A History of the End of the World (44 page)

AUTHOR’S NOTE:
I have taken the liberty of omitting some words and phrases from some quoted material, and changing capitalization and punctuation, without using brackets and ellipses to indicate the omissions and changes. Whenever I have done so, I use the word “adapted” in the note that identifies the source of the quotation. In all instances, the omissions and changes do not affect the meaning of the quoted material.

For most biblical citations, I have used
BibleWorks 5: Software for Biblical Exegesis and Research,
version 5.0.020w, a collection of more than 100 versions of the Bible in the original Hebrew and Greek as well as in various translations, including Latin and English. Complete bibliographic information for the versions cited below is available in the BibleWorks program. The following abbreviations are used in the notes to identify the specific versions from which brief quoted passages have been taken:

I have also quoted briefly from J. Massyngberde Ford’s translation of Revelation in the Anchor Bible, which is cited in notes as AB. See below for complete bibliographic information for this source.

CHAPTER 1: SOMETHING RICH AND STRANGE

1.
Rev. 2:9 (KJV).

2.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Apocalypse,
8.

3.
The Seventh Seal.

4.
See, e.g., Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
40–41.

5.
Rev. 1:1 (KJV).

6.
Rev. 9:16 (KJV); Lindsey is quoted in Boyer,
When Time Shall Be,
127 (“…some kind of mobile ballistic missile launcher…”).

7.
Richard K. Emmerson, “Introduction: The Apocalypse in Medieval Culture,” in Emmerson and McGinn,
Apocalypse,
293.

8.
Farrar,
Rebirth of Images,
6 (adapted).

9.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
15 (“apocalyptic pornography”); Frye,
Great Code,
137 (“insane rhapsody”); Yarbro Collins,
Crisis and Catharsis,
154 (“imagination of a schizophrenic”); Thomas Jefferson, quoted in E. S. Gaustad, “Religion,” in Merrill D. Peterson, ed.,
Thomas Jefferson,
287 (“merely the ravings”).

10.
Rev. 1:3 (RSV; adapted).

11.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Apocalypse,
20.

12.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
85.

13.
Farrar,
Rebirth of Images,
98.

14.
Rev. 1:10, 11 (KJV; adapted).

15.
Quoted in Bernard McGinn, “Revelation,” in Alter and Kermode,
Literary Guide,
529.

16.
Quoted in Bernard McGinn, “Revelation,” in Alter and Kermode,
Literary Guide,
523.

17.
From C. G. Jung,
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
, quoted in Barnwell,
Meditations on the Apocalypse,
1.

18.
Barclay,
Letters,
11.

19.
Barclay,
Letters,
11 (adapted).

20.
Rev. 3:16 (RSV; adapted).

21.
Rev. 22:7 (RSV; adapted).

22.
Rev. 1:8, 21:6 (KJV). See also John Spencer Hill, “Themes and Images,” in Drane,
Revelation,
18 (“Scriptural reference to
alpha
and
omega,
the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, is confined to Revelation….”).

23.
Rev. 1:18 (NKJ).

24.
Rev. 1:13–16 (KJV).

25.
Rev. 5:6 (RSV).

26.
Rev. 19:16 (RSV).

27.
Rev. 12:3, 12:9 (RSV).

28.
Rev. 13:11 (RSV).

29.
Rev. 17:2, 17:3, 17:4, 17:6 (RSV).

30.
Rev. 12:3–9 (KJV).

31.
Rev. 6:8, 6:12–13 (RSV; adapted).

32.
Rev. 9:6 (RSV).

33.
Rev. 19:18 (RSV).

34.
Rev. 20:10 (RSV; adapted).

35.
Rev. 21:1, 14:12, 21:8 (RSV; adapted).

36.
Rev. 14:20 (KJV), 7:14 (NKJ).

37.
Rev. 21:4 (RSV).

38.
Rev. 21:14 (KJV).

39.
Rev. 6:10–11, 3:11 (RSV).

40.
Rev. 1:1 (KJV).

41.
Paula Fredriksen, “Tyconius and Augustine on the Apocalypse,” in Emmerson and McGinn,
Apocalypse,
20–21.

42.
Mark 13:7 (RSV).

43.
Rev. 2:24 (RSV).

44.
Lev. 19:18 (KJV), Matt. 5:44 (RSV; adapted).

45.
Lawrence,
Apocalypse,
9, 33.

46.
Rev. 18:8, 18:20, 19:2 (KJV).

47.
Rev. 18:6, 18:7 (NLT).

48.
Paul D. Hanson, “Introductory Overview,” in “Apocalypses and Apocalypticism,” in Freedman,
Anchor Bible Dictionary,
1:282.

49.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
8 (adapted).

50.
Quoted in Cohn-Sherbok and Cohn-Sherbok,
Jewish and Christian Mysticism,
145.

51.
James H. Moorhead, “Apocalypticism in Mainstream Protestantism, 1800 to the Present,” in Stein,
Apocalypticism,
103.

52.
Weber,
Living in the Shadow,
239.

53.
Janice Rogers Brown, quoted in Wallstein, “Faith ‘War’ Rages,” A-10.

54.
Quoted in Boyer,
When Time Shall Be,
142.

55.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
135.

