The Antichrist Legend

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

Another time out.

Over a period of many years, Ken Gentry has written and published a number of exegetical studies that refute the notion that certain biblical texts refer to "the Antichrist" when in fact they do no such thing.

One such exegetical study is here.

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 35-40):

Caspari then proceeds to discuss with much acumen the relation of the foregoing Apocalypse to the writings of S. Ephrem. Unfortunately he has neglected to clear the ground respecting the tradition of the Ephremite writings under consideration, despite the incredibly careless way that Ephrem had been edited by Assemani. The extant manuscripts have been simply printed off without any attempt at sifting, although from the first a heterogeneous mass of homilies had acquired currency under the name of Ephrem. No doubt some of these formed originally a connected group; but they were for the most part bundled together in the manuscript collection in the most diverse ways. Thus four distinct documents, a, b, c, d, are, for instance, found recurring in such combinations as a + b; a + b + c; c + d, and so on; so that in Assemani the same manuscripts get printed three, four, or five time over―a fact only in the rarest instances noted by the editor.

Because the next several pages consist of such as the above, and even more complex charts of numbers and letters that I cannot duplicate here, in my next post I will skip to the next paragraph that consists of narrative rather than complex charts of letters and numbers.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 40):

On the whole the relations between the Apocalypse on the Antichrist and the Ephremite writings are correctly set forth by Caspari. That the Antichrist document itself was written by Ephrem is a groundless assumption of one of the copyists. But then Caspari has rightly perceived that the details in Ephrem and in the Antichrist can neither be derived from nor explained by each other (see p. 454).

Another aside: If indeed there is ― contrary to my recent assertion ― an "Antichrist figure" in Revelation, it is the man Nero as head of the Roman Empire: he is the ultimate fulfilment of biblical prophecy re a political ruler that is anti-Christ. See The Beast of Revelation (Revised Edition, 2002), by Kenneth L. Gentry, Jr.


Excerpts from Daniel (Hermeneia: Augsburg-Fortress, 1993) by John J. and Adela Yarbro Collins (via Accordance):

Josephus (Ant. 10.11.7 §276) acknowedges that much of Daniel's prophecy was fulfilled in the time of Antiochus Epiphanes but adds that he also "wrote about the empire of the Romans and that Jerusalem would be laid waste." Hippolytus and Jerome refer Dan 12:7, 11-12 to the Antichrist. [page 401, footnote 293]

[Daniel 10:]40. At the time of the end: Modern scholarship marks the transition from ex eventu prophecy to real (and erroneous) prediction at this point. Jerome, in contrast, referred all the passage about Epiphanes, from v 21, to the Antichrist, whereas Porphyry read the entire prophecy as historical. Some conservative scholars still relate vv 40–45 to the Antichrist.173 Porphyry’s claim that Antiochus launched another campaign against Philometor in the eleventh year of his reign is unsupported.174 Instead Antiochus led a campaign to the east in 165 and remained [vol. 27. p. 389] there for the last year and a half of his life.175 The author of Daniel 11 was unaware of the expedition to Persia (which is noted in 1 Macc 3:31–37) and records no actual events after the profanation of the temple.

“The time of the end” here has the same meaning as in 11:35: the period when the crisis comes to its resolution. See the Commentary on Dan 8:17, above. There is nothing to indicate a change of subjects from the preceding passage, so there can be no doubt that the reference is to Antiochus. The passage does, however, recall other eschatological oracles that speak of a final invasion of Israel, where the aggressor is indefinite (Psalm 2; Sib Or 3:663–68; 4 Ezra 13:33–35) or is a mythic figure (Gog in Ezekiel 38–39; Rev 20:7–10). In short, Antiochus is assimilated to a mythic pattern that underlies later Christian traditions about the Antichrist.176

176The classic study of Wilhelm Bousset, The Antichrist Legend (London: Hutchinson, 1896), is still valuable for its wealth of material. On the adaptation of traditions about an eschatological adversary in the NT, see Josef Ernst, Die eschatologischen Gegenspieler in den Schriften des Neuen Testaments (Regensburg: Pustet, 1967); Yarbro Collins, The Combat Myth, 157–90; and Gregory C. Jenks, The Origins and Early Development of the Antichrist Myth (BZAW 59; Berlin: de Gruyter, 1991).

I recommend a book by Latin scholar and historian Francis X. Gumerlock, that Amazon is selling for $3.96 used and $10.89 new. The book presents a chronology of predictions of the end of the world and of manifestations of "Antichrist" and "Gog and Magog", etc., from the 1st century through the 21st century and beyond. It is really quite interesting and telling.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 40-41):

Yet this conclusion itself needs to be more accurately understood. For Ephrem is by no means to be taken as the source of all the passages in which Caspari shows that parallelisms occur. It seems to me that a connection with Ephrem has been placed beyond doubt only for the exhortative part of chapter ii. And even here it has again to be asked, Whence has Ephrem himself obtained the copious eschatological material which he deals with in his homilies? Here also the only answer can be that he assuredly did not invent it himself, but borrowed it from one or more of the Apocalypses of his time. But then immediately the important inference that in the Antichrist treatise we have the same apocalyptic material still in the relatively original though already embellished form, on which the writer relies in his homilies; it is even more original in so far that we have here the actual form of the Apocalypse but not of the homily.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 41):

