History of the Doctrine on the Millennial Reign
Written by Darrell D. Genzlinger in May 1998
Revised in Summer of 2003
Updated Reference Links in October 2007
The authors and times of the writers on the subject of a messianic millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth can be divided into two categories; those that were written before the Christian era began and those that were written after Christ walked on this earth.I. Before Christian Era
Isaiah - 720 - 700 B.C.
Ezekiel - 585 B.C.
Zechariah - 500 B.C.
Septuagint written between 285-246 B.C.
Book of Jubilees written between 109-105 B.C.II. Christian Era
New Testament written - A.D. 50 - 100
The Revelation of Jesus Christ - written by the apostle John around A.D. 96
Epistle of Barnabas - written between A.D. 70 and 135
Papias - (A.D. c.70-c.155)
Justin Martyr - (A.D. c.110-c.165)
Irenaeus - (A.D. c.130-c.202)
Jews abandon Septuagint between A.D. 100-200
Christians abandon Septuagint between A.D. 500-1000I. Before Christian Era
Early believers in the doctrine of the Messiah reigning on earth could have gotten its start with the inspired message proclaimed by the prophet Isaiah. In the latter part of the eighth century before the Christian era (c.740 - 700 B.C.) God told His people through the prophet Isaiah (Is. 65:17) that the Lord will create a new heavens and a new earth. "For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind." Isaiah goes on to say in verse 20, "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed." (KJV) Therefore, there is death in this new heavens and new earth prophesied in Isaiah 65. This is not eternal bliss which is what we claim heaven will be like. "... and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." (Rev. 21:4)Then He prophesied in Isaiah 66:23, "And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." It is interesting that Isaiah 66:23 uses the phrase 'before me'. As if the Messiah was standing (or sitting) there with all people coming to worship Him. We know the new heaven referred to in Isaiah 66:22-24 can not be the same heaven of eternal bliss which is described in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The heaven described in Rev. 21:22-25 has no sun or moon or night. Heaven will not need any sun or moon because it will be illuminated by the presence of God and His Lamb, Jesus Christ.
Prophecies in Ezekiel and Zechariah could also be interpreted by early Messianic believers to be fulfilled during the messianic reign. God spoke through Ezekiel during the sixth century pre-Christian era (c. 593 - 573 B.C.). Ezekiel 39:21 to 48:35 describes a yet to be instituted government. The government is a theocracy similar to that which was instituted for Israel at the time of Moses. The land will be divided equally among the 12 tribes of Israel. The temple and city are constructed in the midst of the property of the 12 tribes. The prophecy tells of a prince of Israel. This prince is not Jesus. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The prince of Israel is given property adjacent to the holy district. The prince can give some of his own property to his sons as an inheritance. But if he gives some of his property to one of his servants it shall be returned in the year of liberty. (Ez. 46:16-17). The period called liberty or jubilee consists of seven Sabbath years or 49 years.
The nation of Israel will be celebrating New Moons, Sabbaths and Festivals with burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings as Israel did after they were instituted at Mt. Sinai.
Zechariah was God's spokesman during the latter part of the sixth century, in 520 to 518 B.C. or later. In Zechariah 13:2 the Lord says, "And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered." What day do you think there will not be any idols? I think it will be the day that Jesus appears in person. Everyone will worship Him as Lord. There will be no Baal worship. No Asharoth worship. No Buddhism. No Hinduism. No Mohammedanism. No Mormonism. No astrological sign. No sports hero. No Wall Street wizard. I think, if for no other reason, when Christ comes in person to reign on earth, people will be ashamed to worship idols or even to acknowledge them.
The prophecy in Zechariah 14:19 tells of Egypt, and all nations, being punished for not keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. Again, the punishment given, or proposed, to Egypt would prevent this from being eternal bliss. I do believe that Egypt will be desolate for forty years. It will probably become desolate during the great tribulation. God foretells us through the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 29, verses 8-16, Egypt shall be uninhabited for a period of forty years where neither foot of man nor beast will pass through it.
