The Voices, Period by Period
The Voices, Period by Period
SermonIndex
c. AD 50 – 1200
Who the writers were, in seven periods from the apostolic age to the Middle Ages, with what each period taught about the Antichrist.
The apostolic age and the earliest writings (to about AD 160)
No one in this period writes a treatise on the Antichrist. What survives are short statements, each taking a different piece of the biblical picture. The Didache has a “world-deceiver” who appears as a son of God. Barnabas reads Daniel’s ten kingdoms and little horn as a warning about the last stumbling block. Polycarp uses John’s word for anyone who denies that Christ has come in the flesh. Hermas sees a beast and is told it pictures the coming tribulation. The Ascension of Isaiah and the Sibylline Oracles draw on Jewish language about Beliar and bring in a lawless king from Rome. Justin is the first to mention the “man of apostasy” by name and to say that false christs are the heretics of his own day.
Didache (c. AD 50–120 (debated))
Early church manual, author unknown. The oldest surviving Christian church order. Its closing chapter describes the “world-deceiver” who appears as a son of God, works wonders and commits lawlessness never seen before, and it calls believers to endure the fiery trial and keep watch. 3 quotations in this volume.
Epistle of Barnabas (c. AD 70–135 (debated))
Early Christian letter, traditionally ascribed to Barnabas. A letter from the age after the apostles that reads the Old Testament as a book about Christ. It cites Daniel’s ten kingdoms and the little king who subdues three, says the last stumbling block is near, and tells believers to resist it so that the Black One, the devil, finds no entry. 5 quotations in this volume.
Polycarp of Smyrna (c. AD 69–155)
Bishop of Smyrna and martyr. Irenaeus says Polycarp had been taught by the apostles and had known John. His one surviving letter takes John’s own definition of an antichrist, the man who denies that Christ has come in the flesh, and sets against it the one remedy he knows, a return to the word handed down from the beginning. 2 quotations in this volume.
Shepherd of Hermas (c. AD 100–160)
Visionary book from Rome. A long book of visions and commands, widely read in the early church. Its fourth vision shows a great sea monster, which an angel explains as a picture of the coming tribulation, and the way of escape is repentance and a single heart. 5 quotations in this volume.
Ascension of Isaiah (1st–3rd century AD (composite))
Jewish-Christian apocalypse. A Jewish and Christian visionary text that was read in the early church. In it Beliar, the angel of lawlessness and ruler of this world, descends in the likeness of a lawless king, a matricide. He speaks like the Beloved, claims to be God, is worshipped, sets up his image in every city, and is dragged to Gehenna when the Lord comes. 8 quotations in this volume.
Sibylline Oracles (2nd century BC to 3rd century AD (layered))
Jewish and Christian oracles in Greek verse. A collection of prophecies in Greek hexameters, worked over by Jewish and Christian hands. The passages used here say that Beliar will arise from the Roman emperors, work signs and lead many astray, and that fire will burn him and all who trusted him. 4 quotations in this volume.
Justin Martyr (c. AD 100–165)
Philosopher, apologist and martyr at Rome. A Christian philosopher who taught at Rome and was beheaded under Marcus Aurelius. In the Dialogue with Trypho he speaks of the “man of apostasy” and Daniel’s blasphemer who is “at the door”, reads Jesus’ warning about false christs as aimed at the heretics of his own day, and holds that Elijah will come at Christ’s glorious return. 7 quotations in this volume.
The second century (AD 160–200)
Irenaeus draws the first full portrait, in the fifth book of Against Heresies, and almost everything later writers say on the subject begins from his words. He joins Daniel’s little horn, Paul’s man of sin and John’s beast into one figure; he puts him among ten kings who divide the Roman empire; and he says the Antichrist will sit in the temple at Jerusalem, reign three and a half years and sum up all apostasy. He gives the tribe of Dan and the number 666, and he is cautious about both. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs supply the vocabulary of Beliar and Dan.
Tatian (c. AD 120–180)
Syrian pupil of Justin; harmonizer of the Gospels. Compiled the Diatessaron, one continuous Gospel narrative that was used in the Syriac churches for generations. The one passage here is its form of the Lord’s warning about the abomination of desolation. 1 quotation in this volume.
Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 130–202)
Bishop of Lyons; pupil of Polycarp. Born in Asia Minor, where he heard Polycarp, and bishop in Gaul. In the last book of Against Heresies he gathers Daniel, Paul and Revelation into the first full account of the Antichrist in the church’s writings: an apostate and robber who sums up all apostasy, arises among the ten kings of the divided Roman empire, sits in the temple at Jerusalem posing as Christ, reigns three and a half years, and is cast into the lake of fire at Christ’s coming. He is also the earliest to say the number of the name may be a Greek word, and to warn against being too sure which. 44 quotations in this volume.
