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St. Hippolytus was born in Asia Minor about 170 AD and Bishop at Rome (Pontus) from 217-235 AD. The Churches at Rome were founded
by St. Paul the Apostle, and the first Bishop at Rome was St. Peter. Like the Apostolic Fathers and the other Bishops from Asia Minor,
St. Hippolytus was premillenial and interpreted literal events to take place at the end times previous to the second advent. Afterward, a millennial reign of Christ would be fulfilled on earth for 1,000 years. This 1,000 year reign is not in place of Christ's everlasting reign but a part of it. The kingdom continues beyond 1,000 years as it carries on into a new heaven and new earth when all things are made new and the former things are done away with.
The first verse by verse commentary on the book of Revelation, "Commentary On the Apocalypse", was written by St. Victorinus, Bishop of Poetovio and was composed not long after the Valerian Persecution, about 260 AD. Later, St. Jerome erased all of the original commentary for Reveation chapters 20 and 21 where St. Victorinus puts forth a premillennial literal one thousand year reign of Christ on the earth.
The writing was altered by erasing and adding instead an amillennial view. Jerome's con-job version is from the 5th century and has unfortunaltely been the most common version lurking about.
The true original unredacted version of St. Victorinus', "Commentary On the Apocalypse" is available at this site and in print in the book
"Latin Commentaries on Revelation" by InterVarsity Press.
The proper understanding of end times began to go off the rails when the allegorizor, Origen of Alexandria, in the third century, began spiritualizing prophetic scriptures lending to blurred and incongruent interpretations and this was later followed by his student, Dionysius of Alexandria who resisted the church father Nepos of Arsinoe who had written a tract entitled "Refutation of the Allegorists". Dionysius influenced another allegorizor, Gregory of Thaumaturgus, who erred in his timeline concerning Daniel's 70 weeks* of years using solar years and converting to the Hebrew calendar years and then stating that the entire group of years had already been fulfilled at Christ's first advent* (despite the fact that his calclations did not equate to 490 years). This error was in turn accepted by Augustine of Hippo (Algeria) and by Eusebius of Caesarea , and again later by the Roman Catholic church and eventually adopted by the reformed theology of John Calvin. Two positions later resulted from this type of interpretation, i.e., amillenialism and post-millenialism. Oddly, John Calvin himself criticized allegorizing the bible but at the same time did not write a commentary on the book of Revelation, though he did on every other book of the bible.
St. Justin Martyr states* that there were some Christians in his own time that were of a different opinion but this was not concerning the millennium but rather the question of whether or not the city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt once again. Justin stated that right minded Christians believed so because of prophecy and that those who did not were ignorant of the prophecies in Isaiah and Daniel. Further, Justin said that John's apocalypse was also responsible for their "right minded" beliefs as the Revelation was contemporary among the believers in Judea ... meaning it may have been absent or barely understood by some in other locations of the church world. Certainly, the seond century Bishops in Asia Minor were the strongest proponents of the earthly one thousand year millennial reign of Christ and they are the ones who had possesed John's apocalypse. They further stated that Christ's kingdom was an everlasting kingdom that would have no end, as the book of Daniel clearly proclaims. The 1,000 year reign is the "the Sabbath rest" and the finalizaton of God's work previous to the final judgement. Christ's kingdom continues everlastingly into the new heaven and new earth (which is not the same as the millennial reign).
We hold that the Apostles handed down to the episcopate a premillennial view and this was the only understanding of the church Bishops of the first two centuries in Asia Minor, Jerusalem, and Rome. Hermas a first century Christian and slave from Rome, also shared this premillennial view in The Shepherd of Hermas, a very important first century Christian writing which St. Irenaeus considered scripture. Premillennialism continued in the third century and onward, by church fathers such as St. Victorinus, St. Lactantius, St. Cyril, St. John Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, etc.
Premillennial Early Church Fathers Include: Barnabas, Justin, Papias, Polycarp, Irenæus, Hyppolytus, Tertullian, Lactantius, Cyril, and no doubt others as well. We have no evidence one way or the other concerning Ignatius or Clement of Rome who did not leave much of anything in their letters concerning end time prophecy. The Shepherd of Hermas and The Didache are important sources for end time prophecy and these are also premillennial.
* St. Justin Martyr, Dialouge with Trypho", chapter 80.
Asia Minor Premillennial Succession: (We place priority for prophecy on the episcopate from Asia Minor)
St. John the Apostle > St. John the Presbyter > St. Papias
St. John the Apostle > St. Polycarp > St. Irenæus > St. Hippolytus**
**(St. Hyppolytus was born in Smyrna and of the episcopate of St. John through St. Irenæus. St. Hippolytus later became Bishop of Rome in Pontus)
Judea Premillennial Succession:St. Paul the Apostle > St. Barnabas the Apostle
St. John the Apostle > St. John the Presbyter > St. Aristion > St. Justin Martyr
(Justin stated that in his own day the Apocalypse of John the Apostle was still contemporarily present among the believers in Judea (through Aristion who received discipleship from John the Presbyter who was a disciple of St. John the Apostle). St. Justin was from Judea and was premillennial.)
(Aristion (Greek Αριστίων, literally: more capable ) was one of the 72 disciples of Jesus in the early church according to the Greek Menee . He lived in Asia Minor and was a contemporary of the church father Papias and John the presbyter.)
* For a proper understanding of the 490 years... go here: Daniel's 70 weeks.
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