22
Several of the church fathers held that Jerusalem was to play a prominent role in the
earthly kingdom. It has already been shown that Justin, in Dialogue with Trypho, said of
John the apostle that he had prophesied "those who believed in our Christ would dwell a
thousand years in Jerusalem."
36
It has been similarly shown that Origen understood
chiliasts of his day to teach this.
Irenaeus was another chiliast who beheld the future of Jerusalem with
anticipation. He expected that during the kingdom, the earth will be restored (to its
original, pre-fall state?) by Christ, and Jerusalem will be rebuilt in accordance with the
heavenly Jerusalem.
37
In this section of his writing Irenaeus is very clearly dependent on
a literal interpretation of both Isaiah and Revelation.
38
Tertullian also saw a relationship of Jerusalem to the kingdom. In Against
Marcion, Tertullian wrote that following the thousand years shall come the "divinely-
built city of Jerusalem" out of heaven. He understood scripture to say that both Ezekiel
and John had a vision of this city.
39
36
David W. Bercott, Ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), 565.
37
see David W. Bercott, Ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs. (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), 367-368. Again, Origen disagreed. He asserted that
predictions concerning Jerusalem were to understood of the heavenly city (i.e., heaven in
the eternal state) and not taken as literal Jerusalem. "We are not to take the interpretation
of the promises recorded in the prophets- especially those of Isaiah- as though we were to
look for their fulfillment in connection with Jerusalem on earth. For this is fitting only for
old wives or Jews."
38
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Against Heresies. Vol.1, 565-566.
39
Ibid., Against Marcion. Vol.3, 342.