Understanding Apocalyptic Literature

A Guide to the Book of Revelation

Mark Roberts

Copyright @ 2020

Lower Lights Publications

Bedford, Texas

Copyright purchased from Florida College Press in 2020. All rights now reserved and owned in their entirety—print, digital, and any other form—by Lower Lights Publications.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.

Unless specifically noted, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001. All rights reserved.

Citations of non-inspired apocalyptic literature, including 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, The War Scroll, 1 Enoch, The Testament of Abraham, The Apocalypse of Weeks, The Animal Apocalypse, 5 Ezra and the Apocalypse of Peter (unless noted otherwise in the endnotes) are taken from Mitchell Reddish’s Apocalyptic Literature: A Reader. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990. Used by permission.

Cover design by Brian Harber.

Lower Lights Publications—Bedford, Texas

MarkRobertsBooks.com

ISBN 10: 1-890119-26-1

ISBN 13: 978-1-890119-26-3

To my wife Dena

You are my beloved and you are my friend.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.

Song of Solomon 5:16b; 6:3

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

I: Why This Book?

II: What Makes Apocalyptic Literature Apocalyptic?

III: Why Apocalyptic?

IV: What Would Revelation’s Readers Expect?

V: What Apocalyptic Does Not Do

VI: Imagery in Apocalyptic Literature

VII: Misusing Apocalyptic, Going to the Movies in Revelation

VIII: To Sum Up

Foreword

Understanding Apocalyptic Literature is a valuable contribution to the study of the last book of the New Testament. The original sources from which Mark Roberts gleans his information do not sit on most of our book shelves. Apocalyptic literature, aside from parts of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah, is unfamiliar territory, and some of us never venture into a study of it. Understandably, some Christians do not even have a ready knowledge of the biblical books mentioned above. Yet the patterns of apocalyptic thought, which were more familiar to the Christians of John’s time than they are to us today, provide helpful insights into what John communicated in the book we call Revelation.

Perhaps if our English translations would have used Apocalypse rather than Revelation as the title of John’s book, they might have opened for us a door of opportunity. This door would lead into a room filled with books somewhat similar in style to Revelation. But we are so far removed in time from the world of apocalyptic literature that we still might not have grasped the significance of the title Apocalypse. Apocalyptic works were filled with incidents of persons who were transported into a heavenly, otherworldly realm. They experienced visions about God, Jesus, the Devil, and both good and bad angels. They saw these visions during a time in which saints were suffering persecution on this earth. And they transcribed what they saw by ...