666 And All That, or, The Joy of Apocalyptic Literature

666 And All That, or, The Joy of Apocalyptic Literature

The title of the New Testament Book of the Revelation (Greek: apokalypsis) to John is more than just a title. It also classifies the book as falling into a specific and recognized category of literature. The Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was written about 165 BCE, and was probably the earliest Biblical work whose content belongs primarily to the category of apocalyptic literature. But numerous shorter passages with apocalyptic characteristics appear in both Testaments: Isaiah 24-27; Ezekiel 38-39; Joel 2:28 – 3:21; Zechariah 9-14; Mark 13; Matthew 24; Luke 21; 1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12; 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. The Book of the Revelation to John is the largest apocalyptic work in the New Testament. 

Between about 200 BCE and about 200 CE, more than one hundred apocalyptic works were written. The canonical apocalyptic works are the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible (c. 165 BCE), the Revelation to John in the New Testament (c. 95 CE), and 2 Esdras (also known as 4 Ezra) in the Apocrypha, (c. 90 CE). Outside the Biblical canon there are also some notable works: 1 Enoch (some parts of which may be earlier than Daniel; quoted in Jude 14 as authoritative Scripture; accepted in the canon of the Ethiopian Church), the Assumption of Moses (alluded to in a paraphrase in Jude 9 as authoritative Scripture), the Shepherd of Hermas (bound in some early volumes of the Greek New Testament as a canonical work), and the War of the Children of Light With the Children of Darkness (one of the Dead Sea Scrolls). Most of the one hundred or so apocalyptic writings were Jewish works, but many were Christian, or had extensive later Christian additions incorporated in them. 

Apocalyptic literature is somewhat related to prophecy, but is not identical with it, even though the border between them has often been somewhat blurred in modern understanding. Literary apocalyptic was a product of the period from about 200 BCE to about 200 CE, but its antecedents appeared in the much earlier work of the Hebrew prophets. Apocalyptic literature emerged only after the decline or cessation of Hebrew prophecy, but was often based on prophetic ideas and images. These writings share a number of characteristics in common, although some elements are emphasized more in certain works than in others, and not every apocalypse has every element. 

Literary Form 

As a general rule, apocalyptic works were written down from the very beginning. They were long and prosaic, and they usually formed a sustained literary unit. Prophetic works, on the other hand, were compiled from collections of brief, usually poetic, and originally orally presented oracles, organized by subject matter rather than by chronology. 

Crisis Documents 

Apocalyptic works often were “crisis documents.” They addressed a definite situation—a certain people in a certain time, and under certain conditions—as protests against foreign oppression, persecution, and other evils perceived as being experienced by the writer and the recipients at the hand of oppressive governments and rulers. They have been sometimes described as “protest literature with a persecution complex.” As such, apocalyptic writings were intended to give hope and assurance to those experiencing hardship. Although such works arose out of profound faith and burning conviction, the writers generally despaired of the present age and pinned all their hopes on the future. 

But while the writers were pessimistic about the present and even the immediate future, they believed that God is in control of events in history and beyond history. Thus, they were optimistic in their “eschatology,” in their thinking about “last things,” about the ultimate future and the End of this present age. 

Eschatological Dualism 

Apocalyptic writings were generally “dualistic,” presenting a theology of conflict on a cosmic scale between good and evil forces, adapting the traditional Hebrew concept of “two ages” to dualistic ideas from Persian religion acquired by the Jews during the period of Persian domination following the Exile. The Hebrew concept held that history consists of two ages—“this present age,” which is evil and temporary, and “the Age to Come,” which will be glorious and will belong to God. The dividing line between the two ages would be “the Day of Yahweh,” a time when Yahweh would execute judgment on the nations and establish His sovereign Rule (“Kingdom of God”). 

Persian dualism held that all of life is a constant struggle between two opposite but equal powers, one good and the other evil, and that at the end of history there would be a final struggle between the two. It further held that the entire physical order was the scene of conflict between these two spiritual powers—good, directed by the good god, Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd, and evil, directed by an evil god called Ahriman. 

Between the completion of the Old Testament works (except, perhaps, Daniel) and the writing of the books of the New Testament the Jews apparently had adapted some of this thinking to their own religion. In Judaism, of course, the good God was Yahweh; and the evil power was variously called the Devil (Slanderer), [the] Satan (Adversary, Opposer, Prosecutor), Ba’al-ze-bul, Belial, or Beliar. The entire created order (cosmos) and its inhabitants were seen as involved in the struggle between these two powers. Apocalyptic writers usually looked for some Divine intervention at the Day of Yahweh, thought to be in the near future from the time of the writer and his readers, which would put an end to their intolerable situation in this present age and bring about the New Age. 

