A basic flaw in Partial Preterist interpretation

DavidPT said:

Barnabas 15:3
Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And
God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the
seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

Barnabas 15:6
Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands
and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow
the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone
utterly astray.

Barnabas 15:7
But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and
hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being
justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all
things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it
then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first.

Barnabas 15:8
Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot
away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present
Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have
made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make
the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another
world.

Barnabas 15:9
Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which
also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended
into the heavens.
The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe in examining things, then seeing if these conclusions match the texts in question, before I'm going to take someone's word for something, such as, according to Boyd, Barnabas, for example, can't be claimed as Premil.

Obviously, according to Barnabas 15:8, the eighth day is meaning the beginning of eternity where everyone will have been cast into the LOF except for those worthy to obtain this other world. Obiously as well, the 8th day does not come after the 6th day, it comes after the 7th day.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

This verse is applying the first 6 days to that of six 1000 year periods, and at the end of these 6000 years, everything shall come to an end. Obviously pertaining to this present age. We cannot then apply Barnabas 15:8 at the end of this 6000 years, since that would be to ignore that a 7th day has to follow a sixth day.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

If this precedes the 8th day meant in Barnabas 15:8, yet follows the 6 days meant in Barnabas 15:4, and that in that same verse he clearly took a thousand years in the literal sense in 2 Peter 3:8, doesn't it stand to reason that he is also applying a thousand years to that of the 7th day, therefore making him a Chiliast, and certainly not an Amil?

Click to expand...

The early church believers and writers considered the first day of the week (Sunday) as “the eighth day.” The phrase “the eighth day” was a popular term used by early Christians to describe the day they set aside to rest and worship their Lord.

But, surely there are only seven days to the week, and not eight? Correct! But this theory that was held, believed and taught was more of a theory than a biblical truth. It was probably done more to distinguish the Church from Israel than anything else.

The early church tried to distance itself from the Jewish Sabbath. They tried to make Sunday the day, labelling it the 8th day. We all know there is no 8th day of the week, but it related particularly to Christ's resurrection and the fact 8 was the number of new beginnings.

Sunday quickly became established as the Christian Sabbath (or the real seventh day in a spiritual sense). It took on enormous importance due to the fact it was the day Christ conquered sin, death and the grave. It therefore became generally known as the Lord's Day.

Associating the 8th day with the Sabbath/Sunday was popular in early church literature. Those who believed in its special status supported their position by several different biblical arguments. The early Christian writers used many innovative and intricate arguments from their reading of Scripture to prove that Sunday was now the real Sabbath. Saying all this, it is highly likely that this tradition started in New Testament times and was passed down from the apostles to the early Church leaders, many of which knew these leaders personally. Many historians and theologians would take from Scripture that Sunday was the established Sabbath of the disciples in Scripture (Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2 and Revelation 1:10).

If we accept that Scripture (supported by the direct word of the apostles) was the main grounds for this position (and there is no good reason to assume otherwise), there definitely was an important secondary motive. It seems like they felt compelled to theologically distance the New Testament Church from Old Testament Israel. We need to remember; the New Testament Church was still very much in its infancy. Judaizing was still an existing threat. The Early Fathers probably felt compelled to put clear distance between biblical Christianity and apostate Judaism. They likely felt the need to highlight the distinction between the old abolished covenant and the new eternal covenant. Nothing would have made a louder statement than having a different Sabbath.

DavidPT said:

Barnabas 15:3
Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And
God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the
seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

Barnabas 15:6
Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands
and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow
the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone
utterly astray.

Barnabas 15:7
But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and
hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being
justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all
things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it
then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first.

Barnabas 15:8
Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot
away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present
Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have
made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make
the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another
world.

Barnabas 15:9
Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which
also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended
into the heavens.
The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe in examining things, then seeing if these conclusions match the texts in question, before I'm going to take someone's word for something, such as, according to Boyd, Barnabas, for example, can't be claimed as Premil.

Obviously, according to Barnabas 15:8, the eighth day is meaning the beginning of eternity where everyone will have been cast into the LOF except for those worthy to obtain this other world. Obiously as well, the 8th day does not come after the 6th day, it comes after the 7th day.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

This verse is applying the first 6 days to that of six 1000 year periods, and at the end of these 6000 years, everything shall come to an end. Obviously pertaining to this present age. We cannot then apply Barnabas 15:8 at the end of this 6000 years, since that would be to ignore that a 7th day has to follow a sixth day.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

If this precedes the 8th day meant in Barnabas 15:8, yet follows the 6 days meant in Barnabas 15:4, and that in that same verse he clearly took a thousand years in the literal sense in 2 Peter 3:8, doesn't it stand to reason that he is also applying a thousand years to that of the 7th day, therefore making him a Chiliast, and certainly not an Amil?

Click to expand...

It is extremely significant that Barnabas is never accused by any of the early Amillennialisists of being a Chiliast or is his popular writings, with their prominent end time views, ever attacked by the same. Whilst various early fathers are listed and condemned by the anti-millennialists Barnabas is never one of them. The fact is, he never held to Chilaism nor did he ever teach it.

It is equally compelling that none of the early Chiliasts claimed Barnabas as one of their own. Nowhere is he or his writings advanced in support of the millennial doctrine. Even the most passionate and biased Chiliast and historian of the first 4 centuries Irenaeus when looking for support and continuity of his doctrine from Bible times could only find Papias over the first 100 years period after the cross.

There can be little doubt if there would have been any evidence to claim him as a Chiliast Irenaeus would have. But, he makes no such assertion.

It is only in modern times that historians have attempted to turn Barnabas into a Chiliast. Most of this has emanated from unobjective Dispensational writers. Their supposed “proof” is built upon an ignorance of the fact that early Amillenialists and Chiliasts both held stoutly to the theory that time should be linked to the 6 days of creation and should in turn mean history will last 6,000 literal years: each day representing 1,000 years.

What is more, they fail to grasp the common belief of early Amillenialist and Chiliast writers that the 7th day should be likened to the Christian Sabbath which was celebrated on the 8th day rather than the Jewish Sabbath on the 7th day. This has created much confusion among modern historians and many false conclusions. Early Christianity was basically doing its best to distance itself from apostate Judaism and create a new pure beginning with the 8th day concept.

DavidPT said:

Barnabas 15:3
Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And
God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the
seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

Barnabas 15:6
Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands
and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow
the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone
utterly astray.

Barnabas 15:7
But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and
hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being
justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all
things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it
then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first.

Barnabas 15:8
Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot
away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present
Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have
made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make
the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another
world.

Barnabas 15:9
Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which
also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended
into the heavens.
The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe in examining things, then seeing if these conclusions match the texts in question, before I'm going to take someone's word for something, such as, according to Boyd, Barnabas, for example, can't be claimed as Premil.

Obviously, according to Barnabas 15:8, the eighth day is meaning the beginning of eternity where everyone will have been cast into the LOF except for those worthy to obtain this other world. Obiously as well, the 8th day does not come after the 6th day, it comes after the 7th day.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

This verse is applying the first 6 days to that of six 1000 year periods, and at the end of these 6000 years, everything shall come to an end. Obviously pertaining to this present age. We cannot then apply Barnabas 15:8 at the end of this 6000 years, since that would be to ignore that a 7th day has to follow a sixth day.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

If this precedes the 8th day meant in Barnabas 15:8, yet follows the 6 days meant in Barnabas 15:4, and that in that same verse he clearly took a thousand years in the literal sense in 2 Peter 3:8, doesn't it stand to reason that he is also applying a thousand years to that of the 7th day, therefore making him a Chiliast, and certainly not an Amil?

Click to expand...

A week is a time unit equal to 7 days. The Jewish week started with Sunday (1st day) and ended with Saturday – the 7th day, or Sabbath (a day of rest). As early Christianity began to grow, Sunday became a sacred day for Christians – as a celebration of Christ’s glorious resurrection. It gradually displaced Saturday as the day of rest. It became the Christian Sabbath, and was popularly known as the Lord’s Day.

