This topic is Part 2 to “Thousand (Years)’ in the Bible – (1)”. Most of the many verses quoted in (1) won’t be repeated here in (2). I suggest you read Part 1 before continuing.
We’ve been examining Bible verses & terms that reflect “thousand” and “thousand years”.
From Part 1…The New Testament (NT) passage that prompted the topic is Re.20:1-5. The apostle John wrote: “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom authority to judge was given. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who 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 for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.”
In the extended passage of Re.20:1-7, “thousand years” appears 6 times. Is the thousand years meant literally or approximately or as a rounded number? Or is the 1,000 years figurative or representative?
Figurative language is…using a word or phrase to picture something other than the literal or natural meaning. We normally interpret literally, actually,…unless the literal sense implies untruth, absurdity, impossibility, contradiction of other verses. In that case…the meaning is figurative, metaphorical, symbolic, allegorical, hyperbolic, a simile, parable, idiom, a personification…not interpreted literally.
Words can be representative…to denote, signify, portray, or indicate something (else).
In the Re.20:1-7 passage, the NT Greek term for “thousand” is chílioi, Strongs g5507. Our English word kilo (multiplication by 1,000) is derived from this term chilioi.
In the Greek Old Testament (OT) LXX and Greek NT, chilioi g5507 is the term translated “thousand”. It can be the precise number one thousand/1,000. There are 11 NT occurrences: 2Pe.3:8; Re.11:3, 12:6, 14:20, 20:2-7. Chilioi g5507 can be a precise symbolic, representative, rounded, or literal 1,000.
The term chiliás g5505 is used in plural thousands. There are 23 NT occurrences: Lk.14:31; Ac.4:4; 1Co.10:8; Re.5:11, 7:4-8, 11:13, 14:1, 3, 21:16. In the NT, chilias g5505 is never used for the precise number one thousand/1,000.
However, Hebrew had only one term for “thousand”…éleph h505. It occurs 500 times in the OT. Eleph is used: for the precise number one thousand/1,000, in numbers exceeding one thousand/1,000 (usually, e.g. 22,273 in Nu.3:43), and for plural “thousands”. There’s no distinction in the term itself.
In Part 1, we began a lengthy survey of many verses to see how “thousand” was meant in scripture. Only a couple verses were found (so far) where one thousand/1,000 is clearly literal.
We’ll now continue this in-depth survey and conclude the topic. I’ve been mostly referencing the LXX for the OT; the Greek LXX language better compares to our Greek NT.
Jb.9:3 “He [man] can’t answer Him [God] one time in 1,000 [g5507] times.” Benson Commentary “One accusation against 1,000 which God might produce against him.” But man couldn’t answer charge 1,001 from God either! Here, 1,000 basically denotes a large number.
Jb.33:23 “If there is beside him an angel [or messenger], an intercessor, one among a thousand, to show to man what is right for him.” Here too, “a thousand” denotes a large number.
Ec.7:28 he found one upright man out of 1,000 (g5507), but not one woman. JFB Commentary Ec.7:28 “Solomon, in the word ‘thousand’, alludes to his 300 wives and 700 concubines [1Ki.11:3].” Perhaps the approximate total of women in his harem was 1,000; many became negative experiences.
Ps.105:8 “God has remembered His covenant forever…to 1,000 [g5507] generations.” If a generation is 20 years, then 1,000 generations spans 20,000 years. 40-year generations would span 40,000 years! After 20,000–40,000 years…at generation 1,001 God wouldn’t fail to keep His covenant! Here, 1,000 denotes a large number.
Ps.50:10 God says, “Every animal of the forest is Mine, the cattle on 1,000 hills.” (v.10b isn’t in the LXX.) If God owns the cattle on only 1,000 hills, then who owns the cattle on hill 1,001 and all the other hills!? Mathew Henry Commentary “Even the cattle which feed upon innumerable hills.” Here, 1,000 clearly represents an unknown immeasurable number.