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (2nd century BC, with Christian additions)
Jewish testament-literature, reworked by Christians. The farewell speeches of Jacob’s twelve sons. Beliar is the ruler of deceit, bound by the coming priest and cast into the fire for ever, and Dan’s testament says that his tribe has Satan for its prince and will depart from the Lord in the last days. That passage lies behind the Danite tradition. 7 quotations in this volume.
The third century (AD 200–300)
The three great Western and Alexandrian voices disagree on emphasis and agree on the outline. Tertullian ties the Antichrist to the fall of the Roman empire, which for him still restrains the end. Hippolytus writes the first treatise devoted to the subject, and the first commentary on Daniel; he works out how the Antichrist copies Christ, point by point. Origen reads the Antichrist as the opposite extreme of Christ, a kind with many members, working among false teachers. Cyprian, who is facing persecution, writes of the Antichrist as close at hand and as a spirit at work in the church’s own divisions. Commodian puts the story into Latin verse with Nero as the returning tyrant.
Clement of Alexandria (c. AD 150–215)
Teacher at Alexandria. Head of the catechetical school at Alexandria. He takes John’s “antichrist” to be the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ, and in the Stromata he reads Daniel’s last week as already fulfilled, with Nero setting the abomination in Jerusalem and Vespasian destroying the city. He is a witness to a reading that did not look to the end for the abomination. 2 quotations in this volume.
Tertullian (c. AD 155–220)
Latin theologian of Carthage. The first great writer of Latin theology. He holds that the Roman state restrains the man of sin, so that Christians pray for the empire’s continuance and its breakup into ten kingdoms will bring Antichrist in on its ruins. He expects Enoch and Elijah to be reserved for death at Antichrist’s hands and says that heresy is a present antichrist. In his later years he joined the Montanists. 21 quotations in this volume.
Hippolytus of Rome (c. AD 170–235)
Presbyter and teacher at Rome. A pupil of Irenaeus who wrote in Greek at Rome and is said to have died in exile. His treatise On Christ and Antichrist is the fullest early portrait of the man, and his commentary on Daniel is the oldest surviving. He draws a close parallel between Christ and his counterfeit, reads the sacrifice that ceases as the prayers of the upright, argues that AD 70 did not fulfil the abomination of desolation, divides the last week between Elijah and Enoch and the Antichrist, and, in a passage worth reading with care, reckons the end at about five hundred years after Christ. 69 quotations in this volume.
Origen of Alexandria (c. AD 185–254)
Scholar and exegete of Alexandria and Caesarea. The most productive biblical scholar of the early church. He treats Antichrist as the opposite extreme of Christ, a kind with many species, and as whatever feigns the truth: false exposition of Scripture is itself Antichrist. His wonders are like those of the Egyptian magicians who copied Moses. 22 quotations in this volume.
Commodian (3rd century AD (date and place debated))
Latin poet and teacher. A Christian poet whose Instructions and Apologetic Song put the end-time story into verse. He expects Nero raised from hell, a seven-year period shared between Elijah and Nero, and a Latin conqueror who claims to be Christ and is cast alive into Gehenna with the false prophet. 14 quotations in this volume.
Gospel of Bartholomew (3rd–5th century AD)
Apocryphal gospel. In the Questions of Bartholomew, Satan tells how he refused to worship Adam and aimed to set his throne against God’s and be as he is. 1 quotation in this volume.
Secundinus of Carpis (fl. AD 256)
African bishop at the Seventh Council of Carthage. One of the bishops who gave his opinion at Cyprian’s council in 256 on baptism by heretics. He calls the heretics “the progeny of Antichrist”. 1 quotation in this volume.
Cyprian of Carthage (c. AD 200–258)
Bishop of Carthage and martyr. A bishop in the middle of persecution who wrote often of the Antichrist as close at hand. He reads Antiochus as a type, calls those who leave the Church’s unity antichrists, and in the Exhortation to Martyrdom says the hateful time of Antichrist is beginning to draw near. His comfort is that Christ follows to avenge and deliver. 28 quotations in this volume.
Dionysius of Alexandria (d. AD 264/5)
Bishop of Alexandria. A pupil of Origen. His letters oppose Nepos’s reading of Revelation as promising a literal earthly kingdom, report that some thought Cerinthus wrote the book, and accept it as inspired while doubting it is by the apostle John. He also uses John’s word for those who deny Christ’s deity or real flesh. 4 quotations in this volume.