As part of their “eschatological dualism” theology, most apocalyptic writers expected catastrophic disasters at the end of the present age: natural disasters, persecutions by evil rulers, great hardships, and often, at the very end, some kind of cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil. These were usually thought of as the “birth pangs” of the New Age to Come. Most expected some kind of final judgment on evil. 

In some of these writings there was a concept of the resurrection of the dead. Resurrection was a central doctrine of the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. In other such writings there was no belief in resurrection, as the Sadducees of Jesus’ day held (cf. Mark 12:18 f., and parallels in Matthew and Luke; Acts 23:6-9). In some apocalyptic writings there was the concept of a kind of “golden age,” that would last seven years, ten years, forty-nine years, seventy years, a hundred years, a thousand years (as in the Revelation), or indefinitely (as in Daniel), depending on the viewpoint of the individual writer. 

Some writers held that this golden age would be on earth, so that the End of this present age did not necessarily mean the End of history. Others held that the New Age to Come would be in God’s Heavenly domain. Many, but not all, also held out the hope for a Messianic king of Israel, usually a human descendant of King David, to rule as God’s representative on earth; others conceived of a priestly Messiah, descended from Moses’ brother Aaron; still others held out no hope for a messianic king. 

Fatalism and Determinism 

The writers of apocalypses generally present a theology of fatalism and determinism. They held that evil is rampant in the present age, and that there is no hope for the present age, because it is totally under the control of evil powers. This situation, they believed, was totally within the plan of God (!), although the destruction of evil was nonetheless certain. These writers usually held that the only hope for God’s sovereignty over all creation to become a reality would be for God to destroy this earth and its Heavens and to create new ones. 

Until that time would occur, those who serve God faithfully would continue to suffer at the hands of the agents of evil and corruption. The writers believed the future was fixed and ordered according to a Divine calendar of events. As the author of the Revelation puts it, these are the things that “must shortly happen” (1:1) and no human action can alter it. 

In this fatalism the apocalyptic writers differed from the Hebrew prophets. The prophets had also looked for Divine action in the future, and many accepted the general idea of two ages. But there was a difference. The actions the prophets expected related primarily only to the two Jewish nations and their neighbors, whereas the apocalyptists expected it to involve the entire created order (cosmos). Also, the prophets appealed to their readers to change their attitudes and their ways of living and acting, in order that, by their repentance, the threatened disasters might be averted (cf. Jonah 3:10). And the prophets often saw “the Day of Yahweh” as a time of judgment for Israel’s own sins as much as for judgment on other nations (cf. Amos 5:18-24; 8:9-10; Zephaniah 1). But with the apocalyptists there was a kind of fatalism. 

Ethics 

Because of such fatalism, apocalyptic writers, believing the future had been determined already on other grounds, were amazingly lacking in exhortations of an ethical nature. In a sense the apocalyptic view was quite comfortable. Since this view sees evil dominating the world completely, there is little or no responsibility assigned to individual human beings or to humanity in general for the wrongs that exist. And since this world is beyond redemption, one need not bother to improve things. Virtue meant, on the one hand, either standing with one’s people, whether national or religious, or on the other hand, simply being a member of the “right” group. Thus there is almost no social or ethical emphasis in apocalyptic writings. 

For the apocalyptic writers being righteous seems to have had little or nothing to do with efforts to help the needy or to correct entrenched social wrongs. By contrast, the earlier Hebrew prophets had held a profound appreciation for human choices and behavior as factors in determining the future (cf., e.g., Amos 2:4-8; 3:1-2; 5:21-24; Isaiah 5; Jeremiah 7:1-15; 26:1-6). 

Pseudonymity 

In general, as we have noted, apocalyptic writings appeared in times of defeat and persecution. Often the authors would describe the hardships and tragedies of their own time, but would assume the names of revered persons of the distant past. They would then write as if their works were predictions of things yet to come, which the readers were to understand were now coming to pass in their own experiences. The technical term for this procedure is vaticinium ex eventu. Apocalyptic writers would cite the history of Israel on occasion. But they often took the greatest liberties with the facts of history they purported to predict. They sought to show that the present-day tragedies, ostensibly predicted long before, were now happening according to some hidden plan of God. 

