There prevails a singular harmony among the apocalyptic writings and traditions, especially regarding the successive stages of the eschatological drama. The first of these is the “travail” of the Messianic time ( ; literally, “the suffering of the Messiah”; comp. Pesiḳ. R. 21, 34; Shab. 118a; Pes. 118a; Sanh. 98b; Mek., Beshallaḥ, Wayassa’, 4, 5; or , Matt. xxiv. 8; Mark xiii. 9, taken from Hosea xiii. 13). The idea that the great redemption shall be preceded by great distress, darkness, and moral decline seems to be based on such prophetic passages as Hosea xiii. 13 et seq.; Joel ii. 10 et seq.; Micah vii. 1-6; Zech. xiv. 6 et seq.; Dan. xii. 1. The view itself, however, is not that of the Prophets, whose outlook is altogether optimistic and eudemonistic (Isa. xi. 1-9, lxv. 17-25), but more in accordance with the older non-Jewish belief in a constant decline of the world, from the golden and silver to the brass and iron age, until it ends in a final cataclysm or conflagration, contemplated alike by old Teuton and Greek legend. It was particularly owing to Persian influence that the contrast between this world, in which evil, death, and sin prevail, and the future world, “which is altogether good” (Tamid l.c.), was so strongly emphasized, and the view prevailed that the transition from the one to the other could be brought about only through a great crisis, the signs of decay of a dying world and the birth-throes of a new one to be ushered into existence. Persian eschatology had no difficulty in utilizing old mythological and cosmological material from Babylonia in picturing the distress and disorder of the last days of the world (Bundahis, xxx. 18 et seq.; Plutarch, l.c. 47; Bahman, l.c. ii. 23 et seq., iii. 60); Jewish eschatology had to borrow the same elsewhere or give Biblical terms and passages a new meaning so as to make all terrestrial and celestial powers appear as participants in the final catastrophe. This world, owing to the sin of the first man (II Esd. iv. 30), or through the fall of the angels (Enoch, vi.-xi.), has been laden with curses and is under the sway of the power of evil, and the end will accordingly be a combat of God with these powers of evil either in the heavens above or on earth (Isa. xxiv. 21 et seq., xxv. 7, xxvii. 1; Dan. vii. 11, viii. 9; Book of Jubilees, xxiii. 29; Test. Patr., Asher, 7, Dan. 5; Assumptio Mosis, x. 1; Psalms of Solomon, ii. 25 et seq.; and see Gunkel, “Schöpfung und Chaos,” pp. 171-398). The whole world, then, appears as in a state of rebellion before its downfall. A description of these Messianic woes is given in the Book of Jubilees, xx. 11-25; Sibyllines, ii. 154 et seq., iii. 796 et seq.; Enoch, xcix. 4et seq., c. 1 et seq.; II Esd. v.-vi.; Syriac Apoc. Baruch xxv.-xxvii., xlviii. 31 et seq., lxx.; Matt. xxiv. 6-29; Rev. vi.-ix.; Soṭah ix. 15; Derek Erez Zuta x.; Sanh. 96b-97a. “A third part of all the world’s woes will come in the generation of the Messiah” (Midr. Teh. Ps. ii. 9). In all these passages evil portents are predicted, such as visions of swords, of blood, and of warfare in the sky (Sibyllines, iii. 795; comp. Luke xxi. 21; Josephus, “B. J.”, vi. 5, § 3), disorder in the whole celestial system (Enoch,lxxx. 4-7; II Esd. v. 4; comp. Amos viii. 9; Joel ii. 10), in the produce of the earth (Enoch, lxxx. 2; Book of Jubilees, xxiii. 18; II Esd. vi. 22; Sibyllines, iii. 539), and in human progeny (Book of Jubilees, xxiii. 25; Sibyllines, ii. 154 et seq.; II Esd. v. 8, vi. 21). Birds and beasts, trees, stones, and wells will cease to act in harmony with nature (II Esd. v. 6-8, vi. 24).
Particularly prominent among the plagues of the time, of which Baruch xxviii. 2-3 counts twelve, will be “the sword, famine, earthquake, and fire”; according to Book of Jubilees, xxiii. 13, “illness and pain, frost and fever, famine and death, sword and captivity”; but greater than the terror and havoc caused by the elements will be the moral corruptionand perversion, the wickedness and unchastity anticipated in prophetic visions, and the power of evil spirits (Syriac Apoc. Baruch, l.c. and lxx. 2-8; Book of Jubilees, xxiii. 13-19). This view of the prevalence of the spirit of evil and seduction to sin in the last days received special emphasis in the Ḥasidean schools; hence the striking resemblance between the tannaitic and the apocalyptic picture of the time preceding the Messianic advent: “In the last days false prophets [pseudo-Messiahs] and corrupters will increase and sheep be turned into wolves, love into hatred; lawlessness [see Belial] will prevail, causing men to hate, persecute, and deliver up each other; and Satan, ‘the world-deceiver’ (see Antichrist), will in the guise of the Son of God perform miracles, and as ruler of the earth commit unheard-of crimes” (“Didache,” xvi. 3 et seq.; Sibyllines, ii. 165 et seq., iii. 63; Matt. xxiv. 5-12; II Tim. iii. 1 et seq.). The rabbinic description is similar: “The footsteps of the Messiah [ , taken from Ps. lxxxix. 52; comp. the term , “the last days of the rule of Esau”=”Edom–Rome”; II Esd. vi. 8-10; comp. Gen. R. lxiii.; Yalḳut and Midrash ha-Gadol, ed. Schechter, on Gen. xxv. 26; Pirḳe R. El. xxxii.] are seen in the turning of the schoolhouse into a brothel, the desolation of Galilee and Gaulanitis, the going about of the scribes and saints as despised beggars, the insolence and lawlessness of the people, the disrespect of the younger generation toward the older, and the turning of the rulers to heresy” (Soṭah ix. 15; Derek Erez Zuṭa x. with Sanh. l.c.) counts seven periods of tribulation preceding the advent of the son of David. The Abraham Apocalypse (xxx.) mentions ten plagues as being prepared for the heathen of the time: (1) distress; (2) conflagration; (3) pestilence among beasts; (4) famine; (5) earthquakes and wars; (6) hail and frost; (7) wild beasts; (8) pestilence and death among men; (9) destruction and flight (comp. Isa. xxvi. 20; Zech. xiv. 5); and (10) noises and rumblings (comp. in the sixth period of Simon b. Yoḥai; comp. Test. Patr., Levi, 17, where also seven periods precede the kingdom of God).