1 Wallace S. Pollock, Chiliasm in the First Five

Centuries (unpublished Th.M. thesis, Dallas Theological

Seminary, 1945)  P. 1

2 C. A. Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism," Lutheran Quarterly, New Series, IX (1879), 210-211,

224, and 237.

3 John F. Pollock "Millennialism," Lutheran Quarterly,

New Series, XXVI (1896), 38.

⁴George N. H. Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom: Of Our Lord Jesus Christ As Covenanted in the Old testament and Presented in the New Testament  (Grand Rapids:  Kregel Publications, 1952), I, 496.

 

⁵Pollock, Chiliasm An the First Five Centuries, p. 1

⁶Robert Strong, Amillennialism in the New Testament;

(unpublished S.TD. dissertation, Temple University, 1938),

p. 7.

⁷Geo. Duffield, Millenarianism Defended; A Reply to

Prof. Stuart's "Strictures on the Rev. G. Duffield's Recent

Work on the Second Coming of Christ," in Which the Former's

False Assumptions Are Pointed 0ut, and the Fallacy of his

Interpretation of Different Important Passages of Scripture

Are Both Philologically and Exegetically Exposed (New York

Mark H. Newman, 1843), PP 61-69 and 178-179.

 

⁸Ibid, p. 64

⁹Ibid, pp. 64-65

¹⁰Ibid., p. 69.

¹¹Henry Barclay Swete, Patristic Study (2nd ed.;

London; Longmans, Green, and Co. 1902), p. 73.

¹²Ibid., pp. 143, 177-178.

¹³F. L. Cross, The Early Christian Fathers (London:

Gerald Duckworth & Co a Ltd., 1960), p. 7.

¹⁴R. M. Grants "Apostolic Fathers, "Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 1969, II, 128.  In this chapter, all of the

works listed by Grant will be considered except the following:

the Martyrdom of Polycarp (which has no material bearing on

our discussion), the Epistle to Diognetus (which is treated

in the following chapter on the Greek Apologists), and

II Clement (which is a later production, not coming from the

pen of Clement of Rome).

¹⁵Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, p 7.

¹⁶William G. T. Shedd, A History of Christian Doctrine

(2 vols., 3rd ed.; New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co.,

1872), II 391.

¹⁷Ibid.

¹⁸ Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, I, 496.

¹⁹On the dates of Clement's episcopacy, see Quasten,

p. 42.  On Clement in general, see Quasten, pp. 42-50,

Altaner, pp. 99-103, and George Salmon, "Clemens Romanus,"

DCB, I, 554-559.

       ²⁰I Clement, in distinction from II Clement  which is

now recognized as coming from a later hand.  (in ANF, I, 5-21.)

      ²¹This is the dating advocated by F. S. Marsh,

"Clement of Rome, Epistle of," Hastings'  Dictionary of the

Apostolic Church, I, 216-217. See also L. W. Barnard, Studies

In the Apostolic Fathers and  their Background (New York:

Schocken Books, 1966), p. 9, concerning the dating question.

²²E.g. Shirley Jackson Case, The Millennial Hope:

A Phase of War-Time Thinking (Chicago: University of Chicago

Press 1918), p. 156; see also Adolf Harnack, "Millennium,"

Encyclopaedia Britannica  llth ed., XVIII, 462.

²³So Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, II, 391.

²⁴J. F. Bethune-Baker, An Introduction to the Early

History of Christian Doctrine:  To The Time of the Council of

Chalcedon (London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1903), p. 69, n. 3.

²⁵Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, I, 494-495.

²⁶Ibid., I, 495.  Note that here and elsewhere,

quotations from Peters omit his extensive italicization.

²⁷Richard Cunningham Shimeall, Reply to an Article on

"Eschatology, or the Second Coming of Christ," in Connection

with the "Millenarianism or Chiliasm of the Ancient a Medieval,

and Modern Church," etc., as Contained in the Rev Prof.

Shedd's "History of Christian Doctrine" {New York: John F.

