Early Christian apocalyses
I thought it would be a good idea to put together into a single thread all the early 1st. cent.-early 2nd. cent. Christian apocalypses other than Revelation, to show how the speculation in Revelation or the other sources fit together in reproducing or innovating different traditions about Judgment Day and the tribulation leading up to it. These Christian traditions derive partly from earlier Jewish apocalyptic speculations (which I can present in another post) and partly represent adaptations of the Christian community to the events of their day (e.g. the destruction of Jerusalem, the Neronian persecution, etc.). First I present below the coding I use for the key motifs and then I present the texts below with the motifs highlighted.
Motifs:
In the beginning wars, earthquakes, and famine occur
The world next undergoes the worst tribulation of its history
False prophets and false Christs appear and deceive the elect, performing miracles and wonders
The false Christ is none other than Beliar who appears on the earth
Alternatively, the false Christ is the Antichrist (or the Rebel) who is used by Beliar to deceive the world
The Temple is defiled, either by its destruction or by the Antichrist's enthronement in it
Celetial signs: Heaven opens, sun becomes darkened, stars and fire fall from heaven
The Son of Man (Christ Jesus) comes on the clouds of heaven with his angels
Jesus sends forth his angels
Angels blow the Last Trumpet, heralding the resurrection
The dead are resurrected
The living are changed, and the righteous and wicked dead are gathered together by the angels into heaven
The dead are judged, separated, and the wicked sent to punishment and the righteous to glory
The Antichrist and Beliar are dragged to the Abyss/Gehenna/Lake of Fire
Here are the relevant texts:
Apostle Paul (c. A.D. 54-60)
[1] "Any of us left alive until the Lord's coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up to the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air...You know very well that the Day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. It is when people are saying, 'How quiet and peaceful it is' that the worst suddenly happens, as suddenly as labour pains come on a pregnant woman, and there will be no way for anybody to evade it." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-5:3)
[2] "We are not all going to die, but we shall all be changed. This will be instantaneous, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds. It will sound, and the dead will be raised, imperishable, and we shall be changed as well." (1 Corinthians 15:51-52)
Comments: The focus here is on what immediately precedes the Judgment: the epiphany of Jesus in heaven, the angel sounding the Last Trumpet, and the resurrection of the dead occurring first, followed by the living righteous becoming instantaneously changed in glory. The tribulation that precedes the parousia is alluded to, but not described in detail. Paul does not give a coherent narrative of the final days but only alludes to certain aspects of it that are relevant to his discussion of resurrection or warning against false teaching.
The Markan Apocalypse (c. A.D. 70-75)
[3] "Take care that no one deceives you. Many will come using my name and saying, 'I am he,' and they will deceive many. When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed, this is something that must happen, but the end will not be yet. For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes here and there; there will be famines. This is the beginning of the birthpangs. Be on your guard: they will hand you over to sanhedrins; you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them, since the Good News must first be proclaimed to all the nations. And when they lead you away to hand you over, do not worry beforehand about what to do....You will be hated by all men on account of my name; but the name who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you see the disastrous abomination set up where it ought not to be (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must escape to the mountains; if a man is on his housetop, he must not come down to go into the house to collect any of his belongings....For in those days there will be such distress as, until now, has not been equalled since the beginning when God created the world, nor ever will be again. And if the Lord had not shortened that time, no one would have survived; but he did shorten the time, for the sake of the elect whom he chose. And if anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Christ' or, 'Look, he is there,' do not believe it; for false Christs and false prophets will arise and produce signs and portents to deceive the elect, if that there possible. I have forwarned you of everything. But in those days, after that time of distress, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will come falling from heaven and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory, then too he will send the angels to gather his chosen from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven." (Mark 13:5-27)
Comments: This is the earliest connected narrative apocalypse in Christianity. There is no mention of the Last Trumpet and the resurrection is also not explicitly stated. The reference to "wars and reports of wars" as the beginning of the troubles and the interpretation of Daniel 11:31 as necessitating an escape of those in Judea to the mountains are obvious allusions to the Roman seige and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. This event is viewed by Mark as fulfilling Jesus' prophecy and thus the onset of the celestial signs and the visible return of Jesus on Judgment Day is viewed as very close -- Mark in fact promises that the time has been cut short. This suggests that Mark understood the great tribulation expected by Paul and other earlier Christians as undergoing fulfillment in his day, first in the Neronian persecution, then the war in Judea destroying the Temple, and ongoing in the rejection of Christians from synagogues. The time of deliverance was shortly at hand.
