assumption I just referred to – that the apocalyptic tradition describes the end of world as we know it – led to two responses: one defensive, one offensive. For many Christians, who felt they couldn’t help but acknowledge that this is indeed what Jesus was on about – the conclusion to be drawn was that all of this talk was coded messages for a time that had not yet come – even now, some two millennia on. And this is despite clear biblical references attesting to the fact that this was all to take place within a generation.

Now the so-called “Liberals” on the other hand, took a different posture. They claimed that since Jesus was predicting the end of the space-time universe within a generation, and since it clearly had not gone down that way, that Jesus was simply wrong. He was either deluded, or confused, or arrogant, or a little bit of all three put together; kind of like a 1st century David Koresh.

What Wright, and others like him have done – from a perspective clearly grounded in history – is demonstrate that the problem was not that Jesus got it wrong, but that we had got it wrong; primarily because we drew some very unwarranted conclusions about the Apocalyptic tradition. More precisely, we drew the wrong conclusions because of our vacuum of understanding in regards to the genre of Jewish Apocalyptic.

Now, it should be said that it’s easy to see why people would make such mistakes. All this talk of multi-headed beasts and stars falling from the sky does suggest cosmic upheaval. To most of us, here in the 21st century, with little to no knowledge of Jewish apocalyptic, it would seem common-sensical to assume that all of this stuff was meant as a sign of the very end- the end of everything as we know it. Bye bye universe; bye bye Created Order, etc…

But, as Andrew Perriman, another champion of a more historical understanding of apocalyptic lit. puts it, this is only because we in the 21st century are effectively looking through a telescope- backwards. And things can get awfully skewed under such circumstances.

So what’s the alternative? Well, as Wright and Perriman and others would suggest, all of this apocalyptic talk was referring to events soon to take place (yes, the “in this generation” stuff was meant to be taken literally) in the theologically loaded events of the near future of Jerusalem.

Yes, there was future-telling coded into the messages. But that future-telling was about the not so distant future, as opposed to the very end of the space-time universe, some many millennia later. The apocalyptic message was something like this:

“Hold on to what is true (i.e. what Jesus taught you) … persevere through this period of great tribulation and persecution … and you (along with Jesus and his message) will be vindicated if you do, in the events of the not-too-far-distant future.

The vindication will come in two ways:

1.) Jesus message/warning will be proven correct, and

2.) the Temple establishment in Jerusalem will be proven to be wrong.

The sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans, and the destruction of the Temple in the process, will make it very clear who Yahweh stands with- and whom He does not. And of course, in the vindication of the message (remember, Jesus warning of coming judgment and destruction was for the Template establishment all those organized under it), Jesus will emerge as the Messiah after all – not some mere imposter, proven false by the mere fact that his future telling did not come true.

So, it goes like this, Jesus says: Join with me... Live as the people of the New Age… Unite as True Israel- under me… Only by abandoning the foolish path forged by those of the Temple establishment and following my way of revolution, will you be spared from the destruction that is to come, again - IN THIS GENERATION…

In his book the Coming of the Son of Man (which I highly recommend for insightful study into these important topics), Andrew Perriman offers a wonderfully helpful parable to help paint this picture for us. Andrew writes:

Let us imaging first-century Judaism as a ship – a splendid but badly run ship in which the officers and crew mistreat the passengers and squabble and fight over who should have control of the vessel. Blinded by their obsessions and jealousies, no one on the bridge notices that the ship is drifting towards a ferocious eschatological storm. When one or two men raise the alarm, they are seized as trouble-makers, brutally beaten and thrown overboard. As the winds tear at the rigging and waves wash across the deck, a few brave souls decide to heed the warnings; they lower a lifeboat and take their chances on the rough seas. To the passengers and crew who stay on board this seems a reckless and disloyal move – and at times those clinging desperately to each other in the belly of the small boat, as it pitches and rolls, wonder if they have made the right choice. Some are swept overboard, some die from exposure and hunger. They cry out to the dark heavens, praying that the storm would cease. But they do not give up hope; they believe they have done the right thing. Then from a distance they watch in horror was the ship strikes the rocks and sinks with massive loss of life – they are appalled, but they also feel vindicated. Eventually the wind drops, they waves subside. The lifeboat runs ashore on a sandy beach. They have come to the end of the end; they have survived. This is the beginning of a new age.

This parable helps us imagine what was really going on for those early disciples. Again, this picture might stand in stark contrast to how we have pictured it all- standing some 20 centuries down the road. But if we are to get at the truth we have to begin by trying to see with the glasses these early disciples would have worn. In other words, from within their worldview.  And remember, from that early perspective, it is our eschatological paradigm that is alien and obscure.

Let me make one additional point. Let us be clear: this is no merely academic realm of discussion. On the contrary, it has great practical significance for the here and now. When figures such as John Hagey actually lobby Congress based on their skewed view of the message of the Apocalyptic tradition; shaping real-world foreign policy decisions as a result, then we should stand up and call these ideas what they are: misguided. And in their misguidedness, they are dangerous. Hagey has called for an almost unthinking, absolute allegiance with the modern day nation-state of Israel. To be more specific, Hagey has assumed, in his misreading of biblical Apocalyptic literature, that a U.S. policy that encourages any kind of compromise in land dispersion between modern-day Israel and the Palestinians would incur a wrathful judgment on the United States by God.

But this kind of thinking and these kinds of policies do not represent the true values of Yahweh. On the contrary, these kinds of policies stand in direct opposition to the message Jesus came to deliver in the first place. We could laugh at the irony of the consequences were they not so potentially dire.

Many the religious conservative is quick to say “make sure your values are biblical”. Those are words we should heed. Even if, ironically, that very warning leads us away from the traditional interpretation such commentators have offered. It may seem like a new world out there. And this can be discombobulating. Some people may be concerned with just how remarkably unfamiliar such interpretations appear. But let us not be fooled. Just like the vibrant, true work of art that is lying mere millimeters beneath the surface of a faded Picasso, this more historical, contextually-grounded understanding of the Apocalyptic tradition has been there all along; just waiting to be discovered; if only we will take out our tools of analysis and start brushing.