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...and it does pertain to life in general
This is a serious article that I emailed to myself. I'll be switching emails soon and didn't want to loose track of the link or the article...
and it does pertain to life in general !! (smile)
http://facweb.stvincent.edu/academics/religiousstu/writings/king1.html
The Presence of Eschatology and Apocalypticism in the Teaching of Jesus Christ
Brian D. King
Saint Vincent College
Ó Copyright 1999
Introduction
As Jesus exited the temple area, he looked over the area of worship and told his disciples that one day "there will not be left here a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down" (Mt 24:2; NABRNT). As Matthew records, Christ refers to this period as the "end of the age" (Mt 24:3), a period of unparalleled tragedy to which cast upon the apocalyptic stage are the likes of false prophets and "wars and reports of wars" (Mt 24:6). Scholars remark that it is almost as if the OT prophet Daniel is whispering into Christ’s ear as he speaks of this impending "horrible abomination" (Dn 9:27). Before reaching his conclusion, Christ notes that in the midst of this chaos, a cosmic hero will "appear in heaven
. . . with power and great glory," known in both the OT and NT as the "Son of Man" (Dn 7:13-14; Mt 24:30). It was from that point, scholars in Christology grappled with the question that asked if Christ could really be this "Son of Man". Although the answer may never arise anytime soon, it is apparent that the discourse in which Matthew records in his Gospel is what has come to be known as eschatological. Literally, eschatology is the "doctrine of the last things" or a "doctrine concerning life after death and the final stage of the world". The following will attempt to define eschatology, illustrate how it is used in the Scripture, and examine how it relates to a study of Christology.
Derived from the Greek eschatos, the term "eschatology" was first coined by nineteenth century theologians "to refer to that part of systematic theology which deals with Christian beliefs concerning death, the afterlife, judgment, and the resurrection". As time progressed, the term assumed a "broader range and refers to the expectation of any decisive change in the course of history through the intervention of God". The term now reflects "the whole constellation . . . about the end of history and the transformation of the world which particularly characterized early Judaism, and early Christianity, and Islam".
Eschatology in Antiquity
In antiquity, the "concept of the future life grew richer as civilization advanced and cosmic forces became objects of worship associated with departed spirits". In the midst of this cosmic revelry arose a manner in which there was a judgment of life’s actions after the soul separated from its physical counterpart. Logically, for there to be a judgment there must exist a concept of "right" and "wrong". Sociologists point out that this behavior was prevalent in ancient Egypt and it was during this time that others argue that spirituality and morality became permanently melded into one.
Indian Eschatology
In Indian culture, "the spirit was conceived as entering immediately upon death into another body," also known as reincarnation. To subscribers of this belief the never-ending cycle of birth and death may become a tedious evil. From this arose the idea transmigration, or metapsychosis, which is a early punishment and reward system that intended to provide incentive to one to be delivered from an infinite cycle to find themselves in the ultimate state of being, or Nirvana.
Eschatology in the Greco-Roman World
The ancient Greeks were the first culture to view the mind and its functions as a "purely spiritual essence" independent of the body and having no origin or demise. An example of Greek eschatology is prevalent in Hesiod’s poem of the Four Ages of Humanity. Gregory J. Riley describes this narrative as a "joyless tale of the devolution of history into the present evil age, which itself will descend into chaos when the signs of the end become clear". Hesiod resolves that it will be the "selfish and lawless ways" of society that will serve as the catalyst for this chaos. But the chaos will be resolved by a divine judgment in which the good of mankind will receive the gift of immortality. According to Riley, the "tale of the Four Ages is clearly an expression of what would become in Jesus’ day the eschatological expectation of final judgment so important in the New Testament". Although abstract, the Greek concept of immortality aroused "anticipation of a more concrete personal life after death".
In addition to Hesiod, Virgil "predicts that in the golden age . . . a second Trojan War will be fought, and a second Achilles will go to Troy". Much of this is reflection of the thoughts of Chrysippus, who emphasized "the periodic return of the same world and the same people". The Stoics "even spoke of these cosmic cycles in terms of the beginning (arche) and end (telos) and significant events which changed the character of the world". Both philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, held to the notion that there was an eternity in the cosmos and they both "thought that civilization was periodically destroyed by natural disasters and thereafter reborn". Recall that many earlier Greek thinkers, such as Hesiod, spoke of a periodization of past epochs, in which there existed a "Great Year, the cycle of time in which all things began," and that this age of wonder and beauty would again be revitalized. The Pythagoreans echoed the Greek ideal, describing that "everything repeated itself in exact detail".
Early Roman eschatology held some speculation "that the idyllic Saturnian era of the past would again be realized in the near future". This idea is evident in poetry that arose out of the Roman Imperial period. To reinforce the concept that better times for humanity lie ahead, Roman mythology adopted the god Aion, a figure that was influential in Hellenistic Alexandria. Aion was depicted as the "ruler of the universe and god of limitless time which was expected to bring about the return of the golden age".
