Reaction to Collins' The Apocalyptic Imagination 
Jackson Snyder, February 4, 1993

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The text (historian) I chose from the list of possibles is Collins' The Apocalyptic Imagination (New York: Crossroad 1992) mainly on my professor's great enthusiasm for and knowledge of the author. (I also used The New Harpers Bible Dictionary and some of the notes in The New Oxford Annotated Bible [RSV] to round out my own knowledge.)

Collins' "Jewish Matrix of Christianity" consists mainly of the historical, cultural, and social setting of the regional Jewish (sectarian) milieu of the Hellenistic/Roman periods, and its reflection in existent contemporary literature. Although I have not finished the text at the time of this writing (it has proven more difficult to wade through than expected), I have covered the apocalyptic history from the earliest documents surveyed (1 Enoch and contemporaries) up to the fall of Jerusalem in in 68 - 70 C. E.: the majority of the period.

I am finding the content of Collins' text to be conservative in outlook (that is, not speculative or particularly insightful, and referring to only the well-known of intertestamental scholars), which is to be be expected from an "intro"-level course. Nevertheless, The Apocalyptic Imagination's mix of brevity and thoroughness makes it a most challenging and attractive text.

I especially appreciated Collins' opening discussion of the various scholars of the past who have shaped the present understanding of these texts. While in Calver, England last month (taking EV390), I had time to kill, so I checked out and re-read R. H. Charles' 1898(?) edition of 1 Enoch from the local library. I once again found myself suspicious at Dr. Charles' seemingly arbitrary and endless assignment of supposed interpolations and changes in text order, his failure to analyze literary-critically, and his general "lack of empathy with the material" (Collins, p. 11). Collins, through his discussion of Charles, helped me very much to understand that Charles' exegesis was a product of his time. Other important scholars (particularly H. Gunkel, D. S. Russell and Norman Perrin) were likewise critiqued.

Although the literature surveyed spans approximately 300 years, and is thus susceptible to the diverse flows and eddies of such a period of time, there seems to be several general dynamics that can be deduced from a historic overview and the texts themselves. Briefly:

I. Political

A. Palestine had been dominated by foreign powers for centuries. The powers, thus cultures, changed regularly, disrupting and influencing the historical flow of Jewish culture. In the period we are studying, the heirs of Alexander, the Seleucids of Persia and the Ptolemys of Egypt, were continually wrestling for position and domination of the area, with of course the Seleucids maintaining unstable control until the Maccabean coup of mid-second century B.C.E. (166 or so). Rome, the "ally" of the Maccabees (according to 1 Maccabees 15.15ff), took over around 64 B.C.E.

B. The texts themselves detail constant political intrigues and shifting of allies among the major players throughout the course of the period.

1. Even the temple cult was not without continual influence peddling, jostling for position, cronyism, nepotism, secularism, and murder. (Collins 99 has some examples of intrigue within the Maccabean circle.) So we perhaps can understand better about the utility of the apocalyptic (hidden) literary form in casting the players as beasts, animals, angels, horns, etc., yet always reminding the reader that there are powers much higher who are involved in current affairs, and who will eventually recompense the parties deemed (by the authors) to be evil.

2. After the occupation by Rome, my understanding of the alignment of Jewish sects is a little clearer. I will mention here that I am familiar with these sects and their alignments: Pharisees, Sadducees, the two ways of The Poor, the Herodians, the Zealots, and others we have no established names for. The importance of sectarian alignment for our purpose is in that the texts that we are studying were politically influenced in some measure. Having an idea of the origination of that influence is helpful in understanding the text.

II. Religious

A. The Jews were dispersed among the nations of the region due primarily to the political ambitions and conquests.

1. I do not think that "the dispersion" would be a major "formative dynamic" if it were not for the importance to all Jews of the temple, the covenants (especially the Abrahamic), and the scriptural concept of Eretz Israel. Such as these make literature from the dispersion uniquely Jewish, though colored by culture in general, and socio-economic status within that culture.

2. Egypt, for example, was the location of a great persecution of Jews under Ptolemy IV Philopator (221-203 B.C.E.), which gave rise to a uniquely religious and (Alexandrian) Egyptian description of it provided in 3 Maccabees. (Although this book is little-known in western Christendom, it has been influential in eastern.) After the short period of perhaps 50 years, we find that not only are the Jews not persecuted in Egypt, but they are allowed to construct a temple for worship at Leontopolis! The influence of the Egyptian temple cult undoubtedly gave rise to the apocalyptic propaganda of Sibylline Oracle 3, which is mysteriously silent concerning the Maccabean junta.

