(6) The distinctiveness of the Johannine Apoca- lypse.— The resemblance between the NT Apoca- lypse and other apocalypses is, as we have seen, striking ; but not less striking are the distinctive features of the former.
(«) Alone of all tlie apocalypses, Jewish or Chris- tian, it is given under the name of the writer, and not under an assumed name of some great hero of the past. This is most significant ; for it shows the prophetic character of apostolic eschatology. Unlike apocalyptists in general, the writer did not shelter himself under the authority of the past ; but he dared to speak boldly in his own name, under a strong conviction that he had a new message from God to deliver.
(6) The central position given to the Person of Jesus the Messiah is also of importance. The writer seems to feel that no language is too lofty to describe the Person of our Lord. At the very outset, the Danielle vision of the Almighty is ap- plied to our Lord without the least hesitancy ; and throughout the book the Christology, though apocalyptic in form, implies the most exalted con- ception of Messiahship (Rev p-^- "f- ^^•^■^* 19"-^ etc. ). This is the more noteworthy when we re- member that in many of the Jewish apocalypses, especially those contemporary with primitive Chris- tianity [e.g. 4 Ezra and Apoccdypse of Baruch), the figure of the Messiah plays but an insignificant part.
(c) The lofty spirituality of the book is another distinctive feature. No book of the NT has given more noble expression to the highest aspirations of man for the future life than the Apocalypse of St. John. Certainly no other apocalypse offers anything to rival its masterly word-pictures of the Kingdom of God (see, e.g.. Rev 7 21i-7 21-2-22^). Such passages show us the heights to which the
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apocalyptic type of Christian eschatology could attain in the mind of an inspired master-thinker. 2. The non-canonical Christian apocalypses. — (1) The chief writings of this type. — The Apoca- lypse of St. John stands as the only representa- tive of Christian apocalyptic in the NT ; but one or two other Christian apocalypses appear to be- long— at least in part — to the 1st cent. A.D. The determination of their dates is, however, a difficult matter, and by no means established beyond doubt. Such are :
(a) Parts of the Sibylline Oracles (e.g. the ProoBmium, bk. iv. and bk. viii. 217-429 ; see HDB v. 6S).
(6) Parts of the Ascension of Isaiah. Charles (Introd. to Asc. Is.) assigns chs. iii.-v. and vi.-xi. to the close of the 1st. cent. A.D. ; but Armitage Robinson (HDB ii. 500t>) assigns the Christiau element in Asc. Is. to the middle of the 2nd cent. A.D.
(c) The Epistle of Barnabas, though not strictly an apocalypse in form, is apocalyptic in tone, and has been assigned to the times of Vespasian (so Lightfoot), Nerva, or Hadrian. There are also several Christian apocalj^pses which probably contain elements belonging to the 2nd. cent. A.D. — e.g. the Apocalypse of Peter, the Testament of Abraham, the Testament of Isaac, the Vision of Paul, etc. These help us to realize more clearly the distinctive features of the Christian apocal3T)tic literature, as it developed in later times.
(2) The eschatology of these writings. — The Christian apocalypses, like most of the Jewish apocalypses, were probably designed for circula- tion among the less educated sections of the com- munity. The average tone is puerile and petty ; we find a mass of trivial details and crude dram- atic colouring, but an entire absence of deep or illuminating thoughts. Nearly all these books bear the marks of Egyptian or Alexandrian origin ; and it M'ould seem that the religious atmosphere of these parts was favourable to the growth of ' apocalj-ptic ' (cf. many of the Jewish apocalypses — Slav. Enoch, parts of Sib. Or., etc.). The most noteworthy features of the escliatology are :
(a) The profusion of detailed 'revelations.' — While the normal Jewish scheme of eschatology is retained, the broad outlines are almost obscured b^^ the mass of detailed description and prophecy ; and the result is a type of eschatology very far removed from that of our Lord, or of the ma- jority of NT books. In Asc. Is. we find graphic de- scriptions of the Seven Heavens (Asc. Is. iii. and iv.) and of the manner of the resurrection, which is apparently to be bodiless (iv. 14 f.). In the later apocalypses these details become more and more profuse : the conditions of the Intermediate State,' tlie punishments of the wicked, the geography of the other world, are expounded with minute pre- cision. But a full discussion of these does not properly belong to 'apostolic eschatology.'
(6) The prevalence of foreign ideas. — In these apocalypses Babylonian, Egyptian, and Zoro- astrian legends are found strangely mingled with Christian ideas, just as they were doubtless mingled in the minds of the cosmopolitan populace of Alexandria.
(c) The coining of Antichrist. — This is a feature far more prominent in these apocalypses than in any other known group of writings. The idea seems derived from various sources : e.g. the Jewish ex- pectation of a last leader of the hosts of evil (Ezk 38. 39, Dn Ipe, Apoc. Bar. xxxix.,4 Ezra v. 6, Pss.-Sol. ii. 33, etc.); the Zoroastrian 'Satan,' cliief of the evil spirits (of Asc. Is. ii.) ; the Baby- lonian Dragon-myth (see Bousset, Antichrist Legend, 1896) ; and, in particular, the expectation of Nero's return to resume the sovereignty of tbe world (see Lake, The Earlier Epistles of St. Paul, p. 78 IF.). This dread of Nero's return seems to have been an outstanding feature of Cliristian eschatology as reflected in tliese apocalypses— see, e.g., Asc. Is. iii. and iv.. Sib. Or. iv. 117-122, 137 11"., V. 138-141, 413-422, viii. 88-90, 169-213, etc. For other early Christian conceptions of Antichrist