Apocalyptic for the Millennium.

Apocalyptic for the Millennium. I WAS TAUGHT BY HERMANN COHEN Hermann Cohen (July 4, 1842 – April 4, 1918) was a German-Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century" (Jewish Virtual Library). AND MARTIN BUBER Noun 1. Martin Buber - Israeli religious philosopher (born in Austria); as a Zionist he promoted understanding between Jews and Arabs; his writings affected Christian thinkers as well as Jews (1878-1965)Buber , who did nototherwise always agree, that I should beware of Apocalypticism a��poc��a��lyp��ti��cism?n.Belief in apocalyptic prophecies, especially regarding the imminent destruction of the world and the foundation of a new world order as a result of the triumph of good over evil. at allcosts. Biblical Prophecy, they thought, issued in two streams: Jewishethics Jewish ethics stands at the intersection of Judaism and the Western philosophical tradition of ethics. Like other types of religious ethics, the diverse literature of Jewish ethics primarily aims to answer a broad range of moral questions and, hence, may be classified as a and law on the one hand, and proto-gnostic heresies on the other.I should remember that while Judaism occasionally produced some strangedualistic du��al��ism?n.1. The condition of being double; duality.2. Philosophy The view that the world consists of or is explicable as two fundamental entities, such as mind and matter.3. (Persian?) texts, the canon limited itself to a knowledge ofGod's will Noun 1. God's Will - the omnipotence of a divine beingomnipotence - the state of being omnipotent; having unlimited power for us in the form of mitzoot, especially, in ethicalbehavior Gershom Scholem Gershom Scholem (December 5, 1897 – February 21, 1982), also known as Gerhard Scholem, was a Jewish philosopher and historian raised in Germany. He is widely regarded as the modern founder of the scholarly study of Kabbalah, becoming the first Professor of Jewish exploded my self-confidence. He uncovered messianicand mystical texts that were clearly apocalyptic or even worse. The DeadSea Scrolls Dead Sea Scrolls,ancient leather and papyrus scrolls first discovered in 1947 in caves on the NW shore of the Dead Sea. Most of the documents were written or copied between the 1st cent. B.C. and the first half of the 1st cent. A.D. included strange and fascinating material that pointed to amuch more various Judaism around the turn of the first millennium than I(we?) had expected or believed possible. Now comes a brilliantthree-volume Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism (Continuum, 1998) to fleshout the many examples of Jewish, and, even more complex, Christianeschatology See also: In Christian theology, Christian eschatology is the study of its religious beliefs concerning all future and final events (End Times), as well as the ultimate purpose(s) of the world (i.e. . Edited by first-rate scholars and centered around the University ofChicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. , this work is certain to dominate its field fordecades. It is rich, learned, fascinating, and unsettling un��set��tle?v. un��set��tled, un��set��tling, un��set��tlesv.tr.1. To displace from a settled condition; disrupt.2. To make uneasy; disturb.v.intr. . I wish theauthors were basically wrong, but I fear they are nearly always right.Reading every essay in the three thick volumes, I am chastened chas��ten?tr.v. chas��tened, chas��ten��ing, chas��tens1. To correct by punishment or reproof; take to task.2. To restrain; subdue: chasten a proud spirit.3. ,instructed, and, in a strange way, moved and even inspired. Over the past thirty years, more scholarship has been devoted toapocalypticism than in the previous three hundred. This is true not onlyregarding the origins of apocalypticism in Judaism and earlyChristianity The term Early Christianity here refers to Christianity of the period after the Death of Jesus in the early 30s and before the First Council of Nicaea in 325. The term is sometimes used in a narrower sense of just the very first followers (disciples) of Jesus of Nazareth and the (the subject of volume 1), but also of the development ofChristian apocalyptic traditions in Europe down to the modern era andthe related apocalypticisms of medieval Judaism and early Islam (treatedin volume 2). Even more recent has been the recognition of theimportance of apocalypticism in the history of the New World and thecontinuing role that apocalyptic convictions, literal and revised,religious and secularized, play in contemporary society (the subject ofvolume 3). We believe that the time is ripe to produce a major accountof apocalypticism's role in Western history and in the currentworld situation. (I, ix) The editors have, indeed produced a major account; we are all intheir debt. Even in its earliest formations, apocalyptic was not nearlyas bizarre or mysterious as we have been taught to think. It was anessential part of religion from