The element of the mysterious, apparent in both the matter and the manner of the writing, is a marked feature in every typical Apocalypse. The literature of visions and dreams has its own traditions, which are remarkably persistent; and this fact is unusually well illustrated in the group of Jewish (or Jewish-Christian) writings under consideration.

This apocalyptic quality appears most plainly (a) in the use of fantastic imagery. The best illustration is furnished by the strange living creatures which figure in so many of the visions--"beasts" in which the properties of men, animals, birds, reptiles, or purely imaginary beings are combined in a way that is startling and often grotesque. How characteristic a feature this is may be seen from the following list of the most noteworthy passages in which such creatures are introduced: Dan. 7:1-8, 8:3-12 (both passages of the greatest importance for the history of apocalyptic literature); Enoch, lxxxv.-xc.; 2 Esd. 11:1-12:3, 11-32; Greek Apoc. of Bar. ii, iii; Hebrew Testament, Naphtali's, iii.; Rev. 6:6ff (compare Apoc. of Bar. [Syr.] li.11), ix.7-10, 17-19, xiii.1-18, xvii.3, 12; the Shepherd of Hermas, "Vision," iv.1. Certain mythical or semimythical beings which appear in the Old Testament are also made to play a part of increasing importance in these books. Thus "Leviathan" and "Behemoth" (Enoch, lx.7, 8; 2 Esd. 6:49-52; Apoc. of Bar. xxix.4); "Gog and Magog" (Sibyllines, iii.319ff, 512ff; compare Enoch, lvi.5ff; Rev. 20:8). As might be expected, foreign mythologies are also occasionally laid under contribution