Matthean Expansion of the Markan Apocalypse (c. A.D. 80-90)
[4] "Take care that no one deceives you; because many will come using my name and saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumours of wars; do not be alarmed, for this is something that must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes here and there. All this is only the beginning of the birthpangs. Then they will hand you over to be tortured and put to death; and you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name. And then many will fall away; men will betray one another and hate one another....This Good News of the kingdom will be proclaimed to the whole world as a witness to all the nations. And then the end will come. So when you see the disastrous abomination of which the prophet Daniel spoke, set up in the Holy Place (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must escape to the mountains, if a man is on the housetop, he must not come down to collect his belongings....For then there will be great distress such as until now since the world began, there never has been, nor ever will be again. And if that time had not been shortened, no one would have survived; but shortened that time shall be, for the sake of those who are chosen. If anyone says to you then, 'Look, here is the Christ,' or 'He is there,' do not believe it; for false Christs and false prophets will arise and produce great signs and portents, enough to deceive the chosen, if that were possible....Immediately after the distress of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, and stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; then too all the peoples of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his chosen from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other....When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right hand, 'Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.' .... Next he will say to those on his left hand, 'Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.' .... And they will go away to eternal punishment, and the virtuous to eternal life." (Matthew 24:4-31, 25:31-46)
[5] "When then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all the things that provoke offenses and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father." (Matthew 13:40-43)
[6] "For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and, when he does, he will reward each one according to his behaviour. I tell you solemnly, there are some of these standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming with his kingdom." (Matthew 16:27-28)
Comments: Matthew has incorporated the Markan apocalypse in his gospel [4], but revised it in certain important ways and also extends eschatological expectations elsewhere in his gospel [5, 6]. First, he makes the allusion to Daniel 11:31 even more explicit -- citing Daniel as the source of the expectation. He also intensifies the immediacy of the coming of Jesus by adding the words "immediately after the distress of those days" right before the celestial signs. Some time has passed since Mark wrote his apocalypse and still Jesus had not yet come. Next, Matthew expands what is supposed to happen at Jesus' parousia by explicitly mentioning the Last Trumpet (bringing Mark's apocalypse closer in line with Paul's expectations) and mentioning Jesus as sitting down on the Seat of Judgment (cf. 1 Enoch) and separating the wicked from the righteous -- giving each reward or punishment on the basis of their actions. Eternal fire in a blazing furance is mentioned explictly as what the wicked face. Finally, Matthew again intensifies the immediacy of the coming Judgment by saying that "there are some of these standing here [before Jesus' crucifixion] who will not taste death" -- a prediction eeriely reminiscent of Judge Rutherford's "Millions" promise in the 1920s.
The Didache Apocalypse (c. A.D. 80-90)
[7] "Watch over your life, do not let your lamps go out, and do not be unprepared, but be ready, for you do not know the hour when the Lord is coming. Gather together frequently, seeking the things that benefit your souls, for all the time you have believed will be of no use to you if you are not found perfect in the last time. For in the last days the false prophets and corrupters will abound, and the sheep will be turned into wolves, and love will be turned to hate. For as lawlessness increases, they will hate and persecute and betray one another. Then the deceiver of the world will appear as a son of God and will perform signs and wonders, and the earth will be delivered into his hands. and he will commit abominations the likes of which have never happened before. Then all humankind will come to the fiery test, and many will fall away and perish, but those who endure in their faith will be saved by the accursed one himself. And then there will appear the signs of the truth: first the sign of an opening in heaven, then the sign of a sound of a trumpet, and third, the resurrection of the dead -- but not of all, rather as it has been said, the Lord will come, and all his saints with him. Then the world will see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven." (Didache 16:1-8)
Comments: Although the Didache did not achieve its final form until the second century, most regard its constituent elements as originally written in the late first century. The apocalypse (ch. 16) also fits better with the earlier apocalypses than those that followed the publication of John's Revelation. The relation between this apocalypse and Matthew is very close, but the relation is not one of direct dependence but a use of the same traditions. Where the Didachist departs the most from Matthew is the reference to "the deceiver of the world", that is Satan or Beliar, appearing as "a son of God" or as a false Christ. The motif of Beliar deceiving the world through performing signs and wonders is pre-Christian and attested in Jewish apocalypses, but Mark and Matthew only refer to "false Christs and false prophets producing great signs and portents". It was in the late 1st century when speculation flourished about Beliar appearing in the guise of a man as a Great Deceiver. The Didachist also cuts his apocalypse short at the coming of Jesus and does not discuss the Judgment.
