While we have no direct writings of Papias, he was quoted by a number of later church fathers. From these, we have been able to obtain Fragments of Papias in a work entitled “Oracles of the Lord”. Papias was apparently a premillennialist, though it is said that he learned this Doctrine “from unwritten tradition” and “strange parables and instructions of the Saviour” (The inspired Word of God makes no mention of an earthly millennium). Eusebius writes the following concerning Papias:
“The same person, moreover,has set down other things as coming to him from unwritten tradition, amongst these some strange parables and instructions of the Saviour, and some other things of a more fabulous nature. Amongst these he says that there will be a millennium after the resurrection from the dead, when the personal reign of Christ will be established on this earth.” (Exposition of the Oracles of the Lord - Fragment VI).
Through this second hand account, we see that it is likely that Papias was the earliest to hold to Premillennialism in some form or other.
8 comments:
Papias has made the same distinction as Polycarp as the Didache as the Bible.
Unless we have actual writings of what Papias actually said we cannot for fact be certain he believed in such. Even if Papias did believe it that does not make it truth. I will give you something to ponder! Hebrews says: but you have come to the city of the living God. Zion is from above, it is not on earth.
Oh I almost forgot and wish to find it again, but I once came across an account by a church father who said that the Apostle John was in a bath and a person who was teaching premillenialism was about to enter the bath. Well the story goes that John exited the bath because he didn't want to be in the same area as such a person and considered it heresy.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxviii.html
The issue was not the 1000 year reign in this account. The issue was the sensual nature to it that he falsely ascribed.
Most importantly, Cerintus denied God Incarnate.
Taking occasion from Papias of Hierapolis, the illustrious, a disciple of the apostle who leaned on the bosom of Christ, and Clemens, and Pantaenus the priest of [the Church] of the Alexandrians, and the wise Ammonius, the ancient and first expositors, who agreed with each other, who understood the work of the six days as referring to Christ and the whole Church.
" Chiliasm, or millennarianism,—that is, the belief in a visible reign of Christ on earth for a thousand years before the general judgment,—was very widespread in the early Church. Jewish chiliasm was very common at about the beginning of the Christian era, and is represented in the voluminous apocalyptic literature of that day. Christian chiliasm was an outgrowth of the Jewish, but spiritualized it, and fixed it upon the second, instead of the first, coming of Christ. The chief Biblical support for this doctrine is found in Rev. xx. 1–6, and the fact that this book was appealed to so constantly by chiliasts in support of their views was the reason why Dionysius, Eusebius, and others were anxious to disprove its apostolic authorship. Chief among the chiliasts of the ante-Nicene age were the author of the epistle of Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenæus, and Tertullian; while the principal opponents of the doctrine were Caius, Origen, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Eusebius. After the time of Constantine, chiliasm was more and more widely regarded as a heresy, and received its worst blow from Augustine, who framed in its stead the doctrine, which from his time on was commonly accepted in the Church, that the millennium is the present reign of Christ, which began with his resurrection. See Schaff’s Church History, II. p. 613 sq., for the history of the doctrine in the ante-Nicene Church and for the literature of the subject."
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iii.viii.xxxix.html
"very widespread in the early Church."
That is the assertion that is being examined in this series of blog posts. It looks unfounded to me.
“But it is not correct to say, as premillenarians do, that it was generally accepted in the first three centuries. The truth of the matter is that the adherents of this doctrine were a rather limited number. There is no trace of it in Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, Tatian, Athenogoras, Theophilus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Dionysius, and other important church fathers.” (Louis Berkhof, The History of Christian Doctrines, p. 262).
“Among the Apostolic Fathers BARNABAS is the first and the only one who expressly teaches a pre-millennial reign of Christ on earth. He considers the Mosaic history of the creation a type of six ages of labor for the world, each lasting a thousand years, and of a millennium of rest; since with God “one day is as a thousand years.” The millennial Sabbath on earth will be followed by an eighth and eternal day in a new world, of which the Lord’s Day (called by Barnabas “the eighth day”) is the type.” (Phillip Schaff – History of the Christian Church Vol. II, p. 617)
To say there is a millennium after THE resurrection is not the same thing as saying THE millennium after A resurrection as premill teaches. The ancients actually saw 8 millennia. One was the true Sabbath that Barnabas and the Book of Hebrews talk about.
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