Old testament prophecies in Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah would give the Jewish people ample reason for believing that the Messiah promised would set-up His kingdom here on earth.
The writings of Malachi closed out the canonized prophecies of the Jewish Scriptures. This was around 400 B.C. After ten centuries of hearing from God through Moses and other prophets and writers, Israel went through a period of 400 years where God was silent.
After Philip II of Macedonia (born in 382 B.C.) who reigned since 359 B.C. was assassinated in 336 B.C., his son Alexander took over at the age of twenty. Alexander the Great reigned from 336 B.C. to 323 B.C. He conquered Jerusalem from the Persians in 331 B.C. Eventually, he conquered all of the area around Jerusalem as well before he died at the age of 33 years. The Greeks ruled Israel until Pompey conquered Jerusalem for the Romans in 63 B.C. While the Jews were under Grecian rule they were being bombarded by religious and cultural Hellenistic changes. One of the cultural changes was the emergence of Greek as the spoken language.
After Alexander's death the conquered land was divided between his generals; the most powerful were Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. The Seleucids from Syria and the Ptolemies from Egypt were not content with their new found inheritance. And, they were fighting to expand their boundaries nearly continually. As a consequence the little region of Israel oscillated between being under gentile Seleucidan and Ptolemaic domination.
Ptolemy II, called Philadelphus, reigned from 285 B.C. to 246 B.C. He wanted to make the Holy Scriptures of the Jews available to all of the Greek speaking world. As a result, he commissioned seventy-two (six from each tribe of Israel) men to conduct a translation of the Holy Scriptures from Hebrew to Greek. They performed the task in seventy-two days. This translation is referred to as the Septuagint or simply as LXX in Roman vernacular.
The Hellenistic reform took on the extreme under the reign of Antiochus IV called Epiphanes (175 B.C. to 163 B.C.). His ordinances were forced on the Jews by punishment of death. Any Jewish boys who were found circumcised were killed and their dead bodies were hung around their mothers neck.
Antiochus IV desecrated the Jewish Temple when he offered a pig as a sacrifice in 167 B.C. This act spurred the Maccabean revolt. John Maccabee and his five sons took up arms against the Antiochean government in guerrilla warfare. The Maccabean revolution won back control of Jerusalem and the temple after the third year of fierce fighting. The temple was re-dedicated to the Lord in 164 B.C. The re-dedication of the temple was memorialized by Israel by establishing another feast day in the Jewish year. This feast is called the Festival of Dedication or the Feast of Lights or Hanukkah.
With the Maccabean victory the Hasmonean era had its beginning. John Hyrcanus was made high-priest of Israel in 135 B.C. Hyrcanus adopted a hard line against Hellenism in defense of Judaism. It was in this setting that a certain Pharisee wrote The Book of Jubilees in Hebrew during the latter part of the second century before the Christian Era (109 B.C. - 105 B.C.).(1) [I will also give the world wide web site where the reader can find the pseude-pigraphic or apocryphal writing on the internet. The Book of Jubilees can be found on web site <http://www.ccel.org/c/charles/otpseudepig/jubilee/4.htm>.(10)]
In Jubilees 4:29-30 it reads, And at the close of the nineteenth jubilee, in the seventh week in the sixth year thereof, Adam died, and all his sons buried him in the land of his creation, and he was the first to be buried in the earth. (18 jubilees * 49 years/jubilee + 6 weeks * 7 years/week + 6 years = 930 years.) And he lacked seventy years of one thousand years; for one thousand years are as one day (Ps. 90:4, 2 Pet. 3:8) in the testimony of the heavens and therefore was it written concerning the tree of knowledge: "On the day that ye eat thereof ye shall die". (Gen. 2:17) For this reason he did not complete the years of this day; for he died during it." [Direct quotations of apocryphal writings were underlined rather than put in bold print like the canonized writings. The parenthetical comments have been added by me to help explain the previous text.]
