The underlying questions which have led to the development of dualism, angelology, cosmology, astrology and so forth, are to a large extent identical with the basic problems which occupy the entire period of Hellenism, and which have precipitated parallel doctrines there. We have to free ourselves from the idea of treating apocalypticism as an isolated and purely inner-Jewish phenomenon. Rather, we must learn to understand apocalypticism as a peculiar manifestation within the entire course of Hellenistic oriental syncretism.34
