Revelation 20:4

There will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and... the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth.

And further, there was a certain man with us, whose name was John, one of the apostles of Christ, who prophesied, by a revelation that was made to him, that those who believed in our Christ would dwell a thousand years in Jerusalem; and that thereafter the general, and, in short, the eternal resurrection and judgment of all men would likewise take place.

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.

What hope and reward remains for the righteous and for martyrs after the conflicts and sufferings of this present time, The Holy Spirit shows and predicts by Solomon, saying: "And although in the sight of men they suffered torments, yet their hope is full of immortality. And having been troubled in a few things, they shall be in many happily ordered, because God has tried them, and has found them worthy of Himself. As gold in the furnace, He hath tried them; and as whole burnt-offerings of sacrifice, He hath received them, and in its season there will be respect of them. They will shine and run about as sparks in a place set with reeds. They shall judge the nations, and have dominion over the peoples; and their Lord shall reign for ever." In the same also our vengeance is described, and the repentance of those who persecute and molest us is announced. "Then," saith he," shall the righteous stand in great constancy before such as have afflicted them, and who have taken away their labours; when they see it, they shall be troubled with a horrible fear: and they shall marvel at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying among themselves, repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit, These are they whom we had sometime in derision and as a proverb of reproach. We fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without honour. How are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined unto us, and the sun hath not risen upon us. We have been wearied in the way of unrighteousness and perdition, and have walked through hard deserts, but have not known the way of the Lord. What hath pride profited us, or what hath the boasting of riches brought to us? All these things have passed away like a shadow." Likewise in the cxvth Psalm is shown the price and the reward of suffering: "Precious," it says, "in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. In the cxxvth Psalm also is expressed the sadness of the struggle, and the joy of the retribution: "They who sow," it says. "in tears, shall reap in joy. As they walked, they walked and wept, casting their seeds; but as they come again, they shall come in exultation, bearing their sheaves." And again, in the cxviiith Psalm: "Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they who search His testimonies, and seek Him out with their whole heart." Moreover, the Lord in the Gospel, Himself the avenger of our persecution and the rewarder of our suffering, says: "Blessed are they who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." And again: "Blessed shall ye be when men shall hate you, and shall separate you, and shall expel you, and shall revile your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy; for, behold, your reward is great in heaven." And once more: "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." Nor do the rewards of the divine promise attend those alone who are reproached and slain; but if the passion itself, be wanting to the faithful, while their faith has remained sound and unconquered, and having forsaken and contemned all his possessions, the Christian has shown that he is following Christ, even be also is honoured by Christ among the martyrs, as He Himself promises and says: "There is no man that leaveth house, or land, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, but shall receive seven times as much in this present time, and in the world to come eternal life." In the Apocalypse also He says the same thing: "And I saw," saith he, "the souls of them that were slain for the name of Jesus and the word of God." And when he had placed those who were slain in the first place, he added, saying: "And whosoever had not worshipped the image of the beast, neither had received his mark upon their forehead or in their hand; "all these he joins together, as seen by him at one time in the same place, and says, "And they lived and reigned with Christ." He says that all live and reign with Christ, not only who have been slain; but even whosoever, standing in firmness of the faith and in the fear of God, have not worshipped the image of the beast, and have not consented to his deadly and sacrilegious edicts.

"And I saw thrones, and them that sate upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were slain on account of the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his writing on their forehead or in their hand; and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years: the rest of them lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." There are two resurrections. But the first resurrection is now of the souls that are by the faith, which does not permit men to pass over to the second death. Of this resurrection the apostle says: "If ye have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."

Therefore they are not to be heard who assure themselves that there is to be an earthly reign of a thousand years; who think, that is to say, with the heretic Cerinthus. For the kingdom of Christ is now eternal in the saints, although the glory of the saints shall be manifested after the resurrection.

To these belong his [Papias] statement that there will be a period of some thousand years after the resurrection of the dead, and that the kingdom of Christ will be set up in material form on this very earth. I suppose he got these ideas through a misunderstanding of the apostolic accounts, not perceiving that the things said by them were spoken mystically in figures.

For he appears to have been of very limited understanding, as one can see from his discourses. But it was due to him that so many of the Church Fathers after him adopted a like opinion, urging in their own support the antiquity of the man; as for instance Irenæus and any one else that may have proclaimed similar views.

He [Papias] is said to have published a 'Second coming of Our Lord or Millennium'. Irenæus and Apollinaris and others who say that after the resurrection the Lord will reign in the flesh with the saints, follow him. Tertullian also in his work 'On the hope of the faithful', Victorinus of Petau and Lactantius follow this view.

[Daniel 7:17-18] "These four great beasts are the four kingdoms which shall arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High God shall take the kingdom." The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthly in character. "For everything which is of the earth shall return to earth" (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom, but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium! (Revelation 20:4-6)

"...And they shall possess the kingdom unto eternity, even forever and ever..." If this be taken to refer to the Maccabees, the advocate of this position should explain how the kingdom of the Maccabees is of a perpetual character.