Early Jewish Eschatology
While the focus of this treatment is eschatology and its connection to Christology , relying primarily on the NT text presents "one persistent methodological problem in reconstructing the Jewish eschatological setting of Jesus and early Christianity". The problem lies in the fact that past biblical scholars have had the tendency "to use the NT itself as a primary source for reconstructing Jewish eschatology for the 1st century C.E.".
According to Donald Senior, early Israelite communities did not identify with the world in terms of the cycle of nature. For the "nature religions" the rains that fell in autumn and winter "represented a divine impregnation of earth," that was ever replenishing and renewing. To these cultures, human life was a part of the cycle of nature, thus "human destiny was subject to an ever recurring cycle of death and rebirth". Not to be misleading, the early Jewish communities celebrated and praised God for the rainy season, but the seasonal fluctuations were not perceived to correspond to the destiny of humanity. Rather, according to Senior, "the creator God was moving and guiding human history toward an ultimate fulfillment". If one were to plot a comparison chart between the conception of human destiny in the early Israelite communities and the communities surrounding Canaan, the Israelite plot would appear linear rather than cyclical. Unlike their early Christian counterparts, Israel’s attention "was not always focused on the ultimate end of the world". Donald Senior remarks that Israelite hopes and destiny "could be expressed in more concrete and limited terms," such as secure possession of the land for which a monarchy could reign and a temple would stand, as well as divine deliverance from the impending threats of neighbors such as "the Assyrians or Babylonians or Greeks".
Prophetic Eschatology
The period of the pre-exilic and exilic prophets (750-550 B.C.E.) brought forth a genre of end time philosophy known as historical or prophetic eschatology. The Anchor Bible Dictionary refers to prophetic eschatology as an "optimistic world view espoused by the classical Israelite prophets". The prophets of this era proclaimed that God "would ultimately transform the world by reinstating the lost Edenic conditions". The prophet Isaiah proclaims that "the LORD of hosts will have his day against all that is proud and arrogant" and "the arrogance of man will be abased, and the LORD alone will be exalted, on that day" (Is 2:11-12). In addition, the minor prophet Amos foretells of a "day of the LORD" (Amos 5:20) and the prophet Ezekiel presents a rash explanation of the day when God will "pour out my fury upon you and spend my anger upon you . . . I will judge you according to your conduct and lay upon you the consequences of all your abominations" (Ez 7:8). Lawrence Boadt comments that these passages provide an "expectation that God will work changes that will have consequences in the near future". The prophetic messages provides a warning that should the Israelite community stray into a condition of evil and immorality, "God will punish the people and then restore them again".
Another proposed explanation is that the prophets were looking to an intervention by God in response to the oppression inflicted upon Israel by it’s neighbors. In reading the
pre-exilic prophecy, some theorize that the writers were writing in terms that this divine intervention would occur a few years into the future - "Amos and Isaiah to Assyrian invasion, Ezekiel to a Babylonian attack". But in the midst of the chaos, there will arise in the holy city "new kings and a repentant people will reform their ways". The book of Psalms proclaims that "their heritage lasts forever" (Ps 37:18) and "the city of our God" was "founded to last forever" (Ps 48:9). The prophet Isaiah shifts his focus from the chaos that will be brought on the "day of the Lord" to foretelling that the new kingdom will be "forever peaceful" (Is 9:6). The prophetic eschatological flavor exists with the writings of the prophet Jeremiah in which he proclaims that God’s "wrath will burn forever" (Jer 17:4), but in reality, Boadt asserts that he "clearly intends to warn Israel that God will bring on the Babylonian attack in the near future" Thus, the pre-exilic period ended and "prophetic optimism was supposedly shattered by the capture of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Solomonic temple in 587 B.C.E.".
Apocalyptic Eschatology
The pre-exilic prophetic period was eventually replaced by the post-exilic prophetic period (500-100 B.C.E.). The post-exilic period was marked by dispair and pessimism out of which arose apocalyptic eschatology. In his book The Apocalyptic Imagination, John J. Collins defines apocalyptic as a "genre of revelatory literature with a narrative framework in which a revelation is mediated by an otherworldly being to a human recipient, disclosing a transcendent reality which is both temporal, insofar as it emerges eschatological salvation, and spatial insofar as it involves another, supernatural world". In his article, William Kinsley notes that "Apocalyptic texts usually proceed by means of a series of visions which foretell God’s destruction of social, political, and cosmic order as we know it, the punishment of the wicked, and the inauguration of a holy kingdom ruled by the righteous or directly by God himself". Apocalyptic eschatology functioned on the notion that the "world appeared to have become so irredeemable evil that only through a cataclysmic intervention and the destruction of the old world could a new and ideal society and environment be created". Lawrence Boadt resolves that the "themes developed in apocalyptic literature are derived from the combination of ancient myth patterns, prophetic descriptions of historical eschatology, and wisdom speculations about creation or the future". The event that sparked the almost overnight transition from the optimistic to the pessimistic may well "stem from the situation of the postexilic period when Israel no longer had the independence to make its natural decisions" and the "ignominy of being persecuted by Greek conquerors for its very religion". Cynthia Kuhn states that apocalyptic literature "offers a countervoice to the anthropocentric view that human beings alone, without God’s help, can save the world". Although the works of Joel, Zechariah, and perhaps Isaiah and Ezekiel exhibit some apocalyptic flavor, the OT book of Daniel presents an illustration of what biblical scholars point to as a prime example of "full-blown" apocalyptic literature.