The traditional week under Judaism was as follows:

First day: Sunday
Second Day: Monday
Third Day: Tuesday
Fourth Day: Wednesday
Fifthly Day: Thursday
Sixth Day: Friday
Seventh Day: Saturday (or the true spiritual Sabbath)

The statute in regard to a Sabbath of rest is found in Exodus 20:8-10 in the 4th commandment: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God.”

The early church embraced this general principal; the only difference was Sunday became the Christian Sabbath. That meant, according to the Jewish system the Christian Sabbath was the 1st day of the week. However, the patristic writers considered the “first day” also the “eighth day” because it came after the seventh and they identified it with the resurrection of Christ, thus symbolising the day of new beginnings.

First day: Sunday
Second Day: Monday
Third Day: Tuesday
Fourth Day: Wednesday
Fifthly Day: Thursday
Sixth Day: Friday
Seventh Day: Saturday
Eighth day: Sunday (Sabbath)

Yes, the day of rest (a 7th day of the natural week) - which is the Sabbath, has also become the 8th day of the Christian calendar – a day of rest, worship and new beginnings.

There are two weeks in view – the natural and the spiritual. The 7-day natural week is used as the blueprint for the 6,000 years theory. The 7th day of the natural week is likened to the eternal Sabbath rest of the saints, free of the wicked and all wickedness. So, the 7th day is likened to the natural week. But the spiritual week which is amended to make Sunday the 8th day and the Christian Sabbath, was the real day of rest for Christians.

DavidPT said:

Barnabas 15:3
Of the Sabbath He speaketh in the beginning of the creation; And
God made the works of His hands in six days, and He ended on the
seventh day, and rested on it, and He hallowed it.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

Barnabas 15:6
Yea and furthermore He saith; Thou shalt hallow it with pure hands
and with a pure heart. If therefore a man is able now to hallow
the day which God hallowed, though he be pure in heart, we have gone
utterly astray.

Barnabas 15:7
But if after all then and not till then shall we truly rest and
hallow it, when we shall ourselves be able to do so after being
justified and receiving the promise, when iniquity is no more and all
things have been made new by the Lord, we shall be able to hallow it
then, because we ourselves shall have been hallowed first.

Barnabas 15:8
Finally He saith to them; Your new moons and your Sabbaths I cannot
away with. Ye see what is His meaning ; it is not your present
Sabbaths that are acceptable [unto Me], but the Sabbath which I have
made, in the which, when I have set all things at rest, I will make
the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another
world.

Barnabas 15:9
Wherefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, in the which
also Jesus rose from the dead, and having been manifested ascended
into the heavens.
The Epistle of Barnabas (translation J.B. Lightfoot)

I can't speak for anyone else, but I believe in examining things, then seeing if these conclusions match the texts in question, before I'm going to take someone's word for something, such as, according to Boyd, Barnabas, for example, can't be claimed as Premil.

Obviously, according to Barnabas 15:8, the eighth day is meaning the beginning of eternity where everyone will have been cast into the LOF except for those worthy to obtain this other world. Obiously as well, the 8th day does not come after the 6th day, it comes after the 7th day.

Barnabas 15:4
Give heed, children, what this meaneth; He ended in six days. He
meaneth this, that in six thousand years the Lord shall bring all
things to an end; for the day with Him signifyeth a thousand years;
and this He himself beareth me witness, saying; Behold, the day of
the Lord shall be as a thousand years. Therefore, children, in six
days, that is in six thousand years, everything shall come to an end.

This verse is applying the first 6 days to that of six 1000 year periods, and at the end of these 6000 years, everything shall come to an end. Obviously pertaining to this present age. We cannot then apply Barnabas 15:8 at the end of this 6000 years, since that would be to ignore that a 7th day has to follow a sixth day.

Barnabas 15:5
And He rested on the seventh day. this He meaneth; when His Son
shall come, and shall abolish the time of the Lawless One, and shall
judge the ungodly, and shall change the sun and the moon and the
stars, then shall he truly rest on the seventh day.

If this precedes the 8th day meant in Barnabas 15:8, yet follows the 6 days meant in Barnabas 15:4, and that in that same verse he clearly took a thousand years in the literal sense in 2 Peter 3:8, doesn't it stand to reason that he is also applying a thousand years to that of the 7th day, therefore making him a Chiliast, and certainly not an Amil?

Click to expand...

8th day Sabbath – last day of the Feast of Tabernacles

Early Christians took support for the 8th day being a Sabbath from Leviticus 23. We see it introduced in Leviticus 23:15-16: “ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete: Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD.”

Leviticus 23:39 actually calls the 50th day of the Feast of Tabernacles the 8th day: “ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.”

They saw this Jewish festival as a shadow pointing toward the Lord’s resurrection (which happened the day after the Jewish Sabbath). They believed He was the perfect fulfilment of all the old covenant ordinances, rituals and holy days. Sunday being the day after the 7th day soon became the believers Sabbath (the 8th day). By this, Saturday lost its cultural prominence and spiritual worth. This annual old covenant festival would be spiritually applied by the early writers to Sunday worship. The term festival is often used by writers to express that spiritual point.

For Christians, Sunday was a day of victory and joy. Because of the enormity of what Christ achieved on that day, and the fact He fulfilled everything the law demanded of Him, and that He abolished the whole old covenant arrangement with His resurrection, that day became widely known as the 8th day.

Ignatius of Antioch, Syria (A.D. 98-117).

Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, (A.D. 98-117) laid out the widely held belief among the early fathers on the 8th day of the week, in his Letter to the Magnesians (Chapter IX – Let us live with Christ):

"Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner … But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner … after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, “To the end, for the eighth day,” on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ."

To all intents and purposes, Sunday became the new Sabbath, making the 8th day the 7th in a spiritual sense. Please note: the Lord’s Day here is deemed “a festival.” It was also known as “a feast.” These were popular and common descriptions that were widely known and used among the early Christians.

In Ignatius’ letter to the Magnesians (Chapter 9), we learn:

"If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death."

Tertullian Carthage, Africa, (now Tunisia) (A.D. 160 – 220)

Tertullian says in Chapter XIV – Of Blasphemy, One of St. Paul’s Sayings:

"The Holy Spirit upbraids the Jews with their holy-days. “Your Sabbaths, and new moons, and ceremonies,” says He, “My soul hateth.” By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons and festivals formerly beloved by God … to the heathens each festive day occurs but once annually: you have a festive day every eighth day."

If Sunday was the Christian Sabbath (the day of rest), then the six days of Christian work operated from Monday to Saturday, and the 7th spiritual day became Sunday (albeit for religious purposes they considered it the 8th day of the week). To many early believers Sunday was the eighth day of the week. This is where some misunderstand the teachings of the early fathers; none more so than their view of the writings of Barnabas.

Tertullian succinctly testifies in Ad Nationes (Book I) Chapter XIII – The Charge of Worshipping the Sun Met by a Retort:

"We make Sunday a day of festivity."

Christians were not content to have one Sabbath a year on a Sunday (as per Leviticus 23:39) as a feast or festival day, they turned every Sunday into such a celebration. After all, they considered Christ’s resurrection to be literally ongoing eternal fulfilment of the Feast of Tabernacles.

They saw the Old Testament Jewish festival as a shadow pointing toward the Lord’s resurrection (which happened the day after the Jewish Sabbath). They believed He was the perfect fulfilment of all the old covenant ordinances, rituals and holy days. Sunday being the day after the 7th day soon became the believers Sabbath (the 8th day). By this, Saturday lost its cultural prominence and spiritual worth. This annual old covenant festival would be spiritually applied by the early writers to Sunday worship. The term festival is often used by writers to express that spiritual point.