Many of these pseudonymous works indicate that the message was “unsealed” or “revealed” at some “later” time, the time of the actual writing. The Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible uses pseudonymity in this way (cf. Daniel 12:4-10) but The Book of the Revelation does not (cf. Revelation 22:10). Apocalyptic writers usually reflect the view that the things being described “must shortly come to pass” (cf. Revelation 1:1) during the generation of the intended readers, in which the previously “sealed” book has now become “unsealed” (cf. Daniel 12:10). They generally believed that both they and their readers were living in the time of the End of this “present age,” and that they were on the brink of entering the “age to come.” 

Apocalyptic Symbolism 

The extensive use of symbolism in apocalyptic literature may be accounted for in part by its subject matter, the End of this present age, and the in breaking of the Age to Come. The writers were attempting to describe matters that are basically indescribable, and to express within the limitations of human language what is basically inexpressible. The modern interpreters’ difficulties begin when they attempt to decide how far to take the picture language literally, and how far to take it figuratively. The interpreter must also ask whether the writer is using a kind of “code” in which each symbol has a precise translation or counterpart, or whether the writer’s images are more of the deep, evocative kind to be found in great poetry. Are the symbols used merely as allusions for their associative value (to bring to mind related ideas), or are they intended to convey some precise idea? 

Apocalyptic writers believed that every earthly person, institution, and event had a Heavenly equivalent, so that a visionary, being transported to Heaven in an ecstatic trance, could “see” enacted in the symbols of Heaven the counterpart of earthly events, past, present, and future. A symbol may be a code word, a phrase, or a picture. To those who “know” the code the message is understandable. 

Most apocalyptic symbolism is based on the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), especially the images in the prophetic visions of Ezekiel and Zechariah, and the original apocalypse of Daniel. Some of the later apocalypses also depend on some of the earlier ones, even those outside the canon. Many apocalyptic writers also used the mythological motifs of the ancient Near East and the Mediterranean, especially those from the Zoroastrian religion of Israel’s former Persian overlords. 

Often the apocalyptic symbolism has a dream-like quality. Indeed, reports or narratives of dreams and of visionary experiences occur in both prophetic and apocalyptic literature, but in the prophetic writings the reports seem to reflect genuine experiences of short duration. The vision reports in apocalyptic literature, on the other hand, show signs of much later reflection, even if, in some cases, they are based on actual experiences. 

Most apocalyptic writers seem to have written their dream and vision reports from scratch. But others appear to have been describing some genuine experiences supplemented with additional symbolism to make them more vivid, more mysterious, or even deliberately obscure. In most instances (and especially in Daniel and the Revelation) the writers were not deliberately attempting to mystify their readers. In most cases they believed that their original readers would understand their apocalypses. 

The most common types of symbols are animals and numbers. In these symbols we have “cartoon language,” much as we encounter it in modern political cartoons—a Russian bear, a Chinese Dragon, and Uncle Sam for the United States. Wild animals generally are symbols of tyranny and evil; domesticated animals are usually symbols of righteousness. Often different parts of animals are combined to convey meaning, and at times animal “monstrosities” are used. The horror of their appearance is intended to express their vicious nature (cf. Daniel 7:3). 

Numbers were particularly important in apocalyptic writing. Most ancient peoples found meaning in numbers. Here are a few examples: 

1 stood for the idea of the strength of unity, or independent existence. 

2 stood for the multiplied strength of combined unity—e.g., two persons are stronger than one. 

3 stood for the Divine or the Heavenly. 

4 stood for the earth or the earthly, suggesting the world or the cosmos (for example, the four winds of Heaven, the four corners of the earth, the four directions of the compass). 

10 stood for human completeness. Two complete hands have 10 fingers and two complete feet have ten toes. 

Adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing the numbers gave them additional significance. Here are some examples: 

3 plus 4 equals 7, and stood for perfect completeness, for all, or totality, as to “the Heavens and the earth.” The number 7 is the result of adding the symbol of the Heavenly with the symbol of the earthly (cf. Genesis 1:1: when God created “the Heavens and the earth” we are meant to understand that God created everything that exists). 

7 divided by 2 equals 3½, meaning something that is incomplete, imperfect, unfinished, indefinite, dissatisfied, and limited. Variants of this idea appear in Daniel and the Revelation as “3½ years” (“a time, [2] times, and half a time,” 42 months, 1260 or 1290 days). There are also historical roots for the use of this number, for it was the approximate length of time during the reign of the Syrian ruler Antiochus Epiphanes, from June 168 BCE to December 165 BCE, when that tyrant persecuted the Jews in an attempt to force on them Greek culture and religion. 