Trow and Richard Brinkerhoff, 1866), p. 63, notices this.

²⁸ I Clement 13, 22 (ANF, I, 8 and 11).

²⁹I Clement 27 (ANF, I, 12).

³⁰ I Clement 34 (ANF, 1, 14); cf. chapters 26 and 35.

³¹I Clement 34 (ANF, 1, 14); Irenaeus makes use of this

text within his millenarian scheme.

³² I Clement 44 (ANF, 1, 17).

³³ I Clement 45 (ANF, 1, 17).

³⁴ I Clement 50 (ANF, 1, 18).

³⁵ I Clement 24-25 (ANF, I, 11-13).

³⁶ I Clement 36 (ANF, I, 15).

³⁷I Clement 23 (ANF, I, 11).

³⁸ I Clement 14 (ANF, I, 8)  Cf. Irenaeus millenarian

treatment of the Beatitude, "Blessed are the meek."

³⁹Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism,"

p. 2ll

⁴⁰Henry Martyn Herrick, The Kingdom of God in the

Writings of the Fathers, Historical and Linguistic Studies In

Literature Related to the New Testament; Second Series:

Linguistic and Exegetical Studies, Vol. L, Part II (Chicago:

University of Chicago Press, 1903), p. 15 and Clarence

Augustine Beckwith, "Millennium, Millenarianism," NSH, VII,

375.

⁴¹E. C. Dewick, Primitive Christian Eschatology: The

Hulsean Prize Essay for 1908 (Cambridge:  Cambridge University

Press, 1912), p. 338

⁴⁰Cf. George Eldon Ladd, Crucial Questions about the

Kingdom of God (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,

1952), p. 156.  Here Ladd remarks that while few (early)

Fathers specifically mention the Millennium, this is not

necessarily evidence that they disbelieved in the doctrine.

"Most of the Fathers do not mention it one way or the other and

cannot be shown to either premillenarians or amillenarians.

They have very little to say about eschatology in any form.

Whenever the kingdom of God is mentioned, it is a future

apocalyptic kingdom."

⁴³The Ignatian epistles are found in ANF, I, 49-96.

For further on the above, see Quasten, 63-64, and F. L. Cross,

The Early Christian Fathers (London:  Gerald Duckworth & Co.

Ltd., 1960), p. 15.

⁴⁴Altaner, p. 106.  Jerome Lives of illustrious Men 16

(NPNF, III, 366-367) records the details of Ignatius' martyrdom.

⁴⁵Cyril Charles Richardson, The Christianity of

Ignatius of Antioch (New York:  Columbia University Press,

1935) contains no treatment of eschatology.

⁴⁶ Epistle to Polycarp 2 (ANF, 1, 94); cf. Epistle to

the Smyrnaeans ll and Epistle to Polycarp 7 (ANF, I, 91, 96).

⁴⁷ Epistle to the Philadelphians 9 (ANF, I, 84).

⁴⁸ Epistle to the Magnesians 6 (ANF, I, 61).

⁴⁹ Epistle to the Magnesians 1 (ANF, I, 59).

⁵⁰Epistle to the Philadelphians 5 (ANF, I, 82).

⁵¹Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism,"

p. 213

⁵²Epistle to the Philadelphians 3 and Epistle to the

Ephesians 16 (ANF, I, 80, 56).   

 

⁵³Epistle to the Romans 2 (ANF, I, 74).

⁵⁴Epistle to the Romans 4 (ANF, I, 75).

⁵⁵Epistle to the Ephesians 11 (ANF, I, 54).

⁵⁶Epistle to Polycarp 3 (ANF, I, 94).

⁵⁷Case, The Millennial Hope, pp. 156-157.

⁵⁸Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, I, 495.

⁵⁹George L. Murray, Millennial Studies:  A Search for

Truth (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1948), p. 195.