Origen Alexandria, Egypt (185-254)

Origen’s Homily 23 states:

"But what is the feast of the Sabbath except that which the apostle speaks, "There remaineth therefore a Sabbatism," that is, the observance of the Sabbath, by the people of God ... Leaving the Jewish observance of the Sabbath, let us see how the Sabbath ought to be observed by a Christian. On the Sabbath-day all worldly labors ought to be abstained from ... Give yourselves up to spiritual exercises, repairing to church, attending to sacred reading and instruction ... this is the observance of the Christian Sabbath."

It is clear to see, “the Christian Sabbath” (Sunday) is here divorced from “the Jewish observance of the Sabbath” (Saturday) and deemed “the feast of the Sabbath.” This was a celebration of life, rather than the death of the old covenant.

Hilary Bishop of Poitiers, Gaul (modern-day France) (300 –368 AD)

Hilary says in his Homilies on the Psalms (Psalm 12):

"Although the name and the observance of the Sabbath had been established for the seventh day, we [Christians] celebrate the feast of the perfect Sabbath on the eighth day of the week, which is also the first day of the week."

Homilies on the Psalms Psalm 92 says:

"As there is constituted in the seventh day both the name and the observance of the Sabbath, yet we rejoice in the festivity of a perfect Sabbath on the eighth day, which is also the first.

The continuation of the seventh day of the Old Testament and the eighth day of the Gospel, by which we rise to holy and spiritual things."

Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (Syria?) (Before AD 325)

Book 5:

"Every Lord's day, hold your solemn assemblies, and rejoice: for he will be guilty of sin who fasts on the Lord's day, being the day of the resurrection, or during the time of Pentecost, or, in general, who is sad on a festival day to the Lord? For on them we ought to rejoice, and not to mourn."

Book 7:

"Keep the Sabbath, and the Lord's day festival; because the former is the memorial of the creation, and the latter of the resurrection."

Athanasius, Alexandria, (296 – 373AD)

Athanasius in his Treatise on the Sabbath, and circumcision declared:

"In the time of the old covenant, the sabbath was highly revered. Now under the gospel the sabbath has been recast, now viewed as the Lord’s resurrection day. The sabbath formerly had pertained to the pedagogy and rudiments of the law. When the great master himself came and fulfilled them all for us, all that had prefigured his coming was transformed. The old sabbath was like a candle lit in the night before the rising and appearing of the sun."

Augustine (Hippo Regius, Numidia (now Algeria) (354-430 AD)

Augustine in his Letter 55 Chapter 13:23:

"The Lord's day, however, has been made known not to the Jews, but to Christians, by the resurrection of the Lord, and from Him it began to have the festive character which is proper to it."

DavidPT said:

In our survey of NT and post-NT literature so far (up to the early church fathers), we have not seen any indication that anybody held to a ‘precise prediction’ of the Eschaton’s arrival.

With the Epistle of Barnabas, however, we encounter an odd situation. He indicates a belief in the ‘world week’ of 6K years (ie, the Eschaton has to ‘wait’ for the 6,000 years to ‘end’ before it then starts?), yet still seems to maintain a belief in ‘at any time’ and ‘unknown but could be very soon’ (ie, the Eschaton can come at any time).

The background of this comes from Psalm 90 (sort of), which says “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” [ESV]

This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.

In Christian literature, we can see references to this world-week first in Barnabas, then Irenaeus, and later in Hippolytus, and we can see it debunked later still by Augustine.
worldweek
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I just found the above article while doing a Google search. The article is somewhat lengthy, yet there is a lot of good info in the article. Maybe you don't care to look at that link, and that's fine if you don't. But others following this thread might find that article worth looking into, though.

Going by the little bit I pasted above from that article, this article says the following of Barnabas---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day---clearly indicating, assuming what I have pasted is a factual conclusion by this author, Barnabas was a Chiliast not an Amil.

If he was an Amil, and that Augustine was an Amil, what was it that Augustine allegedly debunked? Would it not be all of this---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day?

Obviously if he allegedly debunked this part---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years)---that would indicate he also allegedly debunked this part---leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.


No matter how you want to spin it, after 6 comes 7, not 8. If one concludes that the 8th day starts at the beginning of the first day, as in a cycle of 7 days repeating, you still have 7 days before you can arrive back at the first day.

IOW---

A 7 day week.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8 which is meaning the beginning of the cycle, day 1 in this case.


After day 7 the cycle ends then starts over, therefore making the 8th day day 1 in the beginning of the 7 day cycle. One cannot get back to day 1 in a 7 day cycle without it involving 7 days first. One certainly can't arrive back at day 1 from day 6, skipping day 7 in the process. That's not how it would work. It would be illogical.

Click to expand...

I don’t check out other links because I cannot discuss with them. Also, one has to employ trustworthy sources. You can get whatever you want online. Most of it is misleading, ill-researched and unobjective. i am disappointed that this was your tactic to ascertain the truth. You clearly want to believe what you want.

Did you even read the other quotes from the early church fathers that I submitted showing the Christian 7th day (the sabbath) was Sunday - which was deemed the 8th day

DavidPT said:

In our survey of NT and post-NT literature so far (up to the early church fathers), we have not seen any indication that anybody held to a ‘precise prediction’ of the Eschaton’s arrival.

With the Epistle of Barnabas, however, we encounter an odd situation. He indicates a belief in the ‘world week’ of 6K years (ie, the Eschaton has to ‘wait’ for the 6,000 years to ‘end’ before it then starts?), yet still seems to maintain a belief in ‘at any time’ and ‘unknown but could be very soon’ (ie, the Eschaton can come at any time).

The background of this comes from Psalm 90 (sort of), which says “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” [ESV]

This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.

In Christian literature, we can see references to this world-week first in Barnabas, then Irenaeus, and later in Hippolytus, and we can see it debunked later still by Augustine.
worldweek
-----------------------------------------------------

I just found the above article while doing a Google search. The article is somewhat lengthy, yet there is a lot of good info in the article. Maybe you don't care to look at that link, and that's fine if you don't. But others following this thread might find that article worth looking into, though.

Going by the little bit I pasted above from that article, this article says the following of Barnabas---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day---clearly indicating, assuming what I have pasted is a factual conclusion by this author, Barnabas was a Chiliast not an Amil.

If he was an Amil, and that Augustine was an Amil, what was it that Augustine allegedly debunked? Would it not be all of this---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day?

Obviously if he allegedly debunked this part---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years)---that would indicate he also allegedly debunked this part---leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.


No matter how you want to spin it, after 6 comes 7, not 8. If one concludes that the 8th day starts at the beginning of the first day, as in a cycle of 7 days repeating, you still have 7 days before you can arrive back at the first day.

IOW---

A 7 day week.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8 which is meaning the beginning of the cycle, day 1 in this case.


After day 7 the cycle ends then starts over, therefore making the 8th day day 1 in the beginning of the 7 day cycle. One cannot get back to day 1 in a 7 day cycle without it involving 7 days first. One certainly can't arrive back at day 1 from day 6, skipping day 7 in the process. That's not how it would work. It would be illogical.

Click to expand...

I'm not really presenting this information for someone like yourself who is very biased in their thinking. I'm primarily presenting this for the serious objective observer.

8th day circumcision

Justin, Asia Minor (AD 100-166)

Justin states in his Dialogue with Trypho in Chapter 41:

The command of circumcision, again, bidding [them] always circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and iniquity through Him who rose from the dead on the first day after the Sabbath, [namely through] our Lord Jesus Christ. For the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first.

He argues in Chapter 24:

The eighth day possessed a certain mysterious import, which the seventh day did not possess.

Cyprian, Carthage, North Africa, (AD 200-258)

In Epistle LVIII (58, To Fidus, on the Baptism of Infants. (Chapter 4) we learn:

For in respect of the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage; but when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For because the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was to be that on which the Lord should rise again, and should quicken us, and give us circumcision of the spirit, the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s day, went before in the figure; which figure ceased when by and by the truth came, and spiritual circumcision was given to us.