its very beginning. It remains essentialto faith until our own time. What can we learn about apocalyptic literature by studying itsearly antecedents? First of all they teach us that the imagery andthemes of apocalyptic literature are not bizarre and obscurantist ob��scur��ant��ism?n.1. The principles or practice of obscurants.2. A policy of withholding information from the public.3. a. , as issometimes claimed. For example, the combat myth was a customary ancientway of thinking about the world. Ancient Near Eastern"philosophical" thinking was normally done through narrative.Retelling re��tell��ing?n.A new account or an adaptation of a story: a retelling of a Roman myth.one basic narrative in slightly different versions enabledancients to reflect about the governance of the world and explain thecourse of history, especially the history of their own nation. Their eratook for granted the existence and power of the gods and factored theminto their reflection, as our era takes for granted and reckons with adifferent (and less ultimate) range of forces, for example, the power ofideas, of free trade, of energy resources. To do philosophy, theology,and political theory modern thinkers employ the genre of the discursiveessay rather than the narrative of the combat myth. Despite thedifferences, one should not forget that ancients and moderns share aninterest in ultimate causes and both are intent on explaining thecosmos, the nature of evil, and the validity and the functions of basicinstitutions. Apocalyptic literature at bottom is not bizarre andopaque, but is rather a narrative way of reflecting about theology,philosophy, and history, and of inculcating a way of life. (I, 34) One of the central notions that most of us formerly imbibed wasthat the source of Jewish teaching about end-time and the violenttransformation of the world, all this (nonsense?) came from thePersians. Well, as it turns out, yes and no. How much does the Judeo-Christian tradition owe to Persianapocalypticism? There was not direct and general borrowing of thelranian apocalyptic eschatology eschatologyTheological doctrine of the “last things,” or the end of the world. Mythological eschatologies depict an eternal struggle between order and chaos and celebrate the eternity of order and the repeatability of the origin of the world. as such by Judaism and Christianity.Instead, the influence exerted itself in an indirect way but was of noless importance. The encounter with Iranian religion produced thenecessary stimulus for the full development of ideas that were slowlyunder way within Judaism The personification personification,figure of speech in which inanimate objects or abstract ideas are endowed with human qualities, e.g., allegorical morality plays where characters include Good Deeds, Beauty, and Death. of evil in the form offigures like Satan, Belial, or the Devil, the increasing importance ofthe dual opposition between Good and Evil as well as theireschatological es��cha��tol��o��gy?n.1. The branch of theology that is concerned with the end of the world or of humankind.2. A belief or a doctrine concerning the ultimate or final things, such as death, the destiny of humanity, the Second confrontations are ideas that are unlikely to haveemerged without external influence. The doctrine of the two Spirits asprofessed by the Qumran community provides a striking example of Persianreligious impact that had wider and long-lasting effects on Jewish andChristian traditions. This is also the case with the belief in theresurrection of the dead This article concerns itself with the belief in the final resurrection at the end of time, commonly found in the Abrahamic religions. For other meanings, see Resurrection (disambiguation) , which can be shown to have some Israeliteanteceden ts in the exilic period but was not fully developed untilHellenistic-Roman times, and in addition was not accepted by all Jews.The Persian impact is also shown by many details in Jewish and Christianeschatology, both universal and individual, that appear to be Iranianborrowings. (I, 80) "We do not know enough about the groups that transmittedeschatological expectations in Judaism in the Persian period" (I,134), so we cannot say very much about its origins or early development.Nor are we certain how it all began. One of the major modern debates about Jewish apocalypticism hasconcerned the origin of the phenomenon. The most influential schools ofthought have seen it either as a child of prophecy (e.g., recentlyHanson) or as a product of wisdom circles (von Rad). There is manifestinfluence of biblical prophecy in both Enoch and Daniel, especially inthe crucial expectation of a day of judgment. It is also true that bothEnoch and Daniel are depicted as wise men rather than as prophets. Butthis whole debate about the origins of apocalypticism is misplaced mis��place?tr.v. mis��placed, mis��plac��ing, mis��plac��es1. a. To put into a wrong place: misplace punctuation in a