ἀντίχριστος

ἀντιχρίστου, ὁ (ἀντί against and Χριστός, like ἀντίθεος opposing God, in Philo de somn. l. ii. § 27, etc., Justin, quaest. et resp., p. 463 c. and other Fathers; (see Sophocles Lexicon, under the word, cf. Trench, § xxx.)), the adversary of the Messiah, a most pestilent being, to appear just before the Messiah's advent, concerning whom the Jews had conceived diverse opinions, derived partly from Dan 11:36ff; Dan 7:25; , partly from Ezekiel 38; Ezekiel 39. Cf. Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. 704ff; Gesenius in Ersch and Gruber's Encycl. iv. 292ff under the word Antichrist; Böhmer, Die Lehre v. Antichrist nach Schneckenburger, in the Jahrbb. f. deutsche Theol. vol. iv., p. 405ff The name ὁ ἀντίχριστος was formed perhaps by John, the only writer in the N. T. who uses it (five times); he employs it of the corrupt power and influence hostile to Christian interests, especially that which is at work in false teachers who have come from the bosom of the church and are engaged in disseminating error: 1 Jn 2:18 (where the meaning is, 'what ye have heard concerning Antichrist, as about to make his appearance just before the return of Christ, is now fulfilled in the many false teachers, most worthy to be called antichrists,' (on the omission of the article cf. Buttmann, 89 (78))); 1 Jn 4:3; and of the false teachers themselves, 1 Jn 2:22; 1 Jn 2:2 John 7. In Paul and the Rev. the idea but not the name of Antichrist is found; yet the conception differs from that of John. For Paul teaches that Antichrist will be an individual man (cf. B. D. as below), of the very worst character (τόν ἄνθρωπον τῆς ἁμαρτίας (or, ἀνομίας); see ἁμαρτία, 1), instigated by the devil to try to palm himself off as God: 2 Thess 2:3-10. The author of the Apocalypse discovers the power of Antichrist in the sway of imperial Rome, and his person in the Emperor Nero, soon to return from the dead: Revelation 13 and Revelation 17. (Often in ecclesiastical writings.) (See B. D. under the word (American edition for additional references), also B. D. under the article, Thessalonians, Second Epistle to the; Kähler in Herzog edition 2, i. 446f; Westcott, Epistles of St. John, pp 68, 89.)