Augustine (Hippo Regius, Numidia (now Algeria) (354-430 AD)

Augustine in his Letter 55 Chapter 13:23:

Although the sacramental import of the 8th number, as signifying the resurrection, was by no means concealed from the holy men of old who were filled with the spirit of prophecy (for in the title of Psalms [vi. and xii.] we find the words for the eighth, and infants were circumcised on the eighth day.

Contra Faustum, (Reply to Faustus the Manichaean) Book XII. Chapter 29”

Unless Christ had considered this Sabbath—which in your want of knowledge and of piety you laugh at—one of the prophecies written of Himself, He would not have borne such a testimony to it as He did. For when, as you say in praise of Christ, He suffered voluntarily, and so could choose His own time for suffering and for resurrection, He brought it about that His body rested from all its works on Sabbath in the tomb, and that His resurrection on the third day, which we call the Lord’s day, the day after the Sabbath, and therefore the eighth, proved the circumcision of the eighth day to be also prophetical of Him. For what does circumcision mean, but the eradication of the mortality which comes from our carnal generation? So the apostle says: "Putting off from Himself His flesh, He made a show of principalities and powers, triumphing over them in Himself." The flesh here said to be put off is that mortality of flesh on account of which the body is properly called flesh. The flesh is the mortality, for in the immortality of the resurrection there will be no flesh; as it is written, "Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God." You are accustomed to argue from these words against our faith in the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, which has already taken place in the Lord Himself. You keep out of view the following words, in which the apostle explains his meaning. To show what he here means by flesh, he adds, "Neither shall corruption inherit incorruption." For this body, which from its mortality is properly called flesh, is changed in the resurrection, so as to be no longer corruptible and mortal. This is the apostle’s statement, and not a supposition of ours, as his next words prove. "Lo" he says, "I show you a mystery: we shall all rise again, but we shall not all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the last trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." To put on immortality, the body puts off mortality. This is the mystery of circumcision, which by the law took place on the eighth day; and on the eighth day, the Lord’s day, the day after the Sabbath, was fulfilled in its true meaning by the Lord. Hence it is said, "Putting off His flesh, He made a show of principalities and powers." For by means of this mortality the hostile powers of hell ruled over us. Christ is said to have made a show or example of these, because in Himself, our Head, He gave an example which will be fully realized in the liberation of His whole body, the Church, from the power of the devil at the last resurrection.

Ogdoad/Octave – Psalm 6

The 6th Psalm is said to be “'upon Sheminith” or “upon the eighth.” This is believed to relate to an instrument relating to the 8th key. Many of the early writers took this introductory phrase in the title of the 6th Psalm to spiritually relate to the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord’s Day and finally the day of the Lord.

Shĕmiyniyth

perhaps an eight-stringed musical instrument
perhaps a musical notation, i.e. an octave

Gesenius takes it to mean the lowest of the three keys of the human voice, an octave, or eighth below the treble, Hengstenberg takes it as indicating the time, as measured according to the number eight.

Origen Alexandria, Egypt (185-254)

Origen in his Homilies on Exodus declares:

The sixth day represents life here below: "God made the world in six days." During this sixth day one must gather and put in reserve provisions sufficient for the (seventh) day to come … But if one gathers good works, they will live for the next day. (This 'next day' is the Sabbath represented by the Ogdoad).

The Ogdoad meant the 8th day.

Eusebius, Caesarea, Palestine, (263-339)

In his Commentary on the Psalms, PG 23.120A, we learn:

The octave is the day of Christ the Lord's salvific resurrection on which we believe occurs the purgation of all sins … This day is better than the seventh because on it the Law is dissolved.

Athanasius, Alexandria, (296 – 373AD)

Athanasius asks in his Treatise on the Psalms:

What is the octave? It is the day of the Lord's resurrection on which we receive the fruit of our labors. Indeed our enemies have been turned back with shame and confusion. This psalm (six) sings of that blessed time of repentance made for sin.

The Lord has transferred the day of the Sabbath to the Lord's day.

Didymus the Blind, Alexandria, Egypt (AD 313 – 398)

Didymus in his Treatise on the Psalms, PG 39.1173D-76A , says:

Psalm six contains a more divine sense in its verses. It sings about the end, because (these verses) are the most perfect contemplation on the octave. The person is circumcised spiritually by God, for it is not carnal. Circumcision is perfected in the octave because it is extolled above the six days in which the world was made and attains the seventh day, the true, holy, and delightful Sabbath. Since perfect beatitude cannot be obtained through created things, we must assume a transcendent state, the octave.

Jerome Rome, Italy (331-420 AD)

In 414 Jerome wrote in Epistle 140, 8 (PL 22. c. 1172)

I think it is on the basis of this passage [Psalms 90:4] and ... Peter's epistle that it has become customary for 1000 years to be called a day... so that since the world was created in six days, it is thought that it will last 6000 years, after which will come the number 7 and the ogdoad where the celebration of the true Sabbath will take place and the true circumcision.

Like many of the early fathers Jerome believed the world would last 6,000 years. This was not an exclusive Premil teaching but was a general theory held among many of the fathers on both sides of the eschatology debate. In fact some of its strongest advocates were prominent and fervent Amillennialists.

This 8th day was consistently considered the Christian’s 7th day or Sabbath, or day of rest.

Against Jovinianus (Book II), Chapter 25:

Being in bondage during the six days of this world, on the seventh day, the true and eternal Sabbath, we shall be free.

In his Homily 3 on Psalm 7 he adds:

We have both a first and an eighth day; we receive the kingdom of heaven on the eighth; the eighth day after the sabbath is again the first day from the beginning.

The commentary of Victorinus on Revelation 20 is strongly believed to have been modified by Jerome to reflect the Amillennial doctrine. But here again we see the same idea:

John Chrysostom, Constantinople, (c. 349–407)

On Compunction, PG 47.415D-16A

What is the octave? It is that great and glorious day of the Lord, a bright furnace at whose sight the virtues tremble and which manifests the hastening of the King. The octave calls him, declaring him to be a change of condition and a renewal of the future live. For the present life is none other than seven days which commences from the first day and is perfected in the seventh day.

Augustine (Hippo Regius, Numidia (now Algeria) (354-430 AD)

Augustine in his Letter 55 Chapter 13:23:

Although the sacramental import of the 8th number, as signifying the resurrection, was by no means concealed from the holy men of old who were filled with the spirit of prophecy (for in the title of Psalms [vi. and xii.] we find the words for the eighth.

DavidPT said:

In our survey of NT and post-NT literature so far (up to the early church fathers), we have not seen any indication that anybody held to a ‘precise prediction’ of the Eschaton’s arrival.

With the Epistle of Barnabas, however, we encounter an odd situation. He indicates a belief in the ‘world week’ of 6K years (ie, the Eschaton has to ‘wait’ for the 6,000 years to ‘end’ before it then starts?), yet still seems to maintain a belief in ‘at any time’ and ‘unknown but could be very soon’ (ie, the Eschaton can come at any time).

The background of this comes from Psalm 90 (sort of), which says “For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.” [ESV]

This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.

In Christian literature, we can see references to this world-week first in Barnabas, then Irenaeus, and later in Hippolytus, and we can see it debunked later still by Augustine.
worldweek
-----------------------------------------------------

I just found the above article while doing a Google search. The article is somewhat lengthy, yet there is a lot of good info in the article. Maybe you don't care to look at that link, and that's fine if you don't. But others following this thread might find that article worth looking into, though.

Going by the little bit I pasted above from that article, this article says the following of Barnabas---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day---clearly indicating, assuming what I have pasted is a factual conclusion by this author, Barnabas was a Chiliast not an Amil.

If he was an Amil, and that Augustine was an Amil, what was it that Augustine allegedly debunked? Would it not be all of this---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years), leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day?