⁶⁰Barnard, Studies in the Apostolic Fathers, pp 23-

25, makes some remarks which may have a slight bearing on

the question.  He argues that Ignatius is combatting a form

of Judeo-Gnosticism in his epistles, and that these Judeo-

Gnostics had their own gnosticizing interpretation of the

Old Testament to support their heretical Christology.  In

the Epistle to the Philadelphians 8, Ignatius cries out

against them and insists that to him the Old Testament is

literally fulfilled in Christ's physical birth, death, and

resurrection.  This may at least give us a clue to

Ignatius' hermeneutical approach to prophecy, and it

suggests an affinity to Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (both

of whom were chiliasts, and both of whom were students of

messianic prophecy). (This last conclusion is the author's.)

⁶¹"St. Polycarp," ODCC, p. 1088.

       ⁶²This passage is preserved by Eusebius Ecclesiastical

History 5. 20. 5-7 (NPNF, I, 238-239 and ANF, I, 568).

      ⁶³Irenaeus Against Heresies 3. 3. 4 (ANF, I, 416).

The bracketed material appears in ANF.

⁶⁴Quasten, p. 79.

⁶⁵ ANF, I, 33-36.

⁶⁶"This is according to the widely accepted explanation

of P. N. Harrison that chapters 13-14 were written

ca. 110 as a covering letter for a collection of Ignatian

epistles, while the bulk of the letter was written later,

ca. 130.  Cf. Quasten, p. 80.

⁶⁷Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism,"

pp. 211-212; cf. the similar summary of Pierre Batiffol,

"Polycarp," Hastings' Dictionary of the Apostolic Church,

II, 247.

⁶⁸Murray. Millennial Studies, p. 194, says of Clement

of Rome and Polycarp: "Modern premillennialism cannot claim

those writers, for what they have written is believed by

every amillennialist."

⁶⁹E.g., Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, II,

390-391; William Masselink, Why Thousand Years?, or, Will

the Second Coming Be Pre-Millennial? (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1930), p. 27; W. J Grier, The

Momentous Events  A Discussion of Scripture Teaching on the

Second Advent (London:  Banner of Truth Trust, 1970)  p 20.

⁷⁰Ladd, Crucial Questions about, the Kingdom of God,

p. 155    Cf. also n. 4:   "The extent to which chiliasm was

entertained in the early centuries of the Church has been

widely discussed, both by critical and uncritical scholars.

Premillenarians have claimed practically every Church Father

for their position, and amillenarians have stressed the fact

that only a few of the Fathers expressly affirm the doctrine."

⁷¹Peters, The Theocratic Kingdom, I, 495.

⁷²This argument from association is further strengthened

by the fact that Papias, another chiliast, was

acquainted with Polycarp,  Cf. Batiffol "Polycarp" p. 242.

⁷³Collected in ANF, 1, 153-155.  H. J. Lawlor,

"Eusebius on Papias," Hermathena, XIX (1922), 167-198, argues

that the work was a commentary on Gospel passages.

⁷⁴Swete, Patristic Study  p. 26.

⁷⁵Cf. D H. Kromminga, The Millennium in the Church:

Studies In the History of Christian Chiliasm (Grand Rapids:

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1945), P. 53.  Kromminga

observes that anti-chiliastic writers attempt to make Papias

the sole link between the apostolic era and later chiliasm,

and then proceed to impugn his testimony.  Curiously,

Kromminga--a premillennialist--concurs that Papias was the

only chiliast among the Apostolic Fathers.

⁷⁶ANF, 1, 153 (taken from Eusebius Ecclesiastical

History 3. 39).

⁷⁷ANF, 1, 154 (from Irenaeus Against Heresies 5. 32).

Eusebius in the Ecclesiastical History 3. 39 also cites this

passage.  But he at once challenges Irenaeus' assertion that

Papias was a hearer of John, whom he takes to be the apostle.

Lawlor, "Eusebius on Papias," pp. 204-219, in a superb

display of critical scholarship, demonstrates that Eusebius'

criticism is without foundation.  Lawlor concludes, p, 216,

that Papias was a hearer of the Apostle John, as shown by

both Papias' own statement and the remark of his disciple,

Irenaeus.  (Lawlor's article is indispensable for any

student of the question of the relation between the Apostle

John and the "elder" of that name )

⁷⁸Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 3. 39 (ANF, I, 154).

