The Antichrist is a character in the Bible who is destined to conduct a reign of terror at the end of time.

He is Christ’s eschatological counterpart and enemy.

Where does the idea of the Antichrist come from?

Last month, I wrote about the tradition of apocalyptic literature more generally. The Antichrist fits comfortably into this tradition. According to the standard apocalyptic narrative, there will be a time of wickedness, immorality, and natural disasters, which will end when God intervenes to execute judgement on humanity. This divine intervention is sometimes accompanied by the appearance of a messiah figure, who in Christian versions of the story is identified with Jesus Christ. It may have seemed natural that the true messiah would be opposed by a false messiah.

The idea of an evil figure who appears in the end times is not a Christian invention. It goes back to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible). In the Book of Ezekiel, we read of the mysterious ‘Gog of Magog’, who is destined to do battle against the Israelites (Ezekiel 38-39). The Book of Daniel attributes a similar eschatological role to the Greek ruler Antiochus IV, a real-life king who persecuted the Judean people (Daniel 7-8). There is also evidence of a kind of proto-Antichrist belief in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Antichrist belief proper first appears in the New Testament. Interestingly, the NT contains only a few hints about the Antichrist – fewer than you might expect:

1. The actual word ‘antichrist’ appears in two letters attributed to the apostle St John. Here, the term seems to refer to a category of people rather than a single figure (1 John 2.18, 22, 4.2-3; 2 John 1.7).
2. A letter attributed to St Paul refers to a mysterious “man of sin” who blasphemously seeks to be worshipped: he “sits in the temple of God as God, claiming that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2.3-4). The writer goes on to say that he will be destroyed at the second coming of Christ.
3. The Book of Revelation describes a beast which is a composite of a leopard, a bear and a lion. This entity is both blasphemous and extremely powerful. It persecutes the Christians, but the people of the world worship it. It is famously associated with the number 666 (Revelation 13.18).

Speculation about the Antichrist became part of the theological discourse of the fledgling Christian church. For example, the character appears c. 100 CE in the important early Christian text known as the Didache (chapter 16 – although the term Antichrist is not used). The Antichrist myth in its developed form can perhaps be dated to Irenaeus of Lyon, who was writing in the latter part of the second century CE.

There subsequently came to be a minor branch of theology dedicated to what we might call Antichristology. The definitive work on the subject was Thomas Malvenda’s De Antichristo (1604). Another such work, L’Antéchrist, was published in 1905 by Augustin Lémann, a Jewish convert to Catholicism, in the context of the epic battles of the period between the Catholic Church and the French Republic.

Nevertheless, ecclesiastical authorities have been nervous about saying too much about the Antichrist. The Catholic Church has largely stayed away from the subject, outside of its medieval condemnations of John Wyclif and the Fraticelli. In 1516 the Fifth Lateran Council forbade preachers from claiming that the coming of the Antichrist was imminent.

Who is the Antichrist?

We might be forgiven for being curious about who the Antichrist might be. When this subject comes up, things start to get dark quite quickly. Antisemitism is often not far away.

There is a popular idea that the Antichrist is a spiritual being or the Devil incarnate. This is not considered to be well-supported theologically, and there is no warrant for it in the Biblical text. Nevertheless, this view has been around since ancient times.

According to one theory, the Antichrist has already come and gone, and we can therefore breathe easily. Candidates suggested for the role have included Roman emperors – such as Nero, who persecuted the early Christians – and Jewish leaders. As far as the interpretation of scripture is concerned, the New Testament passages referred to in 2 and 3 above are indeed likely to refer to the Roman emperor. The number 666 is probably a numerical code for ‘Nero Caesar’.

The idea that Nero was a supremely evil eschatological figure can also be found outside the Bible. Here, for example, is an early Christian apocryphal text known as the Ascension of Isaiah, which portrays the emperor as an avatar of the Devil (4.2-4):

After it is consummated, Beliar the great ruler, the king of this world, will descend, who hath ruled it since it came into being; yea, he will descent from his firmament in the likeness of a man, a lawless king, the slayer of his mother: who himself (even) this king will persecute the plant which the Twelve Apostles of the Beloved have planted. Of the Twelve one will be delivered into his hands.

This ruler in the form of that king will come and there will come with him all the powers of this world, and they will hearken unto him in all that he desires.

Other attempts have been made to identify the Antichrist as a known figure from history, such as Muhammad or Napoleon Bonaparte. There is a Protestant tradition (which was prefigured by medieval heretics) that he is the Pope. In the 1980s, a theory was current in American Evangelical circles that he was Mikhail Gorbachev. Earlier anticommunists had theorised that he was Stalin.

A future Antichrist?

Maybe the Antichrist is yet to come into the world. If so, how will we recognise him when he arrives?

There has been a widespread view that the Antichrist will be Jewish, and that he will persuade the Jews that he is their messiah. One writer, Sulpicius Severus, even suggested that he will require all his subjects to be circumcised. There has been a specific theory that he will come from the Israelite tribe of Dan, based on two negative mentions of Dan in the Old Testament and the fact that Dan is omitted from the catalogue of the tribes in the Book of Revelation.

He may come from humble, obscure origins. Quite a few writers have suggested that he will be born in Babylon; less popular choices are Syria and Egypt. There was a theory that he will be educated in Bethsaida and Corozain, as these towns were cursed by Jesus in the New Testament. Some have said that he will be educated by magicians in occult knowledge.

As an adult, the Antichrist will seduce people into becoming his followers. St Anselm suggested that he will know the whole of the Bible by heart. He will perform miracles using demonic power. According to several authorities, he will end his career on the Mount of Olives, where he will try to ascend into heaven like Christ. This will fail, and he will then suffer his final defeat.

The reference in 2 Thessalonians (item 2 above) to the Antichrist sitting in the temple of God has provoked some debate. Which temple is meant? A rebuilt version of the Jerusalem Temple, which the Romans destroyed in 70 CE? Or the metaphorical temple of the church?

Pious Christians have not only tried to guess the particulars of the Antichrist’s biography and career. They have even speculated in detail about his palaces, his clothing, his perfumes and his meals.

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Much more could be written on this subject.

The idea of an evil eschatological tyrant subsequently arose in Islam in the form of the Dajjal, a false messiah who will deceive the Jews and others at the end of time. This figure does not appear in the Qur’an, but he has become part of Muslim tradition. Antichrist figures may also be found in thought-systems outside the Abrahamic religions, including secular political ideologies. It is often convenient to have a metaphysical enemy.

There is a liberal Christian view that the Antichrist is a metaphor – a personification of sin or sinners – rather than a specific individual. The lack of authoritative church teaching provides room for this view. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states: “Those… who prefer a collective interpretation can point out quite correctly, it seems, that in this matter there is no real doctrinal tradition.”

Whatever and whoever the Antichrist may be, he is a troubling presence in Christian (and non-Christian) thought. Apocalyptic beliefs are fundamentally optimistic. They carry the message that things will turn out alright in the end. But the ultimate optimism of the end times narrative is qualified. The kingdom of heaven will arrive, but only after humanity has suffered severe tribulations. Christ will come, but the Antichrist must come first.