CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 097 555 928 Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924097555928 In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48-1992 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original. 2003 / f?rirf CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BARNES BIBLICAL LIBRARY ENDOWMENT THE GIFT OF ALFRED C BARNES 1899 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND THE Antichrist Legend H Cbapter in Cbristfan an& Jewisb 3folf?lore ENGLISHED FROM THE GERMAN OF W. BOUSSET WITH A PROLOGUE ON THE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH BY A. H. KEANE, F.R.G.S. Late Vice-President Anthropological Institute; Author of " Ethnology " etc. Xont)on HUTCHINSON AND CO. 34, PATERNOSTER ROW 1896 '^T ^11 B/sU, G / y /" \0' rrintod by Hazell, Watson, & Viney , Ld. , London and AylesTjury. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE Authoe's Preface ix Pkologue to the English Edition . . . . zi Key to the Refeeences to Authoeitibs . . xxix PART I. THE SOURCES. CHAPTEK I. Inteoduction — Methods of Inteepeetation — Rela- tions to the Babylonian Deagon Myth . . 3 CHAPTER 11. Statement of the Peoblem 19 CHAPTER III. Pseudo-Epheem : A Latin Homily on the End of the WoELD— S. Epheem: a Geeek Homily on the Anticheist, and othee Peophetic Weitings — PSEUDO-HIPPOLYTUS : On THE EnD OF THE WoELD — The Pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse— S. Cyeil OF Jeeusalem : Fifteenth Cateohesis — Philip the Solitaey: Dioptea— Pseudo-Cheysostom . . 33 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. Two Medieval Sibylline Documents (Bedb and PAGE Usingee) — Adso on the An-tioheist — Pseudo- Methodius— S. Epheem : Syeiac Homily on the Antioheist— Review of the Geoup oe Epheemite Weitings— The Common Souecb of Adso's Anti- CHEIST AND OF BeDE'S SiBYL— S. JeEOME'S APOOA- lyptic Mateeial 45 CHAPTER V. The Geeek and Aemenian Apocalypses of Daniel — The Arabic, Syeiac, and Ethiopic Apocalypses OF Petee — The Syeiac Apocalypse of Ezea . . 66 CHAPTER VI. Commodian's Cabmen Apologeticum — Lactantius : Institutiones Divine, VII. x. — Relations of Commodian to the Woek of Hippolytus on the Anticheist— S. Maetin of Toues : Eschatological Testament— VicTOEiNus : Commentaey on Reve- lation — The Paets of the Book of Clement, and op the Ascensio JesaijE eefeeeing to the Last Things ; Relations to 4 Ezea . . . .79 CHAPTER VII. The Apocalypse of Zephaniah— Suevey of othee Pateistic Weitings beaeing on the Anticheist Legend 87 CHAPTER VIII. Jewish Sources— The Sibylline Literature- The FouETH Book of Ezra and the Book op Baeuch— The Testament of the Twelve Patriaechs — TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii PAGE Latee Jewish Soueces— The Mysteeies of Simon — MiDEASH VA-YosHA— The Signs op the Messiah — The Book op Zoeobabel — The Peesian Histoey OF Daniel— Non-Cheistian and Non-Jewish Soueces— The Eldee Edda (VSluspa) — The Bahman-Yast Paesbe Apocalypse— The Aeab Teadition op the Anticheist 95 PAKT II. HISTORY OF THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. CHAPTER IX. Signs and Foeewaenings— The Fall of the Roman Empiee befoee the End— Oeigin of the Anti- cheist 121 CHAPTER X. The Jewish Oeigin of the Anticheist — His Name — The Devil and Anticheist — Belial— The Anti- cheist FIGUEED AS A MoNSTEE .... 133 CHAPTER XI. FlEST ViCTOEIES OF ANTICHEIST — SeATS HIMSELF IN THE Temple — Anticheist the Pseudo-Messiah of THE Jews — His Bieth in the Teibe of Dan . 158 CHAPTER XII. The Wondees of the Anticheist— A Reteospective Glance— The Anticheist's Ministees . . .175 viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTEK XIII. PAGE Antichrist Kulbe of the World— Deought and Famine— The Mark of Antichrist. . . .191 CHAPTEK XIV. Enoch and Elias— The Flight of the Faithful . 203 CHAPTEK XV. The Shortening of the Days — The Last Steess — The Deliverance — The Doom of the Antichrist 218 CHAPTEK XVI. The Sign of the Son of Man — The Time of His Advent— The Destruction of the World by Fire — The Four Winds — The Sounding of the Trump —The Last Judgment 232 An Old Armenian Form of the Antichrist Saga . 253 Appendix. Greek and Latin Texts .... 263 Index 30i AUTHOE'S PEEFAOB. T" CANNOT better introduce the present treatise -*- than by a remark appended by Gutschmid to his critique of Zezschwitz' work On Roman Imperialism of Oermaii Nationality : " The whole of this apocalyptic literature, extending on the one hand from the Book of Daniel, or even from the Old Testament Prophets, and on the other from the Cymsean Sibyl, in an all but unbroken chain, down to the time of Capistrano and the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, has hitherto been strangely neglected by historians. Yet it would be difficult to mention any other manifestation of popular thought in which was at all to the same extent directly reflected the impression produced by historical events on contemporary generations, on their ideas, hopes, and fears."* I may here add that in this work I have been unable to offer more than an indis- pensable preliminary essay on the subject to which Gutschmid draws attention. I trust, however, still * Kleine Schriften, V. 505. X AUTHOR'S PREFACE. to find time and strength for a comprehensive treat- ment of the eschatology of the Christian Church. Meanwhile the sketch, such as it is, may perhaps serve to stimulate the eiforts of other workers in this endlessly entangled and almost limitless field of literature, and thus promote its study and bring fresh materials to light. I may further remark that in the list of authorities referred to the editions of all quoted works are given together with an indication of the way the quotations are made. The reader is therefore requested to con- sult this list wherever the quotations may not be intelligible. WILHELM BOUSSET. GoTTINGEN, June, 1895. PEOLOQUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. OKIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH. "TT may be safely affirmed that no popular myth -^ can compare with that of the Antichrist legend in general interest, widespread diffusion, and persis- tence, from a hoar antiquity down to the present time. In the present work, which deals mainly with the early Christian and mediaeval aspects of the subject, no attempt is made to trace the origin of the saga much farther back than about the dawn of the new era. But the author leaves no doubt on the mind -^of the reader that he regards it not merely as a pre-Christian tradition quite independent of the New Testament writings, but as prior even to the oldest of the Old Testament records themselves. From many passages it is evident that he is in xii PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISS EDITION. full accord with Gunbel, whose canons of interpre- tation he adopts, and whose views regarding the ultimate Babylonian source of the myth he implicitly accepts, though of course not in all their details. Thus Gunkel's reference of the mystic number 666 to the "primeval monster" (p. 11) is for obvious reasons rightly rejected, and a complete reconstruction