Sub-Pauline Thessalonian Apocalypse (c. A.D. 70-90)
[8] "God will very rightly repay with injury those who are injuring you, and reward you, who are suffering now, with the same peace as he will give us, when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven with the angels of his power. He will come in flaming fire to impose the penalty on all who do not acknowledge God and refuse to accept the Good News of our Lord Jesus. It will be their punishment to be lost eternally, excluded from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his strength on that day when he comes to be glorified among his saints and seen in his glory by all who believe in him....To turn now, brothers, to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and how we shall all be gathered round him. Please do not get excited too soon or alarmed by any prediction or rumour or any letter claiming to come from us, implying that the Day of the Lord has already arrived. Never let anyone deceive you in this way. It cannot happen until the Great Apostasy has taken place and the Rebel, the Lost One, has appeared. This is the Enemy, the one who claims to be so much greater than all that men call god, so much greater than anything that is worshipped, that he enthrones himself in God's sanctuary and claims that he is God....The Lord will kill him with the breath of his mouth and will annihilate him with his glorious appearance at his coming. But when the Rebel comes, Satan will set to work: there will be all kinds of miracles and a deceptive show of signs and portents, and everything evil that can deceive those who are bound for destruction because they would not grasp the love of the truth which could have saved them." (2 Thessalonians 1:6-2:10)
Comments: The authorship of 2 Thessalonians is controversial. The mention of Pauline pseudepigrapha (2:2) points to a period after Paul's death and the exaggerated attempts of the author to assert his Pauline authorship (cf. 3:17) are reminiscent of 2 Peter and other pseudonymous works. The mention of the Temple (2:4) as still existing is problematic for this thesis, however, unless one would regard the author as avoiding making Paul commit an anachronism. The content of the prophecy however fits well with contemporary speculation in the late first century. Leaving aside this controversial question, we see that Daniel 11:31 is interpreted differently by the writer -- here it refers to the Rebel (lit. "the son of lawlessness"), or Antichrist, who sets himself up inside the Temple and asks to be worshipped as a god, while in Matthew, Mark, and Luke (who specifically interprets the allusion as "Jerusalem surrounded by encamped armies) the scripture refers to the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem. This Rebel is distinguished from Beliar, who will use the Rebel to perform "all kinds of miracles ... signs and portents" (cf. Mark and the Didache). This distinction, and the worship of the Rebel, anticipates the distinction between the Dragon and the Beast and the worship given to the Beast in Revelation. It is uncertain whether 2 Thessalonians draws on the Nero redivivus myth.
Ascension of Isaiah Interpolation (c. A.D. 90-110)
[9] Beliar the great ruler, the king of this world, will descend, who has ruled it since it came into being; indeed he will descend from his firmament in the likeness of a man, a lawless king, the slayer of his mother: who himself even this king. He will persecute the plant which the twelve apostles of the Beloved have planted. Of the twelve, one will be delivered into his hands. This ruler in the form of that king will come and there will come and there will come with him all the powers of this world, and they will hearken unto him in all that he desires. And at his word the sun will rise at night and he will make the moon to appear at the sixth hour. And all that he has desired he will do in the world: he will do and speak like the Beloved and he will say: 'I am God and before me there has been none.' And all the people in the world will believe in him. And they will sacrifice to him and they will serve him saying: 'This is God and beside him there is no other.' And they greater number of those who shall have been associated together in order to receive the Beloved, he will turn aside after him. And there will be the power of his miracles in every city and region. And he will set up his image before him in every city. And he shall bear sway three years and seven months and twenty-seven days. And many believers and saints having seen him for whom they were hoping, who was crucified, Jesus the Lord Christ, and those also who were believers in him -- of these few in those days will be left as his servants, while they flee from desert to desert, awaiting the coming of the Beloved. And after one thousand three hundred and thirty-two days the Lord will come with his angels and with the armies of the holy ones from the seventh heaven with the glory of the seventh heaven, and he will drag Beliar into Gehenna and also his armies. And he will give rest of the godly whom he shall find in the body in this world, and the sun will be ashamed....But the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are now stored up on high in the seventh heaven: with the Lord they will come, whose spirits are clothed, they will descend and be present in the world, and he will strengthen those, who have been found in the body, together with the saints, in the garments of the saints, and the Lord will minister to those who have kept watch in this world. And afterwards they will turn themselves upward in their garments, and their body will be left in the world. Then the voice of the Beloved will in wrath rebuke the things of heaven and the things of earth and the things of earth and the mountains and the hills and the cities and the desert and the forests and the angel of the sun and that of the moon, and all things wherein Beliar manifested himself and acted openly in this world, and there will be a resurrection and a judgment in their midst in those days, and the Beloved will cause fire to go forth from Him, and it will consume all the godless, and they will be as though they had not been created. (Ascension of Isaiah 4:2-18)
Comments: This apocalypse is strongly reminiscent of 2 Thessalonians but it clearly draws on the Nero redivivus myth of the late 1st century by describing Beliar as "a lawless king, the slayer of his mother." Unlike Revelation, there is no Beliar-Beast distinction but like Revelation the writer tells of the fate of Beliar as being dragged into Gehenna (e.g. the Lake of Fire). This account thus is intermediate between that of the Didache and 2 Thessalonians and that of Revelation.
