Comparative history of religious teachings holds that Christianity in its early times adopted and totally transfigured previous ideological developments. Christianity appeared at the time when apocalypticism was a major component of Jewish religious thought. It may have had a significant impact on the formation of the Christian worldview. A thorough study of the phenomenon of the Jewish intertestamental apocalyptics is essential.

Realization of the historical significance of apocalyptic Christianity was one of the reasons why apocalyptic perspective was the focus of attention of biblical scholars and theologians beginning with the mid-twentieth century. Attempts to find out the roots of apocalyptic traditions led researchers to often diametrically opposed conclusions. Some associated its origins with the prophetic tradition. Others found “external” influences, particularly Persian ones, being present in eschatological dualism being explicit at different levels. The article attempts to show that in the historical apocalypticism no other “track” is as visible as the one that begins from the apocalyptic aspirations of the late Jewish prophets.