1 subtracted from 7 equals 6. Like the number 3½, so also this number, one less than 7, became the supreme symbol of the incomplete, the almost-full-but-not-quite. It was thus, a sinister number, similar to the modern use of the number 13. Since the meaning of certain Biblical words for “sin” is “to miss the mark” the number 6 became a symbol for evil. And, of course, the number 666 must then stand for immeasurable and absolute evil. This number is used in the Revelation to identify a Roman Emperor who has become such a symbol for Christians—but the number does not even have to be attached to a name to have evil significance. In the Revelation the number as well as the great “anti-Christ” monster represent the Roman Empire as embodied in Nero, the first Emperor to persecute Christians, and as embodied in that emperor’s “re-incarnation” in the person of the Emperor Domitian in the writer’s time, about the year 95 CE. 

3 multiplied by 4 equals 12, a number that stood for God working within human beings and human institutions. Thus, 12 stood for organized religion in the world, and for Israel’s formal religious system. There were 12 tribes in Israel, and 12 disciples (apostles) of Jesus. 

10, multiplied by 10, multiplied by 10 again, equals 1000. The multiplication of the numbers increases the significance of the basic numbers. Thus 1000 stood for the absolutely unlimited. That is all the concept of “millennium” means—simply the absolutely unlimited rule of God in the lives of human beings. Thus, the term “millennium” is a synonym for “Kingdom of God/Heaven” in the Synoptic Gospels and for “eternal life” in the Gospel according to John and in the letters of John. It has nothing to do with chronology or the passage of time. 

12, multiplied by 12, multiplied by 1000, equals 144,000, which the writer of the Revelation (7:2-10; 14:1-5) used as a symbol of a vast and complete multitude of the people who belong to God, God’s faithful servants. The use of this number does not mean that the number of the “saved” will be limited; quite the contrary, it means that the number will be unlimited. 

The Heavenly Court Concept 

The picture of the Heavenly Court of God is an important concept that apocalyptic writings often use. This picture is derived from the oracles and the vision reports of the Hebrew prophets. George B. Caird, in his commentary on the Book of the Revelation, pp. 60-61, describes how the writer of the Revelation uses the concept: 

John sees [Revelation 4:1] an open door in Heaven . . . and is transported from earth to Heaven in a prophetic rapture. None of this would seem at all strange to readers of the Old Testament. In a prophetic trance the prophet Micaiah ben-Imlah had seen the LORD on His Heavenly throne, surrounded by His angelic counselors, and consulting them about ways and means of making His purpose effective in earthly history (1 Kings 22:19 ff.). Amos had declared that the Lord of history would never put His secret plan into effect without revealing it to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Jeremiah had given it as the criterion for distinguishing true prophecy from false that the true prophet ‘has stood in the Council of the LORD’ (Jeremiah 23:18, 22). 

The Old Testament prophet, in fact, may be regarded as a privileged press-reporter admitted to sessions of the Heavenly Privy Council, in order that he may subsequently publish to Israel what is God’s secret policy, and what part Israel is to play in implementing it. By the same token, John, believing that the Church faces an immediate life-and-death battle, which is not theirs alone, but God’s, is summoned to the control room at Supreme Headquarters. 

Imagine a room lined with maps, in which someone has placed clusters of little flags. A man in uniform is busy moving some of the flags from one position to another. It is wartime, and the flags represent units of a military command. The movement of flags may mean one of two things: [It may mean (1)] that changes have taken place on the battlefield, with which the map must be made to agree. Or [(2) it may mean] that an order is being issued for troop movements, and the flags are being moved to the new positions the units are expected to occupy. In the first case the movement of flags is descriptive symbolism, in the second case determinative symbolism. 

The strange and complex symbols of John’s vision are, like the flags in this parable, the pictorial counterpart of earthly realities; and these symbols too may be either determinative or descriptive. John sees some things happen in Heaven because God has determined that equivalent events should shortly happen on earth. But other Heavenly events take place . . . because earthly events have made them possible. 

