Apocalypse. Millennium. Chiliasm and Chillegorism

Commodian of Gaza (3rd century)

Excerpt from “Carmen apologeticum adversus judaeos et gentes”, also known as “Carmen de duobus populis”:

…The law and the prophets proclaim who is worthy of God’s heaven,

And reveal the secrets of the golden age.

[…]

In addition, he adds that we will be immortal,

To enjoy what the eye hath not seen before.

After the six thousand years have passed…

Excerpt from “Instructiones adversus gentium deos pro christiana disciplina”:

[…] A city will descend from heaven in the first resurrection.

And what shall we say about this heavenly creation?

We shall all rise who were faithful to Him.

They will be incorruptible, and life will be untouched by death,

There will be no more illness or sighing.

Only those will enter the city who were victorious in the times of the Antichrist

In martyrdom they have gained life forever and ever.

They will receive good things, for they have suffered through tribulations.

They will marry, and they will bring forth offspring

In the course of a thousand years, and earthly tributes will be given to them.

For the earth will bring them forth and renew them without end.

Shower rains will not come, nor will this golden fortress be touched by cold,

And there will be no siege, as it is now, nor robbery.

The city will not want the light of lamps,

For the Creator Himself will be its light, and night will be no more.

It will be twelve thousand stadia in length, width, and hight,

Its root will abide in the earth, and its head will rise to heaven.

And before the gates of the city, the sun and the moon will shine,

The evil one will be captured in anguish for the sake of nourishing the righteous,

For a thousand years God will keep him in chains. […]

St. Victorinus of Petava (230 – 303/304)

Excerpt from “On the Creation of the World”:

4. On the fifth day, earth and water yielded their fruit [see Gen 1:20—23]. On the sixth day, all that was still lacking was made. Because of this, God made the man out of the earth [see Gen 2:7] and set him as the ruler over all things that God created on earth and under water [see Gen 1:28]. However, before [man], God created angels and archangels, thus setting the spiritual principle above the earthly one. The light was created before the heaven and earth. The sixth day is called Friday [Paraskeva], or the preparation for the Kingdom [see Rev 5:10; 20:4]. God created Adam in His image and likeness [see Gen 1:26]. He created angels, as well as man, after finishing all His works so that neither man nor angels could claim to have been His helpers in the creation of the world.

5. On the seventh day, God rested from all his works, and He blessed and sanctified them [Gen 2:2—3]. This day we honor above all other days because on the Day of the Lord we partake of the Bread with thanksgiving. And Friday becomes our fast so that it would not seem as if we were observing the Sabbath together with the Jews, for the Lord of the Sabbath, Christ [Mt 12:8], said through the prophets that His soul hates the Sabbaths [Is 1:13—14] because He had fulfilled the Sabbath in His body. However, even before that, He had commanded Moses about the circumcision that should be performed no later than on the eighth day [see Lev 12:3], which often falls on the Sabbath as we read in the Gospels [see Jn 7:22]. Moses, seeing that these people are hard-hearted, lifted his hands and crucified himself in the battle waged by an enemy on the Sabbath [see Is 17:8—13], so that they would be captured and learn through the strictness of the law the doctrine which they had been neglecting.

6. And that’s why in the sixth psalm, David pleads with the Lord about the eighth day, asking him not to rebuke him in anger, nor chasten him in hot displeasure [Ps 6:1 (Ps 6:1—2 rus)]. This is indeed the eighth day of this coming judgment, which will be taken outside of the order of events during that week. Joshua, the successor of Moses, also broke the Sabbath. For he commanded the sons of Israel to go around the walls of Jericho with the sound of trumpets and declare war on the enemy on the Sabbath day [see Josh 6:3, 15]. Mattathias, the leader in Judea, broke the Sabbath rest, putting to death the commander Antiochus, the king of Syria, on a Sabbath and pursuing his enemies on the same day [see 1 Macc 2:25, 41, 47]. In Matthew [see Mt 12:3—5], we find a similar text. Isaiah and some of his followers [see Is 1:13; Hos 2:13] broke the Sabbath to keep the true Sabbath of the seventh millennium. Therefore, by each of these seven days, the Lord individually points to the Millennium. For it says: “For a thousand years in thine eyes are but as one day” [Ps 90:4 (Ps 89:5 rus); 2 Pet 3:8]. Therefore, each millennium is “in the eyes of God”, and there are seven eyes of the Lord, according to my calculations [Zech 4:10]. As I have mentioned earlier, this is the reason why the true Sabbath is the seventh millennium, in which Christ will reign with his elect [see Rev 20:6].

Excerpt from “Commentary on the Apocalypse”:

19 And a white horse, and one sitting upon him shows our Lord coming with the heavenly army to reign, at Whose coming all the nations will be gathered [Rev 19:11—16], and will fall by the sword [Rev 19:21]. And others who were nobles will serve in the service of the saints [Rev 20:4]; and of these (nobles) also he shows they will be killed in the end time, at the finish of the reign of the saints, before the judgment, after the release of the devil [Rev 20:7—8]. On these all the prophets likewise agree.