John the Presbyter: Revelation and 1 John (c. A.D. 95-110)
[10] First, in ch. 6:1-8, the breaking of the first four seals brings the ride of the Four Horsemen, unleashing war, famine, and plague. When the sixth seal breaks, "there was a violent earthquake and the sun went as black as coarse sackcloth, the moon turned red as blood all over, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth like figs dropping from a fig tree when the wind shakes it...The Great Day of his anger has come, and who can survive it?" (6:12-17) ... "Next I saw four angels, standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the world back" sealing the righteous "servants of our God" before the angels can wreck havoc on the earth (7:1-8), and "a huge number of people from every nation, race, tribe, and language" are revealed in heaven, "who have been through the great persecution" but are now rewarded with eternal life in heaven (7:9-17). The seventh seal gives seven trumpets to seven angels who blow them, bringing woes to the earth (8:1-9:21). The fifth trumpet opens the Abyss and a mighty army emerges (described as the Parthian army), led by "their emperor, the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon" (9:11). This "beast that comes out of the Abyss is going to make war on [the two witnesses prophesing in the Great City] and overcome them and kill them" (11:7), but the witnesses come back to life. After the seventh trumpet, John has a vision of the woman and the Dragon, where it is revealed that the Dragon is "Satan the Devil" (12:9), and the Dragon delegates his power and "his worldwide authority" to the Beast and "the whole world marvelled and followed the Beast. They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the Beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the Beast, saying, 'Who can compare with the Beast? How could anybody defeat him?' ... It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race, and all the people of the world will worship it....Then I saw a second Beast ... a servant to the first Beast, making the world and all its people worship the first Beast....And it worked great miracles, even to calling fire from heaven onto the earth while people watched. Through the miracles which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first Beast, it was able to win over the people of the world and persuade them to put up a statue in its honour....the number of the Beast, it is the number of a man, the number 666 [cf. Nero Caeser in Hebrew] (13:3-18)....In ch. 14:6-13, angels announce the Day of Judgment, urge everyone to praise God because he is about "to sit in judgment" and those who worshipped the Beast "in fire and brimestone they will be tortured ... and the smoke of their torture will go up forever and ever" (14:10). Then in 14:14-20, the angels are given a "sharp sickle" because "harvest time has come and the harvest of the earth is ripe" (14:14-15) and they proceed to harvest those for the "winepress of God's anger" (14:19). In ch. 16-18, God judges and punishes Babylon the Great (Rome), where the Beast ruled from. The Beast and the kings of the earth gather for a final battle, but "the Beast was taken prisoner, together with the false prophet who had worked miracles on the beast's behalf" and were then thrown into the Lake of Fire (19:19-21). Then the dragon was overpowered and thrown into the Abyss for a thousand years (20:1-3). Then the righteous dead "came to life, and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. This is the first resurrection; the rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were over" and the Dragon is released from the Abyss for a second judgment. Then the wicked and Satan were thrown into the Lake of Fire, while the righteous were given eternal life in the heavenly Jerusalem (ch. 21). (Revelation 6-21)
Comments: Like the Ascension of Isaiah interpolation, Revelation clearly draws on the Nero redivivus myth, but clearly distinguishes between Beliar (the Dragon) and the Antichrist (the Beast). However, unlike 2 Thessalonians, it splits the Antichrist into two personalities: the first Beast and the second, otherwise called the False Prophet, and it was this second Beast that performs the miracles the Didache, 2 Thessalonians, and Ascension of Isaiah attribute to Satan/Beliar. The division between the two is perhaps inspired by the Markan apocalypse which mentions "false Christs and false prophets" -- the first Beast sets himself up as a false God (i.e. as a false Christ) and the second leads humankind in its worship and performs miracles (i.e. as a false prophet). It has also been pointed out that the Dragon, the Beast, and the False Prophet together comprise an unholy triad parodying the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The parody is explicit in the Dragon giving the Beast his authority in a manner reminiscent of the Father giving authority to the Son (John 5:22), and the miracles of the False Prophet being the opposite of the miracles of the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Truth (cf. John 16:13). Revelation does not give a chronologically linear apocalyptic narrative, but does depict Judgment Day and innovatively splits the judgment into two resurrections and two judgments. The final fate of Beliar/Satan is similar to that in the Ascension of Isaiah. The apocalypse also draws on the chiliast tradition which was popular in Phyrgia in the second century.
