{"id":845,"date":"2010-10-22T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2010-10-22T14:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/10\/word-of-the-day-apocalyptic-literature\/"},"modified":"2010-10-22T14:11:00","modified_gmt":"2010-10-22T14:11:00","slug":"word-of-the-day-apocalyptic-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/10\/word-of-the-day-apocalyptic-literature.html","title":{"rendered":"Word of the Day: Apocalyptic Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This is from the Fortress Press Forum<\/a> (HT John Byron<\/a>):<\/p>\n

WORD OF THE DAY:<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cApocalyptic Literature \u201c: uh-PAH-kuh-lihp-tihk-LIH-duhr-uh-chuhr<\/p>\n

Status:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t know how to read apocalyptic literature, it\u2019s the end of the world; if you do know how, it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Definition:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cApocalyptic literature is a kind of story that God\u2019s people found particularly helpful during times of oppression. These stories have recurring features. Ancient heroes of the faith: perhaps because the people were being persecuted, they felt safer telling stories about people who had lived long ago. Dreams: these ancient heroes have visions, often featuring strange imagery. Angels: an angel appears who interprets the meaning of the visions. Predictions: the meaning of these visions is often a prediction by the long-gone hero of the faith concerning the situation in which God\u2019s people were suffering. Daniel was written in a time when God\u2019s people were oppressed by the Seleucid empire (c. 167 BCE). Revelation was written when the church was oppressed by the Roman empire (c. 90 CE). If you know how to read this literature, you\u2019ll know these books are about the Seleucid and Roman empires, respectfully. If you don\u2019t know how to read this literature, you might get tempted to pull a \u201cChicken Little\u201d and run around yelling, \u201cThe sky is falling! The sky is falling!\u201d Which would be entertaining. Misguided, yes. But certainly entertaining.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is from the Fortress Press Forum (HT John Byron): WORD OF THE DAY: \u201cApocalyptic Literature \u201c: uh-PAH-kuh-lihp-tihk-LIH-duhr-uh-chuhr Status: If you don\u2019t know how to read apocalyptic literature, it\u2019s the end of the world; if you do know how, it isn\u2019t. Definition: \u201cApocalyptic literature is a kind of story that God\u2019s people found particularly helpful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWord of the Day: Apocalyptic Literature<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is from the Fortress Press Forum (HT John Byron):WORD OF THE DAY:"Apocalyptic Literature ": uh-PAH-kuh-lihp-tihk-LIH-duhr-uh-chuhrStatus:If you don\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/10\/word-of-the-day-apocalyptic-literature.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Word of the Day: Apocalyptic Literature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is from the Fortress Press Forum (HT John Byron):WORD OF THE DAY:"Apocalyptic Literature ": uh-PAH-kuh-lihp-tihk-LIH-duhr-uh-chuhrStatus:If you don\u2019t\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2010\/10\/word-of-the-day-apocalyptic-literature.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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