The thousand years in the early church

The thousand-year reign (Rev 20) and the views of it. Part of Eschatology.

Epistle of Barnabas 15.4Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · The six days of creation mean six thousand years of history.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin holds that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, but admits many orthodox Christians do not.
Dialogue with Trypho 80.5Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Justin expects a resurrection of the flesh and a thousand-year reign in a rebuilt Jerusalem.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.1Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Isa 65:17–20, read of the thousand years.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · “The days of the tree” mean a thousand years: Adam died within a “day” of a thousand years.
Dialogue with Trypho 81.4Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · John the apostle, in the Revelation, foretold the thousand years and then the general resurrection and judgment.
Against Heresies 5.28.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · As the world was made in six days and a day of the Lord is a thousand years, the world will come to its end in the six-thousandth year.
Against Heresies 5.32.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The just will rise first and reign in this renewed creation, in which they suffered, before the final judgment, as Paul says creation awaits its liberation.
Against Heresies 5.33.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · At the Last Supper Christ promised to drink the fruit of the vine new with his disciples in the kingdom, which shows a renewed earth and a bodily resurrection.
Against Heresies 5.33.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The rewards promised for feeding the poor and leaving all for Christ will be given in the kingdom, the hallowed seventh day, the true sabbath of the just.
Against Heresies 5.33.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaac’s blessing of Jacob was never fulfilled in Jacob’s life and so refers to the kingdom, when, as the elders heard from John, the earth will bear marvellous abundance.
Against Heresies 5.33.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Papias, hearer of John, records the same teaching, and Isaiah’s peaceable animals are to be taken literally of the renewed creation, not only allegorically of converted nations.
Against Heresies 5.34.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah’s fruitful earth and healed wound, Christ’s promise to serve his watchful servants, John’s first resurrection, and Daniel’s kingdom of the saints all point to the kingdom of the just.
Against Heresies 5.34.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Jeremiah’s promises to the islands, the churches of the nations, of plenty and joy on Mount Zion signify the feast of the renewed creation in the kingdom of the just.
Against Heresies 5.34.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Isaiah foretells a righteous king in Jerusalem, rebuilt with precious stones, where the people will live long, build, and plant in peace.
Against Heresies 5.35.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The prophecies cannot be allegorized away; they will be fulfilled after the Antichrist in the resurrection of the just, when they reign in a restored Jerusalem, as the prophet (Baruch) foretells.
Heads against Gaius, fragment VII (on Rev 20:2-3)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, who held that Satan is already bound, Hippolytus argues that the devil still tempts and fights, and reads the thousand years of Rev 20 as one perfect day at the Lord's coming.
Commentary on Daniel 4.22-23Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Instead of calculating the end, be patient like the martyrs under the altar; Hippolytus nonetheless reckons Christ's birth in the year 5500 from Adam, so that the six thousand years before the sabbath rest of the saints are not yet complete.
Against Marcion 3.24Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · Tertullian describes the thousand-year kingdom in a heavenly Jerusalem after the resurrection, then the heavenly kingdom, and shows that the Creator promised both earthly and heavenly blessings.
On First Principles 2.11.2Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · Some Christians, reading the letter only, expect after the resurrection bodily pleasures, marriage, a rebuilt earthly Jerusalem and earthly rule, misreading prophecies meant figuratively.
Instructions 2.2Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end of the age the Lord will judge the wicked by fire, sparing the righteous, while some nations are kept to serve the saints for a thousand years.
Instructions 2.3Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · In the first resurrection the heavenly city descends and the saints and martyrs live in abundance, marrying and begetting children, for a thousand years.
Symposium 9.1Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · Tysiane, the ninth speaker, reads the feast of Tabernacles as a figure of the resurrection in the seventh millennium, when the faithful will rejoice with God in the new creation.
Symposium 9.5Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · As Israel went from Egypt to the booths and then to the promised land, the faithful rise to celebrate the thousand-year rest with Christ and then pass into heaven; Domnina is called on last.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The devil is bound for the thousand years in which the saints of the first resurrection reign with Christ, then released before the universal judgment.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 20.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Paul's trumpet in Thessalonians is the first resurrection of the saints, and his last trumpet in Corinthians the resurrection of the rest after a thousand years.
On the Making of the World 6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · Joshua, Mattathias, and the prophets set aside the Sabbath; the true Sabbath is the seventh millennium, when Christ will reign with his elect.
Church History 3.28.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Gaius (quoted): Cerinthus forged revelations teaching an earthly thousand-year kingdom of fleshly pleasures.
Church History 3.28.4Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus gave his fiction a trustworthy name and taught an earthly kingdom of Christ.
Church History 3.28.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius (quoted): Cerinthus's kingdom was a dream of food, drink, marriage, and sacrifices.
Church History 3.39.12Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Papias taught an earthly thousand-year kingdom after the resurrection, which Eusebius thinks misreads the apostles' figurative language.
Church History 7.24.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius wrote On Promises against Bishop Nepos, who taught a literal thousand-year earthly kingdom.
Church History 7.24.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Nepos based his view on the Apocalypse and wrote a Refutation of the Allegorists.
Church History 7.24.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Dionysius's first book states his view; the second deals with the Apocalypse.
Church History 7.24.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Because Nepos's book leads simple believers to hope only for earthly pleasures, Dionysius must answer it in writing.
Church History 7.24.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · In Arsinoe, where the doctrine had split churches, Dionysius called a public examination.
