There have been two major ways of interpreting the thousand-year reign of Christ, the literal or realistic way and the spiritual way. The literal interpretation of the thousand-year millennium characterized many of the early fathers of the church (e.g., Justin, Irenaeus, Melito, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Methodius). Since the venue of the vision segment in 20:1–3 and the prophetic segment in 20:7–10 is apparently the earth, the author may be implying that the reign of the resurrected martyrs with Christ also occurs on the earth. This, however, is not made explicit. The verb ζᾶν, “to live,” is used here with the meaning “raised [from the dead], resurrected” (see v 5; 3 Kgdms 17:23; Matt 9:18; Acts 9:41); in 2:8 ζᾶν is used of the resurrection of Christ (see Comment on that passage). According to 2 Macc 7:9, 14 (based on Dan 12:2), those who have died for the laws of the king of the universe will be raised from the dead. Kellermann argues that this reflects the belief that immediately after death the martyr is transferred to the heavenly realm in a transformed mode of existence. A similar conception is found in Pistis Sophia 2.99 (tr. Schmidt-MacDermot), which (because of its late date) may be dependent on Revelation:

“Nevertheless at the dissolution of the All, namely when the number of perfect souls is completed [cf. Rev 6:11], and the mystery, for the sake of which the All came into existence, is quite completed, I will spend 1000 years, according to years of light, as ruler (king) over all the emanations of light, and over the whole number of perfect souls which have received all the mysteries.”

The second line of interpretation may be called the spiritual view, maintained by both Clement of Alexandria and Origen. Augustine popularized the view, now called amillennialism, that the reign of the saints with Christ was not a future expectation but rather the present situation of Christians who had been “raised with Christ” and “enthroned in heavenly places with Christ” (Col 3:1; Eph 2:6; Augustine De civ. dei 20.6–20). According to Wikenhauser (RQ 40 [1932] 21), the millennial reign of Christ is primarily a means of indicating that the martyrs are worthy of a special reward.

Revelation 17-22, Volume 52C (Word Biblical Commentary), Loc. 1089