Apocalyptic Eschatology in Daniel and the Coming ‘Son of Man’
It is written, "In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream as he lay in bed, and was terrified by the visions of his mind" (Dn 7:1). As the legend continues, the Scripture tells that the horror experienced by Daniel was so great that he transmitted the visions from his mind to paper. The book has been precisely dated to 165 B.C.E., just prior to the death of Antiochus Epiphanes who is sometimes referred to as the "villain" of Daniel. Wilfrid J. Harrington states that Daniel 7-12 "deserves to stand as the masterpiece of Jewish apocalyptic". In his first vision, Daniel paints a picture of the final judgment, telling that "the Ancient One took his throne" and presented to a cosmic "son of man . . . dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him" (Dn 7:9-14). Daniel’s third and final vision suggests "that the just will live on in the new age, perhaps through a resurrection from the dead". The prophet proclaims: "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; Some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace" (Dn 12:2). Throughout the visions, "Daniel maintains that history is wholly under divine control
. . . God’s victory over the forces of evil is assured and those who serve him faithfully will have a glorious part in his triumph".
The Israelite conviction "is that history must issue in the universal reign of Yahweh". Amidst the oppression, the Israelite community could hope that "Yahweh would actively intervene in the future as he had intervened in the past". Scholars dispute whether the early Israelite conviction is, in fact, eschatological - an answer which the early Israelites cannot provide. But if the "conflict between Yahweh and the forces of chaos were not to be resolved by a victory, Yahweh would lack truly divine power, and Israelite belief would fall into the cyclic dualism that governed the thought of the ancient Near East". If one were to examine the definition of eschatology in only simple terms, that is that human history has an ultimate end, "then the early Israelite hope of the future is implicitly eschatological".
New Testament Eschatology
While the concept of eschatology is prevalent in both the OT and NT, the NT embraces the end time philosophy with unbridled passion. With the advent of the twentieth century, NT eschatological studies have attempted to illustrate that "Jesus’ own preaching and ministry focused on the approaching final age of the world". The Anchor Bible Dictionary attributes this study of Christology and eschatology in the twentieth century to three factors: "(1) A growing realization that the eschatological understanding of Jesus was based largely on the coming Son of man sayings, which the majority of scholars no longer see as authentic. (2) A refined understanding of Jewish apocalyptic material, including the realization that though some apocalyptic literature does speak of a coming end of the world, much does not. (3) A reassessment of both the meaning and centrality of ‘kingdom of God’".
Modern NT Eschatological Models
The fundamental goal of scholars in NT eschatology is to try to uncover "Jesus’ understanding of his own role within the framework of that eschatological perspective". It may never be understood whether or not Jesus perceived himself as an apocalyptic figure, however, in the years immediately following his crucifixion in 29 C.E., the founding fathers of early Christianity "quickly placed him in that category". the various traditions of the historical Jesus of Nazareth are preserved in the four canonical Gospels, a result of a series of complex oral and literary traditions. However, while much of this eschatological material "may be rooted in the teachings and activities of the historical Jesus, most of it has been subject to various degrees of modification by early Christians who transmitted the Jesus traditions". As centuries passed, the complexity of uncovering the eschatological nature of the Jesus of Nazareth that walked and preached in the first century community becomes so great that conducting a complete reconstruction of the teachings appears impossible. "The modern rediscovery of the significance of eschatology for early Christianity has been assessed" in three "distinctive and influential ways".
The Consistent Eschatology Model
In the early twentieth century, Albert Schweitzer "stressed the eschatological, apocalyptic element in the life and teaching of Jesus". Combined with scholar Johannes Weiss, Schweitzer constructed what is known as the Consistent Eschatology Model which states that "Jesus was an apocalyptist with an eschatological timetable". Jesus warned his disciples "Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves . . . You will be hated by all because of my name, but whoever endures to the end will be saved . . . Amen, I say to you, you will not finish the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes" (Mt 10:16-23). While recognizing Christ as a noble hero, teacher, and leader, Schweitzer labels Jesus as a "deluded fanatic convinced that he was the Messiah" preaching "an apocalyptic message of the imminent end of the world and went to his death to bring it about". Schweitzer further maintains that "Since the end did not arrive, Jesus is an example of a failed prophet". While a minority view, scholars point to the consistent eschatology model as that which "sounded the death knell for the liberal quest for the Jesus of history and . . . the importance of the apocalyptic background and framework of the teaching of Jesus".