It appears the pre-Messianic Jews believed God gave two definitions for 'day' when He told Adam "... for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Adam died spiritually when he ate the fruit of the tree, but he also died physically within a thousand year day. There is no record of anybody living any longer than one thousand years. Methuselah lived the longest at 969 years. Methuselah died the same year that the world-wide flood began.
It is not uncommon that God has two definitions of a thing. God has two definitions of a 'tree'. The living tree with roots, branches and leaves, and a tree made of wood used as a crucifixion cross. The Jews knew that God meant a crucifixion cross. "And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: his body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God;) that thy land be not defiled, which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance." (Deut. 21:22-23) The Jews did not want to defile the land which the Lord God gave them when Jesus was crucified. They hurriedly took Jesus down and put Him in a borrowed tomb.
With the prophecy of the coming Messiah yet to be fulfilled, Israel was looking for His reign to be an earthly reign for one thousand years. So when Jesus appeared on the scene the Jews were looking for a King that would set up His throne and put down the Romans as well as all aggressive heathen nations.
II. Christian Era
Jesus had quite a different message than the Pharisees and Sadducees were ready to receive. For many generations the Jewish leaders had been teaching their people "... eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot", as stated in Exodus 21:24. Jesus taught that it was better to turn the other cheek which is just what Jesus did when He went to the cross. Jesus answered Pilate when Pilate was trying to worm-out of the predicament that the Jews had placed him in. "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 18:36). For indeed, Jesus' kingdom is with a new heavens and a new earth.Jesus gave impetus to His thousand year reign when He told the Pharisees about King Herod, "Go ye, and tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem." (Luke 13:32-33). The prophecy in verse 32 was not about Jesus' death and resurrection. The 'day' spoken of in this prophecy could not have been a 24-hour day because the prophecy was not given on the day before His crucifixion. And in fact, the prophecy was not even given during the week of His crucifixion. It was given sometime around the beginning of His ministry. I maintain 'today and tomorrow' as used here are 'one thousand-year days'. Jesus was foretelling what His job was until the end of this age. For two days or two thousand years He would continue to cast out demons, cure people, and perform miracles. On the third day He will reign on earth with 'perfectness' for one thousand years.
After Jesus' death and resurrection in A.D. 33, the disciples of the Lord were expecting the coming of Christ for His bride, the church, was imminent. The disciples probably assumed that "This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled" in Matthew 24:34 meant them. (No matter that the 40 years that man or beast was not to step foot in Egypt was yet unfulfilled, as stated in Ezekiel 29:8-16. This could be fulfilled during the reign of Christ.) When the temple was destroyed by Titus in A.D. 70 or some time shortly thereafter, the disciples knew that "this generation" did not mean them. The only other interpretation was "this generation" meant the generation that witnessed all the things that took place prior to verse 34 in Matthew 24.
The body of believers (the church) grew rapidly after Christ's resurrection. During the first Pentecost after His ascension, the church grew from one hundred and twenty Jewish men to three thousand Jewish men in one day. Before the first century was over, the word of Jesus' atoning act had spread over all of the Roman empire.
During the early days of the church there was much persecution from the government (Rome) and the Jewish leaders and their followers. Saul, or Paul as he was renamed later, was an avid persecutor of the church until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul was a Pharisee who studied under Gamaliel, the grandson of the famous Hillel, and was well-versed in Jewish custom and beliefs.
Paul became a highly effective Christian evangelist to the Gentiles. He is responsible for writing 13 or 14 epistles of the New Testament. Paul, throughout his epistles, gave admonition to the believers that the Lord was going to return for His church any day. In other words, Christ's return was imminent. Paul's knowledge of Ezekiel 29 would tell him that Egypt's prophetic message of desolation where "No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of beast shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years", had not been fulfilled yet. Paul evidently was thinking this prophetic passage of Scripture did not require fulfillment for the imminent return of Christ. He probably assumed that this passage would be fulfilled during Christ's reign on earth or just prior to His reign.
