Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages
... *Apocalyptic leader of evil expected to appear before Doomsday, persecute the faithful, and deceive Christians and Jews by claiming to be Christ. Richard K. Emmerson R. K. Emmerson , Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (1981). R. Rusconi , ‘ Antichrist and Antichrists ’, The Encyclopedia of Apocalypticism , ed. B. McGinn (1998), vol. 2,...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Companion to English Literature (7 ed.)
... The name given in the Epistles of John to the enemies of Christ. This figure came to be associated with prophecies in the Books of Daniel and Revelation of an evil power who would reign before Christ's Second Coming. After the Reformation , Protestants identified the pope with Antichrist. See Bible...
Antichrist Reference library
Ian Boxall
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4 ed.)
...maintained that there was a Jewish Antichrist legend which was adopted and expanded by Christians; others have connected Antichrist not with a person but with an evil principle; yet others have seen in Antichrist a reference to some historical person—Caligula, Simon Magus , or Nero . The attempt of Caligula to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, the deification of the emperor, and emperor-worship, suggested strongly that Antichrist would come from imperial Rome; and the effect of the Neronian persecutions, particularly in view of Rev. 17: 8, 13: 3,...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Renaissance
...identifying enemies with the Antichrist: popes and emperors, Guelfs and Ghibellines , hurled the term at each other. In Germany, the twelfth-century Bavarian play Ludus de Antichristo portrays an allegorical Antichrist (supported by Hypocrisy and Heresy) being defeated by the Church with the aid of a divine bolt of lightning, and the fifteenth-century Fastnachtspiel Des Entchrist Vasnacht dramatizes Antichrist offering new territories to the emperor in return for his soul. The identification of the pope with the Antichrist originated with the...
Antichrist Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Islam
...Antichrist Known as Dajjal (the deceiver). Supposed to appear during the age of injustice preceding the end of the world, causing corruption and oppression to sweep over the earth for a period of either forty days or forty years. Appearance is one of the sure signs of the last days. Will deceive many by false teachings and miracles, bringing with him food and water to tempt those who have been suffering. Not mentioned in the Quran , but prominent in hadith and later Islamic literature. Correlates to Christian apocalyptic legends about the Antichrist. Medieval...
Antichrist Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... . The prince of Christ’s enemies. In the NT he is referred to by name only in 1 and 2 Jn. (where he is identified with those who deny the Incarnation), but many see him in the strange beasts of Rev. and in the ‘man of sin’ in 2 Thess. 2: 3–10. Some have connected Antichrist not with a person but with an evil principle; others have seen in Antichrist a reference to some historical person (e.g. Nero...
Antichrist Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... The man of sin , due to appear at the end of time, is mentioned in 1 John 2:18–22 and is derived from Hebrew teachings. The belief that the arrival of Antichrist was to precede the second advent is chiefly founded on 2 Thessalonians 2:1–12 , and Revelation 13 . In the early Christian church the Roman Empire and its rulers were frequently referred to as Antichrist, and later the title was bestowed on the Emperor Frederick II and various popes. With the reformation , the protestant conception of the papacy as Antichrist became widespread, and...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Companion to German Literature (3 ed.)
... , in Judaic tradition, a false and hostile figure, appearing before the Messiah, became in the 8th c. the subject of a legend which was formulated by Adso of Toul in his Latin Libellus de Antichristo in the 10th c. According to Adso, Antichrist will appear when the various kingdoms have seceded from the Roman Empire ( see Deutsches Reich, Altes ). When the Emperor comes to Rome and lays down his insignia in token of the end of the Empire, then shall Antichrist reign for three and a half years until he is struck down by God. The figure of ...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Reformation
...the Damned Bull of the Antichrist . In appropriating the medieval tradition of the Antichrist, Luther took a fundamental stance of opposition against the papacy, countering the church's weapon of excommunication with his own weapon of identifying the pope as the Antichrist. The theme that the pope was the Antichrist was echoed by other reformers and became the hallmark of the Antichrist theme in the Reformation. The German pamphlet Passional of Christ and Antichrist , which drew on Wycliffe's comparison between pope and Antichrist by means of a series of...
Antichrist Reference library
The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture
...2 vols (Hamburg, 1979) R. K. Emmerson : Antichrist in the Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art, and Literature (Seattle, 1981) B. McGinn : ‘Portraying Antichrist in the Middle Ages’, The Use and Abuse of Eschatology in the Middle Ages (Leuven, 1988), pp. 1–28 J. B. Riess : The Renaissance Antichrist: Luca Signorelli’s Orvieto Frescoes (Princeton, 1995) R. M. Wright : Art and Antichrist in Medieval Europe (Manchester, 1995) R. K. Emmerson : ‘Beyond the Apocalypse: The Human Antichrist in Late Medieval Illustrated Manuscripts’, ...