[11] "Children, these are the last days; you were told that an Antichrist must come, and now several antichrists have already appeared; we know from this that these are the last days....The man who denies that Jesus is the Christ, he is the liar, he is Antichrist." (1 John 2:18, 22)
Comments: The outlook that "an Antichrist must come" is strongly reminiscent of 2 Thessalonians which looks forward to the future to the coming of the Rebel during a Great Apostasy and to a lesser extent the Markan apocalypse which fortells the coming of "false Christs". The appearance of "rivals to Christ ... out of our own number" (2:19) recalls the Great Apostasy of 2 Thessalonians. But while 2 Thessalonians does not view the second coming as immediate and explicitly denies this view, 1 John views the current apostasy as a sign of the "last days" and the imminency of "the day of Judgment" (1 John 4:17). The contrast between the "Spirit of Truth" and the "Spirit of Falsehood" in 1 John 4:6 also recalls the presumed contrast between the Holy Spirit and the False Prophet in Revelation 13:11-18, particularly how the "Spirit of Falsehood" in v. 6 is the "Spirit of the Antichrist" in v. 3 and the "false prophet" in v. 4.
Apocalypse of Elijah (early second century A.D.)
[12] In the fourth year of that king, the Rebel [lit. "the son of lawlessness"] will appear, saying, 'I am the Christ,' although he is not. Don't believe him! When the Christ comes, he will come in the manner of a covey of doves with the crown of doves surrounding him. He will walk upon the heaven's vaults with the sign of the cross leading him. The whole world will behold him like the sun which shines from the eastern horizon to the western. This is how he will come, with all the angels surrounding him. But the Rebel will begin to stand again in the holy places. He will say to the sun, 'Fall' and it will fall. He will say, 'Shine,' and it will do it....He will cause the lame to walk, he will cause the deaf to hear, he will cause the dumb to speak, he will cause the blind to see. The lepers he will cleanse. The ill he will heal. The demons he will cast out. He will multiply his signs and his wonders in the presence of everyone. He will do the works which Christ did, except for raising the dead alone. In this you will know he is the Rebel, because he is unable to give life....Then when Elijah and Enoch hear that the shameless one has revealed himself in the holy place, they will come down and fight him...The shameless one will hear and he will be angry, and he will fight with them in the marketplace of the great city. And he will spend seven days fighting them. And they will spend three and a half days in the market place dead, but on the fourth day they will rise up and scold him....Sixty righteous ones will gird on the breastplate of God and run to Jerusalem to fight with the shameless one...and he will be angry and command to kindle altars. And the righteous ones will be lifted up and burned. And on that day the heart of many will harden and they will flee from him saying, 'This is not the Christ. The Christ does not kill the righteous.' ...And on that day the earth will be disturbed, and the sun will darken, and peace will be removed from the earth....It will come to pass on that day that the Lord will hear and command the heaven and the earth with great wrath. And they will send forth fire. And the fire will prevail over the earth seventy-two cubits. It will consume the sinners and the devils like stubble. A true judgment will occur....On that day, the Lord will judge the heaven and the earth. He will judge those who transgressed in heaven, and those who did so on earth....After these things, Elijah and Enoch will come down and lay down the flesh of the world and receive their spiritual flesh. They will pursue the Rebel and kill him since he is not able to speak. On that day, he will dissolve in their presence like ice which is dissolved by a fire. They will say to him, 'Your time has passed by for you. Now therefore you and those who believe you will perish.' They will be cast into the bottom of the Abyss and it will be closed for them. On that day, the Christ, the king, and his saints will come forth from heaven. He will burn the earth. He will spend a thousand years upon it. Because the sinners prevailed over it, he will create a new heaven and a new earth. He will rule with his saints and they are with the Christ for a thousand years. (Apocalypse of Elijah 3-5)
Comments: The language derives from 2 Thessalonians but the concept is strongly rooted in Revelation, with the "two witnesses" in Revelation 11 identified explicitly as Elijah and Enoch (the two prophets who never died) who just as in Revelation die for a short time on a city street and then are brought back to life. The "sign of the Son of Man" in Matthew is interpreted as the "cross" (in the Didache it is "an opening in heaven") and the Rebel is revealed as a false Christ by both his murdering and his lack of power over death. The chiliast prediction of a thousand year reign is married with the prophecy of a worldwide conflaguration -- earlier hinted at in the Ascension of Isaiah but not described in such detail. The use of Revelation and 1 John (cf. ApElijah 1:2 = 1 John 2:15) suggests familiarity with the Johannine circle in Asia Minor.