sentence.b. . Inthe books of Enoch and Daniel we are dealing with a new phenomenon inthe history of Judaism, which was very much a product of the way inwhich "the world was changed" by the impact of Hellenism onthe Near East. The apocalyptic visionaries drew on materials from manysources: ancient myths, biblical prophecies, Greek and Persiantraditions. But what they produced was a new kind of literature that hadits own coherence and should not be seen as a child or adapt ation ofsomething else. The vision form as we find it in Daniel has propheticprecedents (e.g., Zechariab) but is also indebted to Babylonian dreaminterpretation. Neither prophetic oracles nor wisdom instructions can besaid to play a major role in these books. (I. 145f.) John Collins, perhaps the most able expositor of Jewish apocalypticin Bible times, is very cautious about conclusions to be drawn fromvarious and difficult texts: Our rapid sketch of developments over a period of six hundred yearsallows us to draw some conclusions about the origins of apocalypticismin ancient Judaism Ancient Judaism can refer to: Ancient Judaism (book) by Max Weber Judaism religion . Apocalypticism is a worldview world��view?n. In both senses also called Weltanschauung.1. The overall perspective from which one sees and interprets the world.2. A collection of beliefs about life and the universe held by an individual or a group. that is indebted toancient Near Eastern myths and to Hebrew prophecy, but which arose inresponse to the new challenges of the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Theessential ingredients of this worldview were a reliance on supernaturalrevelation, over and above received tradition and human reasoning; asense that human affairs are determined to agreat degree by supernaturalagents; and the belief that human life is subject to divine judgment Divine Judgment means the judgment of God, notably in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Divine Judgment subjectively and objectively consideredDivine judgment (judicium divinum), ,culminating in reward or punishment after death. In the context ofIsraelite and Jewish tradition, this worldview was novel in theHellenistic period The Hellenistic period (4th - 1st century BC) is a period in the times in world history history of the Mediterranean region usually considered to stretch from the death of Alexander the Great to the defeat of Cleopatra. , especially in its expectation of a final judgment,which had far-reaching implications for ethical values and attitudes inthis life. The dominant form of Jewish apocalypticism, which we havetraced in this essay, also anticipated a deno uement of history,culminating in divine intervention and a judgment of all nations on acosmic scale. This judgment, however, would typically be followed by aresurrection of the dead, which allowed for retribution on an individualas well as a national scale. This worldview found its typical medium ofexpression in the rather loose macro-genre "apocalypse," whichwas a report of supernatural revelation, with an eschatologicaldimension. But the worldview could also come to expression in othergenres, that were not directly reports of visions or otherworldlyjourneys. The worldview that we have sketched here is fairly broad and couldbe embodied in different sociological formations and theologicalschools. The Enoch literature says little, at least explicitly, aboutthe law of Moses. In contrast, the Torah is fundamental to the priestlyapocalypticism of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The"proto-apocalyptic" prophecies of Isaiah 65-66 seem toquestion the importance of Temple and sacrifice. Even though the DeadSea sect was evidently alienated from the Jerusalem Temple, it evidentlystill attached great importance to cultic worship. The origin of evilmight be variously understood in terms of the myth of the Watchers, withan emphasis on the role of fallen angels, or in terms of the sin ofAdam, underlining human responsibility. Finally, we should not thinkthat apocalyptic ideas were confined to sectarians living apart from therest of Judaism, on the model of the Qumran community. The book ofDaniel Noun 1. Book of Daniel - an Old Testament book that tells of the apocalyptic visions and the experiences of Daniel in the court of NebuchadnezzarBook of the Prophet Daniel, Daniel was accepted as canonical scripture by all Jews and Christians. 4Ezra and espec ially 2 Baruch have much in common with rabbinic rab��bin��i��cal? also rab��bin��icadj.Of, relating to, or characteristic of rabbis.