c. 500
Hippolytus of Rome expects the end around the year 500
Well documented Prediction date passed End TimesBiblical NumerologyFailed PredictionsEarly and Medieval
Quick facts
- Predicted date
- c. 500
- Who predicted it
- Hippolytus of Rome
- When announced
- 204
- Reasoning
- A world-age chronology: six days of creation treated as six millennia, 5,500 years placed before Christ's birth, and the remainder counted forward from there.
- What happened
- The year 500 passed. Historical sources document the fall of the western Roman empire in 476, but no event matching Hippolytus's expectation of the end is recorded.
- Historical status
- Well documented. The prediction and its date appear in primary or reliable secondary sources.
- Outcome label
- Prediction date passed
- Editorial certainty
- Medium: reliable secondary sources
- Editorial review
- Pending. This entry has not yet been checked line by line against its sources. Treat details as provisional.
Prediction
What did Hippolytus of Rome predict?
In his Commentary on Daniel (about 204), Hippolytus reasoned that Christ was born 5,500 years after creation and that the world would last 6,000 years, placing the end about 500 years after Christ's birth.
Interpretation by the author
Why did they believe it?
Hippolytus assumed that the six days of creation corresponded to six thousand years of history, followed by a seventh age of rest. He then fixed Christ's birth at the year 5500 of the world.
That left half a millennium. His reason for locating the incarnation at 5500 was partly theological: he wanted to show that Christ came in the middle of the final age, not at its end.
Scripture as used by the author
Biblical basis cited
Some Christians have read Psalm 90 and 2 Peter 3:8, "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years", as a key to world history. Hippolytus applied that reading to the creation week.
Method
How the date was calculated
A world-age chronology: six days of creation treated as six millennia, 5,500 years placed before Christ's birth, and the remainder counted forward from there.
Historical record
Historical context
Early Christian writers commonly expected the end to come within a long but finite span, and the six-thousand-year scheme was shared with Jewish and Christian chroniclers of the period. Hippolytus wrote at a time when Roman Christians were under periodic pressure, and he was also arguing against other Christians who were predicting near dates.
In the Commentary he actually criticizes teachers who set a near date. His own date was far enough away not to be urgent.
Historical record
What happened when the date passed?
The year 500 passed. Historical sources document the fall of the western Roman empire in 476, but no event matching Hippolytus's expectation of the end is recorded.
Historical record
What happened afterward
The six-thousand-year scheme survived Hippolytus. Later writers, including Augustine, argued against calculating the end at all, while chroniclers kept adjusting the world-age count. Around the year 500 some Christians revised the date forward; the idea of a world with a fixed lifespan stayed influential for over a thousand years.
Scripture
Passages cited
-
2 Peter 3:8 (KJV)
"Beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
Frequently cited in six-thousand-year schemes.
Excerpts are from the King James Version (public domain). Listing a verse here does not mean this site agrees with how the author used it.
Sources
Sources and further reading
- Hippolytus of Rome. Commentary on Daniel, Book 4, chapters 23 to 24. c. 204. Primary source The passage that gives the 5,500-year count. Available in several critical editions and translations.
- Bernard McGinn. Visions of the End: Apocalyptic Traditions in the Middle Ages. Columbia University Press. 1979. Secondary source Survey of early and medieval apocalyptic reasoning.
Found an error or a better source? Send a correction. See also the methodology.