The religious center of Christianity was Jerusalem from A.D. 33 to sometime between 62 and 68. Because the Jews were in conflict with the Romans, Jerusalem was about to be destroyed by the Romans. By God's grace the followers of Christ vacated Jerusalem prior to its destruction. Christians leaders in Jerusalem, by divine revelation and the grace of God, decided to move the church to Pella beyond Jordan.(2) Later Antioch in Syria became the new Christian center. Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed by the Roman army under Titus in A.D. 70 after a four-month siege.
The Apostle John wrote the book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ around A.D. 96. John lived at Ephesus during his later years. His grave has been reported as being seen in Ephesus. In Revelation 20, John refers to a period of one thousand years in which Satan is bound in chains and thrown into hell. The souls who were faithful to Jesus lived and reigned with Christ - "... and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years" (Rev. 20:4b). This is the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
The early church was constantly under attack by the Roman authorities who were attempting to appease the Jewish Judaizers. It is believed that all of the eleven original disciples, with the possible exception of John, who were at the Feast of Pentecost forty-nine days after the resurrection were martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ.
This severe persecution of believers by the Roman government lasted for the better part of three centuries until Constantine the Great (A.D. 306 - 337) established toleration of Christianity through the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313. Some of the early church writers who were martyred for their faith include James the brother of John about A.D. 44 by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12:1-2); apostle Peter about A.D. 67; apostle Paul about the same time; Ignatius (c.50-c.107) of Antioch in Syria, a disciple of the apostle John; Polycarp (c.69-c.155), appointed by the apostle John to be bishop of Smyrna; Justin Martyr (c.110-c.165), Christian apologist; and Irenaeus (c.130-202), bishop of Lyon. Of these well-known Christian martyrs, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus were admitted millennialist by their own writings which we have today. Other early millennialists include Papias (c.70 - c.155), Tertullian (Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus) (c.155-c.245), who was ordained a priest at Carthage in North Africa (not martyred), Hippolytus, Methodius, Commodianus, and Lactantius.(3)
Early Christians who were opposed to a belief in a millennial reign of Christ were Origen (c.185-c.254), Dionysius of Alexandria (c.200-c.265), Eusebius (c.260-c.341), and Augustine (354-430). Dionysius was a student of Origen.
Origen, a student of Clement of Alexandria Egypt, was a priest at Caesarea in Palestine at age 18. He was the author of the Hexapla, a six columned Old Testament. Origen was trying to protect Christians against the charge that they had falsified the Biblical texts. The Hexapla was about 6500 pages long. It was never copied. The Hexapla was destroyed in the seventh century.
Eusebius Pamphilus wrote on the history of the early church. He acknowledges the proponents of millennialism as well as those who were opposed to it.
St. Augustine identified the Church with the Kingdom of God and maintained that the millennial age had already come. Many of St. Augustine’s views were adopted by the Catholic church and ultimately by Protestant reformers. Martin Luther who was active during the early part of the sixteenth century was a great reformer. He was an Augustinian friar.
Papias was the bishop of Hierapolis (now called Pammukale in Phrygia, Turkey) and a companion of Polycarp during the first half of the second century. (4) He provided important apostolic oral source accounts of the history of early Christianity and of the origins of the Gospel. According to Irenaeus, the leading theologian of the second century, Papias was believed to have known and conversed with the apostle John and the apostle Philip. Eusebius of Caesarea in Palestine, in his book "Historia Ecclesiastica" (Church History), supports Irenaeus' claim. John was believed to have spent his waning years in Ephesus where Irenaeus claimed his grave existed. Ephesus is less than a hundred miles from the historical Hierapolis. Tradition has also placed Philip's death and burial at Hierapolis. Papias wrote articles (ca. 130) which are now almost extant called "Explanation of the Sayings of the Lord". Papias was noted for his apocalyptic teaching of Christ returning to change the world into a thousand-year era of universal peace. Fragments of Papias from Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., Book 3, Chapter 39 reveal "... there will be a millennium after the resurrection from the dead, when the personal reign of Christ will be established on this earth." His teaching goes along with John's writings in the book of Revelation 20:4b. [See web site, <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.html> for the Fragment VI of Papias.]