CHAPTER 2: SPOOKY KNOWLEDGE AND LAST THINGS

1.
Watts,
Nature of Consciousness,
Tape 2.

2.
Exod. 33:20 (JPS).

3.
Num. 12:6 (JPS).

4.
Deut. 29:29 (JPS).

5.
2 Cor. 12:1–2, 1 Cor. 13:12 (KJV).

6.
2 Cor. 12:1–2, 12:4 (KJV).

7.
John J. Collins, “From Prophecy to Apocalypticism: The Expectation of the End,” in Collins,
Origins of Apocalypticism,
138, describing the Book of Enoch.

8.
Schüssler Fiorenza,
Book of Revelation,
40–41.

9.
Quoted in Hubert Cancik, “The End of the World, of History, and of the Individual in Greek and Roman Antiquity,” in Collins,
Origins of Apocalypticism,
89 (“The eternal return…”).

10.
Rennie B. Schoepflin, “Apocalypse in an Age of Science,” in Stein,
Apocalypticism,
428–29.

11.
Yarbro Collins,
Crisis and Catharsis,
90, citing Suetonius.

12.
Anders Hultgård, “Persian Apocalypticism,” in Collins,
Origins of Apocalypticism,
39. Hultgård insists that “an apocalyptic eschatology is firmly attested in Zoroastrianism already in the sixth century
B.C.E.
,” but concedes that the dating of some Persian texts is subject to scholarly debate (79).

13.
James C. VanderKam, “Messianism and Apocalyticism,” in Collins,
Origins of Apocalypticism,
196, 197.

14.
1 Sam. 29:4 (JPS).

15.
Rowley,
Relevance of Apocalyptic,
53 (adapted).

16.
Job 2:6 (JPS).

17.
Ezek. 38: 2 (JPS). (Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, both Gog and Magog are the names of individuals rather than nations. Magog is identified as one of the grandsons of Noah in Gen. 10:9 and 1 Chron. 1:5. Gog is one of the sons of an Israelite man named Joel in 1 Chron. 5:4. These individuals are apparently unrelated to the
nations
identified as Gog and Magog in Revelation, or to the monarch called “Gog of the land of Magog” in Ezekiel).

18.
Ezek. 38:23 (TNK).

19.
Ezek. 39:26 (TNK).

20.
Ezek. 39:28 (TNK).

21.
Amos 8:2, 9 (TNK; adapted).

22.
Amos 9:14–15 (TNK).

23.
Ezek. 1:5–10 (TNK).

24.
Ezek. 1:19 (KJV).

25.
Rowley,
Relevance of Apocalyptic,
13.

26.
Bernard McGinn, “Introduction: John’s Apocalypse and the Apocalyptic Mentality,” in Emmerson and McGinn,
Apocalypse,
7.

27.
Rev. 12:9 (KJV).

28.
Deut. 28:58, 28:34 (RSV).

29.
Deut. 28:59, 28:27, 28:28, 28:49 (TNK).

30.
Deut. 28:30, 28:32 (RSV).

31.
Deut. 28:56–57 (TNK).

32.
Jer. 5:19 (RSV).

33.
Isa. 45:1, 45:4 (TNK; adapted).

34.
Quoted in Gorenberg,
End of Days,
203.

35.
Dubnow,
Short History,
89.

36.
Graetz,
Popular History,
1:331.

37.
Graetz,
Popular History,
1:336.

38.
Rowley,
Relevance of Apocalyptic,
citing 2 Macc. 4:7 ff.

39.
Graetz,
Popular History,
326.

40.
S. Schwartz, quoted in Gruen,
Heritage and Hellenism,
5 n. 8.

41.
“Kulturkampf” was first used to refer to the struggle in the late nineteenth century between the government of Germany and the Roman Catholic Church over the right to control the schools and churches.

42.
Flavius Josephus,
The Works of Josephus
, trans. William Whitson (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1987),
Antiquities of the Jews
, 12.5, 4, 324.

43.
John J. Collins, “From Prophecy to Apocalypticism: The Expectation of the End,” in Collins,
Origins of Apocalypticism,
158, 159.

44.
Rowley,
Relevance of Apocalyptic,
47.

45.
Rowley,
Relevance of Apocalyptic,
47.

46.
Dan. 1:4 (JPS).

47.
Dan. 2:20, 2:22 (JPS; adapted).

48.
Dan. 7:18 (TNK).

49.
Dan. 7:7, 7:9, 7:10, 7:13, 7:14 (JPS).

50.
Dan. 7:15–16 (TNK).

51.
Dan. 7:17 (TNK).

52.
Dan. 7:27 (JPS).

53.
Dan. 3:25 (JPS).

54.
Dan. 8:25 (RSV); Dan. 12:1 (KJV).

55.
Dan. 9:24 (KJV; adapted).

56.
Dan. 12:2 (KJV); Dan. 12:3 (RSV; adapted).