The Realized Eschatology Model
In opposition to the consistent model’s labeling of Christ as a "failed prophet", scholars, such as R. Bultmann, argue that "whereas the kingdom of God is itself entirely future in the message of Jesus, it is a power which determines the present by calling for human decision". C.H. Dodd proposed that the continuing truth and relevance of the message of Jesus was "based on a careful exegesis of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels". Dodd objected to the concept of the kingdom of God as an apocalyptic concept and stated that "Jesus’ emphasis on the presence of the kingdom was the most characteristic and distinctive feature of his teaching". This theory became known as the Realized Eschatology Model.
The Proleptic Eschatology Model
Scholar J. Jeremias emerged to criticize Schweitzer for stating that Christ’s eschatology lie solely in the future, and Dodd for stating that the eschatology of Jesus was purely existent in the present. Jeremias proposed that "Jesus held a paradoxical juxtaposition of the kingdom of God as both a present reality and a future expectation". This proposal is labeled the Proleptic Eschatology Model and "is useful for indicating that there is a tension between present and future in Jesus’ understanding of the kingdom of God". Jeremias concluded that "for Jesus the kingdom of God was both present and future" in which "the present is a critical stage in the full future realization of the kingdom of God". This view of paradoxical juxtaposition of the present and future aspects of the teachings of Jesus Christ "became dominant in the early 1960s" Concepts like those proposed by Jeremias were later challenged by the scholar Perun, who argued that the "kingdom of God is a tensive symbol that cannot be related simply to space and time".
Eschatology and Christology
When examining the principles of Christology and eschatology, it is important to recognize the concepts popular to most biblical scholars. It is determined in the Scripture that Jesus "spoke of a last judgment, though almost certainly not of his own second coming, or of his own return as judge or advocate" The Gospel of John records Jesus standing before a crowd of Greeks at a feast in which he states that "now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out" (Jn 13:31). When the crowd asks Christ to reveal the identity of the Son of Man, he responds only that "The light will be among you only a little while. Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overcome you" (Jn 13:35). Whether or not Jesus perceived himself as that "light", within the context of the Johannine Gospel, is uncertain.
In addition to teaching of a coming messiah, Christ apparently "affirmed an afterlife, though it was not a major theme of his teaching" and spoke of "banqueting in the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Mt 8:11-12; Lk 13:28-29)". An analysis of the Gospels reveals that Jesus apparently believed "in the resurrection of the dead and saw history as having a final judgment at its boundary". The major issue at hand with the modern study of Christology and eschatology is "whether he [Christ] thought all of this was to happen soon, and, if so, whether his message was pervaded by this expectation".
The Eschatology of John the Baptist
In Jesus’ day, many ascetics withdrew from the cities "into the wilderness, gathering disciples around them to await the coming age . . . many men believed the Messiah would appear there first". Among these ascetics was a man named John. Born in the hill country of Judea, John was the "son of an elderly priest and his wife, he was still very young when his parents died". When he took his ministry public, he "was in one of the busiest parts of the wilderness . . . Soon huge crowds of Jews from all over Palestine were flocking to the Jordan to see and hear this remarkable man, who looked and spoke like the prophets of old". Thus John became known as John the Baptist. John’s "rite of baptism had affinities with the ritual washings of other ascetic individuals," however his "baptism seems to have been an act once and for all, rather than repeated". Adela Yarbro Collins notes that John the Baptist’s "preaching of repentance and his call for baptism constituted a challenge to prepare for the ‘wrath to come’". In an encounter with a group of Pharisees and Sadduccees that attended his preaching, Matthew records John’s outburst in which he states "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath" (Mt 3:7)? The fourth book of the Sybilline Oracles contains a passage that combines the interjection of a Jewish redactor to an older Hellenistic oracle that tells of a cosmic destruction that "would then be followed by a general resurrection, judgment, punishment under the earth for the wicked and a new life on a presumably renewed earth for the pious". Temporarily displacing his alleged messianic prediction, this "text coheres very well with what the Gospels say about John the Baptist". For this, many "believed John must be the Messiah", but the ascetic preacher vehemently denies it replying "I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the holy Spirit and fire" (Mt 3:11). John warns that the coming messiah "will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire" (Mt 3:12). Adela Yarbro Collins recognizes that the "point is that the baptism of Jesus by John places Jesus in an eschatological framework, both in terms of his social role (first a follower of a prophet, then a prophet in his own right) and his ideas (although Jesus’ ideas may have developed over time)".