[From obsolete rabbin, rabbi, from French, from Old French rabain, probably from Aramaic theologyand give no indication that they were produced in sectarian communities.Apocalypticism, then, was not the exclusive property of any one sect ormovement, although it was characteristic of various movements from timeto time. (I, 157f.) The Dead Sea Scrolls are still controversial among scholars; wasQumran the home of a quasi-Essene sect or the library for many escapeesfrom Jerusalem under siege? Was the body of literature found near theDead Sea canonical or sectarian? How shall we not only date but evaluatethe Scrolls? In terms of apocalypticism, the great scholar of theScrolls, Garcia Martinez carefully studied the Scrolls in a pan-Jewishperspective which implies that the Jewishly eschatological was neitheridiosyncratic id��i��o��syn��cra��sy?n. pl. id��i��o��syn��cra��sies1. A structural or behavioral characteristic peculiar to an individual or group.2. A physiological or temperamental peculiarity.3. nor even unusual: In the four topics examined we have seen that characteristic ideasof the apocalyptic tradition have not only contributed to the thought ofthe Qumran community but have undergone there equally characteristicdevelopments. The idea of the origin of evil has been developed to afully dualistic and deterministic view of the world; the apocalypticdivision of history into periods and the expectation that God willintervene to bring an end to the evil in the world have profoundlymarked the worldview of the community, which considers itself living inthe last of these periods; the Scrolls add to the complexity andstructured organization of the heavenly world of the apocalypses theidea that the angels are already living among the community, allowingits members to participate in the liturgy of the heavenly temple; theScrolls also develop the apocalyptic idea of an eschatological war inwhich the heavenly forces help Israel to defeat the nations in a finalwar in which all evil will be destroyed. We can thus conclude that the apocalypticism indicated by thiscluster of ideas in the sectarian scrolls is something more than anumbrella term A term used to cover a broad category of functions rather than one specific item. In many cases, a term is so catchy that it tends to be used for technologies that are a stretch from the original concept. See middleware and virtualization. . It represents genuine continuity with the worldview ofDaniel and I Enoch even while it adapted the tradition inherited fromthese earlier apocalypses in its own distinctive ways. (I, 190f.) Nor are the more messianic texts among the Scrolls to be completelydistinguished from those that describe a less than apocalyptic scenario: The factors that determined the status assigned by the differentauthors to their Messiahs are not clear. It may be that the choice ofwhich biblical passages to use in developing the picture of the Messiahsplayed a role, but that would leave unexplained why those passages wereselected in the first place. Of all the texts surveyed, the Similitudesof Enoch presents the most exalted portrait of a Messiah; otherapocalypses such as 2 Baruch and 4 Ezra also view him as a highlyimpressive individual but not one of the same heavenly status as theMessiah of the Simiitudes. It is difficult to define the status of theMessiahs in the Qumran texts, but they appear to be human leaders; thesame is true for the great and righteous descendant of David in thePsalms of Solomon Psalms of Solomon:see Pseudepigrapha. . Moreover, there is no reason for thinking that Simonbar Kosiba envisaged as superhuman su��per��hu��man?adj.1. Above or beyond the human; preternatural or supernatural.2. Beyond ordinary or normal human ability, power, or experience: "soldiers driven mad by superhuman misery". Consequently, while it may be thecase that the apocalypses anticipate a somewhat more exalted messiahthan the leaders one finds in the nonapocalyptic tex ts, the contrast isnot a strong one in most cases. (I, 226) So, too, the early hekhalot literature is a possible link in thelong chain of apocalyptic Judaism, but the evidence there is still toouncertain. What about Jesus, now seen by most scholars as a more or lessauthentic Jew of the first century. As a peasant revolutionary, a rabbiof the people or a mystic leader, how shall we evaluate the NewTestament portrait of its Messiah? What Jesus believed about the last things is a controversial topic.Throughout most of church history Christian readers of the New Testamenthave related Jesus' prophecies primarily to three things--toPentecost and the life of the church, to the destruction of Jerusalem in70 CE and God's supposed abandonment of the Jewish people, and tothe resurrection of the dead and final judgment at the distant end ofthe world. Many modem scholars, however, now believe that Jesus hadlittle if anything to say about the church, that he anticipated notGod's abandonment of Israel but Israel's eschatologicalrestoration, and that he spoke of the end not as distant but as near tohand. Indeed, many are convinced that much of Jesus' message can befairly characterized as apocalyptic eschatology. (I, 267) What Albert Schweitzer Noun 1. Albert Schweitzer - French philosopher and physician and organist who spent most of his life as a medical missionary in Gabon (1875-1965)Schweitzer taught us at the turn