Monday, April 20, 2020

Apocalyptic? #4: The Week that Lasted 7000 Years


He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.

(Revelation 20:2 NIV)

                                                                                                                                              

In my previous post, I discussed Daniel’s concept of a Week of Years.  Academics celebrate the notion of a week of years by taking a Sabbatical year (to rest?) every seventh year in which they teach at a given college or university. 

We are clearly familiar with the Sunday through Saturday Week of Days.  The Law of Moses prescribed, in the Law, a Year of Jubilee at the end of every Week of Weeks of Years (i.e. 49 years): 

“‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

13 “‘In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.’”  (Leviticus 25:8-13 NIV)



My daughter Auburn observed that, this year (2020, with the shutdown from the Coronavirus), the wild animals are enjoying a year of Jubilee, as they return to the land they had once owned—the abandoned streets in many cities.  Dolphins are returning to some canals in Italy.  Animals are reclaiming the national parks.  The skyline of Los Angeles is smog-free as the country lies in rest.  My wife, Linda, observed that she and I are now celebrating our marriage’s Jubilee.  We will have been married 50 years on June 13th.


The Year of Jubilee—a week of weeks of years (49/50)—shows the flexibility of the number seven pattern in the Bible as it operates beyond an actual week of seven days.  Likewise, the Old Testament Feast of Weeks (Exodus 23:16, Leviticus 23:15-22) which is celebrated by Christians on Pentecost occurs a week of weeks (49/50 days) after the Passover/Easter.  Daniel’s seventy weeks of years is another example.  So, it was perfectly logical for Jews to develop a Week of Millennia (7000 years) concept, and John in Revelation may be alluding to this concept.

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What is a millennium?   

It’s what Kellie Coffey's song at Disney’s Epcot called “a thousand circles ‘round the Sun.  A millennium is a period lasting 1000 years. A millennium is a period lasting 1000 years.  In the year 2000 A.D., we entered a new millennium in the western calendar.  We are now 20 years into that new millennium. 
Your ministers or churches or denominations may tell you that they are Premillennialists.  What does that mean?  It means that they interpret Revelation 20 to indicate that they expect the Parousia (commonly referred to as the Second Coming of Christ or the Rapture) to occur BEFORE (pre-) the 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth begins, during which time the devil will be bound in chains and thrown into the Abyss.  Your ministers or churches or denominations may tell you that they are Postmillennialists.  What does that mean?  It means that they interpret Revelation 20 to indicate that they expect the Parousia (commonly referred to as the Second Coming of Christ or the Rapture) to occur AFTER (post-) the 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth, during which time the devil will be bound in chains and thrown into the Abyss.  Your ministers or churches or denominations may tell you that they are Amillennialists.  What does that mean?  It means that they interpret Revelation 20 to indicate that they believe that the 1000-year reign of Christ on Earth, during which the devil will be bound in chains and thrown into the Abyss, IS A COMPLETELY SYMBOLIC TIME REFERENCE, indicating a very long period of time, perhaps even forever.  The “A-“ prefix negates the millennium, just as the A- prefix in Atheist negates Theism (the belief in God).



An argument in favor of Postmillennialists is that it has now been nearly 2000 years since John penned Revelation.  They do not wish to delay the coming of the New Heavens and New Earth for another 1000 years of human history on Earth.  Postmillennialism was popular around the turn of the 20th Century.  It was a belief that mankind was on an increasingly Christian trajectory.  Slavery had been abolished by the Civil War.  Prohibition promised to end the destructiveness of Demon Rum.  Inventions and scientific discoveries were booming, making life on Earth much easier and more enjoyable.  HOWEVER,  then came World War I and World War II, the end of Prohibition, the rise of secularism, etc.  This deflated the hopes of many postmillennialists.  Furthermore, it would take a twisted and forced reading of Revelation to make the Parousia come after the 1000 years.

By contrast, a very strong argument in favor of Premillennialists is that Revelation 20 (NIV) seems very clear that there would be a First Resurrection (at the Parousia?) FOLLOWED BY the 1000 year reign of Christ:

He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time. I saw thrones on which were seated those who had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. They[a] had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

HOWEVER, the frustration associated with reading premillennialists is that they are uncritical; they use no scientific method.  They are free to attach almost any meaning to any symbol. 

An argument in favor of Amillennialists is that it has already been nearly 2000 years since John penned Revelation.  They do not wish to delay the coming of the New Heavens and New Earth for another 1000 years of human history on Earth.  They want the Parousia to usher in eternity.  They point out that John was fond of writing symbolically—a seven headed beast was a symbol for seven mountains and seven emperors; the term “woman” was a symbol for Eve, Mary the mother of Jesus, Israel, and the Church.  For that matter, the “Lamb that was slain” was a symbol for Jesus.  HOWEVER, the frustration with reading amillennialists (who hold that the thousand-year period is completely figurative) is that there is definite evidence of Jewish teachings in the first century which predicted a literal thousand or two thousand year reign of the Messiah.



Actually, Jesus predicted that his Parousia would occur within one generation from the time of his teaching (Google:  "Stan.Point Parousia").  John still predicts at least a 1000-year reign following that time.



WHAT IF ALL THREE POSITIONS ARE INCORRECT?



There is a 7000-year week doctrine, advanced by the Rabbis, back at the time of Revelation, that said that the entire history of man could be broken down into six days (with each day being 1000 years—or one millennium—long), followed by a Sabbath Day of Rest that would last eternally.  Actually, this view would equate to a premillennial view in the strictest sense (that there would be a First Resurrection (at the Parousia?) FOLLOWED BY the 1000 year reign), but should not be categorized as Premillennialist as that school is now constituted.