During the "thousand years" when the devil is bound, the saints also reign for a "thousand years" and, doubtless, the two periods are identical and mean the span between Christ's first and second coming. For not only in that future kingdom to which Christ referred in the words, "Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you," but even now those saints reign with him in some authentic though vastly inferior fashion. To them he said, "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." … This, to be sure, is the period in which the scribe instructed in the kingdom of heaven brings forth from his storeroom things new and old, as I mentioned above. So, too, the reapers are to gather up out of the church the weeds, which he allows to grow intermixed with the wheat up to the time of harvest.… This certainly cannot be the kingdom that is to be utterly without scandals. The kingdom from which scandals are gathered out, then, must be the church on earth.… The mixed kingdom must be the church, such as she exists in her temporal stage, while the unmixed kingdom is the church such as she will be when she is to contain no evildoer. Consequently the church, even in this world, here and now, is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Here and now Christ's saints reign with him, although not in the way they are destined to reign hereafter; but the "weeds" do not reign with him, even now, though they grow along with the "wheat" in the church.… Those alone reign with Christ whose presence in his kingdom is such that they themselves are his kingdom.… Now it is of this militant stage of the kingdom, during which there is still war with our enemy, alternating victory over, and defeat before, our evil inclinations, that the Apocalypse speaks. The "thousand years" are to last until we come to that kingdom, free of the foe, where the saints reign in fullest peace.… After mentioning the devil's chaining for a thousand years and his brief interval of freedom to follow, John sums up the activity of and in the church during the "thousand years": "And I saw thrones, and men sat upon them and judgment was given to them." Now there is no question of the last judgment in this verse. The thrones and the enthroned people are the prelates who govern the church here and now. And the judgment is best interpreted as the one contained in the words, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven."

We are to understand as implied by the words that come further on that these souls of the martyrs "reigned with Christ a thousand years"—of course, not yet reunited with their bodies. For the souls of the faithful departed are not divorced from Christ's kingdom, which is the temporal church. If they were, we should not be mindful of them at God's altar in the communion of the body of Christ; nor would there be any point in hastening one's baptism in time of danger, lest one die unbaptized; nor in seeking reconciliation, when one has been cut off from Christ's body by a sinful conscience or by the church's penitential discipline. Why do we go to all this trouble if the faithful departed are not still Christ's members? We may be sure, then, that their souls reign with him, just as their bodies will in time to come, even while the thousand years are rolling on.… We conclude, therefore, that even now, in time, the church reigns with Christ both in its living and departed members. "For to this end Christ died," says Paul, "and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." If John mentions only the souls of the martyrs, that is because they who have battled for the truth unto death reign in death with a special splendor. But as the part is here used for the whole, we know that the words apply to the remaining faithful who belong to the same church, which is Christ's kingdom.

This verse should be applied to both the living and the dead.… As to the identity of the beast in question, there is need of very careful study. Nevertheless, consistently with sound faith, one may take it to be the godless city as opposed to the city of God, men and women without faith as opposed to those who believe. The beast's "image," I think, is his deception as found, for example, in such people as profess the faith yet live like pagans. For they pretend to be what, in fact, they are not, and are called Christians, not because of full faith but of false face. The beast possesses, in addition to the openly avowed enemies of Christ's name and of his glorious city, the "weeds" that are marked for uprooting from his kingdom, the church, at the end of the world. Those who do not follow the beast or his image are surely those who follow Paul's admonition: "Do not bear the yoke with unbelievers." Their not worshiping means their not agreeing with, their not becoming subjects to, unbelievers. Their not accepting his "mark" upon their "foreheads" and "hands" means that they refuse the stigma of false faith and bad morals. Such people, alive or dead, keep themselves aloof from such evils and so reign with Christ, even now, in a fashion befitting the passage of time, throughout this whole era indicated by the "thousand years."

For he says, And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. He beholds the holy apostles, according to the promise made to them, "seated upon twelve thrones and judging the twelve tribes of Israel." (Matt. 19:28) Which indeed will be fulfilled more perfectly in the age to come but also occurred to a degree at the time of the Incarnation. For those who had believed in the Lord and been transformed into countless good things judged those who did not willingly run to the faith, nor, having been led by the grace given to the apostles into devotion toward unity, did they ascend, but rather wove for him a cross and death.

And he says, that the souls of those crowned were slain because of the testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God. He saw them sitting together on thrones and judging the rest of mankind.

He says that those who had been beheaded means those who were killed with axes. He speaks metaphorically about the dead who lost their limbs because of faith in Christ, and most of them endured this for that reason. For they were made outcasts, were subjected to countless insults, and had their possessions seized by theft, as the wise apostle testifies (see Heb. 10:34), since they wholly believed in Christ.

