New Testament in a Year

Footnotes

1. Revelation 20:1 The dragon is enchained for a thousand years in the abyss, the dwelling of the powers of evil (see Rev 9:2). This refers to Satan’s defeat when Jesus died and rose from the dead. The thousand year period means “for a long time.” Satan’s power is limited (as if he is imprisoned for a long time). Yet he still tempts the holy ones on the earth during this period.
2. Revelation 20:4 While waiting for the History of Salvation to be completed, the witnesses to Christ’s love already reign with Jesus when they take up their crosses and follow Jesus. However, before the final triumph arrives—the great Judgment that one imagines must complete history—evil unleashes a last terrible assault on the Church, as envisaged by Ezekiel (chs. 36–39) and Paul (2 Thes 2). Then will be fulfilled the prophecy of Genesis (3:15) that in advance sketched the profound link of the drama of history and its end: the annihilation of the serpent, the personification of evil.
   A reign of a thousand years? This passage has served as the basis of all the millenniarist interpretations, which await the coming of a political kingdom of Christ on earth. Must we at least imagine a first earthly accomplishment of the Kingdom of God before the final and eternal transformation? But the author does not speak of a return of Christ in earthly conditions. He wants to affirm above all that those who have died as witnesses of Jesus are not separated from him while awaiting the full resurrection (vv. 11-13); he also wishes to suggest that from now on believers have access to the tree of life in heaven—of which the figure “one thousand” may be a symbol—hence that they partake in the communion of God. In any case, the thousand-year reign is a symbolic representation, which thus prohibits all speculation. At best it evokes a length of time and a life of the Church beyond persecutions. But we must not forget that for God a thousand years are like one day (see Ps 90:4).
3. Revelation 20:4 A thousand years: early tradition took this verse literally: after a first real resurrection, that of the martyrs, Christ would return to earth and reign there for a thousand years. The Church has rejected this literal millenniarism.
4. Revelation 20:6 Blessed: the fifth beatitude (see note on Rev 1:3). The second death: eternal death, or damnation, which cannot be followed by a resurrection.
5. Revelation 20:8 Ezekiel speaks of “Gog, king of Magog.” Here the two names symbolize the pagan nations gathered together against the Church at the end of the world.
6. Revelation 20:9 The earth is Palestine; the beloved city is Jerusalem, a symbol of the Church.
7. Revelation 20:11 The earth and the sky disappear; the first creation is abolished. Human beings alone remain, responsible toward God.
8. Revelation 20:12 This is a grandiose final sequence. As in Daniel (12:1-7) and Matthew (25:31-36), all human beings appear before the tribunal of God and are judged according to their choices and life commitments. (This principle of judgment according to one’s works is also found in Ps 62:12; Jer 17:10; Rom 2:6; 1 Pet 1:17 and elsewhere.) Everything is laid bare before the Lord—the same idea expressed in the symbol of books in Daniel (7:10). There is another book—that of Life; it contains the names of those who have resolutely chosen Christ in the face of idolatry and are now destined for glory (see Rev 13:8; 17:8). When one knows all that is represented by the concept of the netherworld, the sojourn of death and the power of death personified in the Bible, verse 14 announces the end of the anguish and fear that have weighed heavily on humankind throughout history.
9. Revelation 20:14 The second death, in which death itself is swallowed up, is the definitive failure, the condemnation from which no resurrection can rescue (Rev 2:11; 20:6; 21:8).