⁷⁹ANF,I, 153-154 {from Irenaeus Against Heresies

5. 32).   The brackets are an insertion of the ANF editor.

⁸⁰See Quaten, p. 82.

⁸¹ ANF, I, 153 (Fragment III), from OEcumenius

⁸²Quasten, p. 84.

⁸³J. A. MacCulloch, "Eschatology,"  Hastings'

Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, V, 388.

⁸⁴Murray, Millennial Studies, p. 197.  Briggs, "Origin

and History of Premillenarianism," pp.218-219 similarly

argues that Jewish apocalyptic writings were the historic

source of early premillennialism, not the Scriptures.

⁸⁵Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God.

P. 165.

      ⁸⁶Hans Bietenhard, "The Millennial Hope in the Early

Church," trans. by G. W. Bromiley, Scottish Journal of Theology,

VI (1953), 12, goes further than this reply.  After noting the

parallel between Syr. Baruch 29 and Papias' tradition, he

states;   "In this context we cannot discuss the priority and

interdependence of the two traditions.  We can only maintain

that there existed in the Early Church a saying of Jesus which

the presbyters and. authorities cited by Papias referred at

once to the millennium.  We may also notice how closely the

Christian and Judaistic traditions approximated and even

merged into each other at this point."

⁸⁷Adolf Harnack, "Millennium," Encyclopaedia

Britannica, 11th ed., XVIII, 462.  These points are elaborated

in F. Crawford Burkitt, Jewish and Christian Apocalypses:

The Schweich Lectures (The British Academy), 1913 (London:

Published for the British Academy by Humphrey Milford,

Oxford University Press, 1914), pp. 10-15.  Burkitt points

out that the Jewish Schools that survived the destruction of

Jerusalem rejected the previously popular Jewish apocalyptic

literature.  Explaining this fall from favor, he states,

p. 12, "I will venture to take as my text the saying of

Johanan ben Zakkai, that God revealed to Abram this world,

but the world to come He did not reveal to him [Ber. Rab.

44 (on Gen. 15:18)].  I believe that this saying really

implies the renunciation of the Apocalyptic Idea, the notion

that the Kingdom of God was an external state of things which

was just upon the point of being manifested, and (as a

corollary) that the person of insight could know something

about it beforehand.  It was this idea that inspires the

whole series of Jewish Apocalypses, that was the central

thought of the earliest preaching of Christianity, that

intoxicated the Jewish people in their wild struggle with

Rome."  Johanan ben Zakkal was a realist, content "to let the

future age wait for God's good time," and in the meantime

channeled Jewish thought into new directions. On the other

hand, the Christians believed, "the Kingdom of God is at hand."

⁸⁸MacCulloch, "Eschatology," p. 388.

⁸⁹Burkitt,  Jewish  and Christian Apocalypses p. 13.

⁹⁰Schaff, p. 696.

      ⁹¹Edward H. Hall. Papias and his Contemporaries:

A Study of Religious Thought in the Second Century (Boston

and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1899), p. 123.

      ⁹²Andreas of Caesarea In Apoc. 34,  Serm. 12; cited by

Schaff, pp. 696-697.

⁹³Lawlor, "Eusebius on Papias," p. 198, n. 1  "We

may well believe that much of that book [Against Heresies]

Is based on Papias.  But except in one place where his

ipissima verba are given (v. 33. 3, 4), it seems impossible

to distinguish the portions directly founded on Papias

from Irenaeus' additions.

⁹⁴Hall, Papias and his Contemporaries, p. 131.

⁹⁵Quasten, p. 30.

⁹⁶Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, p. 9.

⁹⁷See the extensive listings in the patrolgy

manuals.

⁹⁸Quasten, p. 37; Altaner, p. 51.

⁹⁹Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, p. 11.

¹⁰⁰Quasten, p. 36.