Acts of Archelaus (early 4th century AD)
Account of a debate with Mani. A dialogue, perhaps based on a real public debate, in which Archelaus refutes Mani. Archelaus calls Mani a base vessel of Antichrist, sent ahead to test the Church. 2 quotations in this volume.
The age of Nicaea (AD 300–380)
Constantine’s peace changed the question. Lactantius, who had seen the Great Persecution, describes the final days with a Syrian king and a false prophet, and then a thousand-year kingdom. Victorinus writes the first commentary on Revelation. Eusebius and Aphrahat read the prophecies more historically. But as the church fought Arianism, Athanasius, Hilary, Alexander of Alexandria and Basil began to use the Antichrist as the pattern of a power that attacks the faith from inside the church, flatters, and uses an emperor.
Victorinus of Pettau (d. c. AD 304)
Bishop of Pettau and martyr. The author of the oldest surviving commentary on Revelation, which Jerome later edited. He reads the book as a series of recapitulations, finds the wounded head in Nero raised up and received by the Jews as Christ, makes the witnesses’ preaching and the Antichrist’s kingdom each three and a half years, and reads the thousand years of Satan’s binding as the present age. 27 quotations in this volume.
Methodius of Olympus (d. c. AD 311)
Bishop and martyr in Lycia. Author of the Banquet of the Ten Virgins. He reads Revelation’s dragon as the devil, the woman as the Church preserved in the wilderness, and the fallen stars as heresies; he spiritualizes the 1,260 days, and in reading the ten virgins calls the midnight the kingdom of Antichrist. 6 quotations in this volume.
Eusebius of Caesarea (c. AD 260–339)
Bishop of Caesarea; first church historian. The historian of the Church’s first three centuries. He reports that Judas dated Antichrist under Severus, and he warns against following any false appearing of Christ. He reads the abomination of desolation as begun at the Passion and the desolation of Jerusalem as final, with no restoration of the temple to look for. 11 quotations in this volume.
Pseudo-Clement (3rd–4th century AD)
Romance attributed to Clement of Rome. The Clementine Homilies and Recognitions are a long Jewish-Christian novel about Peter and Simon Magus. In the Homilies the false always comes before the true, a false prophet before the true prophet and Antichrist before the manifestation of Jesus as Christ; the Recognitions end their ten pairs with Antichrist and Christ. 2 quotations in this volume.
Lactantius (c. AD 250–325)
Christian rhetorician; tutor to Constantine’s son. A Latin writer who saw the Great Persecution and lived to see Constantine. In the seventh book of the Divine Institutes he describes the last days with great vividness: ten kings, a powerful enemy from the north, a Syrian king born of an evil spirit who claims to be the Son of God, his mark and 42 months, and then Christ’s thousand-year kingdom. He rejects the story that Nero will return. 14 quotations in this volume.
Alexander of Alexandria (d. AD 328)
Bishop of Alexandria. The bishop who first opposed Arius. His circular letter calls the Arian teaching an apostasy and a forerunner of Antichrist, and says the Arians have come nearer to Antichrist than any earlier heresy. Socrates, the history of Nicaea by the anonymous writer of Cyzicus, and Athanasius’s collection all reproduce the letter, which is why it recurs here. 2 quotations in this volume.
Aphrahat (c. AD 270–345)
Syriac “Persian Sage”. A monk-bishop in the Persian empire who wrote twenty-three Demonstrations in Syriac. He reads Daniel historically: the fourth beast is Esau’s kingdom, Rome; the little horn is Antiochus, already past; and Rome holds the kingdom for its giver until he returns. He is the clearest early voice for a reading that does not look to the last days at all. 5 quotations in this volume.
Descent into Hell (Latin, first version) (4th–5th century AD)
Part of the Gospel of Nicodemus. A late-antique account of Christ’s descent to the dead. It says Enoch and Elias are kept from death to fight Antichrist, be killed in Jerusalem and rise after three and a half days. 1 quotation in this volume.
History of Joseph the Carpenter (4th–7th century AD)
Coptic apocryphal story. An Egyptian tale of the death of Joseph, told by Christ. It names the four whom Antichrist will slay as Enoch, Elias, Schila and Tabitha. 2 quotations in this volume.
Pseudo-Hippolytus (c. 4th century AD (several later pieces))
Spurious works attributed to Hippolytus. A set of homilies and treatises that early copyists put under the name of Hippolytus. They tell the life of the Antichrist in more detail than any genuine early writer: born of the tribe of Dan to an impure woman posing as a virgin, gentle and pious at first, builder of the temple, counterfeiter of Christ’s miracles, and giver of a mark that requires a formal denial. They also say that in his days the Eucharist and the public worship cease. 31 quotations in this volume.
