ANTICHRIST

the conception of ‘Antichrist’ is that of a great enemy of God who will rise to power at the end of time. For the origin of this idea we must go back to the mythology of ancient was dualistic, ¢.e., there was always a conflict between the power of good and the power of evil. This became involved with the Babylonian myth of the struggle of the Supreme God with a tions, like other myths, came to be applied to historic persons, so Antiochus Epipbhanes in the Book of Daniel (II. cent. B.C.) becomes the type of an enemy of God, called in Christian theol. whence the term is taken over, ‘Antichrist’ (see in New Testament, 1 John; cf. the ‘man of sin,’ 2 The alonians 23; and the reappearance of the dragon myth in Revelation 12). A. has been identified with Nero, Simon Magus, by Protestants with the Pope, and by Catholics with heresiarch. It gave birth to a considerable Christian lit.