of the old Babylonian legend by the aid of S. John's Revelation is declared to be opposed to all evidence, and consequently to be " nothing more than a piece of pure fancy work." But on the other hand it is clearly implied that the Antichrist legend is nothing less than a later anthropomorphic transformation of the Babylonian Dragon myth, which is " doubtless one of the earliest evolved by primitive man" (p. 13). And although Gunkel may have exaggerated the influence of this legend on the New Testament writers, he is none the less declared to have done a real service by following up the after-effects of the Dragon myth " to its last echoes in the New Testament " (p. 13). My own attention was first attracted to this subject by the stimulating writings of Mr. Andrew Lang, and I was struck in a special manner by the theory, now almost become an axiom amongst folklorists, that the elucidation of the widely diffused mythologies of cultured peoples is to be sought, not in later " solar myths " or in literary influences of any kind, OBI GIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH, xiu but rather in the beliefs and traditions of our ruder forefathers, of uncultured peoples, and possibly of primitive man himself. This theory, it seems to me, receives a brilliant confirmation from the early history of the legend under consideration — a legend which may without exaggeration be said to link together some of the very oldest reminiscences of struggling humanity with its aspirations for a better future (the Millennium) and its forebodings of the final consummation (the Last Judgment). At least this much may be said, that Gunkel's views regarding the evolution of the Antichrist legend from the Dragon myth have been greatly strengthened by the results of recent studies in the hitherto almost unexplored field of early Babylonian folklore. In Mr. Th. G. Pinches' Religious Ideas of the Babylonians we plainly see how the myth of Tiamat, " the Dragon of Chaos," prevalent amongst the Akkadian founders of Babylon and by them trans- mitted to the later Assyrian Semites, is the very first and oldest element in the current mythologies of those ancient peoples. At the same time this primeval dragon presents so many features in common with the dragon of Revelation, as well as of the independent Antichrist legend, that the descent of one from the other can scarcely any longer be denied. All the more readily may the identification be accepted, when such obvious connecting links are xW PROLOeUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. afforded as may be drawn from the Books of Daniel and of Enoch, and even from many passages in the prophets and other earlier biblical writings. The parallelism between dragon and serpent is too close to need discussion, while the intimate association of the Hebrew writers with their Assyrian kinsfolk is attested by such common popular names as Marduka (Mardochai), Shama'-ilu (Samuel), Ishm6-llu (Ishmael), Mutu-sha-tli (Methusael), Gamal-lli (Gamaliel), and many others. Ninip, the deity who, according to the Tell-el- Amarna tablets, was worshipped at Jerusalem before the advent of the Israelites, seems to have been identified with many gods, amongst others with B§1 m&tati, " Lord of the Lands," this, as Mr. Pinches tells us (p. 17), being one of the titles of Merodach. But Merodach himself (Amar-uduk, " Brightness of the Day") was the chief deity of the Babylonian pantheon, though not the father or the oldest of the gods. In fact he was originally only the son of Ea or A6, king of the underworld, and acc[uired the place of eminence by his triumph over Mummu-Tiamat, the Dragon of Chaos, who is not distinguishable from the Kirbish-Tiawat associated with the " Bel and the Dragon " myth. In the Semitic account of the creation this Tiamat or Tiawat (both words meaning the " sea ") is represented as presiding over the waste of waters in a time of disorder and con- fusion prior to the creation of Lahmu and Lahamu, ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DBA BON MYTH, xt of Anshar and Kishar, of Anu and the ot]ier gods of the heavens and the earth. Then comes a period of strife between the primordial chaos and the established order. Tiawat rises in rebellion against the gods, and arms herself (she is always represented as a female monster, the prototype of the scarlet woman of Babylon) with formidable weapons for the struggle. " I have collected un- rivalled weapons — the great serpents are hostile (they war on her side) — sharp-toothed also, and I have made them relentless. I have filled their bodies with poison like blood. I have clothed dreadful monsters with terrors — fearful things I have set up and left on high — scorpion-men, fish-men — wielding weapons, ruthless, fearless in battle," and so on, in strains that recall the descriptions of the combatants in the Old English poem of Beowulf. In the first encounters the gods are worsted ; Anu, god of the heavens, avails not ; B^ himself trembles and, in prosaic language, runs away. Then there appears to be a gathering of the gods, in which Ea's son, Merodach, boldly offers to come to the rescue. He also arms himself for the fight with formidable weapons, with spear, bow, and arrows ; he flashes lightning before him, fills his body with darting flames ; land sets his net to catch and entangle the evil one. She cries out in her rage, utters spells and charms, jbut is overthrown, and Chaos being thus ended, iMerodach orders the world anew, and in gratitude xvl PROLOGUE TO THE MN6LISM EDITION. for his great deeds lie is proclaimed king of the gods. And the Assyrian text goes on : As he tirelessly thwarted Kirbish-Tiawat, Let his name be Nibiru, seizer of Kirbish-Tiawat. May he restrain the paths of the stars of heaven. Like sheep let him pasture the gods, all of them. May he imprison the sea [tiawat], may he remove and store up its treasure, For the men to come, in days advanced {ib., p. 6). But if all this goes a long way to connect the Antichrist legend with the Babylonian Dragon myth, it may still he asked with Herr Bousset, though in another and a wider sense, " Whence this whole cycle of thought ? " (p. 24) ; whence the Bahylonian myth itself ? Here we are reminded by folklorists that man invents little. He borrows, modifies, recasts, freely adapts the legacies of preceding ages to the ever- shifting environment, to his own immediate surround- ings. The apocalyptic writers themselves, we are here told, do not create or invent their materials. " They of course modify here and there ; but their function consists essentially in adaptation, not in invention — in application to the times, not in fresh creations " (p. 6). Hence it may be inferred that, as neither the Christians nor the Jews invented their; dragon, but borrowed it from the Babylonians, so diq. the Babylonians in their turn borrow it from somrt still earlier source. ORIGIN OF THE BABYL ONI AN DRAGON MYTH, xvii But the Dragon myth was the property, not merely of the later Assyrians, but of their far more ancient Atkadian (and Sumerian) precursors, as shown by