Christian apocalyptic literature extends well beyond the canonical Book of Revelation. Around the time of Jesus and early Christianity, there was a flourishing of Jewish and Christian apocalyptic writings—many linked to the Essenes, early Gnostics, and other mystical or visionary sects of the first centuries BCE and CE. These texts sought to reveal hidden truths (apokalypsis means “unveiling”) about divine plans, cosmic battles, and the end of the age.
Jewish and Essene Apocalypses
1. The Book of Enoch (1 Enoch)
Written between the 3rd century BCE and 1st century BCE, probably in the same circles that produced the Dead Sea Scrolls. It describes the fall of the Watchers (angels who mated with humans), Enoch’s heavenly ascent, and the coming judgment. It presents a detailed cosmology of multiple heavens, angelic hierarchies, and the destiny of souls. The Essenes at Qumran revered this text; fragments were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It profoundly influenced early Christian views of angels, demons, and the Messiah.
2. The Book of Jubilees
A rewritten Genesis–Exodus narrative composed around 160 BCE. It frames history as a sequence of jubilees (periods of 49 years) and predicts a final age of righteousness. Its angelic mediation and deterministic view of history parallel Essene theology.
3. The War Scroll (1QM, from Qumran)
An Essene apocalyptic manual describing the “War of the Sons of Light against the Sons of Darkness.” It outlines a cosmic battle between the righteous community (the elect) and the forces of Belial (the devil). It anticipates a final, divinely aided victory, with angelic armies fighting alongside human warriors.
4. The Community Rule (1QS)
Another Qumran text, blending covenantal discipline with apocalyptic expectation. It envisions the Essene community as the vanguard of the coming new age, preparing for the purification of Israel before the end.
5. The Apocalypse of Weeks (part of 1 Enoch)
Divides history into ten “weeks,” culminating in the final judgment and renewal of creation. This schema influenced later Christian writers, including those who framed time as a divine sequence leading to the Kingdom of God.
Early Christian and Related Texts
6. The Apocalypse of Peter
An early 2nd-century Christian vision text, once popular enough to be considered for the canon. It depicts vivid scenes of heaven and hell and influenced later descriptions of the afterlife, including Dante’s Inferno. It presents the righteous as guided by angels and the wicked as suffering retributive punishments.
7. The Shepherd of Hermas
Written in Rome in the 2nd century. While not an apocalypse of destruction, it is apocalyptic in tone—portraying visions, angelic figures, and a coming judgment. It stresses repentance and moral purity in preparation for the end.
8. The Apocalypse of Paul (Visio Pauli)
A 3rd-century expansion of 2 Corinthians 12’s “man caught up to the third heaven.” It elaborates Paul’s heavenly journey, mapping realms of punishment and bliss. It shaped medieval visionary literature.
9. The Apocalypse of Thomas
A short 2nd–3rd-century Christian text predicting a sequence of catastrophic signs over seven days before the final resurrection. It reflects a fusion of Jewish apocalypticism and Christian eschatology.
10. The Sibylline Oracles (Books III–V)
Jewish and later Christian prophetic poems written in the voice of a pagan sibyl. They predict earthquakes, wars, divine judgment, and the triumph of a messianic kingdom. They demonstrate how apocalyptic imagery crossed cultural boundaries in the Hellenistic world.
Gnostic and Esoteric Revelations
11. The Apocalypse of Adam
Found in the Nag Hammadi library (2nd century CE). It presents Adam as a revealer of hidden knowledge to his son Seth. The text retells Genesis in Gnostic form: the true God is transcendent, while the creator of the material world is a lesser being. Salvation comes through gnosis rather than repentance.
12. The Secret Revelation of John (Apocryphon of John)
Also from Nag Hammadi, this is a foundational Gnostic apocalypse. The risen Christ reveals to John the cosmic structure of the Pleroma (Fullness), the fall of Sophia (Wisdom), and the creation of the material world by ignorant archons. It offers an entirely spiritualized vision of salvation through awakening rather than cosmic war.
13. The Pistis Sophia
A long 2nd–3rd-century Gnostic text describing the soul’s ascent through the heavens. Christ, after his resurrection, teaches his disciples about Sophia’s fall, redemption, and the cosmic hierarchies. Its vision of layered heavens and liberating knowledge re-frames the apocalypse as an interior revelation of the soul’s journey.
Common Themes and Visionary Structure
These apocalypses share core features: revelation mediated by angels or Christ, cosmic dualism, moral purification, and an imminent transition from this age to the next. In Essene and Jewish apocalypses, the transformation is historical and collective. In Gnostic works, it becomes metaphysical and individual. The Essenes awaited a literal final war and the advent of a purified kingdom on earth. The Gnostics taught an inner apocalypse—the unveiling of divine knowledge that frees the soul from the material cosmos.
Together, they outline the spiritual atmosphere of late Second-Temple Judaism and early Christianity: a world expecting imminent transformation, whether through divine judgment or inner enlightenment.