The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VII. The Testimony of Papias

This sketchy tracing of the Apostolic Fathers will be brought to a close with the declaration of Papias concerning a millennium following the resurrection of the dead. The principal information in regard to Papias, whose whole works are lost, comes from the extracts preserved in the works of Irenaeus and Eusebius. He is believed to have been bishop of Hierapolis, in Phrygia, sometime during the first half of the second century, suffering martyrdom about A.D. 163. Although Irenaeus thought that Papias was a hearer of the apostle John, Eusebius denies this, quoting from his prefaces to show that he was merely on intimate terms with some who had known Christ and the apostles. ³⁶ PFF1 215.2

Attention is particularly directed to the conception of Christ’s personal, established reign on earth during the millennium: PFF1 215.3

“The same person [Papias], 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.” ³⁷ PFF1 215.4

Papias’ prime example of millennial description is that cited by Irenaeus: Vines will have ten thousand branches, each branch ten thousand twigs, each twig ten thousand shoots, each shoot ten thousand clusters, each cluster ten thousand grapes, each grape yielding twenty-five metretes of wine. Again, a single grain of wheat will produce ten thousand ears, each ear ten thousand grains, and each grain will make ten pounds of fine flour; other plants will produce in similar proportions. ³⁸ This tradition was supposedly derived from Christ, but in reality it came from Jewish apocalyptic sources. ³⁹ PFF1 216.1