Apocalypse. Millennium. Chiliasm and Chillegorism. Valeriy Sterkh
of Caesarea, which further popularized this teaching.
In the Russian Orthodox theology, Chillegorism was popularized by the metropolitan Macarius Bulgakov in his textbook «The Dogmatic Teaching of the Orthodox Church». This textbook (more precisely, the Chillegorism it taught) was harshly and most vehemently criticized by the priest Boris Kiryanov in his book «The Complete Explanation of the Earthly Millennial Kingdom of our Lord».
Section 3. The chronological aspects of the problem
Chronological considerations left their mark on both Chiliasm and Chillegorism.
The Apostle Barnabas suggested that the Second coming of Christ would happen 6000 years after the creation of the world. After that, the resurrection of the chosen righteous would take place – the first resurrection [Rev 20:5]. After that comes the Millennium of peace [Rev 20:6]. He based this opinion on the correlation between the seven days of creation and the literal interpretation of the Biblical statement about the day of the Lord being like a 1000 years [Gen 1:1—2:3; Ps 90:4 (Ps 89:5 rus); 2 Pet 3:8]. The Old Testament promise of the seventh day, the Sabbath [Ex 20:8; Deut 5:12; Ps 24:3—4 (Ps 23:3—4 rus); Jer 17:24—25], was interpreted as a prophecy of the millennial Kingdom (Epistle of Barnabas, chapter 15).
St. Justin the Philosopher and Martyr also supported this view by adding his interpretation of the verse from Isaiah «the days of My people, the works of their hands, will be like unto the days of the tree of life» [Is 65:17—25] as well as his reckoning of God’s promise about Adam dying on the day of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil [Gen 2:17] – Adam was not 1000 years old when he died (Conversation with Triphon, the Jew, 81).
This opinion is shared by St. Irenaeus of Lyons (Against Heresies, 5, 28, 2—3), Hippolytus of Rome (Commentary on the book of Daniel, 4, 23—24; Chronicle), Commodian of Gaza (Carmen apologeticum adversus judaeos et gentes), St. Methodius of Patara and Olympus (The Feast of the Ten Virgins, Discourse 9, Tisiana, chapter 1 and 5), Lucius Lactantius (The Divine Institutes, VII, 14).
The same position was held by Andreas of Caesarea who quoted St. Hippolytus of Rome (Commentary on the Apocalypse, chapters 28, 54, 63).
The idea was that at the end of the seventh millennium, the universal resurrection of the remaining righteous and all sinners would take place corresponding to the eighth day – the day of the resurrection: «For all our care about a virtuous living is looking forward to the future, to the age to come, the onset of which, following the cessation of the sensual time which runs in cycles of weeks and days, is called the eighth day. That is why the superscription: According to sheminith <With the eight-string> [Ps 12 (Ps 11 rus)] is advice to look beyond the present times to the eighth day. For when this transient and fleeting time, in which one comes to life and another one is destroyed, when there is no more need of coming into being and nothing destructible due to the transformation of our nature to another state of being through the resurrection that we hope for, and when this temporary time ceases to exist because there is no longer a force that brings to life and destroys – then, undoubtedly, these time-measuring seven days will come to an end. And the eighth day will be ushered, that is, the age to come, entirely composed of one day, even as one of the prophets predicts by calling the future life „a great day“ [Joel 2:11], since this day will not be illuminated by the sensual Sun but by the true Light, the sun of righteousness, which the prophecy calls the „east“ [Zech 6:12] because it never sets in the west» (St. Gregory of Nyssa «The Superscriptions of the Psalms», book 2, chapter 5).
