Apocalyptic Prophecy

The category “apocalyptic prophecy” has long been controversial in biblical scholarship, as has the problem of the relationship between apocalypticism and prophecy. This chapter examines the concept of apocalyptic prophecy within the Hebrew Bible, arguing that it is a meaningful and helpful rubric. It begins with a discussion of the apocalypse genre and apocalyptic literature before turning to some of the epistemological, theological, and even psychoanalytic issues at play in the debate over the propriety of the idea of apocalyptic prophecy. It then discusses apocalypticism and its heavy reliance on the images and oppositions of mythology, the role played by Zoroastrianism in the rise of Jewish and Christian apocalypticism, the rise of resurrection faith in Israel in proto-apocalyptic literature, the origins of the apocalyptic imagination in Israel, and the varied group provenances of Scripture’s apocalyptic literature.