Concerning these the Lord also said, "Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and utter every evil word against you falsely on my account." (Matt. 5:11)

If you follow the continuity of the argument and taking every thought captive to the obedience of the divine Scripture, you will understand that those who do not worship the beast nor receive his mark and his image, as not like-minded with the rest of the Jews in plots against the Lord, nor willing to submit to the suggestions of the God-hating Devil; for this is to worship him and his image. For he calls an image the impressing of his will upon the hearts of the Jews. And he calls it a mark, encompassing their ruling and practical parts; for the form of the ruling part is the head, of which the forehead is a part, and the hand is of the practical part.

And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. A thousand years again he calls, according to what was said before, the Lord's reign upon earth, by which they lived the spiritual life, and they reigned together with Christ, commanding demons, rebuking passions, and working countless miracles. Not that even the mere thought that he should share the kingship of the glory with Christ is granted to him alone. (see 2 Tim. 2:10-12) Therefore it is also said concerning them by the prophet in the phrase "the heavenly kings upon it shall be whitened in Selmon." (Ps. 68:14)

The souls of all the martyrs and of all the Christian faithful who rise again and awaken from the dust of the earth shall reign, it says, with Christ for a thousand years. That is, they will reign by the sign of the cross and by the pre-eminence of the Lord's passion.

And I saw the seats. Already teaching thrones have been given to the holy apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. They will be given, according to the divine promise also in the future for judging those who rejected the gospel preaching. And the souls of them.... they will judge the demons, until the consummation the present age, (the saints) being venerated by pious kings and faithful rulers, and manifesting God-given power against every bodily ailment and demonic activity.

Those liberated from them by Christ, according to the manner mentioned above, will co-reign until his second coming, afterwards enjoying these divine promises to an even greater degree.

Indeed, the teaching thrones had already been given to the holy apostles through whom the nations have been enlightened. However, thrones will also be given according to the purpose of God in the age to come for the condemnation of those who rejected the preaching of the gospel. As David said, "For there the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, as a testimony for Israel," and again, "For there are set thrones for judgment."

Judgment, that is, the authority to judge, was given to the rest of the saints, namely, to the martyrs who suffered for Christ and did not receive the mark of that spiritual beast, the devil, that is, the image of his apostasy. And as we can see, even to the present time they judge the demons by this authority, for they reign with Christ until the consummation of the present age and are honored by pious kings and faithful rulers and demonstrate their God-given power against every bodily weakness and demonic activity. It is clear that the devil, the antichrist and the false prophet share with one another both their deeds and their names, since each of them is called "beast," and the dragon, clearly Satan, is shown with seven heads and ten horns with as many diadems. Moreover, the beast that comes up out of the sea, clearly the antichrist, appears in a similar form and testifies to the same will and activity for the destruction of those who have been deceived. Those who have been freed from this will reign with Christ in the manner just mentioned until his second coming, and after that they will enjoy more abundantly the promises of God.

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, etc. He indicates what will be done during these thousand years in which the devil is bound. The Church, which will sit in Christ on the twelve thrones to judge, already sits, judging, as it has merited to hear from its King: Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven (Matt. 16).

And the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus, etc. It is understood what he will say later: They reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The Church, therefore, reigns with Christ among the living and the dead. For this reason, as the Apostle says, Christ died so that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead (Rom. 14). But he mentions only the souls of the martyrs because they particularly reign after death, having fought for the truth to the point of death. What follows:

And those who did not worship the beast, etc. We must understand this as referring to both the living and the dead, who, whether still living in this mortal flesh or having passed away, reign with Christ already now in a way appropriate to this time, throughout this entire interval signified by the number of a thousand years.

I saw thrones that had been placed, and they sat upon them, and judgment over their souls, etc.—The saints do not receive a single reward, as if established in equality. Greater will be the reward of the virgin than that of the married; also that of him who has suffered martyrdom for our Lord, greater than that of him who has not rendered testimony. For what is said, he will give a denarius to the first and to those who have come toward evening, means about life, because all live; he calls life a denarius. Because the righteous will rise first, Zechariah teaches: The Lord will come and all the saints with him; Isaiah: The dead will rise, and those in tombs will be revived; and Paul: The dead who in Christ will rise first. And thus on the matter says John, that the slain are raised first on that glorious day. He calls this the first resurrection, not because there is a second resurrection, but he teaches of the order of the righteous, who are to be the first to enter into the kingdom; the second order is of those who will be rejected like the goats. Some say that all the dead are resurrected together in the blink of an eye; but the righteous first and afterwards the wicked.

judgment was given. those who persevere in Divine contemplation, who read every day the book of wisdom, transcribe, so to speak, in their hearts whatever they grasp by their clear insight of the truth. What else are the hearts of those who judge, divinely instructed in all truth, but a codex of the law? the judges to open the books of their decree in the presence of those who are to be judged signifies that they open their hearts to the gaze of all those who are below them, and that they reveal their knowledge in whatever pertains to the judgment.