Revelation of Esdras (apocryphal) (late antique (date uncertain))
Apocryphal apocalypse. A short Greek text in which Esdras sees a man bound in chains who claimed to be the Son of God and turned stones to bread and water to wine; his face bears the inscription Antichrist. 2 quotations in this volume.
Revelation of John (apocryphal) (late antique (date uncertain))
Apocryphal apocalypse. A different book from the canonical Revelation, which manuscripts give under John’s name. It calls the future figure the denier called Antichrist, gives him a shortened three years, and has Enoch and Elias killed by him at the altar. 3 quotations in this volume.
Hilary of Poitiers (c. AD 310–367)
Bishop of Poitiers. A Latin bishop exiled for his stand against the Arians. He reads the abomination of desolation as Antichrist claiming God’s honour in the holy place, the fig tree’s branch as the Synagogue’s branch, Antichrist, and the Arians as the Evil One’s forerunners who prepare what the Antichrist will say himself. 14 quotations in this volume.
Athanasius of Alexandria (c. AD 296–373)
Bishop of Alexandria; defender of Nicaea. The champion of the Nicene faith, exiled five times. He calls Arianism the last heresy and the harbinger of Antichrist, argues that Constantius fits Daniel’s portrait of the enemy, and makes the point, which is the centre of his teaching on this subject, that the devil in every heresy says in disguise: “I am Christ”. 30 quotations in this volume.
Basil of Caesarea (c. AD 330–379)
Bishop of Caesarea; one of the Cappadocians. One of the three Cappadocian Fathers. In two letters written in time of trial he wonders whether the falling away has come and the lawless one is about to be revealed, but he uses the thought to urge endurance and patience rather than to announce the end. 2 quotations in this volume.
Apostolic Constitutions (c. AD 375–380 (Syria))
Church order compiled from earlier sources. A long collection of church law and worship, which keeps much older material. It calls the heretics false christs and prophets, says they grow more numerous as the end nears, and speaks of the “deceiver of the world” who will be destroyed by the Lord’s mouth. 4 quotations in this volume.
The golden age of the Fathers (AD 380–451)
This is the period of the standard commentaries. Cyril of Jerusalem teaches the signs to baptismal candidates. Chrysostom’s homilies on 2 Thessalonians become the Greek church’s classic exposition. Jerome gathers the earlier opinions on Daniel. Ambrose and Augustine turn to the question of what “Antichrist” means: Ambrose names three, and Augustine makes the word “contrary to Christ” cover all who deny him in their lives, inside the Church as well as outside. The sack of Rome in 410 gives a new edge to the old question of who restrains the end, and Augustine admits that he does not know.
Ambrosiaster (fl. c. AD 366–384)
Anonymous Latin commentator at Rome. The unknown author of the oldest Latin commentary on all of Paul’s letters, long ascribed to Ambrose. Here he reads the Lord’s warning about flight in winter or on the Sabbath as about the final persecution from Antichrist. 1 quotation in this volume.
Cyril of Jerusalem (c. AD 313–386)
Bishop of Jerusalem. In the Catechetical Lectures, given to candidates for baptism, Cyril gives the clearest short description of the Antichrist in the Greek fathers: a sorcerer who seizes Roman power, comes as the eleventh king, feigns mildness, claims to be Christ, and persecutes for three and a half years. His wonders are illusions, the temple he profanes is the Jewish temple, and his aim for the catechumens is that they not die deceived. 19 quotations in this volume.
Gregory of Nazianzus (c. AD 329–390)
Bishop and theologian; Archbishop of Constantinople. One of the three Cappadocian Fathers, known as “the Theologian”. He calls the Arian intruder George of Alexandria a forerunner of Antichrist, reports that the Emperor Julian gave his satire a second title, Antichrist, and speaks of an “Anti-Christian Emperor”. 4 quotations in this volume.
Optatus of Milevis (fl. c. AD 366–385)
Catholic bishop in Africa. He wrote against the Donatists, whom he calls antichrists in John’s sense because they left the Church’s unity. A modern translator’s note on Optatus records that the Church prayed for the Empire because its fall was commonly expected to coincide with the coming of Antichrist. 2 quotations in this volume.
Tyconius (d. c. AD 390)
Donatist lay theologian of Africa. His Commentary on Revelation survives only in what later writers, especially Bede, report of it. It reads the book as the story of two bodies, Christ’s and the devil’s, and takes the beast as the devil’s whole body across the generations. 2 quotations in this volume.
Gregory of Nyssa (c. AD 335–395)
Bishop of Nyssa; one of the Cappadocians. A brother of Basil. In the second part of Against Eunomius he calls Eunomius’s doctrine a rehearsal and prelude of Antichrist’s coming. 1 quotation in this volume.