There comes next under consideration the homily bearing the name of Hippolytus (...), and entitled: "About the End of the World, and about the Antichrist, and on the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." This document may be dealt with more briefly. In its first part, with which we are here less concerned, it depends on the genuine work of Hippolytus; in the second (beginning with chapter vvii.) on Ephrem's homily bearing the same title, which is included in the original recension, III, pp. 134-143. The proof of this will be given in the third section by a continuous clause for clause comparison of the texts.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 41-42):

After chapter xxxvi., which again depends on Hippolytus' genuine work, the pseudo-Hippolytus utilizes those documents in Ephrem's homilies which I have above indicated by the letters C and D. In these sections, which deal with the Last Judgement (compare the title, "And on the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"), there also occur many things which are to be referred to some apocalyptic tradition still perhaps known to the pseudo-Hippolytus. But speaking generally the detailed description of the judgment pronounced on the various classes of men should apparently be exclusively credited to the author of the homilies.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 42):

To this series belong also the pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse, which is comprised in Tischendorf's Apocalypses Apocryphae, xviii. et seq., pp. 70 et seq.; and which varies greatly in the written records. It professes to give certain revelations made to S. John on Mount Tabor after the resurrection, and contains much the same material as the pseudo-Hippolytus (chapter xxii. et seq.). It takes the form of a dialogue, and in the second half shows connections with C and D of Ephrem―that is, the "Questions and Answers." In fact its interrogatory form may probably be due to this source―that is to Ephrem's homilies. Yet in the opening it adheres more to the form of the Apocalypse, and no doubt the writer had direct access to apocalyptic material. Moreover it betrays direct indications of the canonical book of Revelation, as, for instance, chapter xviii.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 42-43):

With regard to the widely diverging traditions occurring here and there in some of the manuscripts, those are to be considered the best in which the text of the pseudo-John approaches nearest to the apocalyptic tradition of our group. Such is especially E Cod. Venet. Marc. Class II, cod. xc., as is best seen in chapter vi. of the Apocalypse. Here in E alone occurs a report on the first appearance of Antichrist, which corresponds exactly with the tradition contained in our group. After E consideration may next be claimed by B Parisiensis (N. 947, anno [year] 1523), and lastly A Venet. Marc., Class XI, cod. xx. (15th century).

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 43):

Here may further be mentioned Cyril of Jerusalem, who introduces in his fifteenth catechetical lecture the Antichrist legend in the traditional form occurring in our group. It is noteworthy that Cyril already shows correspondence with Ephrem's "Questions and Answers." I am not quite sure whether a more distinct account of the Last Judgment, possibly the common source drawn upon both by Cyril and Ephrem, may not be assumed as already current in some apocalyptic tradition.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 43):

In the same series is comprised the version occurring in the Dioptra of Philip the Solitary, III. 10 et seq. (in Migne's Patrol. Graec., CXXVII.), which is likewise closely connected with Ephrem. Nevertheless here also are found some interesting details which cannot be traced directly back to Ephrem.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 43-44):

Lastly, here may be tentatively introduced a fragment to which Professor Bonwetsch has called my attention. It occurs amongst the works of S. Chrysostom (Migne, LXI. 776), under the title, "On the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and about Almsgiving." Here the fragment opens with the judgment (the sign of the Son of man). The corresponding Antichrist legend is completely preserved in Slavonic under the name Palladius.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 45):

I now come to a second group of extremely interesting documents, whose literary connection, however, presents extraordinary difficulties.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 45-46):

I begin with the latest, a paraphrase or revised text of some earlier Sibyl, which occurs both in Bede (Migne X. Vol. XC., p. 1183) and in the Pantheon (Book X) of Godfrey of Viterbo (ob. 1190), and which has with some probability been ascribed to Godfrey himself. A description of nine generations of mankind, in which there are many echoes of the predictions of Lactantius, is followed by the account of a ruler bearing the name of C., after which comes a long series of other rulers, who cannot be more definitely determined, all being indicated merely by their initial letters. The list of German emperors, however, may be clearly traced from Charlemagne (K.) to Frederick I and Henry VI. Then follow strange, fantastic fables regarding their successors, and at the end the description of the last ruler, who is spoken of as "king by name and of steadfast mind." Then comes the account of the Antichrist's appearance and of the end of the world.

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

Continued from prior post↑

From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 46-47):

Farther on we come upon a similar paraphrase, which has been published by Usinger (op. cit., pp. 621 et seq.), but which is extant only in a fragmentary state. It begins somewhat obscurely with a prediction of the period of the three Othos (tenth century), and then carries on the history down to the time of Henry IV (1050-1108). The account of the reign of Henry merges in that of some Byzantine ruler with the words: "From him is then to proceed a king of Byzantium of the Romans and the Greeks, having written on his forehead that he shall uphold the kingdom of the Christian, overcome the children of Ishmael, and reduce them and rescue the kingdom of the Christians from the most vile yoke of the Saracens. In those days no one under heaven shall be able to overthrow the kingdom of the Christians. Thereafter the nation of Saracens will rise up for seven times, and they will do all evil things throughout the whole world, and nearly destroy all Christian. After these things the kingdom of the Romans will arise and smite them and thereafter there will be peace and the kingdom of the Christians unto the time of the rule of the Antichrist."

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

Continued from prior post↑

From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 47):

Then follows a brief reference to the Antichrist's rule, as the appearance of Gog and Magog, and the announcement that the last king will found his throne in Jerusalem.

To be continued...