Way too often many of us have read prophecies detailing the End of Days, either from religions popular today or otherwise, and given them not a second of thought once we close the book or the webpage. Perhaps to most people the thought of the apocalypse, much more so the prophecies about them, and even more so their details, is to dismiss it as hallucinatory junk.
The second most popular option is analyzing it for criteria to find in the present day, and then perhaps media hype or a publisher’s check may follow. However, many of these narratives—among them Daniel’s vision of the statue, and the Book of Revelations—are not taken as what they were originally: addressed to people in what was to their authors the present day, but not a gift to eternity or something explicitly for the future.
The signs given for the end times are by nature always extremely outlandish. The Norse idea of Ragnarok—the end of the world as popularized in the Teutonic World and by Wagner’s Ring Cycle as “Gotterdamerung”—is highlighted by a proem of incessant winters without any summers in between. The Rabbinic sources in the Talmudic that detail culture at the end times is a complete reversal of nature—in which the family fails to exist as a cohesive unit, and the worst enemies a human being has are the people in his own household.
They are also remarkably persistent. Even in Christianity and Islam, religions largely dependent on what one saw or heard Jesus or Mohammad do or say during their lifetimes, signs of the end times surfaced in these religions, derived from Mohammad’s sayings and, in Christianity’s case, not just from what John was told in Revelations. Judaism developed another apocalyptic dimension completely independent from the Book of Daniel—the first monotheistic “End of Days” book—in Rabbinic Literature.
However, the idea is not “will the end of the world happen?” and even less so “is it coming soon?”—more simply, the question is “Why?” Is there a reason that the End of the World exists in cultures such as these?
To answer this question, it is necessary to know which cultures do not have such concepts at all. While Judaism and Christianity popularized the apocalypse, their mutually opposed culture—the “Evil Empire” of Rome—had no such tradition extant.
They could have easily devised one, because the malleable nature of Divinity and religion in general could have allowed it. They did not. Rome hated the idea of the End of the World. Rome wanted to last forever. Things were going well for them—why try to take it apart or take it away?
Daniel, on the other hand, castrated himself to save his life, which was already very much subservient to Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. He was definitely not as lucky as Rome was. The Babylonians shredded his Hebrew culture in his own day. The end of the world as it came to him was the demolition of four empires—embodied as four metals in a large statue—making way for the Glory of G-d afterwards. The End of the World was not something to be feared—it was something that would set things right. Once the fate befell the four empires—later interpreted to be Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome—Daniel’s culture and his G-d could triumph.
Revelations also has a similar build. The natural world as a whole is destroyed—or at least culled—via the seven seals and the angels’ trumpets—to make room for the ultimate Triumph of Christianity—something that would beset the image of the Christians not being accepted among the Pharisees and being persecuted by vicious figures such as Emperor Nero.
Above all, the End of the World is not as much a destruction of all but rather a destruction of the current powers of the world—something favorable to underdog religions in formative stages or in subjugation.
The other purpose for the Apocalyptic Prophecy is to keep humanity in order. Aside from the idea that such prophecies mention culture and natural order turned upside down in order to maintain stasis out of fear, they can also serve as keeping culture together. Even dominant cultures (the Aztecs and the Norsemen, for example) can manage colorful end of days prophecies. As long as natural order is somehow maintained—in Ragnarok’s case, as long as there is summer somehow—the end need not be feared. In other instances, cultural norms will not be deviated from, as the Rabbinic prophecy (as listed above) will ensure that the family will stay together, lest people bring about the end.
The 2012 Mayan Calendar scam is in no way related to anything remotely connected to the rich world of the apocalypse. At most it is connected to Popul Vuh—a creation story—and even then it has no support in the least if one actually reads the text of that myth.
The two markers of such a prophecy—signs of the end, and results of the end—are not present in the poorly thrust-together claims of con artists as they attempt to pin a completely irrelevant label on a timekeeping device. It is a classic example of “no bears, no forest”—not only are there no bears in the forest, but there is not even a forest to begin with.
As long as stability and the human experience remains in the form we know it—and we still feel and remain human—the end is not near. If the purpose is not hope or a firm state of being, it cannot be a true apocalyptic prophecy—because things in religion do not exist without a purpose.
This will be my last column until the next semester begins. I hope you all have enjoyed what you have seen so far, and I look forward to writing and enlightening more next semester! Thank you all!