July 2006

QUESTION: Our Bible class at church has been studying prophecy and we’re trying to determine, as closely as possible without setting exact dates, when we might expect the Millennium to begin. We started our calculations with the Jewish calendar, of course, because it reckons time from the Creation of Adam and Eve. But then someone pointed out that the current Jewish calendar is 200 years off due to a “lost” period between Ezra and Nehemiah when records were not kept—a Jewish “Dark Ages,” of sorts. So we need a little guidance. Should we subtract 200 years from the current Jewish year to make the calendar more accurate?

ANSWER: Actually, the figure that has been suggested is 250 years, not 200 years—and you would add (not subtract) 250 years if you were compensating for 250 “lost” years. However, most Jewish scholars agree that the period of time in question is more like 54 years rather than 250 years. Here is what the editorial staff of Encyclopaedia Judaica says (“Chronology, Traditional Jewish Chronography”):

The earliest Jewish chronological works that counted the years from the Creation have not survived. Of the work by the Alexandrian Jew Demetrius (third century B.C.E.), which deduced Jewish historical dates from the Bible, only a few fragments are extant. In the Book of Jubilees, events from the Creation to the Exodus are dated by the cycles of jubilee and sabbatical years, i.e., cycles of 49 and seven years. Scholars differ as to the date and origin of Jubilees (see Calendar). The Era of the Creation in this work is probably only hypothetical.

The earliest and most important of all the Jewish chronological works extant is the Seder Olam, which, according to talmudic tradition, was compiled by Yose b. Halafta in the second century C.E. The author, whose date is unknown, was possibly the first to use the rabbinic "Era of the Creation." His chronology extends from the Creation to the period of Bar Kokhba, i.e., to the days of the Roman emperor Hadrian; but the period from Nehemiah to Bar Kokhba (i.e., from Artaxerxes to Hadrian) is compressed into one single chapter. The Persian phase shrinks to only 54 years (the variant reckoning of 250 years is corrupt, see Seder Olam).

However, even making an adjustment of 54 years will not provide a realistic benchmark for the dating of prophetic events. There have been many adjustments in the Jewish calendar over the years, including the insertion of an intercalary month every few years to make sure the feasts always take place at the same time every year (imagine celebrating Hanukkah in the summertime, or Passover in the Fall!).

Historically, you’re not alone in your curiosity about when the Kingdom will arrive. The Lord himself mentioned it in the Disciples’ Prayer (“Thy kingdom come,” Matt. 6:10). There were many eschatological theories among the ancient rabbis and they often contradicted each other. One view was that the world will exist for 6,000 years—2,000 years of desolation, 2,000 years of Torah, and 2,000 years of the messianic age (Sanhedrin 97a – b; Avodah Zarah 9a). If this is true, then we would be in the messianic age right now, so the rabbis have a variety of explanations as to why we’re not. Then the Talmud says, “And the Holy One, Blessed Be He, will renew his world only after 7,000 years” (Sanhedrin 97b).

This rabbinic framework for prophecy is remarkably similar to what the New Testament teaches. The NT explains that the messianic era (or what many of us know as the Kingdom Age, or Millennium) will last for 1,000 (rather than 2,000) years (Rev. 20:6-7). So there will be 6,000 years of human history followed by the Messiah’s intervention at His Second Coming and His institution of the Messianic Kingdom for an additional 1,000 years. These 7,000 years will be followed by the Eternal State, or what the NT describes as the “New Heaven and New Earth” (Rev. 21:1). Evidently, it will be a rearrangement (or to use the rabbis’ term, a “renewal”) of the created universe down to the molecular level (2 Peter 3:10-12). Everything will be transformed.

We have good reason to believe we may, indeed, be the terminal generation. The prophetic signs and trends enumerated in the Bible, as well as the ebb and flow of history itself, certainly support such a conclusion. Nonetheless, we do not know precisely when the Lord will return and the Millennium will begin. All we can say for sure is that it will happen.

I’ve always thought it’s interesting that when the disciples asked the Lord if He was going to set up the Kingdom in the first century, He told them not to worry about it because the timing of future prophetic events belongs only to God (Acts 1:7). In the very next verse, He admonished them to get busy evangelizing the world (Acts 1:8)! It’s like He was saying our time and energy should be focused on reaching people with the Good News of the Messiah rather than on trying to calculate when certain prophetic events will occur. Leave the timing to God—we have work to do!