the above-given Akkadian interpretation of the name Merodach, " Brightness of the Day." Now the Akka- dians were beyond all question the first civilised inhabitants of Mesopotamia, although it need not be supposed that they entered this region already in the possession of an advanced culture. It is obvious enough that they may have themselves developed this advanced culture on the spot, as their Egyptian con- temporaries certainly did in the Nile valley. But however this be, whether the Akkadians were civilised or savage intruders in the Lower Euphrates valley, we have no knowledge of any possible earlier culture prior, for instance, to the foundation of their city of Lagash (Tell-Loh), which its discoverer, M. de Sarzec, assigns to about 4000 b.c, or, say, 6000 years ago. Thus nothing is known to stand between these presum- ably Mongolo-Turki settlers in Chaldsea and primitive man himself. Consequently their dragon, if borrowed, could only have been borrowed from the men of the Stone Ages. It is evident that these rude prehistoric peoples could not be credited with the invention of such an anthropomorphic conception as that here in question. ' Nor is it necessary to suppose that they did invent it. In my Ethnology (Part II., chap, x.) I advance grounds for believing that Pleistocene man may well have b xviii PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. reached the Mesopotamia!! plains both fro!!! South Asia and from North Africa ; and Professor Flinders Petrie's recent explorations in Upper Egypt prove that men of the Old Stone Age were already settled in that region at a time when "the Nile still rolled down as a vast torrent fifty times its present volume at the latter age of palaeolithic man." What was the condition of the Euphrates and Tigris basins at that remote epoch and for long generations afterwards ? We know that there was no Shatt el- Arab in the comparatively recent Aktadian times, when the Persian Gulf penetrated much farther inland than at present, and when Lagash itself may have almost been a seaport. At that time the twin rivers entered the head of the gulf through independent channels ; and what a vast volume they rolled down during the floods may be inferred from Mr. D. G. Hogarth's description of the Euphrates, which, during the melting of the snows, is even still, in its upper reaches, " a fuller, broader Rhine, rushing six !iiiles an hour between towering banks which had weathered to fantastic pinnacles, and displaying a hundred metres' breadth of turbid flood, boiling in mid-stream over sunken rocks " {A. Wandering Scholar in the Levant). Lower down the estuaries were infested by huge crocodiles, which may well have been over thirty feet long, like their plesiosaurian and ichthyosaurian precursors. Even now the Gangetic gavial reaches twenty-five feet, and the crocodiles in many tropical ORIGIN OF THE SAB YL ON IAN DRA G ON MYTH, xix African rivers range from twenty to thirty, while a water-camoodi measured by Mr. E. im Thurn was found to be thirty feet long {Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 133). Assuredly the chief difficulties that primitive man had to contend with on first reaching the Lower Mesopotamian plains were the turbulent streams themselves and their voracious saurian fauna. Nor can there be any doubt that the struggle with these relentless foes must have been maintained from age to age throughout the Old and New Stone epochs right into prehistoric times. Here therefore was a region of all others most likely to have given rise to popular tales of fights with monsters of the deep and with the watery element itself — fights real enough at first, but gradually assuming a fabulous character, according as the actual occurrences faded into mere memories of past contests, of heroic deeds, of dangers overcome. Then the fore- most champions engaged in these contests acquired their apotheosis in the minds of a grateful posterity, while the vanquished enemy assumed more and more the form of unearthly monsters and demons hostile to man. Such memories easily passed on from generation to generation until they acquired consistency and per- manency in the written records of the cultured Baby- lonian peoples. The interval between the dawn of Babylonian culture and the last amphibious monster slain by neolithic man canuot have been too long for the oral transmission of such reminiscences from pre- XX PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. historic to historic times, And thus raay the elements of the Dragon myth, without being invented, have been passed on through the Stone Ages to the first civilised inhabitants of Mesopotamia, and later by them handed on to the forefathers of the Israelites, Terah and his son Abram, who " went forth . . . from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan " (Gen. xi. 31). And if not to Terah and Abram, then to their descendants ; for the great extent of Baby- lonian influences throughout this region during the whole of the period from Abraham to Moses has now been fully revealed by the researches of Akkadian and Assyrian scholars.* We now begin also to understand the peculiar form assumed by the Semitic account of the creation, which is itself based on earlier Akkadian traditions. Before the dawn of Akkadian (and Sumerian) civilisation all was still chaos and disorder, the chief elements of confusion being the periodical freshets of the Euphrates and Tigris, which were caused by the melting of the snows on the Armenian and Kurdistan highlands, and which produced widespread devastation among the early settlements on the low-lying plains of Chaldsea. Then the next great difficulty that the settlers had to contend with were the saurian inhabitants of these turbulent waters ; so that there could be no peace or progress until the waters were quelled (confined within * See, amongst others, Professor A. H. Sayce, Patriarchal Palestine, 1896. ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH, xxi their banks, and diverted into irrigation canals), and until their presiding genius (the reptile or dragon, " lord of chaos ") was overthrown. In these respects the Mesopotamian rivers must have assumed, in the eyes of the early Akkadian or pre-Akkadian dwellers on their banks, much the same aspect as did the Achelous and other wild torrents to the early Hellenic settlers in Greece. The Achelous, which also had its rise in a mountainous region (Pindus), and which by its recurrent floods spread havoc over the lowlands, had, like the Euphrates, to be vanquished — that is, restrained within its natural bed. Hence it was afterwards fabled to have con- tended under various forms (man, serpent, bull) with Herakles, a sort of Greek Merodach, a general re- dresser of wrongs and restorer of order throughout the Hellenic world. Here it is specially noteworthy that when Herakles breaks off one of the bull's horns the vanquished Achelous retires to its bed, and the broken horn is presented to the goddess of Plenty, that is, becomes a cornucopia, emblem of the abun- dance that follows the subsidence of the flood-waters and