Pauline Eschatology
Arguably, the man most responsible for carrying the Christian message to the Greco-Roman world beyond the city of Palestine was the apostle Paul. Paul was born "into a devout Jewish family in the city of Tarsus". His father, a Pharisee, named his son Saul, which would be later changed to the Roman name, Paul. It is unknown whether or not Paul was eschatalogically oriented as a Pharisee. Certainly after his conversion, "Eschatological thinking shaped his interpretation of history" and "he was also imbued with imminent expectation". In analysis of the Pauline corpus, it is difficult to determine the role eschatology plays in his teaching for two reasons. First, "it is difficult to place the seven authentic Pauline letters in relative chronological order". Second, it is difficult to determine if apocalypticism is at the core of Paul’s teaching or "what the relationship is between apocalypticism and that center". Looking to the OT books of Amos and Zephaniah and their conception of a coming "Day of the Lord", Paul establishes the foundation for the "impending eschatological judgment of the world". In 1 Thessalonians, Paul notes that "For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief at night" (1 Thes 5:2) and in his letter to the Romans he writes that "God will judge people’s hidden works through Christ Jesus" (Rom 2:16). The mention of "the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6) suggests that "for Paul the center of eschatological hope had shifted from God to Christ". The source for Paul’s salvation history was the sin committed by Adam and Eve [ cr. Gn 3 ] which "led to the subjection of nature to decay and humanity to death" (Rom 5:12-14). During this period of the original sin, God supposedly made a covenant with Abraham, saying "Through you shall all the nations be blessed" (Gal 3:8).
Paul’s expectation of the Parousia "focuses on the return of Christ as savior and judge rather than on the visitation of God". Based on certain sayings of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, "the early church expected that within a comparatively short period after the ascension he [Christ] would come again and usher in the full glory of the messianic age". In his letter to the Thessalonians, Paul "depicts the Parousia primarily as a saving event signaled by the Lord’s cry of command". The apostle proclaims that "we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air" (1 Thes 4:17). The event has been referred to as the "rapture", derived from the Latin rapiemur, which literally means "snatched up". Wilfrid J. Harrington describes this as the time in which "true believers" will "escape the gruesome destruction of the rest of mankind". However, it is important to note that this "passage should be understood in the light of early Jewish apocalyptic imagery of accounts of translations or assumption of living people into heaven . . . they do not have to taste death, while those who are really dead cannot be assumed". Adela Yarbro Collins notes that it "is quite obvious that both Paul and the addressees of this letter were characterized by intense eschatological expectation".
Throughout Paul’s letters one can find a shift in attitude on the author as to the immediacy in expectation of the imminent messianic age. From his earliest work, 1 Thessalonians, Carolyn Osiek states that "Paul did indeed expect the final coming of Christ any day now". However in a later writing, the letter to the Romans, Paul remarks that "the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us" (Rom 8:18). Osiek comments that these "are the reflections of a much more mature person" who asks the anticipating early Christian community to "wait with endurance" (Rom 8:25).
The Book of Revelation
In the reconstruction of early Christian history, a study in the delay of the Parousia, or second coming of Jesus Christ, is integral. It is important to note that "this notion should not be pressed into the service of an evolutionary theory which implies that Christian faith involved immanent expectation at its earliest stage but that this hope gradually disappeared, to be replaced by theologies of history and eschatological doctrine". As the first century of the common era was coming to a close, the persecution experienced by Christians was at an all-time high. In his manuscript, Tertullian of Carthage wrote that "The seed [of the church] is the blood of Christians". In 95 C.E. a radical author, known to modern scholars only as John of Patmos, compiled a record of series of alleged apocalyptic visions he experienced while in exile. At the heart of his concern was the persecuted Christian communities. John specifically writes "to strengthen and encourage the Christian community in Asia Minor. In his texts, he places absolute trust in Jesus Christ’s words that guarantee to those that "Remain faithful until death" will be presented with "the crown of life" (Rv 2:10). The concept of Parousia in Revelation "is presented as a final battle between Christ . . . and his opponents, both earthly and supernatural (Rv 19)". In Revelation, Jesus Christ is depicted as riding into this cosmic confrontation between good and evil on a white steed waging "war in righteousness" (Rv 19:11). George T. Montague remarks that this rider, named "Faithful and True" (Rv 19:11), was "armed with a sword, a symbol of the Word of God" and a crown, in Greek referred to as a diadema, depicting the type of crown worn by a permanent ruler or emperor. The cosmic battle results in a destruction of the first heaven and earth and "a new heaven and earth are created, and the heavenly Jerusalem descends from heaven to earth, providing a restored Eden where Christians can enjoy eschatological salvation in the eternal presence of God and the Lamb (Rv 22:1-5)".
