The Thousand Years
Revelation 20, the millennium, as the early church read it
No passage drives more end-times charts than Revelation 20 and its "thousand years." The modern dispensational system reads it as a future, literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ after His return. But the earliest Latin commentary on Revelation we possess, by Victorinus of Pettau (martyred around AD 304), reads it very differently: the thousand years are the present age, from Christ's first coming to the end, during which Satan is bound, restrained from seducing those who belong to Christ, with a brief final loosing under Antichrist before the judgment. This is the amillennial reading the historic church largely kept. Victorinus in his own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse, public domain; the Latin text as edited and transmitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
Revelation 20:1-3 · KJVAnd I saw an angel come down from heaven… And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years… that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.
"Those years wherein Satan is bound are in the first advent of Christ, even to the end of the age; and they are called a thousand, according to that mode of speaking, wherein a part is signified by the whole, just as is that passage, 'the word which He commanded for a thousand generations,' although they are not a thousand."
Victorinus of Pettau"The devil, excluded from the hearts of believers, began to take possession of the wicked… he forbade and restrained his seducing those who belong to Christ… after this he must be loosed for a little season. The little season signifies three years and six months, in which… the devil will avenge himself under Antichrist against the Church."
Victorinus of PettauVictorinus is explicit: the thousand years are not a future epoch but "the first advent of Christ, even to the end of the age", that is, now. "A thousand" is a round, symbolic number (a part standing for the whole), as Scripture elsewhere says "a thousand generations" without meaning exactly that. The binding of Satan means he is "restrained from seducing those who belong to Christ", barred from the hearts of believers, though still ruling the wicked. And the brief "loosing" at the end is the final assault under Antichrist, just before the judgment.
Revelation 20:4-6 · KJV…and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years… This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power…
On this reading, the saints "reigning with Christ a thousand years" is the church's present reign with her ascended Lord (the theme of the kingdom already here), and the "first resurrection" is the new birth, the passing from death to life that happens now in those who are in Christ (John 5:24-25), over whom "the second death hath no power." The single bodily resurrection and final judgment then follow at the end. So there are not two physical resurrections separated by a literal millennium, but the spiritual rising now and the bodily rising at the last day.
Where the traditions diverge
This is the great millennial fault line, and it is worth naming the views plainly. Amillennialism (Victorinus here, and Augustine in City of God, and the historic Catholic, Orthodox, and Reformed mainstream) takes the thousand years as the present church age, Christ reigning now, one return, one bodily resurrection, then the new creation. Postmillennialism expects a future golden age of the gospel before Christ returns. Premillennialism expects a literal thousand-year earthly reign of Christ after His return, and the dispensational form builds an elaborate end-times timeline around it. The point for a study of drift is simply this: the oldest surviving commentary on Revelation, and the dominant reading for most of church history, did not look for a future literal millennium; it understood the thousand years as the age between Christ's two comings. (See the letters The Kingdom Is Already Here, Eschatology at a Glance, and The End Times.)
Patristic text from Victorinus of Pettau, Commentary on the Apocalypse (public domain), selected from the running text; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. This passage in the Study Bible; Revelation 20 at BibleHub.