3. The dispersion also introduced many, diverse elements of pagan religions. Two examples come to mind. The light/dark dualism so important for the Enoch literature, certain of the "Dead Sea Scrolls," and ultimately John, Paul, and Jimmy Swaggert may have been originally borrowed from one of the sources of the Persian Avesta (the Zoroastrian scriptures) (although it seems that this has not been definitely established). On the other hand, the Greek concepts, very different than those of the Persians, have been assimilated in biblical literature such as Wisdom (of Solomon) 8 (the four cardinal virtues) and 12 (immortality of the soul). There are multitudes of other examples.

B. Hellenization and Secularization are other important religious dynamics.

1. Assimilation of the dominant culture required the shedding of layers of religion. I theorize that the shock of brutal invasion and the display of seemingly unlimited military power coupled with the impotence and confusion of Jewish theocrats dealt a blow to the religious masses that would be impossible to recover from. Such displays as Antiochus Epiphanes' slaughter of a pig on the altar, as well as the unrelenting persecutions of righteous Jews (such as described in 1, 2, 3 Maccabees), promoted a feeling of powerlessness and non-personhood. Thus the author of 1 Maccabees 1:43b dolefully informs us that "Many even from Israel gladly adopted [Antiochus'] religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the sabbath" [RSV].

In contrast, we find secularization (insofar as that is possible within the Hellenistic milieu) in the form of a treatise on the subject of logic written by a first century C.E. Jew of Antioch(?) in the style of the stoics. 4 Maccabees seems to be a quasi-religious rationalization of the heinous acts of Antiochus, the value of the Maccabean martyrdoms, and how God has used such things to God's glory.

2. The sectarian response to Hellenization came (as mentioned before) in the form of (a.) revolt; specifically, as general armed revolts: the Maccabean, the war of 66 - 70 C.E., the Bar Kochba of 135(?) (many are described front to back in Josephus' Wars), and others; and the enduring underground movements of terrorism (Judas, the Galilean[?], etc.), the which Christ himself was constantly embroiled in. (b.) Literature is another major response; the apocalyptic form we are about to study arises primarily out of such conflict, as do the various encouraging hagiographies (such as the story of the the mother of the seven martyrs of 1 Maccabees(?) and the righteous, aged martyr Eliezar of 4 Maccabees), as well as the spiritual histories.

III. Mythological - I touched on this earlier: that the Jews borrowed myths from the religions of their captors. But military domination is not the only dynamic of shared mythology. Powerful myths of other cultures had been circulating for hundreds (even thousands) of years before the period that we are dealing with. Scholars are really only at the tip of the iceberg in this area. I will mention just a few examples.

A. Canaanite (Ugaritic) sources have rather recently come to light that may predate canonical Daniel by perhaps a thousand years. In these texts (and I am not on solid ground here), one can find Baal described as the "rider of the clouds," much like the Yahweh of Daniel. There are similar battles with sea monsters, and even the cryptic name Dnil is therein found.

B. The texts of both Daniel and Enoch are associated with and/or set in Babylon. Babylonian "history" is traced through the dreams of Daniel. Daniel, Enoch, and Methuselah share many characteristics of the traditional Babylonian "mantic wisdom" teachers. The methods of these pundits, as per the text of Daniel 1 - 6, are similar. Daniel is the supreme "Chaldean" seer. The Chaldean method of divination is the interpretation of dreams.

C. I have described some Persian influence earlier on. An additional example is the concept of the four kingdoms of gold, silver, steel, mixed clay and iron of the Zoroastrian Bahman Yasht (in which, unlike Daniel, they constitute branches). Lactantius' Divine Institutions, a compendium of religious practices from a much later period, describes Persian apocalyptic histories similar to Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, Daniel 10 - 12, 1

Enoch's Animal Apocalypse, and some of the Sibylline Oracles.

D. Other literary examples from the Greeks and their philosophical heirs, the Romans, include the "other-worldly journeys" found in Homer's Odyssey, Book II, and Virgil's Aeneid, Book VI (compare with Testament of Levi, The Apocalypse of Abraham, etc.); and a form of dispensationalist, or separating the world and the ages into sections, in the Italian sibyl of Cumae, not unlike the compartmentalizations of 1 Enoch and others.

E. Finally, we turn to (Hellenistic) Egypt for two examples. The Demotic Chronicle contains pesher-like interpretations similar to the various sectarian commentaries found at Qumran. The Potter's Oracle is a Greek-influences apocalypse describing the fall of Alexandria, the rending of the skies, and the coming of Isis, the great goddess, to restore order and reign forever. This is a common scenario in apocalyptic literature, and is still a highly motivating force in contemporary, fundamentalist Christianity and Judaism.

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