Ambrose of Milan (c. AD 339–397)
Bishop of Milan. The bishop who baptized Augustine. He names three antichrists: the final one who argues from Scripture that he is Christ, the devil who besieges the soul, and Arius and Sabellius and all who lead the faithful astray. 9 quotations in this volume.
Apocalypse of Thomas (late antique (date debated))
Apocryphal apocalypse. A short text that places great cosmic signs when Antichrist draws near, and a crafty king who commands a golden image to be worshipped in God’s house. 2 quotations in this volume.
Pseudo-Ignatius (4th–5th century AD)
Spurious letters ascribed to Ignatius. Letters written in Ignatius’s name long after his death. One says that whoever rejects the incarnation or is ashamed of the cross is called antichrist. 1 quotation in this volume.
Shenoute of Atripe (c. AD 348–466)
Abbot of the White Monastery in Upper Egypt. The great organizer of Coptic monasticism and the first major writer in Coptic. He says that the prophets and apostles cursed false prophets, deceiving priests, every antichrist and all false teachers. 1 quotation in this volume.
Macarius Magnes (fl. c. AD 400)
Christian apologist. In the Apocriticus, an answer to a pagan critic of the Gospels, he calls the devil “that Antichrist” and names Manes, Montanus, Marcion and others as the many antichrists of the Saviour’s warning. 2 quotations in this volume.
John Chrysostom (c. AD 347–407)
Archbishop of Constantinople; “golden-mouth”. The greatest preacher of the Greek church. His homilies on 2 Thessalonians are the standard Eastern commentary on Paul’s man of sin: he is a man, not Satan; he proclaims himself God; the restraining power is, in Chrysostom’s opinion, the Roman empire, with Nero as his type; and Elijah will come to strengthen the faithful. He also teaches that Antichrist follows Christ as the devil’s tares follow the true sowing. 35 quotations in this volume.
Rufinus of Aquileia (c. AD 345–411)
Priest and translator. The translator of Origen into Latin. In his Commentary on the Apostles’ Creed he explains the article on Christ’s return by saying that the enemy counterfeits the second advent with prodigies and lying signs; the delusion is foretold so that no one mistakes Antichrist’s coming for Christ’s. 2 quotations in this volume.
Jerome (c. AD 347–420)
Biblical scholar; translator of the Vulgate. The most learned Latin writer of his age. He counts every heresiarch an antichrist, reads “he that letteth” as taken out of the way in the barbarian invasions so that Antichrist is near, and records that the chronographer Judas had wrongly set the date about AD 202. He also reads the abomination of desolation as an idol, Hadrian’s statue, rather than as Antichrist, and he is the best example of a Father who gives more than one reading. 23 quotations in this volume.
Palladius of Galatia (c. AD 363–431)
Bishop and author of the Lausiac History. The historian of the desert monks. In his story of the monk Valens a demon disguised as the Saviour, with a host of lamp-bearing angels, deceives him into worshipping; and the elder Melania warns senators that “the days of antichrist might surprise them”. 5 quotations in this volume.
Sulpicius Severus (c. AD 363–425)
Gallic Christian writer; friend of Martin of Tours. He wrote the Life of Martin and a Sacred History. In the Dialogues he reports Martin’s belief that Nero will rule the West and Antichrist seize the East, and he tells how Martin refused to believe a devil dressed as Christ because he lacked the wounds. 7 quotations in this volume.
Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430)
Bishop of Hippo; the most influential Latin Father. In City of God, book 20, he sets out the Antichrist’s place in the church’s hope. He distinguishes three persecutions, the last by Antichrist, refuses to date the end, rebukes six-thousand-year computations, and teaches that the word means “contrary to Christ”, so that antichrists are in the Church wherever there are members who deny Christ by their lives. 66 quotations in this volume.
John Cassian (c. AD 360–435)
Monk; founder of monasteries in Gaul. Brought the desert tradition to the West. He gives a double fulfilment for the abomination of desolation, Jupiter’s idol in Jerusalem and again an idol in the Church through Antichrist, and in the Incarnation he applies John’s “spirit of Antichrist” to the heretic who does not confess that Jesus is God. 3 quotations in this volume.
Socrates Scholasticus (c. AD 380–439)
Church historian at Constantinople. His Ecclesiastical History continues Eusebius. It reproduces Alexander of Alexandria’s letter calling the Arian apostasy a forerunner of Antichrist. 2 quotations in this volume.
Cyril of Alexandria (c. AD 376–444)
Bishop of Alexandria. A great defender of the unity of Christ’s person. He reads “another who shall come in his own name” and Zechariah’s worthless shepherd as the Antichrist, and says that the unbelieving Jews will attach themselves to him. 3 quotations in this volume.