their confinement to their natural channel. So in Babylonia law and order succeed chaos when the gods of heaven and earth are created — that is, when man himself becomes strong enough to contend successfully with the difficulties of his physical en- vironment. But before that time Tiawat (the sea, the Euphrates estuary) ruled supreme, and the dragon xxii PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. is represented as an aquatic monster aided in the figlit with Merodach by " fish-men," " scorpion-men," and such-like allies. Then in the Assyrian text Merodach himself opens his month, and says : " I will confine Tiawat — I will save you." Such language, hitherto misunderstood or given up as hopeless, is now clear enough. Tiawat, the waste of waters, cannot be slain; but it may be " confined " (to its proper channel), and the people seated on its margin may thus be " saved." In other words, they may be enabled to sow and reap their crops in peace, when protected by Merodach's victory from the periodical inundations, and from the attacks of the fierce dragon, the huge reptiles coming up out of the deep, the " great serpents " that are " hostile " and " sharp-toothed " like Machairodon, or " sabre-tooth," associated with palaeolithic man in Britain. After the combat Tiawat is represented as being divided ; one portion being made into a covering for the heavens — "the waters above the firmament" — while the other remained below — " the waters under the firmament" (Pinches, p. 4). But the meaning would rather seem to be, that henceforth the turbnlent streams are brought under better control, the waters on high — that is, the flood- waters from the uplands — being regulated by irrigation works, while the others— that is, the surface waters — subside into their respective river-beds, where they are confined by dykes and embankments. Those who might suppose that this ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DBA G ON 3ITTH. xxiii is a fancy picture shonld remember tliafc such works were carried out on a vast scale by the ancient Babylonians thousands of years ago. The plains of the Lower Euphrates and Tigris, rendered desolate under Turkish misrule, are intersected by the remains of an intricate system of canalisation covering all the space between the two rivers, and are strewn with the ruins of many great cities, whose inhabitants, numbering many scores of thousands, were supported by the produce of a highly cultivated region which is now an arid waste encumbered by crumbling mounds, stagnant waters, and a few fanatical Arab tent-dwellers. The scribe who has left to posterity this fragmentary Semitic account of the creation goes on to sing the praises of the legendary hero by whom order was evolved out of chaos : " May he imprison Tiawat ; may he remove and store up its treasures for the men to come, in days advanced, . . . that his land may prosper and he himself have peace." Here again the nature of the great change brought about by Merodach is clearly indicated. Tiawat is once more " imprisoned " (confined), and its treasures are stored up (possibly an allusion to the development of trade and navigation) for the benefit of " the men to come " (future genera- tions) ; the land prospers, and Merodach, now "the lord of the gods," has peace, rests after his triumph over the foes of his people. He receives another title, Zi, "Life," for he is the "life-giver," who "doeth glorious things, God of the good wind, lord of hearing xxiv PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. and obeying ; he who canseth glory and plenty to exist, establishing fertility." These continual references to prosperity, abundance, fertility present a most striking parallelism with the " cornucopia " of the Ache! on s legend, although it does not follow that one is borrowed from the other. The resemblances may be equally well accounted for, whether we assume one origin, or merely analogous causes for both. Thus we see that even in many of its details all this legendary matter, saturated as it is with local colouring, carries us back to the primeval conditions under which it grew up and crystallised into later national mythologies. These conditions were here, as elsewhere, the circumstances incident to the struggle of primitive man with his physical surroundings. Thus also the weird story of the Antichrist legend is c6m- pleted in its three successive phases — from the new era to mediseval times, a millennium (Bousset) ; from Babylonia to the new era, four millenniums (Gimkel) ; from the Stone Ages to Babylonia, as here suggested, many millenniums. And still a boundless and fascinating field of inquiry is open to folklorists, who may be tempted to follow the endless ramifications of the saga throughout the rich mythologies of the Greeks, Scandinavians, Teutons, and other imaginative peoples. But before plunging into these fathomless depths of speculation they will be wise to carefully study Herr Bousset's judicious remarks on Gunkel's method of interpretation (chap, i.), ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DB.A OON MYTS. xxv and rememter that in the wide range of comparative mythology " the temptation to yield to fancy flights is all bnt irresistible " (p. 16). And here we are forcibly reminded of the reckless way in which certain popular and unscrupulous " expositors " are accustomed to handle such extremely difficult texts as, for instance, the Books of Daniel and Revelation. We all know how the rage for expounding these texts breaks out at intervals, and especially how it has tended to assume the character of a virulent epidemic towards the close of each suc- cessive century of the Christian era. Symptoms are not wanting that as the present century approaches its end the intermittent fever will again reach its centennial crisis, and the advertisement columns of the periodical press show that prophecy-mongering about the Antichrist and "the crack of doom" is already " in the air." A sober, and above all a scholarly, treatment of the subject, such as is here presented to the thoughtful reader, may perhaps be found the best corrective of such disorders. These professional and not always disinterested " latter-day saints and seers " may at least here learn that, "to understand Revelation, we need a fulness of eschatological and mythological Qinowledge " (p. 17), and that " no one should venture ^n an exposition of this book without a comprehensive [knowledge of all its bearings " (p. 9). These pre- jsumptuous charlatans should take warning from the XX vi PROLOGUE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. repeated failures of their illustrious predecessors, such as Hippolytus, Irenteus, and other Fathers of the Church, all of whose predictions served only to show how rash it is, even for qualified expositors, to venture into the dangerous field of prophetic interpretation. And they will do well to bear in mind the solemn words of Origen : " Because perhaps amongst the Jews were some persons professing to know about the Last Things either from Holy Writ or from hidden sources, therefore