Apocalyptic Groups

Among many faithful Jews, the domination of foreign powers (especially Seleucid control of Palestine) triggered a disillusionment with the present age. Some Jews became convinced that God would suddenly break into human history, usher in a glorious age for the righteous, and bring sudden destruction to the wicked. This outlook—known as apocalypticism, from the Greek term ἀποκάλυψις (apokalypsis, “unveiling” or “disclosure”)—grew into a movement of considerable proportions. Noted for bizarre imagery, together with ethical and eschatological dualism, a “revelation” or “unveiling,” according to apocalypticism, is usually mediated by an angel to a human recipient and cast into a narrative framework (Collins, “Toward the Morphology of a Genre,” 9). Examples from this apocalyptic genre include the canonical books of Daniel and Revelation as well as such noncanonical writings as 1 Enoch, 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, and 3 Baruch.

Apocalypticism can refer to three things (Mills, The Concept of Sinlessness, 119):

1. a genre or type of literature

2. a kind of eschatology

3. a socioreligious movement.

An example of the third category, a socioreligious movement, is the Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) community, which not only composed its own apocalyptic literature but also used general apocalyptic writings of the period such as 1 Enoch. A Zadokite priest, known as “The Teacher of Righteousness” (the term ascribed to him in their literature) led a faction of ultraconservative Jews into the wilderness. Jonathan Maccabeus (and perhaps his brother Simon), called “the Evil Priest,” allegedly persecuted the Teacher without mercy. Community members bitterly opposed the policies of these non-Zadokite priests, whom they considered impostors. Although it is never mentioned as such in the Qumran literature, the community members were likely the Essenes mentioned by Philo (Every Good Man is Free, 12:75–87), Pliny (Natural History, 5.17) and Josephus (Jewish War, 2.119). They were a group noted for its strict asceticism and separation from the world.