Apocalypse of Sedrach (c. 5th century AD (debated))
Apocryphal apocalypse. In this text the Lord tells Sedrach that sinners who do not repent will perish with Antichrist, and Sedrach pleads for mercy for them. 1 quotation in this volume.
Leo the Great (c. AD 400–461)
Bishop of Rome. Pope from 440 to 461. He takes John’s “this is Antichrist” as the verdict on those who deny Christ’s human nature: Eutyches in the Tome to Flavian, and the Manichaeans in a sermon. He calls the monks who rioted for Eutyches “soldiers of Antichrist”. 6 quotations in this volume.
The later Fathers (AD 451–800)
The Roman empire in the West is gone, and the Antichrist is reshaped again. Leo and the Chalcedonian writers use the language of Antichrist against Eutyches. Gregory the Great gives the Western church its mature teaching: the Antichrist is a man of the last days, and also the head of a body whose members are all the wicked now. In Egypt and Syria, writers under Muslim rule compose apocalypses in which the last king is an Ishmaelite and the Antichrist follows a Byzantine king’s victory. Bede carries the African tradition of Tyconius to the medieval West, and John of Damascus fixes the Eastern doctrine in the form it keeps to this day.
Testament of Our Lord (c. 5th century AD (debated))
Church order with an apocalypse. A Syriac church order that begins with a long apocalyptic speech of the risen Lord. The Son of Perdition boasts and works signs to deceive the whole earth; his power is blasphemy; before him a godless king rises in the West. 6 quotations in this volume.
Theodoret of Cyrus (c. AD 393–458)
Bishop of Cyrrhus in Syria. A Syrian bishop and the great exegete of the Antiochene school. In the Eranistes he cites John to show that those who deny Christ’s flesh have the spirit of Anti-Christ, and a letter cites Paul’s prediction that Antichrist will be consumed by the Lord’s coming. 2 quotations in this volume.
Anonymous of Cyzicus (late 5th century AD)
Author of a history of the Council of Nicaea. His account of Nicaea reproduces Alexander of Alexandria’s letter, in which Arianism is the forerunner of the Antichrist. 2 quotations in this volume.
Gennadius of Massilia (d. c. AD 496)
Priest of Marseilles. His Lives of Illustrious Men continues Jerome’s catalogue. He says that the Chronicle of James of Nisibis, built only on Scripture, silences those who guess idly about the coming of Antichrist or of the Lord. 1 quotation in this volume.
Pseudo-Linus (late antique (date uncertain))
Legendary acts of Linus. A late Latin account of Peter and Paul in Rome that calls Nero “the Antichrist Nero”. 1 quotation in this volume.
Syriac Miscellanies (5th–6th century AD)
Collection of Syriac texts. A Syriac letter in this collection defends the view that the world ends at 6,000 years by pointing out that Bardesan, Hippolytus and Mar Jacob held it too. 1 quotation in this volume.
Joshua the Stylite (fl. c. AD 507)
Syriac chronicler. The author of a chronicle of the Persian war of 502–506. In the midst of war, plague and invasion he argues from 2 Thessalonians that the end cannot come before the false Christ appears, and concludes that the disasters were God’s chastisement, not the end. 2 quotations in this volume.
Philoxenus of Mabbug (c. AD 440–523)
Syriac bishop and ascetic writer. A leader of the Miaphysite church. In his Ascetic Discourses he reports the Jewish view that Jesus was a deceiver and that they await the “lying Christ”, Antichrist. 1 quotation in this volume.
Cave of Treasures (6th century AD (older material))
Syriac history of the world. A Syriac retelling of sacred history from Adam to Christ. The passages here are Budge’s summaries of the later Book of the Bee: the Danite Antichrist who works illusions and enthrones himself in the Jerusalem temple, Elijah’s coming from Paradise, the Greek king’s crown on Golgotha, and Gog and Magog’s breaking out. 4 quotations in this volume.
Cosmas Indicopleustes (fl. c. AD 550)
Alexandrian merchant-monk and geographer. The Christian Topography argues that the world is shaped like the tabernacle. He reports the ecclesiastical tradition that Enoch and Elias will withstand Antichrist and refute his error. 2 quotations in this volume.
Pseudo-Zachariah of Mitylene (c. AD 569)
Syriac chronicle. A Syriac church history, compiled from Greek sources. It reports that, in the Chalcedonian dispute, Leo of Rome called Timothy Aelurus “the Antichrist”. 1 quotation in this volume.
Gregory of Tours (AD 538–594)
Bishop of Tours; historian of the Franks. His History of the Franks tells of a man in Gaul who gave himself out as Christ and deceived thousands, and says he ought rather to be called anti-Christ. In his creed he states that Antichrist will come first, claim to be Christ and propose circumcision, then set up his statue in the Jerusalem temple. 2 quotations in this volume.