¹⁰¹Quasten, p. 30.  Hugh Watt, "Didache," Hastings'

Dictionary of the Apostolic Church, I, 296, sees the importance

of the Didache as being that it fills a gap between the

apostolic era and the second century Church in matters of

worship, ministry, and doctrine.

¹⁰²Quasten, pp. 35-36.

¹⁰³ E.g. Jesse Wilson Hodges, Christ's Kingdom and

Coming:  With an Analysis of Dispensationalism (Grand Rapids

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1957) can list the Didache as

one of a series of writings incorrectly claimed as mille-

narian, on p. 220, while Case, The Millennial Hope, p. 156,

can cite it as evidence of millennial hopes having been

cherished by early Christians.

¹⁰⁴Didache 9. 4 (ANF, VII, 380).

¹⁰⁵Didache 10. 5 (ANF, VII, 380).

¹⁰⁶Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God,

p 22, distinguishes between two different interpretations of

the Kingdom in the early Church, the eschatological and the

non-eschatological, stating, "During the first two centuries

the kingdom of God in the Church Fathers was exclusively

eschatological," citing Didache 10. 5 as an example.  Cf.,

however, the slight qualification of Herrick, The Kingdom of

God in the Writings of the Fathers, p. 20, regarding The

Shepherd of Hermas as a possible exception.

¹⁰⁷John Lawson, A Theological and Historical Introduction

to the Apostolic Fathers (New York:  Macmillan

Company, 1961), p. 861 "The third prayer is for the coming

of the Kingdom, which will be marked by the gathering to-

gether of the People of God, the Church, into their divinely

appointed unity.  This answers to our Lord's own idea

(S. Matthew viii,  II), which in turn echoes the many Old

Testament passages where the exiled Israelites long for a

return to their Promised Land, and associate this with the

promised messianic deliverance (for example, Isaiah xliii,

5-9)."

¹⁰⁸Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God,

p. 22.

      ¹⁰⁹Archibald Robertson, Regnum Dei  Elght Lectures on

the Kingdom of God in the History of Christian Thought: The

Bampton Lectures, 1901 (New York Macmillan Company, 1901),

p. 126.

¹¹⁰So also Case, The Millennial Hope, p. 156.

¹¹¹Didache 16 (ANF, VII, 382).  Cf Quasten,  pp. 35-36.

¹¹²Didache 16 (ANF, VII,  382).

¹¹³See ANF, VII, 382, n. 16 on the Greek word here

rendered "outspreading," another possible

translation is "unrolling."  The note reads in part:

". . . others,  prefer  'opening' that is, the apparent

opening in heaven through which the Lord will descend.

'Outspreading' is usually explained . . . as meaning the

expanded sign of the cross in the heavens, the patristic

interpretation of Matt. xxiv. 30.  . . [others] refer it

to the flying forth of the saints to meet the Lord. There

are other interpretations based on textual emendations. As

the word is very rare, it is difficult to determine the exact

sense. 'Opening' seems lexically allowable and otherwise

free from objection."

¹¹⁴This series of events seems to combine "the accounts

of I Thes. 4:13-18 and Matt.  24:29-31.   Arno Clemens

Gaebelein, The Hope of the Ages; The Messianic Hope in

Revelation, in History and in Realization (New York; Publica-

tion Office, "Our Hope," 1938), pp. 116-117 points out the

incompatibility of the Didache's exegesis of Matt. 24 and

that of modern amillennialism.

¹¹⁵Lawson, Introduction to the Apostolic Fathers,

p. lOO, comments on the phrase,  "a resurrection of the dead;

yet not of all," as follows: "The writer of Didache, like the

generality of the Church of the first centuries, was a pre-

millenarian, and held that the Second Advent of Christ would

bring the Resurrection of the righteous only, so that they

might take part in the earthly Rule of the Saints. The

resurrection of the wicked, and the Last Judgment, would take

place only after this. This doctrine arises from a very

literal rendering of Revelation xx, 1-7."