he [Paul] writes warning his disciples to believe no one making such professions " (p. 31). Lastly, they should clearly understand that the Antichrist legend, connected, as it undoubtedly is, with the Babylonian Dragon myth, if not also with reminiscences of primitive man himself, is far less a biblical subject than a chapter in uninspired folklore, the most persistent, the most widespread, of all popular myths. A few words will suffice to explain the plan I have adopted in preparing this English edition of Herr Bousset's book. Such changes as have been made affect the arrangement of the subject-matter only — chapters substituted for indicated sections, a clause here and there removed from the text to .the notes, a note now and then transferred to the text, and above all th text disencumbered of a large number of Greek am ORIGIN OF THE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH, xxyu Latin passages from the documents consulted by the author and by him left untranslated. All these will be found brought together in an Appendix at the end, their place being taken by versions as close as was compatible with English idiom. I have not, however, thought it necessary to print any of these passages more than once, or to reproduce those from the Greek and Latin Scriptures, which are easily accessible to all. By this plan the book is made more generally readable without detriment to its ■'value for serious students, while folklorists unfamiliar with the classical languages will here find, for the first time, placed at their disposal a multiplicity of out-of-the-way texts bearing on the Antichrist legend in all its varied aspects, at least for a period of about a thousand years, from the new era far into mediteval times. The scheme of references is explained in a note at the beginning of each chapter. Several of the Greek and Latin passages, such especially as those from the Sibylline sources, are not only designedly obscure, but are also extremely corrupt. Two or three of these have been given up as hopeless, while I have to thank Mr. Henry Chettle, Head Master of Stationers' School, for his kind assistance in the elucidation of the others. Herr Bousset, who has looked over the proofs, has also favoured me with a German version of the passage from an old Bavarian poem reproduced in English at Ip. 243. The figure of Bel and the Dragon on the pover has been prepared from a cast taken by xxviii PROLOGUE Td THE ENGLISH EDITION. Mr. A. P. Ready from a Babylonian cylinder in the British Museum. No complete text is anywhere given by Herr Bousset of any particular form of the Antichrist legend, such as might serve the purpose of an object- lesson in enabling the reader to understand the general character of the saga as it exists in extant documents. Through the courtesy of Mr. F. C. Conybeare I am enabled to supply this want by reproducing, at the end of the volume, an old Armenian form of the legend, a translation of which was given by Mr. Conybeare in the Academy of October 26th, 1895. A. H. KEANE. Akam-Gah, 79, Beoadhuest Gaedbns, N.W., March, 1896. EXPLANATION OF THE REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES QUOTED IN THE TEXT. Andr. : Andreas, Commentary on the Apocalypse, Sylburg's edition. Bk. K. : Booh of S. Clement (BijSXi'ov KKijfievTos), ed. Lagarde, in Reliquice Juris, etc., 80 et sej- Cyr. : Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures (KaTtjxia-eis, 15), in Migne, Vol. XXXIII. D. A. Gr. : Greek Apocalypse of Daniel, ed. Klostermann, A-naUcta, 113 et seq. D. A. Ann. : Armenian Apocalypse of Daniel, ed. Kalemkiar, Wiener Zeitschrift, VI. 127 et seq. Eluc. : Elucidarium of Honorius of Autun, III. 10.; Migne, VoL CLXXII., p. 1163. Ephr. Gr. : Discourse on the Antichrist (Aoyoj eir tov 'Avr/xP'o-i-oj/), j Assemani, III. 134-143 ; Prologue from W. Meyer's MSS. XXX REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES. Eplir. Syr. : Discourse on the Consummation {Sermo de fine Extermo), Lamy, III. 187. Eter. : Eterianus Hugo, On the Return of the Souls from the Lower Regions {Liber de Regressu Animarum ab Liferis), chaps, xxiv. et seq. ; Migne, Vol. CCII., p. 168. Hild. : HUdegard, Soivias, III. 11 ; Migne, Vol. CXCVI, p. 709. Hipp. : Hippolytus, Exposition . . . on the Antichrist QP^nohei^is . . . mpX Tov 'AvnxP^a-Tov), ed. Lagarde, 1 et seq. J. A. : Fseudo-Johannine Apocalypse ; Tischendorf, Apocalypses ApocryphcR, Ixx. Joh. Damasc. : S. John of Damascus, Exposition of the Ortho- dox Faith {''E Petrine Apocalypse (Petri ApostoU Apocalypsis p . Q _ I per Clementern) ; Bratke. Phil. Sol. : Philippus Solitarius, Dioptra, III. 10 et seq. ; Migne, Vol. CXXVII. Ps. Chrys. : Pseudo-Chrysostom, On tlie Second Coming, etc. (Elf Tr]V Sevrepav napovcrlav, (c. t. \.), amongst the works of S. Chrysostom ; Migne, Vol. LXI., p. 776. Ps. E. : The Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra ; Baethgen. Ps. Ephr. : Pseudo-Ephrem, the Discourse preserved under the name of S. Ephrem ; Caspari, Brief e und Ahhandlungin, 1890, pp. 208 et seq. \ REFERENCES TO AUTHORITIES. xxxi Ps. H. : Pseudo-Hippolytus, On the Eiid of the World (Ilepi T^r (TuvreXei'as toC koo'/iou) ; Lagarde, 92. Ps. M. : Pseudo-Methodius, Orthodoxographa (Greek 93, Latin 100 pp.). Sib. B. : The Sibylline document included in the works of the Venerable Bede ; Migne, Vol. XC, p. 1183. Sib. Us. : The Sibyl published by Usinger in his Forschungen zur Deutschen Geschichte, X. 621. Vict. : Victorinus, Commentary on Revelation ; ed. de la Eigne, Vol. I. (2nd ed., 1589). Z. A. : The Apocalypse of Zephaniah ; Stem, Zeiischrift fur agyptisohe Spraahe, 1886, 115 et seq. Note. — In the English edition most of the abbreviated forms have been extended. The same remark applies to many other forms of reference, which might be unintelligible to any but specialists. Thus Z. K. W. K. L. becomes Zeitschr.fiirKirUiche Wissensohaft und KirMiches Leben (p. 84), and so on. PAET I. THE SOURCES. CHAPTER I. Inteodtjction — Methods of lNa?EEPRBTATioN — Eblations TO THE Babylonian Dbagon Myth. THE present work was originally undertaken with a view to the explantion and interpretation of some obscure passages in the Revelation of S. John. My inquiries were first turned in this direction by the remarks contained in Isolin's Comparative Study of Revelation with the Later Syriac Apocalypse at- tributed to Ezra.