Gregory the Great (c. AD 540–604)
Pope; Bishop of Rome. The great teacher of the medieval West. He treats Antichrist as the head of a body whose members are all the wicked, who now do what he will do when he is revealed. The devil will in the last times enter a vessel of perdition called Antichrist, and Elijah and Enoch will rebuke him. His remark that anyone who wants the title “universal bishop” is a precursor of Antichrist was aimed at the Patriarch of Constantinople. 41 quotations in this volume.
Coptic Martyrdoms and Lives (Coptic; 6th–10th century AD)
Saints’ lives in the dialect of Upper Egypt. Coptic stories of martyrs and saints, translated by E. A. Wallis Budge. They include Timothy’s discourse on Abbaton, in which Christ at the judgment binds Satan, the lying prophet and Antichrist in the lake of fire, and a saying that the end of the Roman Empire is the sign after which only Antichrist’s works remain. 3 quotations in this volume.
Coptic Texts from St. Macarius’ Monastery (Coptic; 6th–10th century AD)
Texts found in the Wadi Natrun. Coptic works from the monastery of Saint Macarius, translated by H. G. Evelyn White. An apocalyptic fragment here has the devil go up to Chorazin and Bethsaida, where the crowds acclaim him as God and Christ and Enoch denounces him as the Son of Iniquity. 4 quotations in this volume.
Miscellaneous Coptic Texts (Coptic; 6th–10th century AD)
Coptic homilies translated by Budge. A collection of Coptic discourses. One of them calls Julian the Apostate a horn of the Devil before Antichrist. 2 quotations in this volume.
Apocalypse of Samuel of Kalamoun (7th–8th century AD (debated))
Coptic apocalypse written under Muslim rule. Attributed to a Coptic abbot of the seventh century, it consoles the Egyptian church under the Arab conquest. A Byzantine king commissioned by Michael overthrows the Arabs, a time of peace follows, and the false Messiah appears after his reign; the last Ishmaelite king has an Ishmaelite father and a Frankish mother and a name that adds up to 666. Samuel also says that no one knows the dates. 15 quotations in this volume.
John of Nikiu (fl. c. AD 690–700)
Coptic bishop and chronicler. His Chronicle of world history survives only in an Ethiopic translation of an Arabic copy of the original. He reports that in Diocletian’s persecution everyone thought him Antichrist come to destroy the world. 1 quotation in this volume.
Coptic Apocalypse of Daniel (8th century AD (debated))
Coptic apocalypse under Muslim rule. A reworking of Daniel in which the fourth beast is the kingdom of Ishmael, and a list of nineteen kings ends with a king of mixed parentage bearing the number 666, who kills Enoch and Elias and is slain by Christ. 13 quotations in this volume.
Bede (c. AD 673–735)
Monk of Jarrow; “the Venerable”. The great scholar of Anglo-Saxon England. His commentaries pass on Tyconius to the medieval West, and the Catena Aurea of Aquinas draws on his Gospel commentaries. He is steady and balanced: the Antichrist is a man in whom Satan will dwell bodily and also a body of antichrists already in the Church; he gives Titan for 666; and he rejects those who calculate the year, day and hour. 55 quotations in this volume.
John of Damascus (c. AD 675–749)
Monk of Mar Saba; last of the Greek Fathers. The summarizer of the Greek tradition. In the Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, book 4, chapter 26, he states the doctrine in the form it has had in the Eastern church ever since: a general antichrist, anyone denying the incarnation, and a particular Antichrist at the end, a man born of fornication who receives Satan’s energy, not an incarnation of the devil; the temple is the Jewish temple; Enoch and Elijah are sent to the synagogue; and Christ destroys him with the breath of his mouth. 9 quotations in this volume.
Paulician Church of Armenia (manual of uncertain date, 8th–9th century or later)
Dissenting church of Armenia. The Key of Truth is the service book of the Paulicians, whom the Church regarded as heretical. It calls Satan himself the “son of perdition” and lists twelve disguises of the Adversary that end in clerics, apostles, bishops and monks. 2 quotations in this volume.
Timothy I of Baghdad (AD 727–823)
Catholicos of the Church of the East. The Patriarch of the Church of the East, who wrote a defence of Christianity before the Caliph al-Mahdi. He tells the Caliph that Elijah will come to rebuke Antichrist and announce Christ’s second coming. 1 quotation in this volume.