 

¹¹⁶Compare the different emphasis placed on the Coming

of Christ by the non-chiliastic hymn,  "Dies Irae:"

 

Day of wrath: 0 day of mourning!

See fulfilled the prophets' warning,

Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

 

0 what fear man's bosom rendeth

When from heaven the Judge descendeth,

On whose sentence all dependeth!

 

Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth;

Through earth's sepulchers it ringeth;

All before the throne it bringeth.

 

Death is struck, and nature quaking,

All creation is awaking,

To its Judge an answer making. 

 

¹¹⁷Murray, Millennial Studies, p. 194.

 

¹¹⁸E.g., the convoluted efforts of Grier, The Momentous

Event, p. 21, and Strong, Amillennialism in the New Testament

p. 23.

      ¹¹⁹See Quasten, p, 89, for a defense of this now

commonly accepted deduction.

      ¹²⁰Many scholars hold to a date during the reign of

Hadrian (117-138)} cf. Altaner, p. 81 and Quasten, pp. 90-91.

But Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, p. 22, notes that

this dating scheme depends on the reference in chapter 16 to

the Temple being a reference to the Jerusalem Temple. Cross

suggests that it may refer to the spiritual building in the

soul, which would make any date after 70 A.D. possible.

¹²¹Quasten, p. 89; Altaner, p. 8l; so also Adolf

Harnack, "Barnabas," NSH, I, 487.

¹²²So Altaner, p. 8l.

¹²³Bairnard, Studies An the Apostolic Fathers, pp.

46-47.

¹²⁴Ibid., pp. 51-54.  On p 54  Barnard observes that

this explains why the Epistle can closely follow rabbinical

methods of exegesis and yet violently react against Jewish

customs and beliefs. The author, says Barnard, "was finally

excluded from Judaism and its worship, never to return."

¹²⁵Epistle of Barnabas 16 (ANF, I, 146).

¹²⁶Some commentators see this as a reference to Satan.

It seems, however, to refer to Antichrist.

¹²⁷This paragraph follows Case, The Millennial Hope,

p. 158.  Case also refers the reader to Epistle of Barnabas

4. 1-3;  6. 11ff; 7. 9ff; 15. 1-9; and 21. 3 for further

eschatological material.  Bietenhard, "The Millennial Hope in

the Early Church," pp. 12-139 also supports this interpretation

of Barnabas' eschatology.  On p. 13 he states:  "Except

for the theory of a universal week the Barnabas scheme

corresponds exactly to that of Rev. 19.11-2l.1f.  On the universal

Sabbath all things are brought to rest and a new world begins."

¹²⁸Lawson, Introduction to the Apostolic Fathers,

p. 214.

¹²⁹Briggs, "Origin and History of Preimillenarianism,"

p. 217

¹³⁰Ibid.

¹³²ANF, I, 149.

      ¹³²Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism,"

pp. 216-217.

      ¹³³ANF, I, 149, n. 8.

      ¹³⁴Bietenhard, "The Millennial Hope in the Early

Church," p. 13, observes that from the time of Barnabas onwards

wards millennial expectation was always within the frame-

work of a universal week of 7000 years."

¹³⁵Kromminga, The Millennium in the Church, pp. 30-40

¹³⁶Ibid., p. 30.  Kromminga would find support for

his statement in Jean Danielou, Theologie du Judeo-Chris-

tianisme (Tournai, Belgium:  Desclee & Cie, Editeurs, 1958),

pp. 341-346. On p. 362 he states<   "Mais la speculation de

Barnabe va etre mise en relation avec ie millenarisme asiate

--et ceci precisement par Irenee.  Celui-ci fail la synthese

de la tradition asiate du millenaire paradisiaque et de la

tradition gnostique du septieme millenaire comme temps du

repos."

¹³⁷Epistle of Barnabas 4 and 15.  Krommninga, The

Millennium in the Church, pp. 31-32, demonstrates that both

these chapters preclude a postmillennial interpretation.

¹³⁸Kromminga, The Millennium in the Church, pp.