* Then my attention was drawn to these remarkable literary problems by Bratke's work on the Arabo-Ethiopic Petrine Apocalypse. After reading a fellow-worker's treatise on the Apocalypse two years ago, it seemed to me highly probable that at least chap. xi. of the Johannine Apocalypse had its origin in an earlier tradition which might still be recovered. Gorrodi's History of the Millennium for the first time brought under my notice the writings of S. Ephrem bearing on this subject. Then one branch after another of this astonishingly widespread literature was in due course brought to C* This work, however {Theol. Zeitschri/t aus der Schiveie, 1887), is known to me only by report. i THB ANTICHRIST L.DGEND. light, although I should have still undoubtedly over- looked some Important documents but for the help repeatedly rendered to me by Professors Bonwetsch and W. Meyer. My thanks are also due to Dr. Achelis and to Dr. Rahlfs for the assistance kindly afforded by them on several points occurring in the course of my investigations. But even so I am far from claiming any finality for these researches, many documents from which light might be derived being still inaccessible to students. However, I have at least reason to believe that nothing essential has been overlooked in connection with the current of tradition on the Antichrist saga in the early Church. I would, nevertheless, here point out that the later mediaeval history of the saga has only been glanced at by me, so that here I make no kind of pretence to thoroughness. I was fain to set this limit to my work in order not to break down altogether in the attempt to elucidate the apocalyptic text. At the same time my researches have thus developed into something more than a mere aid to the interpre- tation of Revelation. The interest felt by me in the spread and influence of the Antichrist legend itself, once aroused, grew steadily stronger, and thus it came about that the work has assumed the character of a contribution to the eschatology of the early Church. Despite their entangled and fantastic nature, the records here dealt with in their literary connection possess at least a great and special charm. In this literature are simply and directly mirrored the sen'i- meiits, the sufferings, hopes, and aspirations of tAe INTERPBETATION OF HEVELATION. 5 masses in times of great political throes and con- vulsions. The generations pass before onr eyes in a weird, fantastic light, for it is never to be forgotten that all these whirling and checkered thoughts at one time throbbed with life ; they excited the popular imagination more than dogmatic wranglings, and at least in medifeval times they made history. Meanwhile I would indulge the hope that my efforts to unravel the apocalyptic entanglement may yield no little fruit both directly and above all indirectly. We have not yet come to an end in the interpretation of the Apocalypse. Much has doubtless been cleared up by the historical and critical methods of inquiry. But these very methods themselves have plunged us into deep complications and an almost boundless range of hypotheses. Hence fresh ground must be broken, fresh processes applied, nay, a thoroughly new method of investigation will be needed, if the subject is to be advanced beyond the phase it has now reached. But the essential point will be to form a clear conception of the method to be applied. In my studies I have not failed to notice the law of eschatological tradition apparent in a whole series of apocalyptic documents. And precisely herein lies in my opinion the indirect value of my labours for the interpretation of the Apocalypse. It is at this point that the present work comes in contact with Gunkel's Creation and Chaos (Sckop- fung und Chaos), a work which has already struck out or indicated new lines of inquiry. In fact a feeling of gratitude requires that at the very outset I should 6 TBE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. state how greatly I have heen stimulated and en- couraged hy this work, more especially as regards the method and the statement of the problem. I emphasise this point all the more willingly that, in respect of the results, I have frequently found myself in points of detail at variance with the author himself. In the present connection, however, I am concerned mainly witli the second half of Gunkel's work, where in proposing an explanation of Revelation, chap, xii., he formulates the laws for the interpretation of all apocalyptic traditions bearing on the Last Days. Of these laws the most frequent and valuable in my opinion is that laid down by Gunkel at pp. 252 et seq. Here he suggests that, speaking broadly, the several apocalyptic writers do not themselves create or invent their materials, or even merely weave them together of all sorts of scattered threads. How could they else succeed in passing off their fancies for authentic holy revelations ? This could be done only by the posses- sion of an unbroken chain of traditions hallowed with age, so that these seers simply reveal the sacred lore of primeval times. They of course modify here and there ; but their function consists essentially in adapta- tion, not in invention, in application (to the times), not in fresh creations. " Such personal activity must always be taken as confined to those limits within which the belief of the writer in his own words does not become impossible " (p. 254). Naturally this limitation is somewhat vague ; one apocalyptic writer may be trusted less, another move, but the limitation exists. Gunkel's assumption is. INTERPRETATION OF REVELATION. 7 in fact, confirmed by the Mstory of the eschatological literature wliicli I have here surveyed, and which — herein consists its advantage — lies in the clear light of history. Let it not here be objected that the later epochs of Christian apocalyptic literature should not be applied to the laying down of rules for the inter- pretation of the inspired Revelation of S. John. In the course of the present work it will be shown that the eschatological literature here dealt with still stands in a position of independence in respect of the New Testament, and more especially of the Johannine Apocalypse. From the following review of a literature spread over a thousand years the clearest evidence will also be afforded of the great persistence of eschatological imagery, which passes on from hand to hand with scarcely a change of form in the course of centuries. To explain this persistence of legendary eschato- logical conceptions, Gnnkel advances the hypothesis of an esoteric oral tradition, and endeavours to support his assumption by 2 Thessaloniaas' ii., and by passages from the Apocalypse of Ezra (pp. 265, 292). I am now in a position to bring forward proof of such a secret eschatological tradition even for the first centuries of Christianity. It has been objected to Gunkel that he does not make it sufficiently clear how utterly unconscious the author of Revelation may have been of adopting earlier mythical and eschatological materials, how largely he dealt with unintelligible and half-under- stood eschatological traditions. Although this is 8 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. repeatedly acknowledged by Gunkel himself, there is still some force in the objection. The contact of Revelation more particularly with the early Babylonian myths — a contact which Gunkel has really proved — is after all frequently limited to some misunderstood borrowings. And on the strength of such contacts it was very venturesome to credit the circles amongst which the Apocalypse grew up with the further know- ledge of a coherent early Babylonian myth, of which no trace is elsewhere to be found. Yet this is what Gunkel attempts to do in his explanation of Revela- tion, chap, xii., and of the numerical riddle in chap, xiii. 18. So much may be admitted without prejudice to the accuracy of the above-mentioned law respecting the persistence of eschatological tradition. If the Book of Revelation is not to be explained, or explained only to a very small extent, by the old Babylonian myth, it may still perhaps find its interpretation in some less remote tradition. At the same time the potency of early traditions and the possibility of their being still partly understood are not to be underestimated. In fact they can hardly be overrated; in this connection centuries need scarcely be taken into account, and it must be frankly stated that no one has a right to an opinion on this subject who has not earnestly and sedulotisly studied the traditions of mythical and eschatological records. But even if the fullest weight be given to the objection urged against Gunkel, and if nothing more than a few scattered fragments of early Babylonian mythology can be detected in Revelation, still the( INTERPRETATION OF REVELATION. 