The Middle Ages (after AD 800)
By the Middle Ages the quotations are mainly those of compilers, and they are valuable as such, since they show what the church carried forward. The Catena Aurea gathers Alcuin, Rabanus, Remigius and Theophylact on the Gospels. Solomon of Basra’s Book of the Bee sets out the full Eastern story of the end. The Kebra Nagast gives it an Ethiopian setting. Neale and Littledale, in the 1860s, are the last stop: they were Anglican scholars who gathered the older commentary on the Psalms, and they are placed here because they speak for what the earlier tradition had handed down.
Alcuin (c. AD 735–804)
Scholar at Charlemagne’s court. The leading scholar of the Carolingian age. In the Catena Aurea he takes “another shall come in his own name” as Antichrist, and says it was a fitting punishment that the Jews who refused the Truth should receive a lie. 2 quotations in this volume.
Rabanus (c. AD 780–856)
Rabanus Maurus; Archbishop of Mainz. A pupil of Alcuin whose commentaries gathered the earlier Fathers. He applies the account to the last times of the Jewish Church, when many turn to Enoch and Elijah and the rest, filled with Antichrist’s spirit, fight the faith. 1 quotation in this volume.
Remigius (c. AD 841–908)
Remigius of Auxerre. A Carolingian teacher whose commentary on Matthew is cited in the Catena Aurea. He says that the false brethren Paul names are John’s antichrists, and that when the synagogue receives the preaching of Enoch and Elias the end is at hand. 3 quotations in this volume.
Severus of al-Ashmunein (fl. late 10th century AD)
Coptic bishop and historian. The author of an Arabic History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic Church. He reports Judas’s computation of Antichrist’s date in AD 202, and likens the caliph Omar II and two oppressive officials to Antichrist in their deeds. 3 quotations in this volume.
Theophylact (c. AD 1050–1107)
Archbishop of Ochrid in Bulgaria. The Byzantine commentator whose Gospel commentaries remain the standard Eastern gloss, gathering Chrysostom and the earlier Fathers. He reads Christ’s “then” as leaping from Jerusalem’s fall to the time of Antichrist, and warns that believers must not submit to the tyrant to save their lives. 7 quotations in this volume.
Anselm (c. AD 1100 (cited by Neale and Littledale))
Medieval commentator on the Psalms. Quoted by Neale and Littledale for the thought that Antichrist’s persecution will be a trial when the persecutor glitters with miracles and the martyr performs none. 1 quotation in this volume.
Bruno (c. AD 1100 (cited by Neale and Littledale))
Medieval commentator on the Psalms. Quoted by Neale and Littledale, in a passage attributed to Bruno the Carthusian, for the doom of the impenitent who see Antichrist overthrown. 1 quotation in this volume.
Dionysius bar Salibi (d. AD 1171)
Syriac Orthodox Bishop of Amid. The great Syriac commentator on the Bible. The passage here is the editor Gwynn’s summary of his Commentary on Revelation: three and a half years of persecution, the cessation of public prayer under Antichrist, and the little horn. 1 quotation in this volume.
Solomon of Basra (fl. c. AD 1222)
Metropolitan of Basra in the Church of the East. The author of the Book of the Bee, a Syriac handbook of sacred history. It sets out the whole Eastern story of the end: the Ishmaelites’ rise in the last millennium, the Greek king’s victory and last peace, Gog and Magog’s release, the last emperor’s crown laid down at Golgotha, and a Danite Antichrist, a devil-indwelling man, who sits in the temple as Christ until Elijah convicts him. 26 quotations in this volume.
Thomas Aquinas (AD 1225–1274)
Dominican theologian. The compiler of the Catena Aurea, which gathers the Fathers on the Gospels. Here he appears as the collector of older, mostly anonymous comments, and as the attributed author of an argument on Psalm 9. 3 quotations in this volume.
Durandus (c. AD 1230–1296)
William Durand, Bishop of Mende. A liturgist of the thirteenth century, quoted by Neale and Littledale for the point that believing Gentiles and repentant Jews will be one in faith before the Antichrist’s tribulation. 1 quotation in this volume.
Kebra Nagast (14th century AD (older material))
Ethiopian national epic. The “Glory of the Kings” of Ethiopia, which tells of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. In its end-time passages a future Roman king perverts the apostolic faith, Ethiopia stands firm against the False Christ, and Enoch and Elijah come to testify against the Jews. 5 quotations in this volume.
Neale and Littledale (compilers) (J. M. Neale 1818–1866; R. F. Littledale 1833–1890)
Anglican compilers of the Commentary on the Psalms. Their Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediaeval Writers (1860–74) gathers the patristic and medieval comments on each verse. It is a secondary source: the compilers’ own sentences summarize older writers, and we quote them as the compilers, not as the Fathers themselves. 33 quotations in this volume.