The Epistle of Barnabas is also an early non-canonical Christian writing. It is estimated to have been written after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 and before Hadrian rebuilt Jerusalem following the revolt in A.D. 132-135. The epistle is generally thought to have originated in Alexandria, Egypt. (5) Whether this is the Barnabas who traveled with the apostle Paul can not be confirmed. Eusebius says he was one of the seventy disciples (Luke 10) sent out by the Lord. (6)
The Epistle of Barnabas reads, "Of the sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; and God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it. Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all things to an end; for the day with Him signifieth a thousand years; and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; behold, the day of the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end. And He rested on the seventh day." (Barn. 15:3-5)
"It is not your present sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the sabbath which I have made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world. Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended into the heavens." (The Epistle of Barnabus 15:8-9, written between A.D. c.70-c.130, APOSTOLIC FATHERS (trans. and ed., J. B. Lightfoot))
The Epistle of Barnabas tells of 6000 years as the 6-days of the world + 1000 years as the 7th day or Sabbath of the Lord. The eighth day is the period between 7000 and 8000 years and will be the first day of a new week of another world. This can be taken as the beginning of a blissful state which we call heaven where time is eternal.
The argument that Barnabus puts forth "In that day on which ye shall eat of it, ye shall die by death" is that Christ was crucified on the sixth day (Friday), the same day that Adam ate of the forbidden fruit and died. This assumes that Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil the same day of the week that they were created, i.e., the sixth day of a subsequent week. [Epistle of Barnabus, Chapter XV can also be found on web site <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.html>.]
Justin Martyr writes in Chapters 80 and 81 of his "Dialogue with Trypho" for the Christians addressed to the Roman Senate in response to those who do not believe in the millennial reign of Christ. 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.
For Isaiah spake thus concerning this space of a thousand years: "For there shall be the new heaven and the new earth, and the former shall not be remembered, or come into their heart; but they shall find joy and gladness in it, which things I create. For, Behold, I make Jerusalem a rejoicing, and My people a joy; and I shall rejoice over Jerusalem, and be glad over My I people. And the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, or the voice of crying. And there shall be no more there a person of immature years, or an old man who shall not fulfil his days. For the young man shall be an hundred years old; but the sinner who dies an hundred years old, he shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and shall themselves inhabit them; and they shall plant vines, and shall themselves eat the produce of them, and drink the wine. They shall not build, and others inhabit; they shall not plant, and others eat. For according to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound. Mine elect shall not toil fruitlessly, or beget children to be cursed; for they shall be a seed righteous and blessed by the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will hear; while they are still speaking, I shall say, What is it? Then shall the wolves and the lambs feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent [shall eat] earth as bread. They shall not hurt or maltreat each other on the holy mountain, saith the Lord." Now we have understood that the expression used among these words, "According to the days of the tree [of life] shall be the days of my people; the works of their toil shall abound" obscurely predicts a thousand years. [Justin quoted Isaiah 65:17-25 out of the Septuagint.]
For as Adam was told that in the day he ate of the tree he would die, we know that he did not complete a thousand years. We have perceived, moreover, that the expression, "The day of the Lord is as a thousand years," is connected with this subject. 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. Just as our Lord also said, "They shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be equal to the angels, the children of the God of the resurrection." [See web site <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.html> for Justin Martyr’s "Dialogue with Trypho", Chapters 80 and 81.]
Another Christian non-canonical writing called "The Vision of Paul" or "Apocalypse of Paul" also gives credence to the millennial theory. This writing was supposedly written by the Apostle Paul relating his experience when he was caught up to the third heaven as referred to in II Cor. 12:2. "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago - whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows - such a one was caught up to the third heaven." The writing was discovered by a resident in the foundation of the home where Paul lived in Tarsus some 320 years earlier. The writing was passed on to the Roman emperor Theodosius the Great who ruled from A.D. 379 to 395. "The Vision of Paul", Chapter 21 reads, "The angel answered and said to me, When Christ, whom thou preachest, shall come to reign, then, by the sentence of God, the first earth will be dissolved and this land of promise will then be revealed, and it will be like dew or cloud, and then the Lord Jesus Christ, the King Eternal, will be manifested and will come with all his saints to dwell in it, and he will reign over them a thousand years, and they will eat of the good things which I shall now show unto thee." ["The Vision of Paul", Chapter 21 can be found with the Google search engine at web site <http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf09.html>.]
