MILLENNIUM ( Neo- Lat.. from Lat. milli, thousand 4- (mums, year). A period of Mi0 thousand years preceding the final judgment (q.v.)' during which, according to a widely ac cepted system of Christ ian eschatology, t he Christ and Icis saints will reign on the earth. The division of the course into periods is found among, many peoples. Thus the }Unitas divided the history of the world into banns of hundreds or thousands of years., and the Incas made four great periods. (See Esen.vrommv.1 A long national existence and a tradition of (Tr Lain epoch-making events naturally :lemmt for such a partition. The Persians counted twelve periods each of one thousand years. It is likely that this division into twelve parts was derived (nun the Babylonians. and ultimately goes baek to calculations of the sun's course through the twelve signs of the zodiac. It is significant that the third. fourth, fifth, sixth. seventh. and eighth thousand years are attributed respectively to Cancer. Leo. Virgo. Libra. Scorpio. and Sagit tarius in Illgolahish 31. The number 1000 may have a different origin, since t ht. great cosmic year would demand a larger figure. According to the Tarsi doctrine, six thousand of the twelve thou• sand rears are occupied by the history of man. Zarathustra appears at the beginning of the fourth and the Saoshyant will (-mite at the end the last to raise the dead and to 11111.\\* the world. While this doctrine is fully presented only in late Pahlavi writings. such as the Einulahish and the llin1 grt. there are indications of a much higher age. as e.200 familiar h the Zoroastrian Mat rine of a eyrie of IcmIre thousand and Iterosi; tc.300 n to leave rationalized the doe! rine of akarrlin t iMP. and its period. It is altogether probable that the ception HIM human history would endure 6000 years before the Messianic Age came into Jewish thought from a Persian source. The Scriptural justification was found in Psalm xc. 4, "A thou sand years in thy sight are but 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 Psalmist, as is seen by utterances of rabbis living in the second century A.D. ( TCh to XC. and to l's. lxxii.). Before thC fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 there is no evidence that the expected Jewish world-empire, whether with or without a Messiah, 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 Messiah hecame more tran scendent, and his reign might be thought to last `until the corruption of the world should end,' characterized by great prosperity (ApocalypNe of Baruch, xl. 3; xxix., lxxiii.), 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 _I pocalypse of Ezra (vii. 2S, 29). The first mention of the millennium is in the Nlaronic Enoch' (xxxii. 2 XXNiii. ) ; but in this book there is no Messiah. A summary of opinions in the 1;abylonian Tal mud (Sanhedrin 97a. 09a) shows that it was comparatively seldom that a Jewish teacher esti mated at a thousand years the length of Yahweh's reign, 40, 70, 305, 400, 600, 2000, and 7000 years being suggested by 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 faun the dead and reign with Christ as kings and priests during the mil lennium. At 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-millenarians that the author of this passage 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 doetrine and their opposition was continued by such teachers of the Alexandrian School as Clement and Origen. On the other hand. Irenams informs Baer., v. 33) that Papias, Bishop of THeropolis, had recorded as a saying of Jesus a remarkable description of the fertility of the vine in the millennium; the epistle attrihuted to Barnabas describes the millennium 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 millennial coining of Christ and the thousand years of His reign in .Jerusalem (.I poi. 52; e. Tryph. 45, 49. 113). Irenams, Tertullian. and Hippolytus were also Chiliasts. An ardent ex pectation of the millennial kingdom characterized the Montanists, who looked for its establishment at l'epuza in Phrygia. The reaction against Moutanism 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 ('ommodian and Lactantins were Chiliasts. Only through the in fluence of Jerome and especially Augustine, whose Civitas Dci identified the Church with the kingdom of God 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 first resur rection, and the visible reign on earth. During the Middle Ages earnest and spiritually minded men, grieved at the many abuses that spread in the Church, could not