Obviously if he allegedly debunked this part---This was applied to the 6 days of creation in Genesis (yielding 6,000 years)---that would indicate he also allegedly debunked this part---leaving a Sabbath day (=millennium of rest) for the 7th day.


No matter how you want to spin it, after 6 comes 7, not 8. If one concludes that the 8th day starts at the beginning of the first day, as in a cycle of 7 days repeating, you still have 7 days before you can arrive back at the first day.

IOW---

A 7 day week.

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8 which is meaning the beginning of the cycle, day 1 in this case.


After day 7 the cycle ends then starts over, therefore making the 8th day day 1 in the beginning of the 7 day cycle. One cannot get back to day 1 in a 7 day cycle without it involving 7 days first. One certainly can't arrive back at day 1 from day 6, skipping day 7 in the process. That's not how it would work. It would be illogical.

Click to expand...

Ecclesiastes 11:2 “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight.”

Some of the early writer employed Ecclesiastes 11:2 to support labelling Sunday the 8th day. It says: “Give a portion to seven, and also to eight” to support the concept that the eternal day was both the 7th day from a historic sense but also the 8th day in a spiritual sense when aligned with the Christian week and the Christian Sabbath on Sunday – resurrection day.

They essentially believed that the wording of this Old Testament passage, gave them authorization to view the new age as both the eternal rest (linking it to the 7th day) but also as the day of new beginning (linking it to the 8th day). They saw no contradiction in their reasoning as they were simply looking at the day from two different angles.

Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, Italy (339 – 4 April 397)

Letter 26 says:

The purification of seven days is according to the Law which foretold under the appearance of the present Sabbath a spiritual Sabbath … The seventh day symbolizes the mystery of the Law, the eighth that of the resurrection, as you have in Ecclesiastes: “Give a portion to those seven and to the eight.”

Gregory the Theologian, Nazianzus, Turkey (AD 325-389)

In his Oration 41 On Pentecost, Chapter II:

God, having in six days created matter, and given it form, and having arranged it in all kinds of shapes and mixtures, and having made this present visible world, on the seventh day rested from all His works, as is shown by the very name of the Sabbath, which in Hebrew means Rest … For seven being multiplied by seven generates fifty all but one day, which we borrow from the world to come, at once the Eighth and the first, or rather one and indestructible. For the present sabbatism of our souls can find its cessation there, that a portion may be given to seven and also to eight.

The terms "first day" and "eighth day" were commonly and interchangeably used by the early church writers.

Moralium 35, 8, 17, PL 76, 759.

Gregory refers to the traditional admonition of Ecclesiastes 11:2,

“Give portion to seven and also to eight,” interpreting it as a prefiguration of the day of Christ's resurrection, for He truly rose on the Lord's day, which since it follows the seventh day Sabbath is found to be the eighth from creation.

Jerome Rome, Italy (331-420 AD)

In his Commentarius in Ecclesiastem (11, 2, PL 23), we learn,

The number seven having been fulfilled, we now climb to the Gospel through the eighth.

The Jews by believing in the Sabbath, gave the seventh part, but they did not give the eighth because they denied the resurrection of the Lord's day.

Augustine (Hippo Regius, Numidia (now Algeria) (354-430 AD)

Augustine in his Letter 55, Chapter 13:23 he states:

In Ecclesiastes it is said, with allusion to the two covenants, Give a portion to seven, and also to eight ); nevertheless before the resurrection of the Lord, it was reserved and hidden, and the Sabbath alone was appointed to be observed, because before that event there was indeed the repose of the dead (of which the Sabbath rest was a type), but there was not any instance of the resurrection of one who, rising from the dead, was no more to die, and over whom death should no longer have dominion; this being done in order that, from the time when such a resurrection did take place in the Lord's own body (the Head of the Church being the first to experience that which His body, the Church, expects at the end of time), the day upon which He rose, the eighth day namely (which is the same with the first of the week), should begin to be observed as the Lord's day.

DavidPT said:

In our survey of NT and post-NT literature so far (up to the early church fathers), we have not seen any indication that anybody held to a ‘precise prediction’ of the Eschaton’s arrival.

With the Epistle of Barnabas, however, we encounter an odd situation. He indicates a belief in the ‘world week’ of 6K years (ie, the Eschaton has to ‘wait’ for the 6,000 years to ‘end’ before it then starts?), yet still seems to maintain a belief in ‘at any time’ and ‘unknown but could be very soon’ (ie, the Eschaton can come at any time).

Click to expand...

Eternal picture - 7th day had no evening

Clement of Alexandria, Egypt (A.D. 150 - 215)

Clement associated the Coming of the Lord with the 8th day. This was common in early church literature. This was found in both Amillennialist and Premillennialist writings.

Clement explains in chapter 16 of The Stromata (Book 6), speaking on the 4th commandment:

The world was created by God, and that He gave us the seventh day as a rest, on account of the trouble that there is in life. For

God is incapable of weariness, and suffering, and want. But we who bear flesh need rest. The seventh day, therefore, is proclaimed a rest— abstraction from ills— preparing for the Primal Day, our true rest.

Clement looks forward to the eternal Sabbath and to the “true rest” that will accompany it. But he too equates the Sabbath with the 8th day (Sunday), only spiritually relating this to resurrection day:

For the eighth may possibly turn out to be properly the seventh, and the seventh manifestly the sixth, and the latter properly the Sabbath, and the seventh a day of work. For the creation of the world was concluded in six days.

They reckon the number seven motherless and childless, interpreting the Sabbath, and figuratively expressing the nature of the rest, in which they neither marry nor are given in marriage any more.

Clement further explains in chapter 14 of The Stromata (Book 5):

The Lord's day Plato prophetically speaks … after the wandering orbs the journey leads to heaven, that is, to the eighth motion and day … But the seventh day is recognised as sacred, not by the Hebrews only, but also by the Greeks.

The Jewish concept of Saturday as the Sabbath is superseded in early Christian thinking by Sunday as the 7th day. The whole victory of Sunday as resurrection day easily fits in with the future reality of the future resurrection and the introduction of the eternal Sabbath. This was so because many Amillennialist and Premillennialist saw the world lasting only 6,000 years (6 days). The only difference being that Premillennialists saw a one thousand year Sabbath rest when Christ comes, whereas Amillennialist saw an eternal Sabbath rest being introduced.

Methodius Bishop of Olympus, Asia Minor (died 311 A.D)

Methodius shares in Chapter VI of The Banquet of the Ten Virgins:

God, that the race of man might not be wholly destroyed, through forgetfulness of the things which were good, commanded His own Son to reveal to the prophets His own future appearance in the world by the flesh, in which the joy and knowledge of the spiritual eighth day shall be proclaimed, which would bring the remission of sins and the resurrection, and that thereby the passions and corruptions of men would be circumcised.

Jerome Rome, Italy (331-420 AD)

Against Jovinianus (Book II) Chapter 25.

Being in bondage during the six days of this world, on the seventh day, the true and eternal Sabbath, we shall be free.

Epistle 139:8

“A thousand years in thy sight as yesterday.” From this passage, and from the epistle which is attributed to the apostle Peter, I conclude that the custom comes of taking a thousand years for one day; with the result, that is, that just as the universe was fashioned in six days, so one believes that it will last only six thousand years, and that afterwards will come the sevenfold and the eightfold number, when the true Sabbath will be kept.

Homily 3, on Psalm 7. FC 48, p. 26.

We have both a first and an eighth day; we receive the kingdom of heaven on the eighth; the eighth day after the sabbath is again the first day from the beginning.

