Prophecy · What Is Still Coming
The Two Resurrections
Scripture never teaches one undifferentiated rising. From Daniel’s double awakening — “some to everlasting life, and some to shame” — through Jesus’s own “resurrection of life” and “resurrection of damnation,” to Revelation 20’s explicit first resurrectionwith “the rest of the dead” raised a thousand years later, the texts keep sorting the raised into two companies. Whether the thousand years between them is a literal span or a way of seeing one event from two sides is the oldest structural debate in eschatology — and this page quotes both answers from the site’s own quarry, at full strength.
Daniel's Double Awakening
— Daniel 12:2 — the Old Testament's clearest resurrection verseThe doctrine’s plainest Old Testament statement already carries the split: those who sleep in the dust awake — but not to one destiny. Everlasting life for some; shame and everlasting contempt for others. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown note below what this verse did historically: it put resurrection courage into the Maccabean martyrs two centuries before Christ, in almost these very words.
And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.Paul before Felix — 'a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.'
2 Maccabees 7:9, 14, 23, shows the fruit of this prophecy in animating the Maccabean mother and her sons to brave death, while confessing the resurrection in words like those here. NEWTON'S view that "many" means all, is not so probable; for Ro 5:15, 19, which he quotes, is not in point, since the Greek is "the many," that is, all, but there is no article in the Hebrew here.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Dan 12:2
To all who reason rightly, the heaviest of punishments is shame. We also have learned this in the case of the judgment, when "some" shall rise "to everlasting life and some to everlasting shame and contempt."
Basil of Caesarea· Letter 260.4, to Optimus the Bishop (379), on Dan 12:2
The Jews themselves understand this of the resurrection of the dead at the end of time; and Christ seems to have an eye to it when he speaks of the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation ( John v. 29 ); and upon this the Jews are said by St. Paul to expect a resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust, Acts xxiv.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Dan 12:2
Jesus's Own Two
— John 5:28-29 — life, and damnationJesus states the doctrine with total confidence and His own authority at its center: all that are in the graves shall hear His voice — and come forth to one of two resurrections. The verse gives no interval between them; Revelation 20 is where the interval appears, and where the debate begins.
Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.The Two Risings
— Revelation 20 — and the thousand years betweenTHE FIRST RESURRECTION
“Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power”
Revelation 20:6 →John 5:29’s “resurrection of life” — those who reign with Christ; priests of God and of Christ
A THOUSAND YEARS
THE REST OF THE DEAD
“the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished… and I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God”
Revelation 20:5, 12 →John 5:29’s “resurrection of damnation” — raised to the great white throne, judged out of the books
Then I saw the thrones, and those seated on them had been given authority to judge. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or hands. And they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come back to life until the thousand years were complete. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection! The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with Him for a thousand years."And I saw thrones, and them that sate upon them, and judgment was given unto them; and I saw the souls of them that were slain on account of the testimony of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his writing on their forehead or in their hand; and they reigned with Christ for a thousand years: the rest of them lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection." There are two resurrections. But the first resurrection is now of the souls that are by the faith, which does not permit men to pass over to the second death. Of this resurrection the apostle says: "If ye have risen with Christ, seek those things which are above."
Victorinus of Pettau· Commentary on the Apocalypse (c. 304, as transmitted in Jerome's recension), on Rev 20:4-5
Those who suffer with Christ shall reign with Christ; they shall reign with him in his spiritual and heavenly kingdom, in a glorious conformity to him in wisdom, righteousness, and holiness, beyond what had been known before in the world. This is called the first resurrection, which none but those who have served Christ and suffered for him shall be favoured with.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), on Rev 20:4-6
From the holy Scriptures we are taught that there are two lives and two deaths. The first life, which is after the transgression of the commandment, is temporary and fleshly. The [second] life is eternal and is promised to the saints because of Christ's obedience …
Andreas of Caesarea· Commentary on the Apocalypse (c. 614), on Rev 20:5-6
[Daniel 7:17-18] "These four great beasts are the four kingdoms which shall arise from the earth. But the saints of the Most High God shall take the kingdom." The four kingdoms of which we have spoken above were earthly in character. "For everything which is of the earth shall return to earth" (Ecclesiastes 3:20). But the saints shall never possess an earthly kingdom, but only a heavenly. Away, then, with the fable about a millennium! (Revelation 20:4-6) "...And they shall possess the kingdom unto eternity, even forever and ever..."
Jerome· Commentary on Daniel, ch. 7 (420) — the amillennial voice, at full strength
The honesty the quarry itself forces: Victorinus of Pettau was a premillennialist — Jerome says so — yet his commentary survives only in Jerome’s own anti-millennial recension, which is why the quotation above reads the first resurrection spiritually; and Jerome’s “away with the fable” stands beside Irenaeus, who read a real kingdom between the risings. The church’s two readings are both ancient, both serious, and both quoted here as they stand. This site’s own frame is premillennial; the founder’s slot below is where he lands.
The Rest of the Dead
— Revelation 20:11-12 — raised to the throneThe second rising has no beatitude attached. The rest of the dead stand — small and great, no rank surviving the grave — before a great white throne, and books are opened. That scene has its own page in this series; here it stands as the second resurrection’s destination, and the reason the first carries the blessing it does: “on such the second death hath no power.”
Then I saw a great white throne and the One seated on it. Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. And there were open books, and one of them was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their deeds, as recorded in the books.And in the Apocalypse John saw this new [Jerusalem] descending upon the new earth. For after the times of the kingdom, he says, "I saw a great white throne, and Him who sat upon it, from whose face the earth fled away, and the heavens; and there was no more place for them." And he sets forth, too, the things connected with the general resurrection and the judgment, mentioning "the dead, great and small."
Irenaeus· Against Heresies, Book 5 (c. 202), on Rev 20:12 — 'after the times of the kingdom'
Therefore it is called, "the Lamb's book of life." Electing grace has singled them out from the general mass. according to their works--We are justified by faith, but judged according to (not by) our works.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), on Rev 20:12
Every Man in His Own Order
— 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 — Paul's resurrection sequencePaul’s resurrection chapter contains the series’ quiet keyword: order — tagma, a military term for ranks marching past in sequence. Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming. The premillennial reading hears in that word the same staged rising Revelation 20 draws; every reading hears at least this: resurrection is not a single undated crowd scene but a program, with Christ’s own rising as its first installment and its guarantee.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.Where It Points
— which rising, is the only questionEvery human being in this doctrine rises; the gospel’s question is only which company. “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection” — and the New Testament is unembarrassed about how one comes to have part in it: the dead in Christ rise because they are in Christ, joined to the firstfruits.
Closing
Two awakenings in Daniel, two resurrections on Jesus’s lips, two risings around one millennium in John’s vision. However the traditions space them, the split itself is Scripture’s constant — and the first rising’s blessing is offered, now, to anyone who will be found in Christ when the ranks are called.