Apocalypse of Peter (c. A.D. 100-150)
[13] In the last days, there shall be false Christs and arouse expectations saying: 'I am the Christ, and I have now come into the world.' And when Israel perceives the wickedness of their deeds they shall turn away after them and deny him, even the first Christ whom they crucified and therein sinned a great sin. But this deceiver is not the Christ. And when they reject him he shall slay with the sword, and there shall be many martyrs. Then shall the twigs of the fig-tree, that is, the house of Israel, shoot forth: many shall become martyrs at his hand. Enoch and Elijah shall be sent to teach them that this is the Deceiver which must come into the world and do signs and wonders to deceive. And thus shall they that die by his hand as martyrs, and shall be reckoned among the good and righteous martyrs who have pleased God in their life. And he showed me in his right hand the souls of all men, and on the palm of his right hand the image of that which shall be accomplished at the last day: how the righteous and the sinners shall be separated, and how they do that are upright in heart, and how the evil-doers shall be rooted out to all eternity. We beheld how the sinners wept in great affliction and sorrow, until all that saw it with their eyes wept, whether righteous or angels, and he himself also. Behold now what shall come upon them in the last days, when the day of God and the day of the decision of the judgement of God comes. From the east to the west all the children of men will be gathered together before my Father that lives forever. And he shall command Hades to open its bars and give up all that is therein. And the wild beasts and the fowls shall he command to restore all the flesh that they have devoured, because he wishes that men reappear; for nothing perishes before God, and nothing is impossible with him, because all things are his. For all things come to pass on the day of decision, on the Day of Judgement, at the word of God....And in soul and spirit shall the great Uriel give them at the commandment of God; for God has set him over the resurrection of the dead on the Day of Judgement....Under the heaven shall be a sharp fire that cannot be quenched and flows to fulfill the judgement of wrath. And the stars shall fly in pieces by flames of fire, as if they had not been created...and so soon as the whole creation dissolves.... As for the elect that have done good, they shall come unto me and not see death by the devouring fire. But the unrighteous and the sinners, and the hypocrites shall stand in the depths of darkness that shall not pass away, and their chastisement is the fire, and angels bring forward their sins and prepare for them a place where they shall be punished forever. (Apocalypse of Peter 8-21)
Comments: The Apocalypse of Peter most closely resembles the Apocalypse of Elijah in its identification of the "two witnesses" of Revelation with Elijah and Enoch and its description of the conflaguration that would consume earth and heaven. A detailed description of the torture of the resurrected wicked in hell follows. It departs from ApElijah by referring not to the "Rebel" or the "son of lawlessness" but "the Deceiver coming into the world" -- language reminiscent of the Didache and 2 John 7 (where the "Antichrist" is the "Deceiver"). The description of Uriel as the angel supervising the resurrection is reminiscent of 1 Enoch 20:2 which in the Greek states that "Uriel ... is over the world and Tartarus".
The Second Epistle of Peter (c. A.D. 150)
[14] "The Lord can rescue the good from the ordeal, and hold the wicked for their punishment until the Day of Judgment...The present heaven and earth are destined for fire, and are only being reserved until Judgement Day so that all sinners may be destroyed....The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar heaven will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, and the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up. Since everything is coming to an end like this, you should be living holy and saintly lives, while you wait and long for the Day of God to come, when the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat."
Comments: The pseudonymous epistle of 2 Peter advances the Petrine notion of cosmic conflaguration otherwise developed in the Apocalypse of Peter. The strikingly similar language, particularly in the "dissolving" of "all creation" or "the elements" and "the sky", suggests some sort of literary dependence, though it is not clear in which direction.
Leolaia