One of the stumbling blocks of the
belief [in pre-millennialism] was the sexual licence which it appeared to admit
during messianic times. The Jewish apocalyptic tradition had linked with the exceptional
fecundity of Nature of men also: ‘The righteous shall live till they have
begotten a thousand children’ (1 Enoch X, 17). According to Dionysius of
Alexandria, Cerinthus interpreted messianic times as a time of enjoyment of all
kinds, and according to Caius made it ‘a nuptial festival’.
This very materialistic conception persisted
in later Christianity, occurring in Commodian and in Lactantius, who refers directly
to Isaiah and the Jewish Apocalypses:
After the resurrection the Son of the Most
High . . . will reign among men a thousand years, and will rule them with most just
command. Then they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, but during
those thousand years shall beget an infinite multitude. As for those who shall
be raised from the dead, they shall preside over the living as judges. The sun
will become seven times brighter than it now is; and the earth will display its
fruitfulness, and being forth abundant harvests. Beasts shall no longer feed on
blood (Div. Inst. VII, 24).
The begetting of many children is here
seen as a feature of the millennial reign.
This conception seems to be the one
assumed by Justin, since he associated Christ’s saying: ‘They neither marry nor
are given in marriage’, only with the eschatological kingdom after the
messianic age. By contrast, neither the Elders, nor Papias, nor Irenaeus, nor
Montanus make any reference to the continuance of procreation during the messianic
reign; and indeed, if what has been said so far is correct, this is the only conception
which is consistent with the application of the Adamic millennium to messianic
times, for the Adamic millennium would apply to a single generation which would
cover the entire thousand years, and would not, therefore, allow of the birth
of children. (Jean Daniélou, The Theology of Jewish Christianity: The
Development of Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea [trans. John
A. Baker; London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1964], 394)