Meaning of APOCALYPTIC

This is a type of writing written within Judaism, between the 2nd centuries BC. and II AD There are a large number of these writings, and they present the following characteristics;

(a) They were written in times of great crisis (time of the Maccabees and the destruction of the temple by Titus).

(b) The message claims to have been written by some prophet or patriarch of the past (which is why they are called "pseudo-epigraphical").

(c) They claim to be part of a group of books written in the remote past, and limited to a chosen group of initiates, who could only disseminate them when the end of time arrives.

They generally focus their message on the themes of the prophets about the end times, so they present large doses of truth mixed with interpretation, devotion, and also a large amount of fantasy.

We have examples of this literature in:
"Book of Enoch",
"Book of Jubilees"
"Testament of Job",
"Apocalypse of Baruch",
"IV of Ezra", etc.

With respect to the book of Revelation, the similarities that have been pointed out between it and apocalyptic literature is the common background of the prophecies of the Old Testament, the glorious vision of the triumph of the Kingdom of God and of his Messiah, the establishment of the Kingdom Theocratic.

However, the contrasts are stark. Revelation, unlike the apocalyptic genre, does not claim to have been written by any ancient patriarch or prophet, but by a contemporary of its recipients.

His visions are sober, far removed from the imagination evident in apocalyptic literature. The internal evidence of the book of Revelation places it supremely above apocalyptic pseudepigraphic literature and places it on a par with the prophets, with the speeches of the Lord Jesus, and with the other Scriptures.

Apocalyptic pseudepigraphic literature may have been present in the apostle Paul's mind when he mentioned "Judaic fables" (Tit. 1:4).