At about the time John wrote the Book of Revelation, a respected school of Rabbinic (Jewish) thought, the school of Elias, was teaching a peculiar interpretation of history that attempted to sum up all of human history--past, present, and future.  The German scholar, Paul Billerbeck, observes that, according to the school of Elias, humankind would exist on earth for a total of six thousand years.  Two thousand years would be spent without the Law; two thousand years with the Law; and two thousand years would be spent under the rule of the Messiah.  

The length of the first era (without the Law) is difficult to calculate.  The length of the second era (with the Law) is more calculable.  The length of the third era (With Christ) is much easier, placing the end of the 2000 years close to our generation.  Depending on when we place the Kingdom of Heaven’s beginning (with Jesus), we see such possibilities as the following:


2024 A.D.  From Jesus’ baptism, 2000 years later.

2034 A.D.  From Jesus’ resurrection, 2000 years later.

2070 A.D.  From Jesus’ parousia, 2000 years later.

2313 A.D.  From Constantine’s legalizing of Christianity in the Empire, 2000 years later.



The school based its interpretation partly upon the Biblical formula found in Psalm 90:4 that "a thousand years in [God's] sight are like a day that has just gone by."  According to the various calculations of the school, the Jewish people had been punished by God (i.e., had been under the domination of foreign powers) for a total of one thousand years, beginning with the 400 years spent in Egypt from the time of Joseph to the time of Moses.  Because Israel had been punished for one thousand years, Rabbi Yehoschua, from the late first century A.D., reasons that the messianic period (the earthly reign of the Christ) should last for two thousand years.  Along with other rabbis, he observes that Psalm 90:15 petitions God:  "Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble."  Yehoschua finds it striking that, according to his calculations, the Jewish people had been "afflicted" or had "seen trouble" for one thousand years--the formulaic "day" of the Lord from the earlier passage in the same Psalm.  Hence, he anticipates at least a "thousand years" messianic reign.  However, Yehoschua also observes that the word "day" in 90:15 is plural, whereas in 90:4 it is singular.  Therefore, Yehoschua opines that there should be "two" days of messianic reign, rather than just one.  Thus, the reign of the Christ, he thought, should last for two thousand years. (Paul Billerbeck, Die Briefe des Neuen Testaments und die Offenbarung Johannis, vol. 3 of Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch [Munich:  C. H. Beck'sche, 1961], 826-827.)


Since one "day" equals "one thousand years" in this system, the "seven" pattern of the Sabbath "week" is next called into play.  According to some calculations of Biblical history, there were approximately two thousand years from Adam to the beginning of the Covenant (the time of Abraham).  These years would amount to the "two days without the Law."  Furthermore, approximately two thousand years had passed from the time of Abraham to the first century A.D., when this school and its view flourished.  These years would be the "two days with the Law."  If the messiah comes soon, they speculate, the final two thousand years of history will be spent in the reign of the messiah (or Christ).  These six thousand years equal six days, according to the Psalm 90 formula.  And, six days was the amount of time which God took to create the world.  On the seventh day (Sabbath), God rested.  The school of Elias thus anticipated, according to Billerbeck, a "weltensabbat" (a cosmic Sabbath) when all humanity would "rest" from labor--beginning at the end of the six thousand years.


At least two New Testament writers (John and the author of II Peter) connect a "thousand year" formula to speculation concerning future divine activity.  II Peter warns, "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends:  With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  . . . But the day of the Lord will come like a thief.  The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire" (II Peter 3:8 & 10).



Billerbeck acknowledges that John may be aware of Yehoschua's interpretation of history.  Yet, John does not explicitly paint himself into a corner regarding time frames, as do Yehoschua and the school of Elias.  John does indicate that there would be at least one "thousand years" period.  During these thousand years, "the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan," would be "bound" and thrown "into the Abyss . . . to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended" (Revelation 20:2-3).  Following these "thousand years," however, John does not appear to promise an immediate end to human history.  Instead, "After that, [the dragon] must be set free for a short time" (Revelation 20:3).  John predicts:  "When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth [or 'land']" (Revelation 20:7-8).  An indeterminate amount of time follows the "thousand years" of the book of Revelation.  John's Revelation does not preclude the claim of Yehoschua and it is at least possible that John's vision partially corroborates the view of Yehoschua and/or the school of Elias.

My major professor in Hebrew at Indiana University, Henry A. Fischel, frequently asserts that New Testament writers knew Rabbinic teachings, Rabbinic writers knew Christian teachings, and they all knew Greek teachings.


Among those "Greco-Roman situations [which] were well-known" to John and, I think, also to the school of Elias are Greek dramas.  Elisabeth Fiorenza claims regarding Revelation:  "Interpreters have not merely acknowledged the dramatic character of the book but have maintained that Rev[elation] is patterned after the Greek drama." (Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, The Book of Revelation:  Justice and Judgment [Philadelphia:  Fortress Press,  1985], 166.)  Both Greek drama and the 7000-year-week of the school of Elias were possibly well-known to John.  There are indications that John is writing some important episodes of the "Human Drama" based upon an implicit dramatic pattern quite similar to the pattern taught by the school of Elias.  

W H A T   I F ? ? ?


What if this 7000-year week doctrine is essentially correct?  What if we are now living on the brink of the end of the sixth 1000-year-long day?  John describes a drama that fits neatly in those three 2000-year-long periods.  The topic of my next post.



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