χίλιοι

From the study of Revelation 20:3

Range of meaning

'A thousand years.' A thousand can be an exact count, but in biblical idiom it can also stand for a vast or complete number ('a thousand generations', Deuteronomy 7:9; 'a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday', Psalm 90:4).

Against the English

Every translation says 'thousand years'. The English word 'millennium' comes from the Latin mille anni in the Vulgate and later became the name of whole doctrinal systems.

How it drifted

The English is not inaccurate, but 'the Millennium' now comes with detailed later frameworks (pre-, post- and amillennialism) that the verse itself does not spell out.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jewish writers of the period disagreed about how long the Messiah's interim kingdom would last. 4 Ezra 7:28–29 gives 400 years, after which the Messiah dies and the world returns to silence. The Talmud (b. Sanhedrin 99a) records rabbinic opinions of 40, 70, 365, 1,000, 2,000 and even 7,000 years. 2 Enoch 33 and the early Christian Epistle of Barnabas 15 tie 1,000 years to the six 'days' of world history followed by a seventh day of rest, based on Psalm 90:4. Only Revelation, in the New Testament, names a thousand-year period.

From the study of Revelation 20:2

Range of meaning

Literally 'a thousand years'. The phrase stands in the case Greek uses for how long something lasts. In Revelation's symbolic use of numbers, a thousand (10³) often stands for a huge, complete quantity (compare the 144,000 = 12 × 12 × 1,000 in 7:4).

Against the English

All versions agree on 'a thousand years'. The Latin for 'thousand' (mille) later gave the label 'millennium', a word not found in the text.

How it drifted

'Millennium' became a technical name for a whole doctrinal system (pre-, post- and amillennialism). Many readers now come to the verse through those systems rather than through the text itself.

Used elsewhere in the period

Jewish texts of the period expected a limited messianic age before the final age: 400 years in 4 Ezra 7:28, an unspecified period in 2 Baruch 29–30. Psalm 90:4 ('a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday') fed a 'world-week' scheme in which the seventh 'day' is a thousand-year rest (Epistle of Barnabas 15; later rabbinic discussions in b. Sanhedrin 97a–b). Jubilees 23:27 says that in the restored age people will live nearly a thousand years.

From the study of 2 Peter 3:8

Range of meaning

Literally "a thousand years". In Jewish and Greek usage, "a thousand" also served as a round number for vast quantity or very long duration ("a thousand generations", Deut 7:9).

Against the English

Rendered literally everywhere, which is right. The danger lies in how readers use it, not in the translation.

How it drifted

From the 2nd century on, some read the figure as an exact conversion key for world history (six "days" of 1,000 years, then a seventh 1,000-year sabbath). That use comes from later chronological systems, not from this verse's argument.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 90:4. Jubilees 4:30: Adam died at 930, short of 1,000 years, because "one thousand years are as one day in the testimony of the heavens". Epistle of Barnabas 15:4 and Irenaeus, Against Heresies 5.28.3 (six days = 6,000 years). Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 97a (the world lasts 6,000 years). Sirach 18:10 (a person's years are like a drop from the sea "in the day of eternity").