Why do some of the writings of the early Church speak of a literal millennium?

Our discussion so far of the interpretation of this text that speaks of the millennium and the first resurrection has not yet touched upon a certain strain of thought that can be found in some writings of the Fathers of the first three centuries — a literal interpretation of the text

1207 St. Augustine of Hippo, City of God 20.6 (NPNF I/2:425) amended.

1208 St. Athanasius of Alexandria, Four Discourses Against the Arians 2.69 (NPNF II/4:386).

1209 St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Four Homilies 2 (ANF 6:61).

according to which the Lord will reign upon the earth with the faithful in a temporal dominion for a period of a thousand years. We need to distinguish between that which is found in ancient writings on this topic and that which is found in contemporary writings. We know that the Jews had their own materialistic views that caused them to reject our Lord Jesus because He refused any temporal dominion. And until today, some of them still await the coming of the Messiah whose reign will establish a temporal dominion over the whole world. This view entered the Church at its inception via two routes:

• a. Jews who became Christian and brought with them their materialistic interpretations.¹²¹⁰ This view is found interspersed among writings and sermons of this period. Thus we find, for example, the Church Father Papias , a man of the first century, envisioning a temporal and material kingdom inaugurated with a resurrection and lasting one thousand years. In it, grape vines grow, each vine bearing ten thousand branches and each branch bearing ten thousand twigs, etc.,¹²¹¹ and other things that materialistic Jewish thought naively accepts. Eusebius says that Papias fell into this materialistic approach due to his lack of understanding of the apostolic writings — he failed to appreciate that their sayings were figurative (spiritual). The similar views of some of the Church Fathers after Papias can be traced back to him,¹²¹² views that Eusebius calls “mythical.”¹²¹³ St. Augustine also fell into this error at first, but later realized his mistake.

• b. In reading Justin’s dialogue with Trypho the Jew,¹²¹⁴ we cannot help but notice Justin’s enthusiasm and zeal to show that all the promises and blessings the Jews received were completed and fulfilled in the Church of the New Testament. Thus, he tried to prove that prophecies such as Isa. 65:17–25 and Mic. 4:1–7 are “transferred” to Christians.

We find the same approach in Tertullian’s dialogues with the Jews. Although he agrees that all the Old Testament promises have been transferred to the Church and that the Jews were deprived of every blessing, he nonetheless goes back and also transfers materialistic Jewish thought to the Church.