20,1 And the scarlet devil is imprisoned and all his fugitive angels in the Tartarus of Gehenna at the coming of the Lord; no one is ignorant of this [Rev 20:1—3]. And after the thousand years he is released, because of the nations which will have served Antichrist: so that they alone might perish, as they deserved [Rev 20:7—10]. Then is the general judgment. Therefore he says: And they lived, he says, the dead who were written in the book of life, and they reigned with Christ a thousand years. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first resurrection: toward this one the second death has no power [Rev 20:4—6]. Of this resurrection, he says: And I saw the Lamb standing, and with him 144 thousands, that is, standing with Christ, namely those of the Jews in the last time who become believers through the preaching of Elijah, those who, the Spirit bears witness, are virgins not only in body, but also in language [Rev 14:1—5]. Therefore, as he reminds above, the 24 elder-aged said: Grace we bring to You, O Lord God who has reigned; and the nations are angry [Rev 11:16—18].

20,2 At this same first resurrection will also appear the City and the splendid things expressed through this Scripture [Rev 21:2, 10]. Of this first resurrection Paul also spoke to the Macedonian church, thus: For as we have thus said to you, he says, by the Word of God, that at the trumpet of God, the Lord Himself will descend from heaven for raising up; and the dead in Christ will stand first, then we who are living, as we will be taken up with Him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord [1 Thess 4:16—17]. We have heard the trumpet spoken of; it is observed that in another place the Apostle names another trumpet. Therefore he says to the Corinthians: At the last trumpet, the dead will rise, will become immortal, and we will be changed [1 Cor 15:51—52]. He says the dead will be be raised immortal for bearing punishments, but it is shown that we are to be changed and to be covered in glory. Therefore where we hear “the last trumpet,” we must understand also a first, for these are two resurrections. Therefore, however many were not previously to rise in the first resurrection and to reign with Christ over the world, over all nations, will rise at the last trumpet, after the thousand years, that is, in the last resurrection, among the impious and sinners and perpetrators of various kinds. He rightly adds, saying: Blessed and holy is he who has a part in the first anastasis: toward this one the second death has no power [Rev 20:7]. For the second death is being thrown into hell.

21,1 Therefore in the kingdom and in the first resurrection appears the holy city, of which he speaks, descending from heaven [Rev 21:2, 10], foursquare, walled around with stones of different and precious and coloured and various kinds, like fine gold, that is, bright [Rev 21:12—20]. In crystal, he says, is its street paved [Rev 21:21]; the river of life flowing through the middle, and springs of waters of life; the tree of life around it, making different fruits for every month [Rev 21:1—2]; no light of the sun is there, because of a greater glory. The Lamb, he says, is its light [Rev 21:11, 23; 22:1—5].

21,2 Its gates, truly, are each a single pearl, three from each part, not closed, but to be open [Rev 21:21, 25]. Scripture shows many reasons for the gifts of the kings of regions and nations, (kings) who will be servants, being brought there: he speaks of the subjection of the last ones, which we have treated. But the city is not thus understood, as one (?) we have known; for we are not able to testify any further, without a guide, to that which we have heard and seen. Otherwise, the city is spoken of as all those provinces of the Eastern region promissed to the Patriarch Abraham. Look, he says, to the heavens, from the place in which you are now standing [Gen 13:14], that is, from the great river Euphrates to the river of Egypt [Gen 15:18]; all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your seed [Gen 13:15]. Finally, the Holy Spirit says: It will be ruled from sea to sea, that is, from the Red Sea, which is in Arabia, to the North Sea, which is the Sea of Phoenicia, and to the ends of the earth [Ps 72:8 (Ps 71:8 rus)]: which are the major parts of Syria. Therefore, all these provinces are to be levelled and cleansed at the coming of the Lord and (His) brightness descending from heaven like a cloud, outshining the brightness of the sun, and are shown contained in the circuit (of its walls).

21,3 For as the Holy Spirit has also testified through Isaiah: Like a smoke of light burning with fire; with all the glory it will be covered [Is 4:5]; and in another place he says, Shine, Jerusalem! For your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen for you. For the sun will not illuminate for you by day, nor the moon for you by night; the Lord your God will be for you an eternal light [Is 60:1, 19—20]. And David says: And there will be on the earth a firmament above the peaks of the mountains, and his fruit will be exalted over that of Lebanon, and they of the city will flourish like the grass of the earth [Ps 72:16 (Ps 71:16 rus)]. And Daniel spoke of the stone cut out without hands to strike the statue having four in it, that is, gold and silver, bronze and iron, and clay in the last; and this stone, after it will have reduced the statue to dust, will become a great mountain, filling the whole earth [Dan 2:31—35]. And he interpreted the dream for the king, and says: You are, he says, the gold head, and your nation. Another kingdom, he says, will rise, lesser than you, and there will be a third kingdom which will rule the whole earth. And the fourth kingdom: very hard and very strong, like iron which subdues everything and cuts down every tree

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