Unveiling the length and girth of John’s Millennium, Part 1 (length): Comparing Revelation 20 with the Apocalypse of Weeks

Commentators have searched in vain for a Jewish precedent for the 1,000-year length of the Millennium in Revelation 20. There are well-known Jewish parallels for the concept of such an interim eschatological period. Although unrecognized in earlier scholarship, the earliest of these parallels, the Apocalypse of Weeks ( 1 En. 93:1–10; 91:11–17), also provides the precursor for the 1,000-year length of the Millennium. This conclusion follows from various findings concerning the Apocalypse of Weeks: that the ten šhabu ʿ în (conventionally, “weeks”) have a literal meaning as a heptadic period (one divisible by seven); that each of these ten periods have equal lengths of 490 years; and that the resulting 20-jubilee (980-year) interim eschatological period symbolizes legal recompense and restoration for earlier periods of Israelite history. The additional 20 years in Revelation’s Millennium may have resulted simply from the author’s approximation or, alternatively, from his use of 50-year rather than 49-year jubilee periods.