Hilary Bishop of Poitiers, Gaul (modern-day France) (300 –368 AD)

His Commentary on Matthew 17 explain:

After six days, Peter, James and John were taken apart from the others and brought to the top of the mountain. As they were looking on, the Lord was transfigured and resplendent in all the brilliance of his garments. In this manner there is preserved an underlying principle, a number and an example. It was after six days that the Lord was shown in his glory by his clothing; that is; the honour of the heavenly kingdom is prefigured in the unfolding of six thousand years.

Basil, Caesarea Mazaca, (AD 329-379)

The Hexaemeron, PG 29.52 A

The day of the Lord is without evening, without succession, and without end. It is not unknown to scripture, and it is the day that the Psalmist calls the eighth because it is outside this time of weeks. Thus whether you call it day, or whether you call it eternity, you express the same idea.

Migne, Patr. Graec., 29, 49.

The Lord’s Day is great and glorious. The Scripture knows this day without evening, having no other day, a day without end; the psalmist called it the eighth day, since it is outside of time measured in weeks. Whether you call it a day or an age, it is all the same. If you call it an aeon, it is one, and not a part of a whole.

Gregory the Theologian, Nazianzus, Turkey (AD 325-389)

Moralium 1, 8,12, PL 75, 532.

The story truly indicates that the blessed Job when offering sacrifices on the eighth day, was celebrating the mystery of the resurrection . . . and served the Lord for the hope of the resurrection.

Oratio 44, "In novam Dominicam," PA 36, 612.

The eighth day, for him "refers to the life to come," "doing good while yet here on earth."

Athanasius, Alexandria, (296 – 373AD)

In Athanasius’ On Sabbath and Circumcision Chapter 3 we learn:

The Sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord's day was the beginning of the second, in which he renewed and restored the old in the same way as he prescribed that they should formerly observe the Sabbath as a memorial of the end of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the memorial of the new creation.

Augustine (Hippo Regius, Numidia (now Algeria) (354-430 AD)

The leading Amillennialist of the early fathers was Augustine. Augustine in his Letter 55, Chapter 9:17 states:

If, in reading Genesis, you search the record of the seven days, you will find that there was no evening of the seventh day, which signified that the rest of which it was a type was eternal … the seventh day was an emblem, is eternal, and hence the eighth day also will have eternal blessedness, because that rest, being eternal, is taken up by the eighth day … Accordingly the eighth day, which is the first day of the week, represents to us that original life, not taken away, but made eternal.

Augustine explains his understanding of Revelation 20 and especially where the thousand years should be placed in The City of God, Book 20, Chapter 7:

These things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium (the latter part of which is now passing), as if during the sixth day, which is to be followed by a Sabbath which has no evening, the endless rest of the saints.

Augustine explains his understanding of Revelation 20 and especially where the thousand years should be placed in The City of God, Book 22, Chapter 30:

The seventh shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brought to a close, not by an evening, but by the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal day, consecrated by the resurrection of Christ, and prefiguring the eternal repose not only of the spirit, but also of the body. There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end?

Taking a week as a typology of the duration of time, and especially bearing in mind the teaching of Psalm 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8 that “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” many key early fathers came to the conclusion that time from beginning to end will last 6,000 years. Whilst this was true of both Amillennial and Premillennial fathers, they went their separate ways on what form and duration the seventh day would take. Amillennialists saw the 7th day or Sabbath as the eternal rest whereas Premillennialists saw it as the seventh thousand year Sabbath or rest before eternity.

The early writers considered the new heavens and new earth as the both a 7th and an 8th day. Here is how that mystery existed.

He explains (in Book XII, Contra Faustum, Chapter 8, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean):

In the creation God finished His works in six days, and rested on the seventh. The history of the world contains six periods marked by the dealings of God with men. The first period is from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the captivity in Babylon; the fifth, from the captivity to the advent of lowliness of our Lord Jesus Christ; the sixth is now in progress, and will end in the coming of the exalted Saviour to judgment. What answers to the seventh day is the rest of the saints — not in this life, but in another, where the rich man saw Lazarus at rest while he was tormented in hell; where there is no evening, because there is no decay.

He explains (in Book XII, Contra Faustum, Chapter 19, Reply to Faustus the Manichaean):

The seventh day of rest is connected with the eighth of resurrection. For when the saints receive again their bodies after the rest of the intermediate state, the rest will not cease; but rather the whole man, body and soul united, renewed in the immortal health, will attain to the realization of his hope in the enjoyment of eternal life.

In Contra Faustum, (Reply to Faustus the Manichaean ) Chapter 5 he instructs:

We are not afraid to meet your scoff at the Sabbath, when you call it the fetters of Saturn. It is a silly and unmeaning expression, which occurred to you only because you are in the habit of worshipping the sun on what you call Sunday. What you call Sunday we call the Lord’s Day, and on it we do not worship the sun, but the Lord’s resurrection. And in the same way, the fathers observed the rest of the Sabbath, not because they worshipped Saturn, but because it was incumbent at that time, for it was a shadow of things to come, as the apostle testifies.

In Sermon 259:2 he teaches:

The eighth day … signifies the new life at the end of the age; the seventh day the future quite of the saints upon the earth. For the Lord will reign on the earth with His saints as the Scripture says, and will have His Church here, separated and cleansed from all infection of wickedness, where no wicked person will enter.

Connecting the eternal Sabbath (the 7th day) with the 8th week-day and especially the symbolism of the resurrection associated with it totally nullified any association with apostate Judaism. That included the carnal expectation of an earthly material kingdom where Israel ruled over the Gentile nations. It also distanced Christianity from the foolish hope of the return of the old covenant arrangement after the Coming of Messiah. Making the 7th day the eternal Sabbath allowed those who believed in a climactic Coming of Christ to retain something of the Sabbath 7-day symbolism.

Andrewn said:

You've posted long quotations to prove that the 8th day is the same as the 1st day, a new beginning. But this was never a point of contention, at least for me. Is it possible to post 3 or 4 clear quotations from some of the 29 Amil ECF's that you mentioned earlier?

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I will be replying to both you and Claninja, rather than duplicating.

Intro

So, I just want to introduce the whole subject because many researchers get confused when they dive straight into the early church fathers with some of the language used, terms employed, theories expressed and some of the theology taught. It is so important to first of all familiarize ourselves with what the prevailing thinking was in that day. Many try to understand what is taught by these writers through a modern-day lens or try to force developed modern day terms and concepts into the early fathers. This doesn’t work.

We need to recognize that we have probably lost a lot of early manuscripts. But what we do have we need to carefully piece together, in a very disciplined manner in order to ascertain what the early writers believed.

Having been a police officer for 15 years in Northern Ireland I always enjoyed piecing the evidence together to get the full picture. Even if the information is scant, if you broaden out your research, if you note key points, follow patterns and you box smart you can ascertain crucial leads.

The usual lazy fleeting bias uninformed study we see today that quickly runs to favorable website to explain history will not cut it. Most website just repeat what they have been taught. That is why I like the studies of objective and informed researchers like D.H. Kromminga, Alan Patrick Boyd, graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary, Philip Schaff, Brian Daley and Charles Hill.

1. We need to identify core beliefs that divided the two main eschatological camps – from AD30-AD230.
2. We need to spot key theological traits that marked each particular group.
3. We need to follow the development of a doctrine and see how it progressed in a particular geographical area.
4. We should note who the respective camps identified as being the main proponents of the contrary position.
5. We should note who they agreed with.
6. We should notice the difference between literalizing of the Chiliast and the spiritualizing of the Amillenialist.
7. We should see the natural, visible, earthly, physical, racial and temporal influence and focus of Judaism on Chiliasm, and the opposition to the same by early Amils. They rather focused on the spiritual, invisible, heavenly, and eternal.

All these give us a broad understanding of the early information we are looking at.

claninja said:

Thanks SG, I really appreciate this. I agree that many use the teachings of the ECF with a biased eschatology in attempt to show "look the ECFs do agree with [insert eschatological view]".

Looking back on your post #143 with the list of 12 Amils, would you be able to provide any writings from them where they comment on the millenium or revelation 20 or even condemn chiliasm?