The Synoptic Gospels
There exists within the first three Gospels a unique interrelationship, a fine literary thread that brings the independently composed works together. These Gospels are referred to as "Synoptic" because they can be examined together. Raymond Brown notes that within these Gospels of the "third stage . . . there must have been some dependence of one or two on the other or on a common written source". The "third stage" that Brown refers to is the final stage in the Gospel tradition. Dated nearly forty years after the death and resurrection of Christ, the third stage of Gospel tradition (Gr., Sitz Im Leben III) marks the period in the Jesus Movement that the Gospels were written (70-95 C.E.). Brown notes that although "much scholarly attention and even passion has been devoted to this problem, most readers of the NT find the issue complex, irrelevant to their interests, and boring".
One theory as to the order of composition of the Synoptic Gospels is called the Two-Source Hypothesis. This proposed theory is based on a "Marcan priority", namely, "Mark was written first and both Matt and Luke drew on it". It is a popular assumption that Matthew and Luke relied heavily on Mark, yet wrote independently of each other. However, there is material existent in Matthew and Luke common to each other, but not derived from the Marcan Gospel. In 1890, J. Weiss was attributed as naming this hypothetical material "Q", from the German word quelle, meaning "source". Behind this hypothesis is "the plausible assumption that the Matthean evangelist did not know Luke and vice versa, and so they must have had a common source". Q is believed to be an actual Greek text "because a purely oral body of tradition would not explain the large parts of the Double Tradition that are in the same order". Scholars also believe that there was more than one copy of Q in existence at the time of Matthew and Luke, but there may have existed slight variances in the copies. With the incorporation of Q into the scope of the Synoptic problem, it is imperative that "one has to study the tendencies of each Gospel to determine which version more likely represents a change wrought by the individual evangelist".
There is opposition to the Two-Source Hypothesis and the Marcan priority. This theory, called the Griesbach Hypothesis, states that existent within the Synoptic texts are Minor Agreements or "a minority of textual witnesses to Mark" to "agree with what Matt and Luke have added". In other words, this theory proposes that Matthew was written first, followed shortly by Luke. From the Matthean and Lucan texts, Mark arose, adding words and phrases from the works of his two peers (i.e., addition of "and perverse" in Mk 9:19, to correspond with Mt 17:17 and Lk 9:41). While Brown displays flexibility in presenting both theories, he argues that the proposals in the Griesbach hypothesis may have been the result of subsequent "copyists’ harmonizations" and recommends "the theory of Marcan priority . . . to Gospel readers". This treatment will make inferences within the context of the Two-Source Hypothesis.
Despite the existence of the Synoptic Problem, the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke "presents as the climax of Jesus’ public teaching a discourse revolving around the approaching ruin of the Jerusalem Temple and the glorious coming of the Son of humanity to vindicate his people". These discourses are prevalent in the "little apocalypses" of Mark 13, Matthew 24-25, and Luke 21 (with some relevant verses in the Lucan book of Acts). These words would become the basis for the Parousia and, according to Gregory J. Riley, fashion Jesus Christ as "perhaps the most dangerous being ever to have been born . . . a protector of those who are his own and . . . one who will someday return from heaven to judge the living and the dead".
Marcan Eschatology
Mark begins his narrative with an exciting proclamation, stating that "This is time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mk 1:15). Establishing his position at the outset, Mark makes it clear to his community that the "liberating power of God’s reign is now at work on the human scene through the Messiah, son of God". In response to his disciples awe at the Temple, Christ assumes a position once held by the likes of Micah and Jeremiah proclaiming that "all these [earthly] things are about to come to an end" (Mk 13:4). Scholars note that there "is no need to assume that this prediction reflects the events of AD 70, though early Christians saw in those events the fulfillment of Jesus’ prediction". Since Mark makes "no clear allusion to the fall of the temple in 70 C.E., it may be that Mark was written before that event occurred [65-70 C.E.]". The location where Christ presents his discourse, the Mount of Olives opposite the Temple, has literary significance. The OT book of Zechariah foretells of a battle against the nations that will be fought by the Lord, and "his feet shall rest upon the Mount of Olives, which is opposite Jerusalem to the east" (Zech 14:4).
