2nd–5th centuries

Expectation of the end and chiliasm in the early Church: from Papias and Irenaeus to Augustine

Among the Apostolic Fathers the end appears very near, and the main emphasis falls on the coming Judgment; in some of them (Barnabas, Hermas, Papias) the final Kingdom is preceded by a millennial one. The first interpretation of Revelation 20 as an earthly millennial kingdom is connected with Papias, who appealed to "unwritten tradition"; Irenaeus (c. 180) expected Christ to reign for a thousand years and the righteous to be raised in a restored earthly Jerusalem, while the anti-Gnostic Fathers connected the end with the appearance of the Antichrist and the Sabbath rest of the millennium after six thousand years of the world. Justin acknowledged pious Christians who did not share this hope, so, according to Pelikan, millenarianism early became one of the permissible opinions and was never formally condemned. Origen considered the literal interpretation "unworthy of the divine promises," Eusebius called Papias's millenarianism "strange" and "rather fabulous," and Augustine abandoned it in favor of the view that the thousand years are the time of the Church.