Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/731

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THE

675 JihlM-hf Aintktiljnttik,

1H.^T: Idciii,

.lEWLSII

Missutttjuittrtirutn,

by Ki'iiMi'. ls!»;; iili'iii. (iih itluiruim.lnhaitnis, ismi. pp. ill. anil llic K.iui>iiis.'s, /"ix-iiii SihiinT. Cixih. ill. ISIK, pp. im et sai.: Milton s. Tcirv. llililiiid Ain'iiiliii'li'". Ni'W Viirk, IHHH; Wi-llliaii.scn, Skizzrii iiml Vifiiiiln ih ii. Is'.p.i. v|. S15349; Kant/.s('h, Dif Aimkn/phni iiinl I'st uili tii{intittH'}i dfn Altiu TrxIdmtnlK.lii'J'.t: R. ll.clmiics. Hoi>k i>| Kiiarh, IMti; Idem. t.^ of Enoch. IKini; Idrni. Ainnfilitpst o/ llantcit, iKiHi; Idem, HfljiLW, JiwMi, ftnil ChrMiiui Esrluiliiltimi,

Sun

,,

,,

.,,

APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE, NEOHEBRAIC The Nctj-llclnaic iipocalvplk' forms

liui mil- hruiicli <if Apomlvptic Mlcralun'. a species of liteniliin- e.liibiting many ramilicatidiis, and ic])resented in a ciitnplex l)iit nnbniken cliain. ficiin the lime iif llie ilaceabcaii War down to theclose of the Middle Aires. It is eharaeleristic of Apoealv])tic Liti'mttire from its very heuinnins^ tliat it did not remain eontined to its native Palestine. It ma<le its ivay almost immediately to llelleni.stie Alexandria. where it appears in the (Jreek laniruane under the mask of the lieatheii .Sibyl and with other my tlioloi;-

ieal emliellisliments.

The same

tliinjj

Growth oceuncd ai^aiii when, at the rise of Out of the Christianity, the Cluireh took over the Older.

gogue, and

modern

apocalyptic without clmnLrein essence or even in artistic form from the Synamade it her own a fact admitted l)y all

New Testament

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and theaiiocalyptic writings, thereafter naturalized in the literatures of the Occident as of the Orient, may li(^ traced through the centuries. Nor did this transplanting ])rocess take place only in iipostolic times. In the course of its development the Cliristian apocalyptic diew freely from later .Jewish sources, which, on the other hand, were often inllueuceil directly or indirectly by the apocalyptic of the Church. Considering this uniiiterru|)ted tlux and retlux of Apocalyptic Literature during ujiward of a millennium and a lialf. it .seems on the face of the ni;itter improbabU^ that the Xeo Ileliniic apocalyptic shouhl dati' no farther back than the middle of the eighth century, as Zuiiz (compare " L. (!." pj). iiWi ef nt'r/. "G. V." 295, ix. 417 ,t «,•(/.) and Griltz C'Gesch." v. 441 "Monals.schrift," viii. 67 rt seq., 11)3 et nif/., 140 (7 se>/.. ix, til) it Kit/.) maintained, and still more imiirobable, that it should exhibit, as these scholars believed, an entirely new chaiacter and trend of thought, the resultant of the specific inlhiences and tendenciesoperating in medieval times. Theapoca lyptic research and discoveries of the last few decades have proved, in<leei|, that (piile opposite coiiclu.sions us to<iateand character must be drawn. It lias l)een shown ever more convincingly, that the feature of Apocalyptic Litenitiire is chamcterislic constancy in ideas, the ,sainc set of thoughts being handeil dOwu from generation to genenition without iinilergoing any material niodilication. It has been pointetioiiof an apocalyp tic tradition, transmitted orally as an esoteric <loc trine. In Ihr same way a.s Chrislianily created no new and chanictcristic apocalyptic expectations, ho a later age adopted its apocalyptic material ready foriise from the past; the .Middle .Vgesdid not creati' norinvcnl in this province, tiny merely worked ov<r the materiat handed down to thiin, putting merely a new stamp on the old coin their task was. on the one hand, to apply the olil hopes and promises to the present, and. on the other, to inlerprel the present according to thesi' hopes. In the cii.se of the NcoIlebraic apocalyptic it was precisely the .same.

