Apocalypse

Apocalypse (Greek ἀποκάλυψις "unveiling", literally "unveiling" from Greek καλύπτειν "veiling", translated in Christianity as "revelation") is a thematically determined genre of religious literature that focuses on "God's judgment", "end of the world", "turning of the times", and the "unveiling of divine knowledge". In prophetic-visionary language, an apocalypse reports the catastrophic "end of history" and the coming and being of the "Kingdom of God".

In a broader sense, secular literature, "science fiction" for instance, can also have the characteristic features of an "apocalypse".

The term apocalyptic refers to the entire complex of ideas expressed in the "apocalypses". The theological term for prophetic and apocalyptic expectations of the future is eschatology.

Apocalypses often react to concrete historical events and refer to them. They describe radical inner-worldly changes in metaphors of the end of the world or interpret them spiritually by referring to an eschatological aeon turn and the divine final judgment. To this end, they use metaphorical and mythical language: historical nations, persons, and events are described as symbols and pictorial motifs-often as "animals." Angels often appear as revealers of the future or interpreters of visions of the future. Thus, their revelation is closely linked to a doctrine of angels (angelology). Apocalypses are thus theological interpretations of history that seek to interpret the coming history from the past and the past from the future, thus creating a comprehensive picture of the course of the world.

Ancient

Already in the ancient creation myths of Assyria and Babylonia, e.g. the Gilgamesh epic, apocalyptic ideas appear. In the Zoroastrianism of Persia the idea of a final battle between "good" and "evil", "light" and "darkness" is coined. From there it penetrated into Hellenism.

In Norse culture, the end of the world is known as Ragnarok - the fate of the gods.

Original Christianity

Jesus' preaching of the kingdom of God and of the Son of Man is thoroughly shaped by biblical prophecy and apocalyptic. But the expectation of disaster, which there is often connected with the end of the world, is now, following Deutero-Isaiah, more strongly embedded in the overarching expectation of salvation of all, also of the lost creatures and those who are doomed to the final judgment: for example in the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:3-10 EU).

The early Christians understood Jesus' crucifixion as the vicarious assumption of this final judgment, his resurrection as the saving anticipation of the end-time turn of world history. These two basic dates became the central salvation events in the early Christian creed (1 Cor 15:3ff EU): Thus apocalyptic became the "mother of Christian theology" (Ernst Käsemann). In the Gospels it now takes a back seat to the proclamation of the already come Christ. But the "little apocalypse" of the Gospel of Mark (Mk 13 EU) is taken over by all later evangelists. Especially Matthew paints the final judgment as self-revelation of the world judge and final decision between true and false followers of Jesus (Mt 24 EU).

The Revelation of John is the only overall apocalyptic book included in the New Testament canon by Original Christian apocalyptic writings. It is often simply called Apocalypse after its opening words Apokálypsis Jesu Christu ... in Christianity. It ties in with older motifs in the Book of Daniel: The seer learns in his visions through angels the future of the earth until the end of the world. In spite of the "redemption" that had already taken place through the sacrificial blood of Jesus, the early Christians, like the Jews, waited for the transformation of the world through the Messiah, who had already come for them with Jesus Christ (Rev 1,1.10 EU).