The Principle of Context 

The controlling presupposition for scholarly study of apocalyptic literature is the same as for other Biblical works: that the writers wrote first for readers in their own generation, and that their books should be interpreted accordingly. The author of the Book of Daniel wrote to meet the needs of Jews in Palestine about 168-164 BCE as they faced persecution at the hands of the Syrian ruler Antiochus IV “Epiphanes.” Similarly, the writer of the Revelation wrote to meet the needs of the Christians in the Roman province of Asia (modern Turkey) in the last ten years of the first century CE, as they faced the threat of persecution at the hands of the Roman Emperor Domitian. These circumstances are no different from the intent of Paul in writing his letters to meet the needs of Christians in the Mediterranean world of the middle of the first century CE. 

The key word is “context”: just what is the historical and sociological and religious context in which the work was written and to which the work was originally addressed? We must first answer that question. Then, and only then, can we begin to seek and find, in the context of our own experiences, some similarities to those original contexts of the Biblical writings, so that, therefore, those words may meet the needs of people in our modern world. We must then ask ourselves, “What must the truth be, and have been, if it appeared like that, to people who lived and thought like that?” 

Selected Bibliography 

Beasley-Murray, George R. Jesus and the Future. London: Macmillan, 1954. 

Beckwith, Isbon T. The Apocalypse of John. New York: Macmillan, 1919, 1922. Reprinted Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1967. 

Beegle, Dewey M. Prophecy and Prediction. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Prior Pettingill, 1978. 

Charles, R. H. Eschatology: The Doctrine of A Future Life in Israel, Judaism, And Christianity—A Critical History. New York: Schocken Books, 1963. Reprint of 2d ed., 1913. 

Charles, R. H. Religious Development Between the Old and the New Testaments. London: Home University Library, 1914. 

Davies, W. D., and Daube, David (eds.). The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology. Cambridge: University Press, 1956. 

Efird, James M. Daniel and Revelation: A Study of Two Extraordinary Visions. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1978. 

Efird, James M. End-Times: Rapture, Antichrist, Millenium: What the Bible Says. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1986. 

Efird, James M. Revelation for Today: An Apocalyptic Approach. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989. 

Farrer, Austin. A Rebirth of Images: The Making of St. John’s Apocalypse. Boston: Beacon Press, 1963. 

Frost, Stanley B. Old Testament Apocalyptic: Its Origin and Growth. London: Epworth Press, 1952. 

Funk, Robert W. Apocalypticism. New York: Herder and Herder, 1969. 

Glasson, T. Francis. The Second Advent: The Origin of the New Testament Doctrine. London: Epworth Press, 2d. ed., 1947. 

Hanson, Paul D. The Dawn of Apocalyptic. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. 

Hanson, Paul D. Old Testament Apocalyptic. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987. 

Hanson, Paul D., ed., Visionaries and Their Apocalypses. Issues in Religion and Theology, 2. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983. 

Heaton, Eric W. Daniel. Torch Bible Commentary. London: SCM Press, 1956. 

Kiddle, Martin. The Revelation of John. Moffatt New Testament Commentary. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1940. 

Koch, Klaus. The Rediscovery of Apocalyptic. Naperville, Illinois: Allenson, 1970. 

Morris, Leon. Apocalyptic. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1977. 

Mowinckel, Sigmund. He That Cometh. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1954. 

Porteous, Norman W. Daniel: A Commentary. The Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1965. 

Von Rad, Gerhard. Old Testament Theology, Volume II: The Theology of Israel’s Prophetic Traditions. New York: Harper and Row, 1965. 

Robinson, John A. T. In the End, God. New York: Harper and Row, 1968. 

Rowley, Harold H. Jewish Apocalyptic and the Dead Sea Scrolls. London: Athlone Press, 1957. 

Rowley, Harold H. The Relevance of Apocalyptic: A Study of Jewish and Christian Apocalypses From Daniel to the Revelation. New York: Association Press, 1964. 

Russell, D. S. Apocalyptic: Ancient and Modern. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1978. 

Russell, D. S. Between the Testaments. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 2d ed., 1965. 

Russell, D. S. The Jews From Alexander to Herod. The New Clarendon Bible. Oxford; University Press, 1967. 

Russell, D. S. The Method and Message of Jewish Apocalyptic. The Old Testament Library. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1964. 

Schmithals, Walter. The Apocalyptic Movement: Introduction and Interpretation. Trans. by John E. Steely. Nashville: Abingdon, 1975. 

Snaith, Norman H. The Jews From Cyrus to Herod. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1949. 

Summers, Ray. The Life Beyond. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1959. 

Summers, Ray. Worthy Is The Lamb. Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951. 

Swete, Henry Barclay. The Apocalypse of St. John. New York: Macmillan, 1917. Michael J. Watts