Antichrist

===Early Church===
{{See also|Early Christianity}}
The second- or first-century book [[Odes of Solomon]], written by an [[Essenes|Essene]] convert to Christianity, makes mention of the Antichrist in figurative terms, where the redeemer overcomes the monstrous dragon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Efrón |first=Joshua |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sqs3lj8qmIUC&dq=Odes+of+Solomon+trinity&pg=PA285 |title=Studies on the Hasmonean Period |date=1987 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-07609-9 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=J. Rendel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQAHBwAAQBAJ&dq=Odes+of+Solomon+antichrist&pg=PA63 |title=The Odes and Psalms of Solomon |date=2015|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-49773-3 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Charlesworth |first=James H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZujYAAAAMAAJ&dq=Odes+of+Solomon+docetism&pg=PA184 |title=Critical Reflections on the Odes of Solomon |date=1998 |publisher=Sheffield Academic Press |isbn=978-1-85075-660-6 |language=en}}</ref>

The only one of the late 1st-/early 2nd-century [[Apostolic Fathers]] to use the term is [[Polycarp]] (c. 69 – c. 155), who warned the [[Philippian]]s that everyone who preached false doctrine was an antichrist.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Polycarp |url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Polycarp%27s_letter_to_the_Philippians_(Lightfoot_translation) |title=Polycarp's letter to the Philippians |at=paragraph 7}}</ref> His use of the term ''Antichrist'' follows that of the New Testament in not identifying a single personal Antichrist, but a class of people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Trebilco |first=Paul |title=The Early Christians In Ephesus From Paul To Ignatius |date=2004 |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing]] |isbn=978-0802807694 |location=Leiden, Netherlands |page=268 |quote=Finally, Hartog notes that the Johannine Letters are the only NT [New Testament] writings to use the term "antichrist" (1 Jn 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 Jn 7) and Polycarp is also the only Apostolic Father to use the term. He notes "Thus, the tests of 'density' and 'singularity' ...}}</ref>

[[Irenaeus]] (2nd century AD – c. 202) wrote ''[[On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis|Against Heresies]]'' to refute the teachings of the [[Gnostic]]s. In Book V of ''Against Heresies'' he addresses the figure of the Antichrist referring to him as the "recapitulation of [[apostasy]] and rebellion." He uses "[[666 (number)#Number of the beast|666]]", the [[Number of the beast|Number of the Beast]] from Revelation 13:18, to [[Numerology|numerologically]] decode several possible names. Some names that he loosely proposed were "Evanthos", "Lateinos" ("Latin" or pertaining to the [[Roman Empire]]). In his [[exegesis]] of [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]] 7:21, he stated that the ten horns of the beast will be the Roman Empire divided into ten kingdoms before the Antichrist's arrival. Additionally, he stated that the antichrist would be of the tribe of Dan, evoking Jeremiah 8:16. This would correlate to the Talmudic view of the Jewish Messiah coming from the tribe of Dan on his maternal line. However, his readings of the Antichrist were more in broader theological terms rather than within a historical context.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hughes|first=Kevin L.|title=Constructing antichrist : Paul, biblical commentary, and the development of doctrine in the early Middle Ages|year=2005|publisher=[[Catholic University of America Press]]|location=Washington, D.C.|isbn=978-0813214153|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ttvHhsEkXoC&q=Irenaeus+antichrist&pg=PA30|pages=29–31}}</ref>

The non-canonical [[Ascension of Isaiah]] presents a detailed exposition of the Antichrist as [[Belial]] and [[Nero]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Geoffrey W.|last=Bromiley|title=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia|page=140|date=1979|isbn=978-0802837813|quote=The fullest exposition of the ideas associated with the antichrist in the early decades of Christian history is to be found in the Ascension of Isaiah. In this we are told that "Beliar" (Belial) would enter into "the matricide king" (Nero), who would work great wonders and do much evil.|title-link=International Standard Bible Encyclopedia|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans }}</ref>

[[Tertullian]] (c. 160 – c. 220 AD) held that the Roman Empire was the restraining force written about by [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] in 2 Thessalonians 2:7–8. The [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] and the disintegration of the ten provinces of the Roman Empire into ten kingdoms were to make way for the Antichrist.

{{blockquote|By, "For that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first," he [Paul] means indeed this present empire, "and the man of lawlessness is revealed"—that is to say, the Antichrist, "the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or religion, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, declaring himself to be God. Do you not remember that I told you these things when I was still with you? And you know what is now restraining him, so that he may be revealed when his time comes. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work, but only until the one who now restrains it is removed." What obstacles are there but the Roman state, the rebellion of which, by being scattered into the ten kingdoms, will introduce the Antichrist upon its own ruins? "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will destroy with the breath of his mouth, annihilating him by the manifestation of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.viii.xxiv.html |title=On the Resurrection, chp 24 |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library|date=June 1, 2005 |access-date=June 18, 2010| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100628020454/http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf03.v.viii.xxiv.html| archive-date= June 28, 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>}}

[[Hippolytus of Rome]] (c. 170 – c. 236) held that the Antichrist would come from the [[tribe of Dan]] and would [[Third Temple|rebuild the Jewish temple]] on the [[Temple Mount]] in order to reign from it. He identified the Antichrist with the Beast out of the Earth from the book of Revelation.

{{blockquote|By the beast, then, coming up out of the earth, he means the kingdom of Antichrist; and by the two horns he means him and the false prophet after him. And in speaking of "horns like a lamb," he means that he will make himself like the Son of God, and set himself forward as king. And the terms, "it spoke like a dragon," mean that he is a deceiver, and not truthful.<ref>Hippolytus's [[s:Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Hippolytus/The Extant Works and Fragments of Hippolytus/Dogmatical and Historical/Treatise on Christ and Antichrist|Treatise on Christ and Antichrist, part 2]]</ref>}}

[[Origen]] (185–254) refuted [[Celsus]]' view of the Antichrist. Origen, using scriptural citations from [[Book of Daniel|Daniel]], Paul, and the [[Gospels]] argued:
{{blockquote|Where is the absurdity, then, in holding that there exist among men, so to speak, two extremes—the one of virtue, and the other of its opposite; so that the perfection of virtue dwells in the man who realizes the ideal given in Jesus, from whom there flowed to the human race so great a conversion, and healing, and amelioration, while the opposite extreme is in the man who embodies the notion of him that is named Antichrist?... one of these extremes, and the best of the two, should be styled the Son of God, on account of His pre-eminence; and the other, who is diametrically opposite, be termed the son of the wicked demon, and of Satan, and of the devil. And, in the next place, since evil is specially characterized by its diffusion, and attains its greatest height when it simulates the appearance of the good, for that reason are signs, and marvels, and lying miracles found to accompany evil, through the cooperation of its father the devil.<ref>{{harvnb|Origen|1872|p=386}}</ref>}}