Apocolypse

The revelation may be made through a dream, as in the Book of Daniel, or through a vision, as in the Book of Revelation. In biblical accounts of revelations the manner of the revelation and its reception is generally described.

Fasting, mainly as part of a spiritual discipline, can lead one into an apocalyptic prophetic vision. One example of this is found in the Book of Daniel which is the first apocalypse in the Protestant Bible. After a long period of fasting, Daniel is standing by a river when a heavenly being appears to him, and the revelation follows (Daniel 10:2ff).

Apocalyptic writing often makes wide use of symbolism. One instance of this occurs where gematria is employed, either for obscuring the writer's meaning or enhancing it; as a number of ancient cultures used letters also as numbers (i.e., the Romans with their use of "Roman numerals"). Thus the symbolic name "Taxo," "Assumptio Mosis", ix. 1; the "Number of the Beast" (616/666), in the Book of Revelation 13:18; the number 666 ('Iησōῦς), Sibyllines, i.326–30.

Similar is the frequent prophecy of the length of time through which the events predicted must be fulfilled. Thus, the "time, times, and a half," Daniel 12:7 which has been taken to be 3½ years in length by Dispensationalists; the "fifty-eight times" of Enoch, xc.5, "Assumptio Mosis", x.11; the announcement of a certain number of "weeks" or days, which starting point in Daniel 9:24, 25 is "the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks", a mention of 1290 days after the covenant/sacrifice is broken (Daniel 12:11), 12; Enoch xciii.3–10; 2 Esdras 14:11, 12; Apocalypse of Baruch xxvi–viii; Revelation 11:3, which mentions "two witnesses" with supernatural power, 12:6; compare Assumptio Mosis, vii.1.

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