As the discourse progresses, Christ warns his disciples that there will be those who will deceive, persecute, and label themselves as Jesus. In addition, predictions "of wars and rumors of wars, uprisings, earthquakes, and famines are presented as part of the divine plan for the coming kingdom [ cr. Mk 13:7-8 ]". Christ foretells that all of these events will lead to a great tribulation "such as has not been since the beginning of God’s creation" (Mk 13:19). Out of this chaos and unparalleled cataclysmic destruction the glorious arrival of the Son of Man "at the eschaton will be the final proof of God’s victory". A reflection of the OT prophecy of Daniel, the Marcan Christ proclaims that the Son of Man will then appear in the heavens "with great power and glory" (Mk 13:26) and "send out the angels and gather elect from the four winds" (Mk 13:27). It has been speculated that this is the fulfillment of a promise made in the OT book of Deuteronomy that states "Though you may have been driven to the farthest corner of the world, even from there will the LORD, your God, gather you; even from there will he bring you back" (Dt 30:4). As he concludes his eschatological discourse, the Marcan Jesus relates that no one knows except "the Father" (Mk 13:32) when these events will take place, but that the members of the community should exercise patience and continue "faithfulness in mission, no matter what the cost".
Matthean Eschatology
The eschatological discourse in Matthew 24-25 is concentrically structured around the evangelist’s description of the Parousia in 24:29-31 in which the Son of man is depicted as "coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Mt 24:30). Matthew is the first of the NT authors to use the Greek term Parousia "in the technical sense of the second coming of Christ" closely linking "the coming Son of Man with the kingdom". Set at the Mount of Olives, overlooking the city of Jerusalem and the Temple, "Matthew broadens the audience for the discourse from Mark’s four to ‘the disciples’ as a group". In writing of the coming abomination and return of the Son of Man, Matthew invites his reader(s) to reference the scrolls of "Daniel the prophet standing in the holy place" (Mt 24:15). In his command to the valley-dwellers of Judea to flee to the surrounding hill country, Matthew warns that "a person in the field must not return to get his cloak" (Mt 24:18), perhaps alluding to the OT story of Lot’s wife, whom legend speaks of denying the will of Yahweh and turning to view the desolve of Sodom and Gomorrah was promptly "turned into a pillar of salt" (Gn 19:26). According to John Carroll, the Matthean Jesus "anticipates that the end will be delayed until after a time of international strife" that will be an obvious indicator that the Son of Man "is near, at the gates" just as the sprouting leaves of a fig tree are indicative of the approach of summer (Mt 24:32-35). Matthew emphasizes "the theme of eschatological judgment by appending several parables [such as that of the fig free tale ] which focus on this theme in his rewriting of Mark 13".
Matthew concludes the eschatological discourse by telling of the Judgment of Nations, heralded by scholars as a literary "masterpiece, a high point and grand finale". This pericope has no Synoptic parallels, yet there is a slight correlation in the Gospel of John in which the Johannine author describes a Son of Man that will reward "those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation" (Jn 5:29). In the Matthean version, the Son of Man "acts in the place of God" sitting "upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats" (Mt 25:31-31). Executing the will of the Father, "he [ the Son of Man ] invites the saved to enter the kingdom, which always exists but which we enter when he decides to bring it about and admit us to it". The Matthean Christ concludes his discourse by depicting the Son of Man casting out those judged accursed "into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt 25:41), which stems from a controversial OT convention in the Deuteronomic History (DH) that the covenant between God and man is contingent upon human obligation and not divine commitment. The eschatological discourse of Matthew serves to motivate the disciples "to participate in the reign of heaven, which entails a life of moral seriousness that seeks and obeys the divine will, that honors God by showing compassionate mercy to others".
The Eschatology in Luke-Acts
Arguably, the prophetic role of Jesus Christ is emphasized in no greater context than in the Gospel of Luke, and the accompanying volume of the Acts of the Apostles. In reading a scroll composed by Isaiah in the synagogue [ Lk 4:16-30 ] Jesus clearly identifies "himself as a prophet". Eschatology is integral to the composition of Luke-Acts, but the "central issue is not whether Luke anticipates an eschatological consummation, but whether he conceives of that consummation as belonging to the near or distant future". Most biblical scholars agree that Luke "was aware of the problem involved in the delay of the Parousia and rewrote and edited his sources to eliminate or suppress the earlier expectation of an imminent eschatological consummation in favor of a consummation located in the indefinite future". The eschatological discourse of Jesus Christ is located in the twenty-first chapter of the Lucan Gospel.
Joseph Fitzmyer states that no one will deny "that Luke has shifted the emphasis from the expectation of an imminent parousia to the concerns of the Christian community in its day-to-day existence and to the reality of evil that can affect the lives of Christians". Some scholars believed it was this transition in attitude that prompted Luke to write his sequel, the book of Acts, in which the opening verses record Jesus as proclaiming to his disciples that "It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority" (Acts 1:7).
The eschatological discourse of Jesus in Luke 21 is "complicated by the fact that Jesus has already exhorted to eschatological vigilance" in stating "you must also be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come" (Lk 12:40). In addition, there are some instances that serve as the prelude for the eschatological discourse "in which Luke has omitted or toned down the imminent expectation of the end found in Mark". An example of this is a recorded instance in which Jesus relates to a group of inquisitive Pharisees by announcing that "The coming kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is’" (Lk 17:20-21). Here the Lucan Jesus states that "the kingdom of God will not come with outward signs, but is ‘in your midst’". Fitzmyer suggests that, in these verses, perhaps Luke "has reduced the ‘apocalyptic hope’" somewhat by eliminating some of the "crisis-oriented vigilance with which the apocalyptic stage-props enhanced the eschatological confrontation of human beings with the parousiac Jesus or Lord".