but look for Divine chas tisement. While there does not seem to be suffi cient foundation for the current statement that the end of the world was generally expected about the year 1000 A.D., there are many indica tions of the anxiety that at sundry times tilled pious hearts as well as guilty consciences. The great hymn Dies ira', dies reveals both a fearful looking forward to the impending judg ment and the part that the Sibylline Oracles and similar works played in creating this mood. Mil lenarian views were held by men like Joachim of Fl or is and Occain and by numerous religious bodies. In the Ileformation era the hope of a speedy 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 aml the emitinuance of pnmhecy• by sympathy with the oppressed, aml 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, sonic naturally were led astray by their impulses un der pressure of circumstances. But the estab lishment of tlre millennial kingdom by John of Leyden (q.v.) at Miinster was an error regretted and condemned by the great majority of Baptists. The Fifth Monarchy men of Cromwell's time looked upon the millennium as having actually begun with the overthrow of the royal family in England. Many English mystics looked forward to the second advent in the year 1666, and their faith found a curious reflection even in Judaism. (See MEsst.m.) Chiliastic views were embraced by Comenins, who translated into Latin a number of recent prophecies as to the end of the world, Jurieu. Speller, and other pietist:. Swedenhorg held that the millennial dispensation began in 1757. Mengel calculated that the millennium would commence in 1836: Miller expected it in 184:3; Channing in 1867; Baxter in 1881. While sonic pre-millennia IN devote much attention to imo plietie ehronology, assuming a double fnlfillment of the predictions in and 1tevelation, others refrain from all attempts at fixing the date, hut are obliged by the natural interpreta tion of Rev. xx., with their view of biblical in fallibility, to affirm the visible mining of Christ before the millennium. Among the latter there are many learned theologians of recent times. The (minion that this visible coming of Christ will occur after a long period of universal prey alenee of Christianity supposed to be vaguely in dicated by the thousand years is more widely accepted, but it is further removed from the conceptions of early t'llristianity and cannot readily Mid the :?eriptural support that it de mands. 'nic distinction between pre-millennian ism and post-millennianisin is rapidly losing its significative, as modern theology has a tendency to look upon the primitive Christian expectation of the return of Jesus as an illusion, historically necessary,but not of permanent worth : to consider the absolute tictory of one system of religious faith and practice less desirable than the ascend envy of what is morally most excellent in all creeds, and cults; and to expect a gradual im provement of the social conditions and the char acter of the human race to be wrought by actu ally operating forces.
Ittamotat.t1•11Y. Consult: Calixtus, Dc hint Prilient, Urnolo ( Helmstedt, 1602) ; Corrodi, kritischr llesehichte tics C'hiltas Inas (Zurich, 1781) ; Drummond. The wish Messiah. kl.ondon, 15i 71 l-qauton. The it Irish awl t'llristian Messiah ( Edinburgh, • 188(1) ; Charles. _1 Critical Ilislory of the Doctrine of the l'uture 1,ifc (London. 1899) : Siiderblont, La rie future darts le roa:claismc (Paris, 1900 Weber, -111dischr Theoingie a of Grand des Trrlurtrcl (Leipzig. 1807) ; Otto, in Zvi/schrift file tri.s.scii .schaftli, he Theologie (Leipzig. I877 : Schultz.. in .Iahrbiichcr f iir ek7lietirc Thco(oyir ( (lot ha, I SW) ; Claris Apocalyptic, (London.
1627) ; Jurien, L'occontidissement rb's IlNitterdaiii, 1686) : Corny:this, 11.r in 7'enebris (Rotterdam, I(.17) : Newton, Dissertations cm the Prophecies (London, 1755) ; Elliott, /lora• .1poefilmo1i0•u• (London, ItiG2) : Hofmann. Weis sogioty uml (Nilrdlingen, 18-11-14) ; Auberlen. Daniel and die Offenbarany doluoinis (3(1 ed., Basel. 187I) lAttlrardt, von (len B-,Irn Dinar (Leipzig. 1870): Ilonar.
iral Landmarks (London. 1859) Seiss, 7'11c Last Times (2,1 Cll., P1111:1111.1phia, 15781: Guinness, Ipprooehiny E»01 of the „lge (London, 1579 SO); `:tllnomd. christia» Doetrim of Immortal ity (3t1 ed.. Edinburgh. 15971; Terry. Biblical NeW Dork, 159N) 8(11111'cl% JI isIra t,of the People in lb,- Time of Jesus Christ (Ellg. trans.. Edinburgh. 188G-00). See 1%.sci1 aTol.m.Y ; •TI 1)(;1E8T,VINAL;