I agree that as time went on, the ECFs became more vocal in their condemnation of Chiliasm, but I am having a hard time finding this in the earlier Church fathers, specifically the list of 12 that you provided.

thanks again SG.

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It is interesting as you piece together the theological development of a doctrine in a particular geographical area that there is not one single teaching that I can find in the 3 key areas where Christianity was centered in the first 300 years after the cross.

The heart of Christianity started off in Israel, it soon moved to Syria and Egypt through persecution. The respective center of the faith moved from Jerusalem, to Antioch and Alexandria. It was from here that Christianity spread throughout the world. Greece also became a notable focus of the New Testament as the Gospel quickly spread.

When we search for Chiliast teaching between AD30-AD430 (which was my gamut of research), I cannot find one single shred of teaching on a future millennial kingdom from any of the early church fathers based in Israel, Greece and Syria. I can only find one writer in Egypt during those initial 400 years, that was Nepos who ministered around 230-250). However, his influence was quickly and strongly suppressed when it became known. This is significant! Think about this: there is one only one non-teacher of chili is him in the whole of Israel, Egypt, Syria and Greece - the very heartland of the early church.

The Chiliast view rather prospered in Asian Minor and Africa. It later moved to Europe.

The Israeli writers/writings were The Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) (A.D. 65-80), The grandsons of Jude (1st century), The Ascension of Isaiah (late 1st century to early 2nd century), The Apocalypse of Peter (written between the years 132-135), 5 Ezra (2nd century), The Gospel of Nicodemus or Acts of Pilate (150-255 AD), Hegesippus (flourished between 150 and 180 A.D), Eusebius (263-339), Epiphanius of Salamis (310 AD-403 AD) and Cyril (+ ca. AD 386).

In Greece we had Mathetes (A.D 90), Aristides (120-130 AD), Polycrates (flourished c.130 - 196), Athenagoras (wrote A.D. 177) and Epiphanes (315-403).

In Syria we had Thaddeus (early 1st Century), Ignatius (A.D. 98-117), The Odes of Solomon (Middle of the 2nd century), Tatian (A.D. 170) Theophilus (His death probably occurred between 183 – 185), The Acts of Thomas (200-225 AD), Lucian (c. 240-312 AD), Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (Before AD 325) Synod of Antioch (A.D. 325), Aphrahat (270–345AD), 1st Synod of Antioch (Summer 341AD), Ephraem (306-373 AD), 2nd Synod of Antioch (Summer 342 AD) and The Council of Antioch (344 AD).

In Egypt we had Barnabus (Written in A.D. 130-131), The Teachings of Silvanus (150 AD), Clement (c.150 - c. 215), Origen (185-254), Dionysius (AD 248 - November 17, 265), Coracion (AD 230-280), Alexander (Bishop from 313, died 326 or 328), Pachomius (AD 292-348), Antony (c. 251–356), The Council of Sirmium (11th June 351 AD), Athanasius (296 - 373) and Didymus the Blind (AD 313 – 398). Finally, we have Nepos (c.230-250) the only Egyptian father that taught Chilaism in Egypt.

This gives us a broad sense of the eschatological landscape. It gives us a true perspective of the nature, scale and development of theology of the early church.

claninja said:

Thanks SG, I really appreciate this. I agree that many use the teachings of the ECF with a biased eschatology in attempt to show "look the ECFs do agree with [insert eschatological view]".

Looking back on your post #143 with the list of 12 Amils, would you be able to provide any writings from them where they comment on the millenium or revelation 20 or even condemn chiliasm?

I agree that as time went on, the ECFs became more vocal in their condemnation of Chiliasm, but I am having a hard time finding this in the earlier Church fathers, specifically the list of 12 that you provided.

thanks again SG.

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AD30-AD130

Here are a few early quotes re a climactic coming.

The Didache (or Teaching of the Twelve Apostles)
Palestine
(A.D. 65-80)

Chapter X

5 Remember, Lord, thy Church, to redeem it from every evil, and to perfect it in thy love, and gather it together from the four winds, even that which has been sanctified for thy kingdom which thou hast prepared for it; for thine is the kingdom and the glory for ever.
6 Let grace come, and let this world pass away.

The Didache’s transcript (which is actually a petition) looks forward to the Second Coming (the day of redemption), when the saints will finally receive their new glorified bodies and be perfected. The writer looks for both Christ and a new righteous arrangement that He will introduce, with the succinct appeal: “Let grace come.” The narrative essentially embodies an earnest supplication for the Lord to rescue the Church from its alien earthly sojourn and introduce eternal justice. Whether the statement “Let grace come” is referring to the personally appearance of Christ Himself, to the perfect state He will introduce, or to both matters little, the early writer connects this impending event with the end of the world: “Let grace come, and let this world pass away.”

The grandsons of Jude
Palestine
(1st century)

Eusebius from his classic work The History of the Church says, speaking of the grandsons of Jude, “the grandsons of Jude ... when asked [by the Emperor Domitian] about Christ and his kingdom--what it was like, and where it would appear – they explained that it was not of this world or anywhere on earth but angelic and in heaven, and would be established at the end of the world, when he would come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and give to every one according to his works."

Here, Jude articulates the traditional expectation of the Amillennialist in regard to the Second Coming. First it doesn’t happen until “the end of the world.” Secondly it witnesses the judgement and resurrection of all the living and dead. This clear climactic account is said to occur when Christ comes in all His “glory.”

Mathetes (author unknown, Mathetes simply means "a disciple”)
Greece
(A.D 90)

Chapter VII – The Manifestation of Christ

For He will yet send Him to judge us, and who shall endure His appearing?

The Shepherd of Hermas
Rome, Italy
(written in 88-99 AD)

Chapter III

The tower which you see building is myself, the Church, who have appeared to you now and on the former occasion.

Chapter III

The white part is the age that is to come, in which the elect of God will dwell, since those elected by God to eternal life will be spotless and pure.

Chapter V

For if the building be finished, there will not be more room for any one, but he will be rejected. This privilege, however, will belong only to him who has now been placed near the tower.”

Chapter VIII

When the tower is finished and built, then comes the end; and I assure you it will be soon finished.

Fourth Similitude (or Symbol)

"Those," he said, "which are budding are the righteous who are to live in the world to come; for the coming world is the summer of the righteous, but the winter of sinners. When, therefore, the mercy of the Lord shines forth, then shall they be made manifest who are the servants of God, and all men shall be made manifest ... the heathen and sinners, like the withered trees which you saw, will be found to be those who have been withered and unfruitful in that world, and shall be burnt as wood, and made manifest, because their actions were evil during their lives. For the sinners shall be consumed because they sinned and did not repent, and the heathen shall be burned because they knew not Him who created them.

Chapter IX

... Give heed to the judgment that is to come … for after the tower is finished, you will wish to do good, but will find no opportunity … their groans should ascend to the Lord, and ye be shut out with all your goods beyond the gate of the tower.

1 Clement
Bishop of Rome, Italy
(Died around 99 A.D.)

1 Clement 34

The good workman receiveth the bread of his work with boldness, but the slothful and careless dareth not look his employer in the face. It is therefore needful that we should be zealous unto well-doing, for of Him are all things: since He forewarneth us saying, Behold, the Lord, and His reward is before His face, to recompense each man according to his work.

1 Clement 57:2-7

Because I called and ye obeyed not, and I held out words and ye heeded not, but made My councils of none effect, and were disobedient unto My reproofs; therefore I also will laugh at your destruction, and will rejoice over you when ruin cometh upon you, and when confusion overtaketh you suddenly, and your overthrow is at hand like a whirlwind. Because I called and ye obeyed not, and I held out words and ye heeded not, but made My councils of none effect, and were disobedient unto My reproofs; therefore I also will laugh at your destruction, and will rejoice over you when ruin cometh upon you, and when confusion overtaketh you suddenly, and your overthrow is at hand like a whirlwind, or when ye call upon Me, yet will I not here you.

