Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/563

MILLENNIUM. 509 MILLENNIUM. thought from a IVisian soiiixu. The Scriptural juslitiiiitiuii was found in I'salni xc. 4, "A thou- sand years in thy sight are liut as yesterday when it is past," and the length of the Messianic Age was inferred from an interpretation of Gen. ii. 2, based on the word of the I'salmist, as is seen by utterances of rabbis living in the second century A.n. {Midnish TcltilliM to Ps. xc. and Yalkut Shimeuni to Ps. l.vxii.). Before the" fall of Jerusalem in A.n. 70 there is no evidence that the expected Jewish world-empire, whether with or without a Jlessiah, was thought of as being of limited duration. That Israel would never yield its supremacy to any other nation was a firm conviction. The Messianic King was prob- ably looked upon as the founder of a dynasty. Toward the end of the first century, however, the conception of the Jlessiah became more tran- scendent, and his reign might be thouglit to last "until the corruption of the world should end,' characterized by great prosperity (Apocribipse of Baiiich xl. 3; .xxix., Ixxiii.), or, more precisely, 400 years to be followed by seven days of silence, the general resurrection, and the last judg- ment (q.v.) as set forth in the Apocali/pse of Ezra (vii. 28, 29). The first mention' of the millennium is in the Slaroiiic Enoch (xxxii. 2- x.xiii. 2) : but in this book there is no Messiah. A summary of opinions in the Babylonian Tal- mud (iSanhedrin 97a, 00a) shows that it was comparatively seldom that a .Jewish teacher esti- mated at a thousand vears the length of Yahweh's reign. 40, 70, 3(i5, 400. 000, 2000, and 7000 j'ears being suggested ly different teachers. In the New Testament the doctrine of a mil- lennium is clearly taught in Rev. xx. After the returned Messiah has conquered the beast. Satan is cast into the abyss in chains for 1000 years, the martyrs are raised from the dead and reign with Christ as kings and priests during the mil- lennium. .t the end of the millennium the powers of evil are let loose again for a short time, where- upon follow the resurrection of the rest of the dead, the last judgment, the destruction of death and Hades, which is the second death, and the new heavens and the new earth. Critical exegesis agrees with the Chiliasts of the Early Church and the present pre-niillenarians that the author of this ]iassage no doubt believed that Jesus would return upon the clouds before the mil- lennium to reign with some of His saints for a thousand years in visible form. It cannot be proven, however, that other writers in the New Testament cherished this view, or that they all held the same opinion concerning the world's future. The Gnostics rejected this doctrine and their opposition was continued by such teachers of the .Vlexandrian School as Clement and Origen. On the other hand. lren;pus informs us (.IfZr. Hncr.. V. 3.3) that Papias. Bishop of Hieropolis, had recorded as a saying of .Tesus a reniark.able description of the fertility of the vine in the millennium; the epistle attributed to Barnabas describes the millenniuni as a period of rest fol- lowing six thousand years of work to be ushered in by the return of Christ (xv. 5) : and .Justin Martyr likewise expressed his belief in the pre- niillennial coming of Christ and the thousand years of His reign in .Jerusalem (Apnl. .52: c. Trjiph. 4.5, 49, 113). Iremeus, Tertullian. and Hippnlvtus were also Chiliasts. An ardent ex- pectation of the millennial kingdom characterized the Montanists. who looked for its establishment at Pepuza in Phiygia. The reaction against Montanism led to a more general rejection of the doctrine of a millennium. Dionysius of Alex- andria attacked the very foundation of this doc- trine in denying the .Johannine authorship of Revelation. .Such doubts did not disturb the Western Church, and men like Conimodian and Lactantius were Chiliasts. Only through the in- fluence of Jerome and especially Augustine, whose C'ivitas Dei identified the Church with the kingdom of Ci(jd and the millennium with the his- tory of the Church, did Latin Christianity com- mit itself to an eschatological programme ex- cluding the pre-millennial advent, the tirst resui'- rection, and the visible reign im earth. During the Middle Ages earnest and spiritually minded men, grie-cd at the many abuses that spread in the Church, could not but look for Divine chas- tisement. Miile there does not seem to be sulTi- cient foundation for the current statement that the end of the world was generally expected about the year 1000 ..D., there are many indica- tions of the anxiety that at sundiy times tilled pious hearts as w'ell as guilty consciences. The great hymn Dies irw, dies ilia reveals both a fearful looking forward to the impending judg- ment and the part that the Sib.ylliue Oracles and similar works plaj'ed in creating this mood. Mil- lenarian views were held by men like Joachim of Floris and Occam ami by numerous religious bodies. In the Reformation era the hope of a speed}' establishment of the Messianic kingdom was especially cherished by many of the Baptists. They were led to it by their doctrine of the inner light and the continuance of prophecy, by their sympathy with the ojipressed, and by their dis- approval of the union of Church and State. Looking for the establishment of the truth and the righting of social wrongs to God alone, and expecting a direct revelation from Him, some naturally were led astray by their impulses un- der pressure of circumstances. But the estab- lishment of the millennial kingdom by .John of Leyden ( q.v. ) at iliinster was an error regretted and condemned by the great majority of Baptists. The Fifth Monarchy men of Cronnvell's time looked upon the millennium as having actually begun with the overthrow of the royal f#mily in England. Many English mystics looked forward to the second advent in the year 10G6, and their faith found a curious reflection even in .Tudaisiii. (See Messiah.) Chiliastic views were embraced by Comenius, who translated into Latin a number of recent prophecies as to the end of the world, .Turieu. Spener, and other pietists. Swedenborg held that the millennial dispensation liegau in 1757. Bongel calculated that the millennium would commence in 1830: Miller expected it in 1843; Clianning in 1807: Baxter in 1881. While some pre-millennians devote much attention to pro- phetic chronology, assuming a double fulfillment of the predictions in Daniel and Revelation, others refrain from all attemjits at fixing (he date, but are obliged by the natural inter|ireta- tion of Rev. xx.. with their view of biblical in- fallibility, to allirm the visible coming of Christ before the millennium, . iong the latter there are many learned theologians of recent times. The opinion that this visible coming of Christ will occur after a long period of universal prev- alence of Christianity supposed to be vaguely in- dicated by the thousand years is more widely accepted, but it is further removed from the