Church History 7.24.7Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · For three full days he examined Nepos's book with them.
Church History 7.24.9Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · The leader Coracion renounced the doctrine, and all rejoiced at the agreement.
Church History 7.25.3Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Cerinthus reportedly imagined Christ's kingdom as one of bodily pleasures.
Divine Institutes 7.14.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Six days of creation mean six thousand years of history.
Divine Institutes 7.14.11Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A thousand-year reign of justice will follow.
Divine Institutes 7.14.14Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The perfected people will rule the world for a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.22.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The dead will rise to reign with God a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.24.2Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · Christ will reign among men for a thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.24.3Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · In the millennium the living will beget holy offspring; the risen will judge.
Divine Institutes 7.24.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The devil will be bound for the thousand years.
Divine Institutes 7.24.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · A holy city will be established in the midst of the earth.
Divine Institutes 7.24.7Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The earth will be renewed in abundance and light.
Divine Institutes 7.24.9Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The poets' golden age is really the future millennium.
Divine Institutes 7.26.1Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · At the end of the millennium the devil is loosed and besieges the holy city.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 65.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · When six thousand years are complete, evil will end and justice reign.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.3Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Christ will judge, raise the righteous, and reign with them on earth for a thousand years.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.4Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · In the millennium the heavens will shine brighter and the earth yield without labour.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.5Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The earth will overflow with plenty and wild beasts will become tame.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 67.6Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · After the thousand years the devil is loosed and the nations attack the holy city.
Demonstration 2.14Aphrahat · 337-345 · A thousand years are as a day to God; the world will last six thousand years, followed by God's sabbath rest.
Treatise on the Mysteries 1.41.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The sixth day signifies the sixth millennium, in which we must prepare for the coming rest.
Treatise on the Mysteries 2.10.2Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–366 · The six days signify six thousand years; the world will be dissolved in the seventh and the church preserved.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:52Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The last trumpet sounds for the final battle against Satan after Christ's thousand-year reign on earth; then the dead rise and the saints are transformed into glory.
Letter 120.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome rejects a millenarian reading of Matt 26:29 and interprets the new wine as the Eucharist drunk in the church.
Letter 140.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:4 Jerome explains that a thousand years are as a night watch to God, and mentions the reckoning of the world's ages as six thousand years followed by the seventh and eighth.
Book of Heresies 59.1Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The Chiliasts expect a carnal thousand-year reign.
Sermon 259.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The seventh day signifies the saints’ future sabbath rest with the Lord on a cleansed earth after the judgment, at the end of six world ages; the eighth signifies the eternal life that returns to the beginning, and 153 is again explained from fifty.
On Illustrious Men 18Jerome · 392–393 · Papias of Hierapolis wrote five books on the Lord's sayings, distinguishes John the apostle from John the elder, and taught a thousand-year reign.
Questions and Answers to the Orthodox 71Anonymous · 5th century (disputed) · The answer finds in Scripture's language of “the last days” and “the fullness of time,” spoken in the sixth millennium, support for the view that the world will last six thousand years.
Commentary on Isaiah 54:1-3Jerome · ca. 408-410 · Jerome interprets Isa 54:1–3 of the church of the Gentiles, the barren woman who outnumbers the Synagogue, the wife who received a bill of divorce, and rejects a millenarian reading.
City of God 20.7Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects a literal, carnal reading of the thousand years of Revelation 20 and explains the binding of the devil as the restraint of his power over the church during the present age.
City of God 20.8Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The binding of the devil restrains his power to tempt during the church's age; at the end he will be loosed for three and a half years, yet the church will endure and even grow.
City of God 20.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The reign of the saints for a thousand years is the present reign of the church, living and dead, with Christ; the thrones are its leaders, the beast the ungodly city, and the first resurrection the rising of souls from sin.
City of God 20.11Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Gog and Magog are not particular barbarian peoples but the ungodly throughout the world, who in the last persecution will besiege the church everywhere.
City of God 20.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that the saints reign with Christ even during Antichrist's three-and-a-half-year persecution, so the thousand years either measure the devil's binding only or round off that short span.
City of God 20.17Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The new Jerusalem without tears or death belongs to the world to come, not to the present reign of the church, whose saints still weep and sin.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.15Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The breaking of the flask foretells the permanent ruin of Jerusalem after the Roman wars; Jerome declines but does not condemn the hope of an earthly golden Jerusalem held by many churchmen and martyrs (Jer 19:10–13).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.13Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God's everlasting love will rebuild virgin Israel, fulfilled in the church, not in a golden earthly Jerusalem; the apostles are the watchmen calling all to go up to Zion; only the remnant of Israel is saved (Jer 31:3–7).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.25Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God will rebuild and replant Israel and Judah, fulfilled in part at Christ's first coming and fully at his second, not in a millennial kingdom; each will die for his own sin. The new covenant written on the heart, quoted in Hebrews, was fulfilled in the gospel, offered first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles (Jer 31:27–34).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.29Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome rejects the millenarian reading of the rebuilt city's boundaries as a future earthly Jerusalem and expounds the place names as stages of the church's pilgrimage, whose corners, ruins, and region of death show that no one is sinless in this life (Jer 31:38–40).
Part 4, chapter 4Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The binding of the dragon for a thousand years in the Apocalypse is explained as the present age of the Church since Christ’s victory, prepared by Daniel’s seventy weeks; afterwards the devil will be loosed for a short time.