The End of the World in the First Century?

DEFENSE

This overestimates belief in an imminent end. It also confuses hope and expectation with assertion.

The idea that the early Christians believed in an imminent end of the world has been exaggerated due to a misreading of key texts in the teaching of Jesus (see Days 69, 104, 154, and 167). Having said that, some did hope for or even expect an early end. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 4:17, Paul refers to “we who are alive” at the end, suggesting he hoped to be alive at the end. But he did not assert that he would be alive then. Elsewhere, he questioned whether he would be (Phil. 1:20–24, 2:17; cf. 2 Cor. 5:6–9), and by the end of his life he was certain he would not (2 Tim. 4:6–10).

This illustrates the difference between a hope or an expectation on the one hand and an assertion on the other. Early Christians like Paul may have entertained the hope that Christ would soon return, they may even have expected it, but this is not the same as asserting that it would happen then.

The Church holds that those things “asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit” (Vatican II, Dei Verbum 11), but things they merely hoped or expected and did not assert are not assertions of the Holy Spirit. As a result, Scripture can reveal the hopes and expectations of ancient writers without claiming that these would come to pass.

The book of Revelation also made it clear that a long period of time would pass before the end. Although the book stresses that most of its vision would take place soon (Rev. 1:1, 22:6), it also indicated a millennium (symbolic of a long period of time) would occur before the end (Rev. 20:1–6).

TIP

In chapter 2 of Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 2, Benedict XVI has an extended discussion of how the teaching of Jesus does not entail any particular time frame and points to a period of evangelizing the world before the end.