Besides, at that time an idea was widely spread that the first coming of Christ had taken place about the year 5500 from the Creation of the world. It was shared by St. Hippolytus of Rome (Commentary on the book of Daniel, 4, 23—24), Sextus Julius Africanus (Chronographiai, fragment 18). We can also find traces of it in the apocryphal gospel of Nicodemus:
«Then Seth said, having approached the holy prophets: «When I, Seth, prayed to the Lord at the gates of Paradise, Michael, the archangel of the Lord, closed them, and an angel appeared to me saying: «I am sent from the Lord; I have been given charge over the body of your father. Therefore, I say unto you, Seth: do not labor with tears praying and asking for the balm of the tree of mercy to anoint your father Adam’s ailed body. For according to some law, you will only be able to get it in the end times, when 5500 years have been fulfilled (from the creation of the world) [in some manuscripts 5505 or 5555]. Then, the beloved Son of God, Christ, will appear on earth to restore the body of Adam and to raise the dead. And He will come to the river Jordan to be baptized, and when He has come out of the waters of the Jordan, He will anoint all those who believe unto him with the oil of His mercy, and the oil of His mercy will make one born of water and Spirit unto eternal life. Then, having come down to earth, the beloved Son of God, Christ, will take your father to Paradise and the tree of mercy» (Gospel of Nicodemus, chapter 19).
This view was based on the correlation between the birth of Adam some time in the course of the sixth day [Gen 1:26—31] and the coming of the new Adam (i.e. Christ) in the middle of the sixth millennium.
In these chronological calculations, the beginning of the events related to the last days would fall about 500 years after Christ. This was one of the reasons why Chillegorism was not prevalent in the first few centuries of Christianity. In the Apocalypse, Satan’s imprisonment lasts for 1000 years [Rev 20:2—3], while the postmillenarists came up with just 500 years. That’s why at that time, premillenarism seemed more reasonable in terms of the existing chronology.
However, in the first few centuries, even chillegorists were expecting the end of the world in 500 NE (from the New Era). They did it even though they were not able to successfully fit the 1000 years of Satan’s imprisonment into the 500 years. It must have been Tychonius Africanus who first found a solution. He suggested that the second half of the sixth millennium should be reckoned as [the seventh (?)] millennium, just like the three days of Jesus’ remaining in the tomb do not constitute three full days (Tychonius Africanus, The Book of the Seven Rules for Studying and Understanding Scripture, Rule 5. Concerning the times).
This idea was then picked up by other chillegorists: St. Jerome of Stridon (The Second edition [by Hieronymus] of «Commentary on the Apocalypse», St. Victorinus of Petava, on Rev 20:1—3), St. Aurelius Augustine of Hippo (On the City of God, book 20, ch.7), Andreas of Caesarea (Commentary on the Apocalypse, chapter 63).
After 500 NE (from the New Era), it became clear that «more time now has elapsed than what was said concerning the fullness of years, or five hundred years» (Oicumenuis, Commentary on the Apocalypse, Rev 12). Some theologians came to the opinion that 6000 years have not yet passed. They incorporated shorter chronologies from the creation of the world (see, for example, Pr. Boris Kiryanov, Complete Explanation of the Earthly Millennial Kingdom of our Lord, Chapter 6. Concerning chronology). Postmillenarists, on the other hand, had one more reason to expect the end of the world by 1000 NE; there was a corresponding prediction attributed to Pope Sylvester II (who, according to the legend, prevented the Judgement Day from taking place that year by overcoming the devil). After that, the date for the end of the world shifted several times. In Russia, the coming of the Antichrist was set on the year 7000 according to the Byzantine era (1492 NE), and they didn’t even dare to compile Paschal tables beyond this date. However, the predictions did not come true, and gradually Christian theology shifted to the idea that «it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power» (Act 1:7). «For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night» (1 Thess 5:2).
The idea that the events of the last days will be sudden existed from the very inception of Christianity (Mt 24:42—51, 25:13; Mk 13:32—37; Act 1:4—8; 1 Thess 5:1—10). Despite other opinions, many Church Fathers believed it and passed it on down the centuries (St. Clement of Rome, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 12; Apostolic Decrees, 7, 31). Even those who believed that the end