Near Eastern and Hellenistic Mythology

Gunkel has proposed that there may be links between the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish and biblical accounts of creation in Gen 1 and apocalyptic texts. For example, he found links between Enuma Elish and the apocalyptic descriptions of the eschatological battle between the divine warrior and the personified chaos (Isa 27:1; Dan 7:7–8, 11; 2 Baruch 29:4; Rev 12; Gunkel, Creation and Chaos). In his view, the depiction of the battle between God and the Dragon (i.e., personified chaos) in Rev 12 was an eschatological transformation of the “chaos battle” (Chaoskampf) tradition found in Enuma Elish and echoed in Genesis and several psalms (e.g., Gen 1; Pss 74:12–15; 89:9–10; 104:5–9).

The discovery of Ugaritic texts further suggest a link between apocalyptic literature and ancient Near Eastern mythology. These Ugaritic texts provide Canaanite parallels to some of the imagery used in Dan 7. In particular, the biblical descriptions of “one like a Son of Man” coming “with the clouds of heaven” (e.g., Dan 7:13) parallel epithets of Baal as one who rides on the clouds; additionally, Yahweh’s title “Ancient of Days” (e.g., Dan 7:9, 13) is similar to descriptions of El as the “Father of Years” (Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, 101–02). Also, the Ugaritic Ba’al Cycle presents a West Semitic version of the divine warrior/chaos battle (Chaoskampf) myth. This text is ostensibly closer to Israelite versions of the chaos myth and perhaps a more likely candidate for the ultimate source of the motif found in apocalyptic literature. However, in most instances the myth has probably been filtered through Israelite/biblical versions prior to its appearance in an apocalyptic form.

Hellenistic and Persian mythology is also represented within apocalyptic literature. For example:

• First Enoch 6–11 contains echoes of the Prometheus myth and possibly the mythic traditions concerning the Titans (Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 62).

• The periodization of primeval history and dystopian view of history in Hesiod’s Works and Days (106–201) may form part of the background of such apocalyptic texts as Dan 2, although earlier Near Eastern parallels may provide more direct sources.

• The “four kingdom schema” of Dan 2 parallels the Persian text Bahman Yasht, in which Zarathustra dreams of a tree with four branches of different types of metal signifying four kingdoms (Collins, Apocalyptic Imagination, 94).