of century, that Jesuspreached a realized or an imminent eschatology, long rejected by manyscholars, now seems to have been accurate. Jesus, a real Jew and a realpreacher of the end time, fits into the history of Jewish apocalyptic aswell as into the beginnings of Christianity. In most respects the eschatology of Jesus must be regarded asconventional. The nearness of the consummation, the coming of judgment,and belief in the general resurrection were all things handed to him byhis tradition. What was new was the connection he made with his own timeand place. He probably interpreted John the Baptist John the Baptistprophet who baptized crowds and preached Christ’s coming. [N.T.: Matthew 3:1–13]See : BaptismJohn the Baptisthead presented as gift to Salome. [N.T.: Mark 6:25–28]See : Decapitation as an eschatologicalprophet who suffered during the messianic woes. He interpreted his ownministry as a fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah 61. He foresawjudgment upon those who rejected his proclamation, and he associated hisown teaching with the special revelation Special revelation is a theological term that states a belief that knowledge of God and of spiritual matters can be discovered through supernatural means, such as miracles or the scriptures, a disclosure of God's truth through means other than through man's reason. expected to be made known tothe righteous in the latter days. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke"put differently , Jesus, like thesectarians of the Qumran, construed what he saw around him terms ofcertain eschatological expectations. Focus on matters eschatological and hope for a near end often ariseout of suffering or dissatisfaction with the present It was almostsurely the same with Jesus. Not only was Judea under the Roman thumb,but his words, as observed above, have much to say about difficulttimes. Moreover, the many polemical barbs barbsthe primary, delicate filaments that are given off the shaft of a bird's contour feather. They project from the rachis and bear the barbules. against scribes and Pharisees Pharisees(fâr`ĭsēz), one of the two great Jewish religious and political parties of the second commonwealth. Their opponents were the Sadducees, and it appears that the Sadducees gave them their name, perushim, and the stories of conflict with them tell us that Jesus wasdisillusioned dis��il��lu��sion?tr.v. dis��il��lu��sioned, dis��il��lu��sion��ing, dis��il��lu��sionsTo free or deprive of illusion.n.1. The act of disenchanting.2. The condition or fact of being disenchanted. with and alienated from many religious authorities. Beyondthis, however, it may be impossible to go. There may have been someparticular political or social crisis that fostered his eschatologicalenthusiasm and gave him a receptive audience, but, if so, the detailssadly appear to be lost to history. (I, 299) It was a key insight of Schweitzer that Paul's eschatology wasnot, as so often thought, "a kind of annex to the main edifice ofPauline doctrine." As Davies has summarized the point: Schweitzer has criticized ... those writers who in their treatmentof Pauline theology have assigned their discussion of Paul'seschatology to the last section of their work, as if eschatology were anaspect of the Apostle's thought which could be neatly isolated andtreated as a kind of addendum, whereas in fact it is his eschatologythat conditions Paul's theology throughout. Schweitzer's insight has force to the extent that Paul'sapocalyptic eschatology is not reduced to his understanding of theparousia and the end but also encompasses his understanding ofChrist's advent, death, and resurrection. A full account ofPaul's apocalyptic eschatology would thus have to be a full accountof Paul's theology. (I 378f.) II What of specifically Jewish apocalypticism in the developing middleages? What does a careful study of mystical texts and Messianicmovements tell us? Moshe Idel, who has become both the successor andantagonist of Gershom Scholem leads us toward a conclusion: If European philosophy can be described as a series of footnotes toPlato, as Alfred North Alfred North may refer to: Alfred John North (1855–1917), ornithologist See also: Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947), mathematician Whitehead put it, Jewish apocalypticism, andsubstantially also Western apocalypticism, may be conceived of asfootnotes to the apocalyptic visions of Daniel and the drama ofredemption described in Exodus. The content of the enigmatic propheciesof Daniel, perhaps the most puzzling writing in the whole biblicalcorpus, has tantalized generations of Jewish and Christian authors whoattempted to explore the "messages" alluded to by the prophet.To a great extent, Jewish apocalyptic writings were indebted to thevarious hints related to the future history of the Jews and of theGentile nations spread throughout the obscure verses of this book. (II,207) During the Middle Ages regular and ordinary Jewish