Da.5:1 “Belshazzár the king held a feast for 1,000 [h506 Aramaic, g5507 LXX] of his nobles.” Perhaps 965 or 1,035 nobles were there, or more? Barnes Notes Da.5:1 “The term 1,000 here is doubtless used to denote a very large number.” A version of the LXX reads “2,000 lords” (Pulpit Commentary).
Da.7:10 “A thousand thousands (g5505) attended Him, 10,000 times 10,000 stood before Him.” This verse reflects 1,000 (h506 Aramaic) & 10,000 multiplied. 1,000,000 & 100,000,000! Gill Exposition Da.7:10 “An innumerable company of angels.” Thousand is symbolic. cf. Re.5:11 (g5505).
In the above instances…the number 1,000 would allow for 975, or 999, or 1,001, 1,025, or more. God owns the cattle on the 1,026th hill too! Ps.24:1 “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”
Ezk.40-48 is Ezekiel’s grand allegorical vision. Ezk.47:3-5 records four measurements, each of 1,000 (g5507) cubits, in the water that became a river. Symbolic 1,000s. cf. Jn.7:38-39 where Jesus spoke of “rivers of living water” of the Spirit.
In Part 1 and Part 2, so far we’ve examined verses where “one thousand/1,000” refers to people or things. The Meaning of Numbers: the Number 1,000 “In scripture, the term ‘thousand’, when in reference to time, is always used symbolically. It represents any predetermined time that God chooses. In other cases, it is always used symbolically for a large number of people or things.” That is, referring to the precise number one thousand/1,000. Now the verses where “one thousand/1,000” relates to time:
In Da.12:11-12 are the 1,290 days and 1,335 days. Not a precise 1,000 days. Both periods are g5507 in the LXX. Many commentaries relate the two periods to the rule of Antíochus Epíphanes, ca 164 BC. However, there isn’t complete agreement for conclusively tying the two periods of days to specific months then. Others relate the two periods to Titus’ siege of Jerusalem leading up to 70 AD.
The 1,260 (g5507) days of Re.11:3, 12:6, (13:5)…also aren’t a precise 1,000. The various interpretations won’t be discussed here. Bible historians have tied this period of days to 66–70 AD, ending with the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome. (For comprehensive detail, see Josephus’ Wars of the Jews.)
Ps.84:10 KJV “A day in Thy courts is better than a thousand [elsewhere]. I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God.” (LXX has plural “thousands”, g5505.) “Thousand” represents countless days.
Now for the verses where the precise number “1,000” refers to years (not “days”). The expression “thousand years” is found only in Ec.6:6; Ps.90:4; 2Pe.3:8; Re.20:2-7.
Ec.6:3-6 “If a man begets 100 children and lives many years….Even if the man lives 1,000 [g5507] years twice over and does not enjoy good things….” Pulpit Commentary Ec.6:6 “What has been said would still be true even if the man lived 2,000 years.” It’s true even if he lived 980 or 1,020 or 2,020 years…or if he begat 90 or 110 or more children. The 1,000 years (and the 100 children) are symbolic.
Ps.90:4 LXX “1,000 [g5507] years in Your [God’s] sight are as yesterday which is past.” Cambridge Bible “The longest span of human life is but a day in Thy sight, though a man should outlive the years of Methuselah.” The 969 years Methuselah lived (Ge.5:27)…or 1,039 or 1,069 years…are also as yesterday. As one day. 1,000 years are symbolically as one day.
2Pe.3:8 KJV “Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as 1,000 [g5507] years, and 1,000 [g5507] years as one day.” The usage of “1,000 years” in this verse is somewhat similar to Ps.90:4. Benson Commentary 2Pe.3:8 “A thousand years, yea, the longest time, is no more delay to the eternal God than one day is to us.” Matthew Poole Commentary 2Pe.3:8 “By a synécdoche, 1,000 years is put for any, even the longest revolution of time.” Bengel’s Gnomen 2Pe.3:8 “He [God] wonderfully exceeds all measure of time.” In this verse too, “1,000 years” is figurative.
