Temples and Sanctuaries within Their Apocalyptic Setting

References to cult and sacrifices in Jewish apocalyptic literature from Hellenistic-Roman times are rather meager. This is also true with regards to places, better say the place, that may function as a dedicated site for those sacrifices: the temple. Temple imagery is clearly attested in Jewish apocalyptic traditions, but its role can at best be described as ambiguous. While sources from the “real-life” sphere, like the coins of the Bar Kokhba revolt-whose leader obviously was a figure within a messianic-apocalyptic setting-refer explicitly to the Jerusalem Temple, the earlier apocalyptic writings like the Book of the Watchers, the Apocalypse of Weeks or the Animal Apocalypse tend to turn the temple, or temples and sanctuaries, into metaphors-like “Heaven,” “Adam” or “God”- and to adopt a more or less hesitant attitude towards cult and locations for cult. In my opinion, the reason for this opaque treatment of the temple or temples is that apocalypticism integrates those places for worship into its “cosmic” worldview.