Apocalypse

ENCYCLOPEDIA The nature and

lH*ifl;

Snii'iKl. In SIailf'« ZiilwUri/t. IHSi.v. ai;-2."i(i ; cunkpl. .n'i/io;<ftitm laul I'hinni. IHilj; liddssct. Dtr AulUhrisI, Kuu. trims.

is™.



Apocalyptic Literature object of the Neo-Hebraic are the

same as

tho.se of the older ajiocalyptic. The great question in it, too, is, how and when will the period of Messianic glory he realized: anatiii-al i|uestion in

postexilic times, in the face of the unfulfilled promanswer identical with

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ises of the Prophets. The that given in Danii'l and the

— lay in

the diialistic

succeeding apocalypses conception of two worlds: a

])resent world (n|n D^IV'- corrupt by reason of the evil powers inlu-ieiit in it and a future ideal world

(Xan D71V)

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conce|)tion of things due, in part at least, to lonigii intliiiiices. The logical couseiiuence <if thisdualislic belief was(l) that (iod's plan of salvation can be realized only after all the evil ])owers the host of Salan and tin' heathen subject to them, toijether with the world itself shall have t)een annihilated, and CJ) that the future world, with all its blessings iirecxistiiig from eternity in heaven, shall then, at the end of time, descend thence anil replace the old world, having the perfect, glorious New .leriisalem for its center. In the Neo-Ilebrew. as in the cd<lir Apocalyiitic Liteniture, the eschatological draiiia is enacted not in one era, but in two: the temporary .Messianic interiiii, and the everlasling kingdom of heavenly bliss the latter offset by the everlasting tormeiils of hell in .store for the wicked. lu general tone and coloring the older apocalypse served as model for the Neo-IIebrew. It shows the same particularism and narrow nationalism that predominate in the later, according to which the kingdom of find means sjilval ion for faithful Israel alone, but for the unrepentant heathen world damnation. Siinihirly the Christian apocalyptic grants future bliss only to the faithful adherents of the Church. In like manner, the gross .sensuousuess in the detailed description of the joys of the Messianic and siipraniiiiidaiie world is (|iiite common in the older apocalyi)tic. So also is the fact that besides the revelations regarding theendof time, and the occurrences in tliiit jicriod, there are not infrei|Uently other revelations concerning siiiienialural subjects for example, heaven, hell, and paradise, the mysteries of the Creation, the course of the universe, angels, and the whole worhl of spirits, even God Himself and in these revelations, the fantasy in the older apocalyi)tic is i|iiite as unrestrained General and extravagant as that in the later. Siinilarlv, the one sided em))lmsis laid Tone. in the Neo llebniic apocalypti<' upon way in which the Torah is to be foslereil the ideal world, and on the pouring out of the in the future Holy Spirit over all men, is in <'onformity with the spirit of the older apocalyptic: in fact, is in accord with the whole devilopmiiit of the religious lifeand thought of the .lews from tin' time of the Maccabees, acciuiliiig to whiih the Torah is not only the creative, preservative principle, which existed agi'S be fore the creation of the world as Ihees-seiiceof Go4<j Zeb. lHt.i: Mekilta. (kV— ed. Wei.ss; B. B. 75<i: eil. Biiber etc.). Schlln-r's remark is Pesik. Il)7<i to the point, that fultllment of the Law anil hojie of fiiliiie glory were the two poles around which the wholi' religious life of later .Iiidaism revolved ("Gesch." !id ed., ii. 4IMi it »<'/•) This also accounts for the fact that the apo<alypsis repeatedly contain legal inslniclion and exposition of the Ijiw Invsides the revehition of the futun' and other supernatural my.sleries; see Hook of .lubilees aud Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs for the older literature, ami

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