The Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Later among Catholics, Bishop Papias of Hierapolis, a disciple of St. John [the apostle], appeared as an advocate of ‘millenarianism.’ He claimed to have received his doctrine from contemporaries of the Apostles, and Irenæus narrates that other ‘Presbyteri’ [elders], who had seen and heard the disciple John, learned from him the belief in millenarianism as part of the Lord’s doctrine. . . .

Yet the men quoted by The Catholic Encyclopedia as teaching the millennial hope are recognized by the Catholic Church itself as being among the earliest “Church fathers.” Two of them (Polycarp and Papias) are said to have seen and heard the apostle John and to have met disciples who knew Christ himself and other apostles.