First, you say that the word
"Millennium" is not in the Bible. Then, that a "
thousand year period" This is not a very good argument since a period of 1000 years is what a Millennium is. Next, you presume your own premise offering the gratuitous assertion that 1000 "represents" a
long period of time" I say gratuitous because you do not bother basing your opinion on anything in the text. I am of the opinion that we can infer typology only if there is a Biblical precedent for doing so, or if there are language cues that suggest there is another meaning. I have seen how typology can be simply a means of
importing a meaning into the text that it did not have.
The early Church historian, Eusebius, saw much agreement between the 1000 years mentioned in Revelation and the comments of another early hearer of what the surviving disciples of Jesus and the elders—those who had personally known the
Twelve Apostles—were saying. Papias (
c. AD 60 – c. 130.) was a
Greek Apostolic Father and the
Bishop of Hierapolis who wrote a book
Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord (
Greek: Λογίων Κυριακῶν Ἐξήγησις) which consisted of the accounts of witnesses to the Resurrection. Papias understood the future MILLENIUM to be a
literal period of time.
Another early Christian source was the so-called
Epistle of Barnabas (not to be confused with the
Gospel of Barnabas) The Epistle of Barnabas was an
early writing of Christianity frequently cited by other church fathers such as
Justin Martyr in his
Dialogue with Trypho (written cir. 155). This work expresses a belief in a
literal millennium centered in Jerusalem and
predicted by Old Testament prophets. As Justin wrote,
“But I and others, who are right-minded Christians on all points, are assured that there will be a resurrection of the dead, and a thousand years in Jerusalem, which will then be built, adorned, and enlarged, as the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah and others declare.
One very reliable witness was
Irenaeus of Lyons who discusses the Millieniam in his multi-volume work
Against Heresies (written from 180 to 199 AD). Irenaeus applies the “seventh day” rest to the fulfillment of eschatological promises. He wrote, “
These [promises given by Christ]
are to take place in the times of the kingdom, that is, upon the seventh day, which has been sanctified, in which God rested from all the works which He created, which is the true Sabbath of the righteous
It was not until much later that individuals began to introduce allegorical interpretations
