Not One World but Two. The Future in Jewish Apocalyptic Literature

Bibliographic Data

ID5084640
AuthorsJohn J Collins (0000-0001-5072-972X, Yale University, corresponding author), John Collins (0000-0002-3180-4357)
Year2019
Volume10
Issue4
Pages233
Publication date2019-03-28
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel10040233
OpenAlexW2923847908
LanguageEN
References cited10

The Jewish apocalyptic literature that first appears in the Hellenistic period and continues into the Common Era developed a radically novel view of the future. As formulated in the apocalypse of 4 Ezra about the end of the first century CE, the Most High created not one world but two. This world must be utterly destroyed and replaced by a new creation. This view of the future is inherited in the New Testament, most strikingly in the Book of Revelation. It would have enormous but ambivalent implications for western history. On the one hand, it threatened to undermine the importance of working for a better life in this world. On the other hand, it offered hope to those who would otherwise have no hope at all

Aesthetics · Ambivalence · Archaeology · Art · Environmental ethics · Judaism · Literature · Old Testament · Psychoanalysis · Revelation · Threatened species · World literature · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · History · Philosophy · Psychology