What is a
millennium? Basically, it is just a Latin expression meaning a period of a
thousand years. Historians use it routinely,
referring to the second
millennium © (the period between 2000 © and 1000 ©), the fourth millennium © (the period between 4000 © and 3000 ©), and so on. Because the Arabic mathematical system is decennial (based on the number 10), multiples of 10 such as 100, 200, or 1,000 seem importantÑthey begin a new series. For this reason, anniversaries marking periods of 100 or 1,000 years have traditionally been occasions for special celebrations. For example, as far back as ¥ 248 the Roman emperor Philip the Arabian held festivities to mark the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Rome; more recently, in 1976 the United States observed its bicentennial, and in 1996 the Jerusalem 3000 festival celebrated the 3,000th anniversary of that city. In the same way, people all over the world are looking forward to the year 2000 as the beginning of a new eraÑa new millennium. But the word millennium has also had a religious significance in both Judaism and Christianity. The Hebrew Bible (Ps. 90:4) says that in the sight of God, a
thousand years are but as yesterday. The Jewish Mishnah interprets this to mean that each of the six days of creation is equal to a thousand years of human history, and the seventh day will be the thousand-year reign of the Messiah (Sanhedrin Tractate, 97a). This idea of a thousand-year messianic kingdom is also reflected in the New Testament, which says (Rev. 20:4) that at the Second Coming of Christ the Christian martyrs will rise from the dead and reign with him for a thousand years. In later Christian tradition this thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ became known as the Millennium, and belief in an imminent Second Coming was called millenarianism. Saint Augustine, in his City of God, interpreted the thousand year reign of Christ as the period between the birth of Christ and the end of the world. Although Augustine believed that the number 1,000 was probably symbolic, many people took it literally and expected that Christ might return in the year 1000. According to accounts of some past historians, as that year approached, people across Europe were gripped by fear of some cataclysmic event. This has been called "the terrors of the year 1000." In fact, however, contemporary records have little to say about such a panic. What apocalyptic stirrings there were appear to have occurred earlier, in the mid-10th century, or later, around 1033 (the traditional anniversary of Jesus' death and resurrection). The year 1000 itself seems to have passed relatively quietly. If anything, it was a time of hope and renewal, with Europe emerging from a long period of external invasions, and the spread of Christianity to the new nations of Denmark, Norway, Poland, and Hungary (see Europe, history of). Of course, to most of the world the year 1000 meant nothing at all. Europe was a remote and little-known area in those days, and no one anywhere else used the Christian calendar. To Muslims it was the year 390, and the other peoples of Asia, Africa, and the Americas all had their own methods of reckoning time. Today things are different. People everywhere will know that it is the year 2000, if only because they have to be concerned about Y2K computer bug (see year 2000 problem). The religious aspect is still important though. For the Roman Catholic church and a number of other Christian churches, 2000 is a Jubilee year, harking back to the biblical custom of celebrating every 50th year as a time of redemption in which slaves were freed and debts forgiven. The churches are appealing to wealthy creditor nations to observe Jubilee 2000 by canceling the $220 billion owed them by 41 poor debtor nations. Other Christian groups are again looking to the millennium as the time of the Second Coming. Some of these are gathering in Jerusalem, where they want to be when the "end time" comes. In January 1999, Israli authorities deported several members of the Concerned Christians, an American religious sect whom they feared would try to provoke a violent incident to bring on the Armageddon predicted in the Book of Revelation. Such extremists, however, are only a small minority among the millions of pilgrims who will visit Jerusalem in the millennial year. The general assumption is that the arrival of the year 2000 means that 2,000 years have passed since the birth of Jesus. Dionysius Exiguus, the 6th-century monk who introduced the current system of chronology, calculated that Jesus was born in the Roman year 753; so he made that the first year of the Christian era. But was Jesus actually born in ¥ 1? No one can be sure. The most widely accpted fact about Jesus of Nazareth is that he was crucified while Pontius Pilate was governor of JudeaÑthat is, between ¥ 26 and 36. This is recorded in all four of the Gospels, as well as in the Annals of the Roman historian Tacitus (written between ¥ 113 and 120).