9 verified relations must be regarded as something more than mere literary " curiosities." They might even afford a sure means of distinguishing in the interpre- tation of this book between the material handed down by tradition and that special to the apocalyptic writer. And in such discrimination lies the whole art of sound exegesis for all apocalyptic writings. Everything depends on clearly distinguishing between the tradi- tional and what is peculiar to each document. Gunkel's work may accordingly be regarded as the starting-point of a new method of interpretation of Revelation. To the study of contemporary history and of textual criticism is superadded that of traditional history, by which both are controlled but not super- seded, as might appear from occasional passages in Gunkel's work. The method of textual criticism so much in vogue at present will certainly have to greatly modify its pretensions ; an end must once for all be put to the reckless use of the knife, and critics must henceforth refrain from laying rude hands on original documents. As is rightly urged by Gunkel, all attempts at verbal criticism must be preceded by a far more accurate knowledge of the logical connection of all available materials. A few exegetic remarks on the Johannine Apocalypse, such as every one fancies himself capable of, will no longer suffice. No one should venture on an exposition of this book without a comprehensive knowledge of all its bearings, and a satisfactory elucida- tion will assuredly for a long time exceed the powers of any individual student. Such an elucidation 10 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. involves nothing less than a thorough grasp of its special character within the compass of an esthato- . logical tradition embracing a period of nearly a thousand years. Yet I already begin to fear that Gunkel's canon may soon be so far overstrained as to cause the critical study of the text to fall into complete neglect. Hence it may here be urged that a sound method of verbal criticism will always act as a healthy counter- poise to an arbitrary treatment of mythical sources. I hope to show in the first part of this work how much may be achieved in this field even by textual criticism. The method based on a study of contemporary history will also have to confine itself within narrower limits. Against this method Gunkel advances the most diverse arguments. He protests especially against the favourite process of interpreting independ- ently isolated passages of Revelation, and points out the absolutely arbitrary character of such a course. A limitation of the contemporary historical method follows, in fact, as a matter of course from the recognition of the claims of traditional history. When we once recognise that at many points the writer is leaning on tradition, we become instinctively more guarded against explanations suggested by con- temporary events. But above all Gunkel absolutely rejects tliose adaptations to current history that date back to times antecedent to the apocalyptic writer as not in harmony with the essential character of Revelation. But, however encouraging they may be, these de- ductions require to be somewhat modified. Even INTEBPRETATION OF SEVELATION. 11 when the apocalyptic writer takes over distinctly traditional materials, he often does so not quite purposelessly. He may, in fact, be still thinking of his own and immediately antecedent times. Thus the description of those slain under the altar (Rev. vi. 9 et seq.') is after all a mere adaptation of an older tradition. But when borrowing this incident the writer was thinking of the martyrs of his own time, of those that had already suffered, and of those that were to follow. Nor is it altogether beside the question to consider and to ask to what temporal relations he is alluding. For to me Gunkel does not seem to have proved that there are no references in the Johannine Apocalypse to past times. Even the Books of Daniel, chap, vii., and of Enoch, chap. Ixxxviii., have also allusions to the period antecedent to that of the assumed writer. Why may we not therefore under- stand chap. xii. of Revelation to be a retrospective historical introduction to chap, xiii., at least in the mind of the writer who has given it thd; last touch ? But in any case it must be regretted that Gunkel makes a decided mistake when he attempts to upset the long-standing accepted allusion to current events during the reign of Nero, supporting his contention with much straining of the text, but with little solid argument. Let it be said once for all that the refer- ence to Nero is not to be eliminated from the Revelation of S. John. It is to be feared that Gunkel's reference of the number 666 to the " primeval monster," * whereby he strives to put aside the allusion to Nero, i * n^jDip Qinn 12 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. will ere long be ranked with those apocalyptic cnriosities on which he lavishes so much scorn. But so long as the allusion to Nero justly holds its ground, the interpretation of Revelation in the light of con- temporary events will also be justified. Nor will the question be in any way affected by the assurance of Gunkel and of his reviewer Edward Meyer * that this method has here proved a failure. But here again all exaggeration must be deprecated. A claim to exclusiveness is no recommendation for any new method. Gunkel claims far too much when, for instance, he chngs to the fundamental principle that the method based on historical tradition is to be applied wherever the allusion to current events is not quite clear or does not lie on the surface. A cautious inquiry will accept the results based on allusions to contemporary history when such allusions are not strained. But the caution here insisted upon has nothing in common with that hair-splitting reasoning with which Giinkel rejects the Neronic interpretation ; it is a caution which will accept all genuine inferences and results of the traditional method, but will admit moot questions wherever both principles are unconvincing, will even allow the possibility of allusions to