life had, to agreat extent, acquired a new sense, rooted in the awareness that theJews, more especially the Kabbalists, may and should perfect basicprocesses shaping reality in general and human nature in particular.This is most evident in the ecstatic-mystical Kabbalah kabbalahor cabala(both: kăb`ələ)[Heb.,=reception], esoteric system of interpretation of the Scriptures based upon a tradition claimed to have been handed down orally from Abraham. , where the studyof philosophy and the practice of mystical techniques were available andrecommended tools for generating "messianic" experiences ofindividuals. Apocalypticism had been projected into the spiritual realmof the individual. (II. 235) We are no longer surprised by the extent and power of theseeschatological ideas, since all the authors in this massive work clearlybelieve that there can be no religion that does not reflect on the etkets, the time of the end. Faith pushes the boundaries of space and timebeyond the normal. It, inevitably, if often also tragically, forces theend, itself visits Heaven, or predicts precisely the future of theworld. III The third volume of the Encyclopedia is by far the most diffuseand, thus, inconsistent. It ranges very far and attempts to bring somany different versions of eschatology in both secular and religiousgarb from our own time that its focus is sometimes hard to discern. Butincluded among some rather marginal chapters are pure gems of insightand relevance. For example, the attachment of fundamentalistChristianity Fundamentalist Christianity, or Christian fundamentalism, is a movement that arose mainly within British and American Protestantism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by conservative evangelical Christians, who, in a reaction to modernism, actively affirmed a to the Land of Israel and to right-wing Zionism comes infor scrutiny which should produce second thoughts among those Jews whoseek to welcome evangelical Christianity: Indeed, fundamentalist interpreters of the apocalyptic scripturesranked among Israel's strongest supporters, particularly favoringthe Jewish state's more hard-line and expansionist ex��pan��sion��ism?n.A nation's practice or policy of territorial or economic expansion.ex��pansion��ist adj. & n. parties. Notonly did they proclaim that the Jews' right to their ancienthomeland had been sealed by God himself, but many taught that in themillennial future Israel would expand to the boundaries promised by Godin his covenant with Abraham recorded in Genesis 15:18, from theEuphrates to the "river of Egypt River of Egypt has more than one meaning: Heb. nahar mitsraim, denotes in Gen. 15:18, according to some interpretations this term refers to the Nile, or its eastern branch (2 Chr. 9:26). The brook of Egypt ." As John Walvoord proclaimedat a 1971 prophecy conference in Jerusalem: "Of the many aspects ofprophecy relating to relating torelate prep → concernantrelating torelate prep → bez��glich +gen, mit Bezug auf +accIsrael, none is more pointed than the promise ofthe land." In common with some ultra-orthodox Jewish sects, manyfundamentalist prophecy writers also taught that the scriptures foretold fore��told?v.Past tense and past participle of foretell. the reconstruction of the Jewish Temple Jewish temple: Jewish temple or The Jewish Temple, may refer to the original two ancient Jewish Temples in Jerusalem. The first one was destroyed by the ancient Babylonians in 586 BCE, and the second was destroyed by Rome in 70 CE. on its ancient foundations inJerusalem--currently the site of the Dome of the Rock Dome of the Rock:see Islamic art and architecture. Dome of the Rockor Mosque of OmarOldest existing Islamic monument. It is located on Temple Mount, previously the site of the Temple of Jerusalem. , the second mostsacred Islamic shrine, after Mecca itself, the spot from which theProphet Muhammad ascended to heaven. Premillennialists who embraced thisinterpretation typically dismissed the protests of Palestinians or Arableaders against the claims of Israeli hard-liners to full sovereignty inJerusalem or to expansion into the West Bank or other disputedterritories. What did mere human claims or grievances weigh againstGod's own prophetic plan for the Jews? But the prophetic destiny of the Jews sketched by many postwarpremillennialist writers had another, and far grimmer, dimension. Thesame writers and publicists who wrote eagerly of Israel's vastfuture expansion offered a harrowing prophetic interpretation of thefate of the Jewish people. The long history of antisemitic persecution,including the Nazi Holocaust, they explained (as always, with a flourishof biblical texts), was part of God's prophesied"chastisement" of his chosen people for their rejection ofJesus This article is about episodes of rejection in the Four Gospels. For people who have renounced Christianity, see ApostasyDespite recording many Miracles of Jesus, particularly in Capernaum, the Gospels also record some Rejection of Jesus. as the promised Messiah. (111, 171) Aviezer Ravitzky, one of the most profound students of OrthodoxJewish versions of the apocalyptic, distinguishes between the powerfulloyalty of the Habad community to its Rebbe reb��be?n.A Jewish spiritual leader or rabbi, especially of a Hasidic sect.