1 Clement 59:1-2

The Creator of the universe may guard intact unto the end the number that hath been numbered of His elect throughout the whole world.

Clement demonstrates that he believed that God’s people will obviously be on the earth and be protected right up until “the end.” The revelation of Christ seals the final deliverance of the elect and brings the curtain down on time. This is a classic Amillenialist belief, if “the end’ means “the end.”

2 Clement
Rome, Italy
(Early 2nd century)

2 Clement 5:5

And ye know, brethren, that the sojourn of this flesh in this world is mean and for a short time, but the promise of Christ is great and marvelous, even the rest of the kingdom that shall be and of life eternal.

2nd Clement 16:3

But ye know that the day of judgment cometh even now as a burning oven, and the powers of the heavens shall melt, and all the earth as lead melting on the fire, and then shall appear the secret and open works of men.

2 Clement 17:4

For the Lord said, I come to gather together all the nations, tribes, and languages. Herein He speaketh of the day of His appearing, when He shall come and redeem us, each man according to his works.

2 Clement 17:5

And the unbelievers shall see His glory and His might: and they shall be amazed when they see the kingdom of the world given to Jesus, saying, Woe unto us, for Thou wast, and we knew it not, and believed not; and we obeyed not the presbyters when they told us of our salvation. And Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be for a spectacle unto all flesh.

2 Clement 17:6

He speaketh of that day of judgment, when men shall see those among us that live ungodly lives and dealt falsely with the commandments of Jesus Christ.

2 Clement 17:7

But the righteous, done good and endured torments and hated pleasures of the soul, when they shall behold them that have done amiss and denied Jesus by their words or by their deeds, how that they are punished with grievous torments in unquenchable fire, shall give glory to God, saying, There will be hope for him that hath served God with his whole heart.

2 Clement 19:3

Let us therefore practice righteousness that we may be saved unto the end. Blessed are they that obey these ordinances. Though they may endure affliction for a short time in the world, they will gather the immortal fruit of the resurrection.

We can see how the writer anticipates the wrath of God falling at the Coming of the Lord. For those not rescued at the day of the Lord it will arrive “like a burning oven” whereupon “the earth will melt, like lead melting in fire.” This is total destruction. As 2 Peter 3 graphically depicts: this world will be dissolved when Jesus comes. In the eyes of Clement a general judgment ensues. He contends: “then will appear the hidden and manifest deeds of men.” This is the day when the secrets of all men are fully and finally manifested.

Ignatius Bishop of Antioch
Syria
(A.D. 98-117)

Chapter XI (11) – I write these things to warn you

He (Jesus) died, and rose again, and ascended into the heavens to Him that sent Him, and is sat down at His right hand, and shall come at the end of the world, with His Father’s glory, to judge the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to his works.

This text is covered in classic Amillennial language. Ignatius places Christ’s coming “at the end of the world,” thus negating the possibility of a thousand year earthly millennium. In addition, the purpose of His coming is expressly “to judge the living and the dead, and to render to every one according to his works,” not to reign from some earthly temple made by human hands. Here the whole of Adam’s race is depicted as being judged at the Lord’s return. This ancient writer certainly foresaw an all-consummating return of Jesus.

Chapter XVI — The fate of false teachers.

Do not err, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. If, then, those who do this as respects the flesh have suffered death, how much more shall this be the case with any one who corrupts by wicked doctrine the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such an one becoming defiled [in this way], shall go away into everlasting fire, and so shall every one that hearkens unto him.

Do not err, my brethren. Those that corrupt families shall not inherit the kingdom of God. And if those that corrupt mere human families are condemned to death, how much more shall those suffer everlasting punishment who endeavour to corrupt the Church of Christ, for which the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, endured the cross, and submitted to death! Whosoever, “being waxen fat,” and “become gross,” sets at nought His doctrine, shall go into hell.

Polycarp
Bishop in Smyrna, Turkey
(Born AD 68, martyred about AD 155)

The Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians
Chapter 2. An exhortation to virtue

Wherefore, girding up your loins, serve the Lord in fear and truth, as those who have forsaken the vain, empty talk and error of the multitude, and believed in Him who raised up our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, and gave Him glory, and a throne at His right hand. To Him all things in heaven and on earth are subject. Him every spirit serves. He comes as the Judge of the living and the dead. His blood will God require of those who do not believe in Him. But He who raised Him up from the dead will raise up us also, if we do His will, and walk in His commandments, and love what He loved, keeping ourselves from all unrighteousness.

Martyrdom of Polycarp
11:1-2

The proconsul then said to him, ‘I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast thee, except thou repent.’ But he answered, ‘Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil; and it is well for me to be changed from what is evil to what is righteous’. But again the proconsul said to him, ‘I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou despisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent’. But Polycarp said, ‘Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgment and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly. But why tarriest thou? Bring forth what thou wilt’.”

Barnabus
Alexandria, Egypt
(A.D. 70-120)

Chapter IV – Antichrist is at Hand: Let Us Therefore Avoid Jewish Errors

The final stumbling-block (or source of danger) approaches, concerning which it is written, as Enoch says, For this end the Lord has cut short the times and the days, that His Beloved may hasten.

Chapter XV – The False and the True Sabbath.

When His Son, coming [again], shall destroy the time of the wicked man, and judge the ungodly, and change the-sun, and the moon, and the stars, then shall He truly rest on the seventh day … when we ourselves, having received the promise, wickedness no longer existing, and all things having been made new by the Lord, shall be able to work righteousness. Then we shall be able to sanctify it, having been first sanctified ourselves.

Chapter XXI – Conclusion

For he who keepeth these shall be glorified in the kingdom of God; but he who chooseth other things shall be destroyed with his works. On this account there will be a resurrection, on this account a retribution … For the day is at hand on which all things shall perish with the evil [one]. The Lord is near, and His reward … be ye taught of God, inquiring diligently what the Lord asks from you; and do it that ye maybe safe in the day of judgment.

The Ascension of Isaiah
Palestine
(late 1st century to early 2nd century)

Chapter 4

14. And after (one thousand) three hundred and thirty-two days the Lord will come with His angels and with the armies of the holy ones from the seventh heaven with the glory of the seventh heaven, and He will drag Beliar into Gehenna and also his armies.
15. And He will give rest of the godly whom He shall find in the body in this world, [and the sun will be ashamed]:
16. And to all who because of (their) faith in Him have execrated Beliar and his kings. But the saints will come with the Lord with their garments which are (now) stored up on high in the seventh heaven: with the Lord they will come, whose spirits are clothed, they will descend and be present in the world, and He will strengthen those, who have been found in the body, together with the saints, in the garments of the saints, and the Lord will minister to those who have kept watch in this world.
17. And afterwards they will turn themselves upward in their garments, and their body will be left in the world.
18. the voice of the Beloved will in wrath rebuke the things of heaven and the things of earth and the things of earth and the mountains and the hills and the cities and the desert and the forests and the angel of the sun and that of the moon, and all things wherein Beliar manifested himself and acted openly in this world, and there will be [a resurrection and] a judgment in their midst in those days, and the Beloved will cause fire to go forth from Him, and it will consume all the godless, and they will be as though they had not been created.

Conclusion

An elementary study of the early church fathers’ teachings over the first 100 years after the cross shows that they saw the second coming of Jesus Christ as “the end” or “the end of the world.” They believed all the righteous would be rescued to inherit a new perfected earth. The wicked would be destroyed with this current corrupt earth. This is standard Amillennial teaching! There is a notable silence from the early writers, apart from Papias. Nowhere does he quote any of the early church fathers (apart from Papias) mention, or describe conditions on a future millennial earth or articulate any of the main tenets of the Premillennial belief. All we have is complete silence.