Antichrist Reference library
Gerhard Podskalsky
The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium
...interpreted as foreboding the coming of the Antichrist. The years of the reign of the Antichrist are numbered, and in the end he is to be defeated. The Antichrist was often connected with the Jews, whom he specially honors, even rebuilding the Temple, over which he will preside, proclaiming himself a god. Pseudo-Methodios of Patara as well as Sophronios of Jerusalem (PG 87.3:3197D) identified the Antichrist with Islam—an interpretation that spread particularly in the post-Byz. period. B. Rubin , Der Antichrist und die ‘Apokalypse’ des Prokopios von...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology
... Mentioned several times in the Christian Bible , or New Testament, in the epistle of John, the antichrist is the person who denies the divinity of Jesus as the Christ or Messiah . According to John, antichrists, who will come to power before the Last Judgment, are already in the world, attempting to thwart the inevitable coming of God 's “kingdom” under the Christ. The ultimate antichrist would be Satan , symbolized as a beast in the last book of the Bible, the Apocalypse , or Book of Revelation , by the writer known as Saint John the...
Antichrist ([Bible]) Quick reference
A Dictionary of Reference and Allusion (3 ed.)
... [Bible] An evil opponent of *Jesus Christ who, according to the New Testament, will ultimately be defeated by Christ at his second coming. > An opponent of Christ; an opponent of an accepted doctrine or belief Every religion, it seems, has its heretics who must be stoned—and as a Sunday Telegraph article put it, Lomborg is the ‘anti-Christ of the green religion’. Spiked Online ...
Antichrist Reference library
Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages
...1969. R. K. Emmerson , Antichrist in the Middle Ages: a Study of Medieval Apocalypticism, Art and Literature , Seattle (WA), 1981. R. E. Lerner , “ Antichrists and Antichrist in Joachim of Fiore ”, Spec. , 60, 3, 1985, 553-570. Marc Boilloux Spirituality Antichrist is a character in the eschatological drama whose scenario was established from the beginning of Christianity on the margins of official theology . He is called “Antechrist” since he must appear before ( ante ) Christ's return at the end of time , or “Antichrist” because he is also an...
Antichrist Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... Term loosely referring to the supreme enemy of Christ. It is used in the letters of Saint John to refer to a force that will appear at the end of time. Martin Luther and other leaders of the Reformation applied it to the...
antichrist Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
... The word occurs only in 1 John (2: 18, 22; 4: 3) and 2 John 7, where it stands for opponents of the Church, though the idea of the supreme enemy of Christ appears elsewhere—e.g. in 2 Thess. 2: 1–12, where ‘that man of sin’ (AV), ‘the lawless one’ (NRSV), is said to be expected before the * Parousia could take place, and here has been identified with the Roman Empire or an emperor ( * Nero ?). Beyond the historical dimension, antichrist is a symbol for ongoing revolt against Christ until the Final * Judgement —though the revolt is embodied in...
Antichrist Reference library
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
... . An eschatological figure first mentioned in the epistles of John in the New Testament. He is described as a pseudo- messiah who stands against Jesus at the end of days. Similar ideas can be found in Jewish eschatology where the powers of evil are finally overcome in the ultimate great battle. In later Christian tradition Antichrist has been identified with Satan ; with the emperor Nero redivivus ; with other particular enemies of the faith; and sometimes by Protestants with the pope. In Islam, al-Dajjāl is an anti-religious figure who is often...
Antichrist (Europe) Quick reference
A Dictionary of World Mythology
... Europe In medieval Christian mythology, the prodigious tyrant of the last days, the arch-enemy of Christ. It was a notion that combined Persian dualism with Judeo-Christian apocalypse. Antichrist first appeared in Revelation as the pseudo-messiah ‘who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped…. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given to him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.’ In the Middle Ages, however, he was portrayed not only as a world...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture (2 ed.)
... This is the name given in the Bible to the false prophet who will lead many astray with false miracles until he is finally defeated by the Archangel Michael ( see angels and archangels ), and his followers are consumed by fire. This will be followed by the Second Coming of Christ. The key passages in the NT are in Matt. 24; Mark 13; and Luke 21, but the actual name occurs only twice in the New Testament, in 1 John 2: 18–22, and 2 John 7. These references are confusing in that they refer to one and several Antichrists—‘As you have heard that ...
Antichrist Reference library
The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible
... . The word “antichrist” occurs in the Bible only in 1 and 2 John. The prefix anti - in Greek means “over against,” “instead of,” and so may imply usurpation as well as substitution. In 1 John, the coming of Antichrist is referred to as a standard sign of the “last hour,” which has already happened in people who deny that Jesus is the Christ who has come in the flesh, and have seceded from the community; they are “false prophets” who embody the “spirit of antichrist.” ( See also John .) On the other hand, 2 Thessalonians warns, again as standard...