Returning now to our beginning passage of Re.20:1-ff…Re.20:2 “He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and satan, and bound him 1,000 [g5507] years.” Barnes Notes Re.20:2 “The notion of a millennium as such is found in this passage alone [Re.20:1-6].” Millennialism is also known as chiliásm (from the Greek term g5505 for “thousand”). No other passage shows millennium!
JFB Commentary Re.20:2 “A thousand implies perfection. Thousand symbolizes that the world is perfectly leavened and pervaded by the divine.” Matthew Poole Commentary Re.20:2 “It is probable that it signifies an uncertain, indefinite time.” Pulpit Commentary Re.20:2 “The best interpretation seems to be that this phrase expresses a quality, and does not express a period of time. ‘1,000’ signifies completeness.” Ellicott Commentary Re.20:3 “The same applies to the duration of the imprisonment; it is not to be understood literally.” Kenneth L. Gentry He Shall Have Dominion, p.347 “The thousand is no more literal here than that which affirms God’s ownership of the cattle on 1,000 hills (Ps.50:10).” Anthony A. Hoekema The Bible and the Future, p.226 “The book of Revelation is full of symbolic numbers. The number ‘thousand’ in this passage ought not to be interpreted in a strictly literal sense.”
In the Bible, “one thousand/1,000 years” refers to a large period of time. Interpreting the years as an approximation is even a stretch.
The precise number 10,000 (see Part 1) represented a large indeterminate amount. So did the precise number 1,000 (to a lesser degree or less emphatically). Spiritual Meaning of Thousand “In the Word, a thousand signifies much and countless.” Andrew of Caesárea Commentary on the Apocalypse, p. 206 “By the number 1,000 years by no means is it reasonable to understand so many years. For neither concerning such things of which David said, ‘The word which he commanded for 1,000 generations’ (Psalm 105:8) are we able to count these things as 10 times 100; rather they mean many generations.”
Yet there are others who did/do interpret the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff literally. As the date 1000 AD neared, all over Europe there was needless terror and alarm, because they supposed that satan would be loosed 1,000 years after Jesus’ birth! (ref Mosheim’s Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, p.340.)
{Sidelight: In 1071 AD the Seljúk Empire of Sunni-Muslim Turks & Persians took Judea and Jerusalem. This led to the First Crusade. (see Wikipedia: Seljuk Empire.) History.com “Christians in Jerusalem were increasingly persecuted by the city’s Islamic rulers, especially when control of the holy city passed from the relatively tolerant Egyptians to the Seljuk Turks in 1071. In 1095 Pope Urban publically called for a crusade to aid Eastern Christians and recover the holy lands.”
The date 1071 AD was 1,001 years after the 70 AD destruction of Jerusalem. Some Bible readers literally relate Re.20:7-8 to the hostile Seljuk control of Jerusalem. Re.20:7-9 “When the 1,000 years are completed, satan will be loosed…and will deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, and gather them for war…And they surrounded the beloved city.” Turkey has been tied to the historical Gog and Magog. Later Ottoman Turks controlled Jerusalem until 1917 AD. But after 1,000 years of restraint, a next period of 846 years, from 1071–1917 AD, isn’t a “little while” comparatively (Re.20:3)…it’s near to another 1,000-year period! So this view as fulfillment is doubtful.}
Interestingly, an ancient Greek & Roman belief was…the spirits of the dead dwelt in Hades for 1,000 years, and then were reincarnated or resurrected to earthly life. (for Hades: ref Lk.16:23; Re.1:18, 20:13-14.)
The Roman poet Virgil wrote ca 20 BC Aenéid, lines 735-751 “The dead are disciplined in purgatory….Each of us finds in the next world his own level….All these souls, when they have finished their 1,000–year cycle, God sends for…They may revisit the earth above and begin to wish to be reborn again.” Ancient Greek Mythology For Kids “The River Ácheron carried the good souls from the Underworld [Hades] that were sent back to earth after 1,000 years to be reincarnated as mortals.”
