What did Jewish apocalyptic prophets believe?
Apocalyptic thinking began about 150 years before the birth of Jesus, and apocalypticists were Jews who thought that the world was not controlled by God, but by forces opposed to God. They believed these dominating evil forces were increasing in power, and that God would intervene to overthrow the evil empire and replace it with a good kingdom on earth. And they believed God was going to do this very soon. How widespread was this thinking in Jesus’ day? It was very prevalent among Jews in the first century, and it wasn’t restricted to just one group or party. For example, it appears that the Pharisees and the Essenes, who produced the Dead Sea scrolls, were apocalyptic in their understanding of the world. And then there were individuals, like John the Baptist and other prophets, who weren’t connected to any group and they were apocalyptic in their thinking. Why were there so many apocalyptic Jews in the first century? It was partly because Jews were being oppressed by foreign powers, a
