APOCALYPTICISM AND MILLENARIANISM reflect the idea that the end of the age is at hand and would be followed by a judgment. This was the type of thing Jesus and John the Baptist were preaching. The world in which Jesus grew up that gave birth to this worldview was a time of anxiety and instability. Crossley writes:

In this essay, I look at more precise comparisons that keep the emphasis on premodern, peasant apocalypticism and millenarianism as a vehicle for expressing discontent with the world…. Put crudely, a minority of urban elites dominated access to power and controlled resources produced by the overwhelmingly rural population from whom surplus was extracted. In the Levant, the town-countryside relationship helps explain class-based conflict, which included urban projects that introduced changes in traditional patterns of households, production, and demands on labor. In Galilee as Jesus was growing up, this involved the rebuilding of Sepphoris and the building of Tiberias, while in Judea this involved the expansion of the Jerusalem temple. For many Galileans and Judeans, traditional ways of life were changed. Josephus’s description of the building of Tiberias (A.J. 18.36–38) gives further indication of the socioeconomic changes that took place. Some people were given gifts of land, some were relocated, some were forcibly removed from their land. Josephus’s description reflects a basic point about such urbanization: some people benefited materially; others did not. Accordingly, some may have approved of such changes (perhaps even against their material interests); others may have not. Some may have grudgingly accepted these changes; others may have seen opportunities. Some may have materially benefited yet wanted more; others may have suffered and sought an escape. I will not rehearse the argument further, as it has been discussed in Myles’s chapter, but I take this assessment of class upheavals as basically correct.

We can consider this context and combine it with a modified view of what Randall Reed argues, though Crossley has reservations about Reed. Crossley summarizes Reed that:

Reed further claims that the social function of “the apocalyptic system” is an “ideological tool of power” that is enhanced through the threat of divine judgment, revealing that “apocalyptic is bent on exercising power to control the behaviors and beliefs of its audience … apocalyptic depends on a short-term solution for enforcing behavioral norms and theological beliefs.” On this point in relation to class location, Reed is emphatic:

• It is not the struggling under-classes who rebel against the imperial boot; rather, apocalypticism is an elite response to political displacement … By situating the class of the apocalypticists in the tradition of the learned scribes, we are forced to abandon notions of apocalyptic as an expression of proletarian protest…. Apocalyptic is a move of the powerful who have encountered a world which no longer works with the categories which have secured their power in the past.

There are obvious examples of apocalypticism used by displaced elites (the book of Daniel being the most famous) … Daniel itself suggests wider dissemination of its ideas in the claim that the “wise among the people shall give understanding to many” (Dan 11:33). In Reed’s terms, this would be a power play (and it may well have been).

So, if we look at a time of upheavals and uncertainties that Jesus grew up in, it may have been a ripe time for Jesus to threaten people with the apocalypse (God’s judgment is imminent so you better get right with him and start loving one another). As is clear from above, this would make sense as emphasizing Jesus’ royal Davidic bloodline in Paul and the gospels with the hopes of fulfilling the prophecy to restore the Davidic line of kings. To see more on this topic, please see my essay: The Justified Lie by the Johannine Jesus in its Greco-Roman-Jewish Context

Bibliography

Crossley, James. APOCALYPTICISM AND MILLENARIANISM in Crossley, James; Keith, Chris. The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (pp 692-717). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Kindle Edition (2024).