Irenaeus in Book V, "Irenaeus Against Heresies", writes in Chapter 23. And there are some, again, who relegate the death of Adam to the thousandth year; for since "a day of the Lord is as a thousand years," he did not overstep the thousand years, but died within them, thus bearing out the sentence of his sin. Whether, therefore, with respect to disobedience, which is death; whether [we consider] that, on account of that, they were delivered over to death, and made debtors to it; whether with respect to [the fact that on] one and the same day on which they ate they also died (for it is one day of the creation); whether [we regard this point], that, with respect to this cycle of days, they died on the day in which they did also eat, that is, the day of the preparation, which is termed "the pure supper," that is, the sixth day of the feast, which the Lord also exhibited when He suffered on that day; or whether [we reflect] that he (Adam) did not overstep the thousand years, but died within their limit,--it follows that, in regard to all these significations, God is indeed true. For they died who tasted of the tree; and the serpent is proved a liar and a murderer, as the Lord said of him: "For he is a murderer from the beginning, and the truth is not in him." [See web site < http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.html> for Book v of "Irenaeus Against Heresies", Chapter 23.]
If a day equals one thousand years like the Jews, early church fathers, and millennialists thought, and not a thousand years equal to one day as the later church fathers and amillennialists believed, it becomes desirable to know the age of the earth. The age of the earth can not be determined with certainty, but only approximated even with the Holy Scriptures.
In order to approximate the age of the earth, we need to know when the world was created relative to some reference year that we are familiar with. The modern day populace have adopted Ussher’s reference year as 4004 B.C. and I will do likewise. James Ussher (1581-1656) was an Irish Archbishop who helped lead Ireland through the Protestant Reformation. Ussher used the Masoretic text when deriving the year of 4004 B.C. for creation.
The Jews have established that God created the world 3761 years before the Christian Era, or 3761 B.C. In fact, they say God created the world Tishri 1, 3761(Sept/Oct 3761). I was unable to find out how they calculated that date - never mind with such accuracy. If the chronology was performed any other time than between the third century before the Christian Era to the second century of the Christian Era, which I suspect it was, the Hebrew Text which later became known as the Masoretic Text would have undoubtedly been used.
The dead sea scrolls (7) gave proof that there were at least three texts of the Bible prior to 250 B.C. One was the standard Hebrew text which later became known as the Masoretic Text (MT); one was the Hebrew text which was translated into the Greek Septuagint (LXX). The third one was the first five books of the Tanach and known as the Samaritan Pentateuch (SP).
The Septuagint differs extensively with the Hebrew text, or what later was referred to as the Masoretic text. The ages of the patriarchs when they begat their successor is often inflated by 100 years in the Septuagint. The Septuagint also has an additional patriarch between Arphaxad and Salah by the name of Cainan. These differences are shown in Figure 1. The Alexandrine version of the Septuagint text has a total of 3394 years compared to 2008 years, or 1386 additional years over the progeneration given in the Hebrew (or Masoretic) text in Genesis 5 and 11. [<http://www.netrover.com/~numbers/chron_3.html>]
Progenitors - Masoretic Text/Septuagint Text*
Masoretic Text /Septuagint TextGod created Adam
Adam begat Seth when he was 130/230
Seth begat Enosh when he was 105/205
Enosh begat Cainan when he was 90/190
Cainan begat Mahalaleel when he was 70/170
Mahalaleel begat Jared when he was 65/165
Jared begat Enoch when he was 162/162
Enoch begat Methuselah when he was 65/165
Methuselah begat Lamech when he was 187/187
Lamech begat Noah when he was 182/188
Noah begat Shem when he was 502/502
<<<<<<<<<<Flood>>>>>>>>>>
Shem begat Arphaxad when he was 100/100
<<<<<Arphaxad begat Cainan when he was --- /135
<<<<<Cainan begat Salah when he was --- /130
Arphaxad begat Salah when he was 35/---
Salah begat Eber when he was 30/130
Eber begat Peleg when he was 34/134
Peleg begat Reu when he was 30/130
Reu begat Serug when he was 32/132
Serug begat Nahor when he was 30/130
Nahor begat Terah when he was 29/79
Terah begat Abram when he was 130**/130**
130
235
325
395
460
622
687
874
1056
1558
1656
1658
------
------
1693
1723
1757
1787
1819
1849
1878
2008
230
435
625
795
960
1122
1287
1474
1662
2164
2262
2264
2399
2529
------
2659
2793
2923
3055
3185
3264
3394* Alexandrine version of the Septuagint text.