[Yiddish, from Hebrew rabb?, rabbi; see rabbi.] , living or dead--whichissues in a Messianic fervor that so far, not even the Rebbe'sdeath has quenched--from another, far more politically activist and evenmilitant version of Jewish apocalyptic in the late twentieth century,namely a religious Zionism that promotes Jewish settlements across thegreen line and has issued in violence against Jewish leaders consideredinimical inimical,n a homeopathic remedy whose actions hinder, but do not counteract those of another. Also calledincompatible. to the truly messianic task: What about the competing redemptive movement, that of contemporarymessianic Zionism? Here the messianic tension always flourished from anoptimistic awareness of national renaissance and historicalactualization actualizationPsychiatry The realization of one's full potential . The movement's guides always championed a gradual,evolutionary process of redemption, which takes place entirely by meansof natural law and is not conditioned upon a miraculous messianicrevelation. They fixed the Zionist enterprise and the revival of theState of Israel at the heart of this development and exalted them tosublime heights ("Zionism is a Divine matter." "The Stateof Israel is a Divine entity"). Itis difficult to find a betterexample, either in Jewish history or in the histories of other nations,of a redemptive awakening that is so exclusively based on sensations ofsuccess and divine favor. Furthermore, in contrast to Habad Hasidism,the tension has been preserved and intensified over time, despite theabsence of a live messianic leader. (III, 219) Ultimately, these two versions of extreme imminentism are relatedby their theological penchant for pantheism pantheism(păn`thēĭzəm)[Gr. pan=all, theos=God], name used to denote any system of belief or speculation that includes the teaching "God is all, and all is God. . Hermann Cohen was right inthis at least: pantheism leads to ethical behavior that normative Jewishstandards must eschew. If God is already present and everywhere, indeedif all is already divine, then everything is permitted, even violence.If now is, indeed, the end time, then we are to be soldiers of God Noun 1. Soldiers of God - an Islamic extremist group of Kurds who oppose secular control with bombings and assassinations; believed to have ties with al-QaedaJund-ul-Islam ,throwing off all earthly constraints and required to fight for what Godhas decreed. Rav RAVRous-associated virus. RAVabbr.Rous-associated virus Kook, the gentle vegetarian who preached a benignimmanent im��ma��nent?adj.1. Existing or remaining within; inherent: believed in a God immanent in humans.2. Restricted entirely to the mind; subjective. mysticism, leads inevitably to his son, Rav Tsvi YehudahKook's armed invasion of the occupied territories in the name ofGod. How are we to construe construev. to determine the meaning of the words of a written document, statute or legal decision, based upon rules of legal interpretation as well as normal meanings. the fact that the two contemporary Jewishredemptive movements have sprung up precisely in the heart of thetheological conceptions leaning toward pantheism? Why did this messianicagitation flourish precisely among religious streams that believe in animmanent divine presence, of which no place is free? On the face of it,one would have anticipated the opposite development: if the whole worldis full of divine glory, why should all the religious hopes focus on afuture transcendent redemptive eruption, one that will penetrate"from the outside" inward? If the divine presence alreadydwells in every person and is constantly actualized ac��tu��al��ize?v. ac��tu��al��ized, ac��tu��al��iz��ing, ac��tu��al��iz��esv.tr.1. To realize in action or make real: "More flexible life patterns could . . . in every time, isthis not sufficient to neutralize the taut expectation for messianicfulfillment in present history? This is admittedly the accepted logical conclusion. Yet the stateddevelopments that have transpired among Jewish movements in thetwentieth century demand our renewed attention to this question. Theyattest to the existence of another option, that of a messianic potentialconcealed within the heart of the religious concept of divine immanence immanence(ĭm`ənəns)[Lat.,=dwelling in], in metaphysics, the presence within the natural world of a spiritual or cosmic principle, especially of the Deity. It is contrasted with transcendence. .It is my understanding that such potential revealed itself in modemEuropean thought as well in the transition from the static idea ofpantheism (Spinoza) to the historical concept of pantheism (Hegel), andfrom them to the messianic application of pantheism (Moses Hess). Atpresent, however, with regard to the movements in question, it hasrevealed its power in actual religious life as well. (III, 221) Even the Holocaust is now reconfigured as a moment in whichGod's presence is revealed. Modern Jewish apocalyptic does notemerge from defeat, but from victory. It was not in Auschwitz that Godappeared, though even that dark moment is now understood as a necessaryprelude to salvation. It was in the military conquest by Israeli armsthat we begin to perceive the millennium and its tasks. God is God ofpower, not powerless in the deathcamps but ready and eager to lead hisawakened people to victory. "Messiah Now," "The WholeLand of Israel": these are slogans that bespeak be��speak?tr.v. be��spoke , be��spo��ken or be��spoke, be��speak��ing, be��speaks1. To be or give a sign of; indicate. See Synonyms at indicate.2. a. To engage, hire, or order in advance. a transvaluation ofthe holocaust and a mythologization of Zionist politics. Ravitzky isclear on what that implies: If one adheres to the transcendent concept of God, one is likely tospeak of a catastrophic fall from divine favor, of a God who hasdistanced himself for a time from the people, from humanity, and fromhistory. Yet this possibility has been closed to pantheists Diane Ackerman (b. 1948) Ansel Adams (1902–1984) Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) John Burroughs (1837–1921) Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) Mikhail Gorbachev (b. . Their Godis supposed to be present here and now, within the cosmic and historicalorder, and not outside. It is no accident, then, that precisely theRebbe of Lubbavitch, M. M. Schneerson, on the one hand, and Rabbi Z. Y.Kook, on the other, were the two contemporary Torah sages who explainedthe Holocaust as a healing process, as divine "surgery" and"treatment" performed on the body of the nation in preparationfor its salvation. (111, 223) There are many other fine articles in the third volume of thissignificant work. I wish to close with a citation from one of the bestof these, written by my friend and former student who has become themajor expert on political apocalypticism in America. Michael Barkun ofSyracuse University carefully distinguishes several varieties ofmillenarian mil��le��nar��i��an?adj.1. Of or relating to a thousand, especially to a thousand years.2. Of, relating to, or believing in the doctrine of the millennium.n.One who believes the millennium will occur. enthusiasm and leaves us with the unmistakable feeling thathowever long ago apocalyptic began and however it is now threatened byrationalist criticism, it is here to stay. The effects of millenarianpolitics will undoubtedly shake our nation's stability and itsmoral standing for a long time to come: I wish to argue the following: that until recently there were twomain styles of millenarian expression, a traditional style rooted inreligion, and a secular style tied to political ideologies; that withinthe past twenty-five years they have been joined by a third style, whichI refer to here as "improvisational"; that each style carriesa set of political implications; and that even as millenarian styleshave multiplied, their various political implications have become moreand more similar. In short, I see two forces at work, one dividingstyles of millenarianism mil��le��nar��i��an?adj.1. Of or relating to a thousand, especially to a thousand years.2. Of, relating to, or believing in the doctrine of the millennium.n.One who believes the millennium will occur. , the other drawing them together, based onincreasingly similar ideas about politics. (III, 443) From ancient sources the extremists draw strength and spiritualpower. Can those of us who see the danger in activism of their kind findequal encouragement from traditions that edify ed��i��fy?tr.v. ed��i��fied, ed��i��fy��ing, ed��i��fiesTo instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement. and chasten chas��ten?tr.v. chas��tened, chas��ten��ing, chas��tens1. To correct by punishment or reproof; take to task.2. To restrain; subdue: chasten a proud spirit.3. ? Can ourtranscendent God teach us how to resist the recurring temptation toclose down our history and to turn from a human to a cosmic framework?Will our modest goodness be good enough to make us strong in the hour ofpassionate mythology? This fine work will help us find our way among themany forms and lures of all apocalypticisms, if we are patient enough tounderstand its inspirations, ancient and modern, Jewish, Christian, andPagan, deeply religious and dangerously inhuman. Its history is ourpersistent challenge and our hope. ARNOLD JACOB WOLF, a contributing editor, is Rabbi of K.A.M IsaiahIsrael Congregation in Chicago. His Unfinished Rabbi: The SelectedWritings of Arnold Jacob Wolf, published by Ivan Dee and Co., isreviewed in this issue. His article, "Brichto's Bible,"app eared in the Fall 1998 issue.