Friday, July 7, 2023

Jean Daniélou on the Belief that People will Sire "an infinite multitude" during the Millennium/Messianic Reign

  

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)