** Calculated from Gen. 11:31-32, 12:4 & Acts 7:4 to be 130 years instead of 70 years.Figure 1
By adding 1386 to Ussher's date for creation of 4004 B.C., you get 5390 B.C.
The Vaticanus version of the Septuagint text gives a smaller difference of only 29 years. This version has an error in maintaining a correct chronological sequence of events. For example, Methuselah dies fourteen years after the flood.
The first Christian historian known to produce a universal chronology was Sextus Julius Africanus. (8) Africanus was born around A.D. 180 in Jerusalem. His life is not well documented, but evidence indicates that Africanus traveled considerably in Asia, Egypt, and Italy and later lived chiefly at Emmaus, in Palestine, where he served as prefect. He was named regional ambassador to Rome, when he became a protege of the Roman emperor Severus Alexander. Africanus' greatest work was "Chronographiai" written about A.D. 221. It was a five-volume treatise on sacred and profane history from the Creation which he found to be 5499 years before the birth of Christ. Relying on the Bible and other books of that day as the basis of his calculations, he incorporated and synchronized Egyptian and Chaldaean chronologies, Greek mythology, and Judaic history with Christianity. His work raised the prestige of early Christianity by placing it within a historical context. [See web site <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0614.htm > for Africanus’ chronology.]
It is apparent that Africanus used the Septuagint to base his calculations. The date of 5390 B.C. is only 109 years less than 5499 B.C., which is the year Africanus said that God created all things. After all, the Greek version was the most commonly used translation of the Old Testament for the early church during the first six centuries of the Christian era. His chronology for calculating the age of the earth falls very close to the approximate age that most Christians (at that time) assumed for the creation.
Although Africanus relied heavily on the Septuagint and other profane historical books he did perform a service of influencing the thinking of that day. Many early Christian men, like Eusebius, thought of the world's existence as being 5000 to 5500 years before the birth of Christ. Just as Ussher has influenced the people in the last three centuries. The transition was due mainly by the changing of the canon from the Septuagint Text to the Masoretic Text. When Christian people stopped adopting the canon of the Old Testament as the Septuagint and started recognizing the Masoretic Text as canon they went from accepting the creation as being around 5000 to 5500 B.C. to around 3700 to 4200 B.C. Did the recognition of the Masoretic Text over the Septuagint Text as sacred come first, or did the fact that the Lord did not make His return appearance, as supposed, at A.D. 500 to 1000 come first?
To summarize the above discussion, the following table was made up showing the different thoughts based on the canon in that day as to the age of the earth at the birth of Christ. [<http://www.netrover.com/~numbers/chron_3.html>.]
Source Jewish faith
Present church
Early church
Early church
Early church3761 B.C., Jewish Era (probably based on Hebrew Text)
4004 B.C., Ussher (based on Masoretic Text)
5198 B.C., Eusebius (based on Septuagint Text)
5499 B.C., Africanus (based on Septuagint Text)
5508 B.C., Byzantine Era (based on Septuagint Text)Summary
1. The doctrine of the reign of the Messiah on earth is older than the Christian Era.Isaiah expresses the teaching plainly in his writing (Isa. 66:22-24). Ezekiel and Zechariah substantiate what Isaiah had to say.