Wikipedia: Millennialism “The concept of a utopian millennium, and much of the imagery used by Jews and early Christians to describe this time period, was most likely influenced by Persian culture. Zoroástrianism describes history as occurring in successive thousand-year periods, each of which will end in a cataclysm of heresy and destruction. These epochs will culminate in the final destruction of evil by a triumphant messianic figure.”
Job said in Jb.29:18 JPS Tanakh, “I thought I would end my days with my nest [family], and be as long-lived as the phoenix”. The Tanakh is the Jewish (OT) scriptures. Bereshith Rabba Traditionally, only one bird, of all creatures, didn’t eat from the tree of forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden. Barnes Notes Jb.29:18 “Herder observes that the phoenix is obviously intended here….Jannai adds that ‘this bird lives 1,000 years, and in the end of the thousand years, a fire goes forth from its nest, and burns it up. But there remains an egg, from which again the members grow, and it rises to life.” 1,000-year symbolism. Also ref 1Clement 12:2-6 (25:2-ff in some translations) regarding the phoenix. (cf. Ec.6:6.) also see the topic “Rebirth to Physical Life (1)”.
Belief in a 1,000-year period had also existed in ancient Egypt. The Works of Voltaire, v.3 “The belief …in this period [1,000 years] was also in great credit among the Gentiles. The souls of the Egyptians returned to their bodies at the end of 1,000 years.”
The apostle John and readers/hearers of Revelation in Asia Minor likely would have known of existent beliefs about Hades and 1,000-year periods. It seems that Re.20:1-ff superimposes upon those ancient beliefs the true reign of messiah Jesus with His saints in the Kingdom of God. (see the topic “Kingdom of God”.) While the mustard seed of the Kingdom grows & progresses (Mt.13:31-33), some think satan is being progressively bound and is only effective in a decreasing percentage of humanity. (Someone in bonds and restrained may still have an effect to a degree, as Paul did have, e.g. Phm.1:10.)
Over the centuries there have been churches which make dogma with definite time limitations, and prognosticators make (false) predictions or so-called prophecies…based on the “1,000 years” of Re.20.
John Whiteford If Satan Is Alive, Why Not Millennialism? “We’ve seen similar heresies with millennialist eschatology in more recent times, with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, 7th Day Adventists, Mormonism, the Jim Jones cult, and Branch Davidians.”
The purpose of this topic isn’t to analyze or criticize church groups. Or eschatologies…e.g. historicist, futurist, amillennial, premillennial, postmillennial, preterist, partial preterist, etc. For more on timing in the Bible, see “The Last Days”, “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”, “Two Witnesses in the Bible”.
The scriptures we examined indicate that “1,000 (years)” meant a large number or a long undefined time.
Postmillennialist Kenneth L. Gentry The Beast of Revelation, p.133 “The number ‘1,000’ is frequently used in scripture as an indefinite, yet significantly large, number (Pss.90:4, Dan.7:10, 2Pet.3:8).”
OT scholar Erhard Gerstenberger, “For ancient Israelites, the numbers 1,000 and 10,000 were regarded as immense and immeasurable”.
Conclusion: In Part 1 and Part 2, the precise number “one thousand/1,000” people or things was seen in several verses as an approximation or a rounding. But very few verses were found where “one thousand/1,000”…no more, no less…was meant to be taken completely literally. Of all the verses surveyed in Part 1 and Part 2…the precise number “one thousand/1,000” appears clearly literal only in Ge.20:16 and SS.8:11-12. Possibly 1,000 is literal in 1Ki.3:4 and Nu.31:4-6 (see Part 1).
We began by quoting the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff. The other 3 verses where “1,000 years” appears in the Bible, Ec.6:6; Ps.90:4; 2Pe.3:8…aren’t to be taken literally. If the “1,000 years” of Re.20:1-ff is to be taken completely literally…it would be one sole canonical witness, standing alone. Our Bibles don’t contain two or three passages as witnesses to a “millennium”.
Bible Topic Exposition 