Rather than placing Christ in the Mount of Olives, as is the case with his Synoptic peers, "Luke situates the discourse in the Temple as a continuation of his daily teaching there
[ cr. Lk 19:47; 20:1 ]". The opening verses of the discourse are sprinkled with "political and cosmic cataclysms", but, according to Joseph Fitzmyer, "they need not be understood as referring to anything other than the destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple" By reiterating the Marcan discourse, that includes the familiar images of wars, earthquakes, famines, plagues, and false prophets [ cr. Lk 21:7-11 ], the thrust of this pericope can be viewed as "negative, warning listeners not to be misled by the startling political and cosmic events to come". The Lucan Christ warns of the inevitable persecution of the early Christian community and tells his audience that "you are not to prepare your defense beforehand . . . that all your adversaries will be powerless to resist or refute" (Lk 21:14-15).
The Lucan Jesus concludes his pericope on the great tribulation by deliberately foretelling the desolation and demise of the city of Jerusalem itself [ cr. Lk 21:20-24 ]. According to Joseph Fitzmyer, an examination of this, and the remainder of the Lucan eschatological discourse, should be conducted within the scope of form criticism. According to Daniel J. Harrington, form criticism "seeks to classify literary devices and to isolate the historical settings in which the forms developed and functioned before they became part of the main text". Within the scope of form criticism, Fitzmyer argues that whether Jesus ever spoke of the desolation of Jerusalem "in the Lucan form is highly questionable", suggesting a "heavy overlay of Lucan redaction and composition". It is at this point that Luke also reinstitutes the use of "apocalyptic stage-props" previously removed to tone down the imminent expectation of the Second Coming of Christ. An example of this is prevalent when Christ remarks, "Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers . . . for a terrible calamity will come upon the earth and a wrathful judgment upon this people" (Lk 21:23).
By proclaiming that the coming Son of Man will be heralded by cosmic signs and dismay among the nations of the world, "Luke clearly distinguishes what Mark had linked together, the ‘end’ of Jerusalem and the ‘end’ of the world". Yet, the Lucan Jesus expressly states that the world will not end until Jerusalem is first turned to rubble. Like Matthew, Luke incorporates the parable of the fig tree [ cr. Lk 21:29-33 ] to illustrate that the Messiah’s return will be as obvious as the coming of summer. In fact, Luke’s placement of Christ telling his disciples "this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place", is the only suggestion of the imminence of the Parousia and appears out of place within the Lucan philosophy. Nonetheless, the Lucan Christ concludes his discourse by encouraging his audience to be "vigilant at all times and pray that you have the strength to escape the tribulations that are imminent" (Lk 21:36).
The Lucan sequel of Acts does little to enhance the eschatological discourse of Christ, however, Luke does record the words of two men who appear to the disciples after the ascension of Jesus and proclaim that "This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven" (Acts 1:11). The author of the book of Revelation, John of Patmos, may have looked to this text to aid in phrasing the fantastic return of Christ to lead the charge against the forces of evil in the final cosmic battle
[ cr. Rv 19 ]. Peter’s speech in Acts tells that the act of repentance "may grant you times of refreshment and send you the Messiah already appointed for you" (Acts 3:20). The book of Acts also tells of a judgment of the world, that , according to Paul, will be conducted by a "man he [ God ] appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).
Conclusion
For most biblical scholars, the delay of the Second Coming of the Messiah "was the single most important factor for the transformation of early Christian eschatology from an emphasis on the imminent expectation of the end to a vague expectation set in the more distant future". As time passed, and the first century of the common era came to close, Christianity was incorporated into the realm of Roman Hellenism. Once the problem of the delay of the Parousia was widespread among the early Christian followers a theological alteration was prompted. Remarkably, the delay did not discourage the movement, but rather encouraged the founding fathers of Christian teaching to broaden their horizons and preach the message of the coming kingdom of God to all who could hear it. Today, humanity stands on the brink of the twenty-first century and this same message is still preached, in all parts of the globe, with nearly the same enthusiasm as originally conveyed by the first Christian ministers. Gregory Riley notes that "Something must have been true about it [ the original Christian message ], or it would not exist today and we would not be able to account for its rise and obvious success". Whether accidental or intended, Jesus Christ provided the spark that transformed the entire course of history and inspired believers of the faith to embark on a self-fulfilling journey intended to propel one into a realm of existence that contains only everlasting peace, love, and tranquillity.
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