2. The teaching of a day being equivalent to one thousand years in God's schedule is not a new doctrine. Psalm 90:4 was written approximately 1400 B.C. by Moses.
Neither is the duration of this age as being 6 days equal to 6000 years. Nor is the Lord’s day, being the 7th day, equivalent to 6000 - 7000 years, a new teaching. These teachings had their beginning with the Jews at least a century before the birth of Christ, if not more. These teachings were promulgated down through the ages by the early church. The assurance of such a millennium was carefully taught by a succession of church fathers from Justin Martyr and Papias, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, and Irenaeus down to Lactantius, who was preceptor to the son of Constantine. (8)
3. The early church from its inception to A.D. 400 or 500 taught from the Septuagint that they were approaching the 6000th year of history.
The early church of Antioch computed almost 6000 years from the creation of the world to the birth of Christ. Africanus, Lactantius, and the Greek church have reduced that number to 5500, and Eusebius has convinced himself with 5200 years. These calculations were formed on the Septuagint, which was universally received by the Christians during the first six centuries. (8)
4. The Jews rejected the Septuagint in favor of the Hebrew text around A.D. 100-200.
The Jewish community rejected the Septuagint as being corrupted around the start of the second century. They preferred the Hebrew Text as their canon.
Originally, the Hebrew Manuscripts had no vowels in its alphabet, no accents, and no punctuations. Vowel sounds, accents, and punctuations were for the most part handed down by tradition. The process of adding the vowel sounds, accents, and punctuations into the reading of the Old Testament is called Masorah. The Masorah comes from the Hebrew root word masar which is a verb that means 'to hand down'. It was not till later on that the name Masoretes, was given to those people who were the preservers of Masorah. During the Talmudic period (c. A.D. 300-500), the rules for perpetuating Masorah were extremely detailed. Around the tenth century, the written Masorah version of the Hebrew Text was completed to form what we call the Masoretic Text.
5. The early Catholic church gave up the ‘6 days equal to 6000 years’ teaching before they gave up on the Septuagint and adopted the Hebrew or Masoretic Text as canon.
The Masoretic Text of the Old Testament and the Greek Vulgate of the New Testament have since become the authority for scripture of Catholics and Protestants.
6. I believe we are approaching the 6000th year of history.
To summarize the thoughts in this document I will quote Edward Gibbon from his book ‘The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire’ when talking about those believers who followed the Septuagint Text. “The ancient and popular doctrine of the Millennium was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ. As the works of the creation had been finished in six days, their duration in their present state, according to a tradition which was attributed to the prophet Elijah, was fixed to six thousand years. By the same analogy it was inferred that this long period of labour and contention, which was now almost elapsed, would be succeeded by a joyful Sabbath of a thousand years; and that Christ, with the triumphant band of the saints and elect who had escaped death, or who had been miraculously revived, would reign upon earth till the time appointed for the last and general resurrection.”(9)
References:
(1) The Book of Jubilees, The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English, Volume II - Pseudepigrapha by R. H. Charles, Oxford University Press First Published 1913, 1979 Edition
(2) The Ecclesiastical History, of Eusebius, Book 3, Chapter 5
(3) The Meaning of Millennium by Robert G. Clouse, page 9
(4) The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 9, page 128
(5) The Apostolic Fathers. Second Edition, J. B. Lightfoot, J. R. Harmer, M. W. Holmes, Introduction
(6) The Ecclesiastical History, of Eusebius Pamphilus, Book 1, Chapter 12
(7) The Mystery and Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls, Hershel Shanks
(8) The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, Volume 1, page 136
(9) The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, Volume 1, Chapter XV, Section ii
(10) The web sites given in this document were active in the summer of 2003. I have no control as to the status of these web sites, so they may be changed or no longer in service at the time the reader wants to refer to them.