32, 35-36

      ¹³⁹Ibid., p. 33.

¹⁴⁰Ibid., p. 33.

¹⁴¹Ibid., p. 33.   It should be noted that the attempt

to deny that a writing could be chiliastic unless it displays

"Jewishness" is, of course, thoroughly fallacious. Justin was

a Greek philosopher, and yet he enthusiastically embraced

premillennialism.  Cf. Harnack remarks w this, "Millennium,"

p. 462.

¹⁴²Ladd, Crucial Questions about the Kingdom of God,

p. 23, n. 3.

¹⁴³Note that this judgment of the ungodly simply

refers to the outpouring of Gods wrath on the wicked at the

end of the Great Tribulation, rather than to the Day of

Judgment.

¹⁴⁴Bernard, Studies in the Apostolic Fathers, pp.

78-79.

¹⁴⁵Even a writer such as Shedd, History of Christian

Doctrine, II, 391, acknowledges the chiliasm of Barnabas.

Danielou, Theologie du Judeo-Christlanisme, ch. 11 and also

in his article, "La typologie millenariste de la semaine

dans le christianisme primitif," Vigiliae Christianae, II

(1948), 1-16, has helped explain the differences between the

Asiatic and Syrian-Egyptian approaches to the Millennium.

See especially pp. 365-366 of the Theologie.  In Asia,

under the influence of Papias and the Apocalypse, millen-

nialism emphasized the terrestrial reign of the Messiah, with

conditions of paradise restored to the earth:  animals living

in harmony, extreme fertility of the earth, human longevity,

etc.  Matters were approached differently in Egypt and

Syria, he says. The seventh day of creation (rest) was

taken to correspond to the seventh millennium of history,

the "repose of the saint." (Danielou alleges a pagan source

for this conception, but he might better look to rabbinic

¹⁴⁶The above is based on Quasten; pp. 92-93.

¹⁴⁷Altaner,  p. 85; Cross, The Early Christian Fathers,

p. 24.

 

¹⁴⁸Quasten, p. 97.

¹⁴⁹Cross, The Early Christian Fathers, p. 26.

¹⁵⁰Barnard, Studies in the Apostolic Fathers, p. 151.

¹⁵¹Idib. p. 152.

¹⁵²Quasten, p. 103; Barnard, Studies in the Apostolic

Fathers, p. 151.

¹⁵³Briggs, "Origin and History of Premillenarianism,"

p. 214

¹⁵⁴ Ibid. pp. 214-215.

¹⁵⁵ Herrick, The Kingdom of God in the Writings of the

Fathers, pp 17-l8.

¹⁵⁶Case, The Millennial Hope, pp. 161-163.

¹⁵⁷ANF, II, 10.

¹⁵⁸Note the similarity between this conception and that

of the Old Testament's portrayal of the Messianic age.  This

being the case, the remark of Barnard, Studies in the Apostolic

Fathers p. 163, that Hermas was familiar with the Jewish

traditions passed down in the Roman Church, is interesting.

¹⁵⁹So Case, The Millennial Hope, p. 160.

¹⁶⁰ANF, II, 33.

¹⁶¹Case, The Millennial Hope, p. 161.

¹⁶²ANF, II, 17-18.

¹⁶³A. P. O'Hagan, "The Great Tribulation to Come In

the Pastor of Hermas," Studia Patristica, IV, Part II (1961),

305-311, shows that the references in the Shepherd to the

Great Tribulation to come (Vision 2. 2. 7; 4. 2. 4-5; 4. 3. 6;

have reference to a coming trial of faith.  "Escaping" the

Tribulation means perseverance in the face of the eschatological

trials in the last days.  The Great Tribulation is the

ultimate persecution.  It parallels the traditional Jewish

eschatological notion that the powers of Hell are to be act

loose upon the earth just prior to the End.

¹⁶⁴ Case, The Millennial Hope, p. 161, lists the

following passages as also having eschatological significance:

Vis. 2. 2; 3. 8; 9. 4. 1-3; Sim. 9. 5, 12.