contemporary events of which we have no knowledge — in a word, it will in many cases apply both methods concurrently. But in Gunkel's work the student has above all to be on his guard against postulates or assumptions. * In the Supplement to the Augsburg AUgemeine Zeitun^^, December 1,3th, 1894. TBE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH. 16 To attempt, as Gnnkel does, to completely reconstruct, from our Revelation a now lost old Babylonian myt}i by patching together a few surviving shreds of some fragmentary contacts, whose connections are no longer clear, is tantamount to flying in the face of all evidence and ignoring the limits of scientific proof. Gunkel's interpretation of Revelation xii. 13 is nothing more than a piece of pure fancy work, which had better have been left undone. Many will be only too ready on this ground to shut their eyes to the real merits of a work which as a whole has certainly opened up new methods of research. In any case Gunkel has done a real service by following up in a separate treatise the after-effects of the old Babylonian Dragon myth to its last echoes in the New Testament. And even though he may have largely overrated the influence of this myth in the New Testament, he has still considerably sharpened our perception of the mythological element in Revelation. In some respects I might describe my work as a modest continuation of Gunkel's inquiry. In it proof might be advanced to show that the Antichrist legend is a later anthropomorphic transformation of the Dragon myth, and further that this myth has made itieTf felt in its traditional form far beyond the time of the New Testament, cropping out again and again now in one now in another feature of its old charac- teristic aspects. On the other hand, I might in a lertain sense justify Gnnkel's work. Of the Dragon myth scarcely anything has found its way into the 14 THE ANTICHRIST LEOMNB. Apocalypse beyond a few unintelligible fragments. The Apocalypse has, in fact, been to a far greater extent influenced by another eschatological tradition, which is connected with that of the Dragon, and which may still be recognised by the student. I am also in accord with the traditional method so energetically advocated by Gunkel, and with his equally vigorous contention for the persistence of eschatological tradition. But it did not fall within the scope of my work to embrace the early Babylonian period, with a view to recovering in this field the key to the understanding of Revelation. My aim has rather been to seek my material in the later Christian tradition, with a retrospective view of the New Testament period — that is, so far as such tradition maintains its independence of the New Testament itself. And my belief is that the key thus recovered works better, at least as regards the understanding of Revelation. At the same time I am quite aware that after all I have not arrived at a thorough understanding of this legendary eschatological imagery. But it may be asked. Can such an understanding ever be arrived ' at by any process ? Gunkel thinks he has found an explanation of the Dragon myth ; but this is precisely what- Edward Meyer {loe. cit.) demurs to. Here, when all is said and done, everything seems uncertain. Enough will have been done if we can in a measure realise to ourselves the nature of the eschatological imagery prevalent at any given period, say, for instanci , in New Testament times, and thus help to unravel TBE BABYLONIAN DRAGON MYTH. 15 this almost inextricable tangle of traditional and contemporary representations, of intelligible and un- intelligible elements. But -while saying this we do not of course mean to withhold our thanks for any further light that in the course of his investigations Gnnkel may still throw on the subject. For me the main point was to examine the nearest available documents tending to elucidate Revelation, and nearer than the old Babylonian mythology was the early Christian eschatological tradition, which, taken as a whole, is independent of the Johannine document. It is precisely the study of the writings nearest to hand that has been often neglected by Gunkel. The remark applies especially to his comments on chap. xii. of Revelation. Another matter has to be mentioned in which I am indebted to Gunkel. All praise is due to the restraint which he has imposed upon himself in this work. It was especially in the mythological field, which he undertook to investigate, that lay the greatest temptation to indulge in wild flights into extraneous mythological systems far removed from the subject in hand. Both the Greek and Norse mythologies present numerous parallelisms, and there occur many other traces of the influence of this primeval myth, doubtless one of the earliest evolved by primitive man. Gunkel has happily avoided the danger both of the dilettanteism which here lurked close at hand and of premature judgments on the ascertained facts. [The same can by no means be said of all mytho- 16 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. logical researclies. However stimulating, for instance, may be Dietrich's investigations in the history of religion, however valuable they may be in a domain where he is at home (and here are naturally included his commentaries on the Petrine Apocalypse), still his conclusions on Jewish and early Christian eschatology bear none the less the stamp of the amateur. How superior Gunkel is to this writer appears from the few pages in which he differs from Dietrich in his attempt to elucidate chap. xii. of Revelation. Much serious work has still to be done, many careful inquiries into special points have still to be concluded, before any decided inferences, such as those of Dietrich, can be drawn in detail on the origin of the eschatologicai representations regarding the destruction of the world, heaven and hell, or even on the fundamental moral concepts involved in the j)ictures of the last judgment. Nor in my opinion has the time yet arrived for an inquiry into the intricate mythology of the Edda, or for an attempt to discriminate between the Christian and earlier elements of this compilation, as is done by E. H. Meyer in his Voluspd. I mention this work because I have had repeated occasion to refer to it in this treatise. The colossal work of a comparative mythology will have to be done step by step, if it is to give the impression of anything more than a fantastic, amateurish experiment. The temptation to yield to fancy flights is all but irresistible, and in the little that I have brought together from outlying quarters I may have myself perhaps already trespassed too lur. SCOPE AND DIVISIONS OF TSE WORK. 17 Althongla the labonr still to be done is of a comprehensive character, its sphere of action will be extended only to extraneous works. These investi- gations do not penetrate into the essence of things, into all that lives and has real force in every religion. For the pith and marrow of all creeds lies in what is special to each, not in what one people or one faith may have borrowed from another ; it lies in the original creations of distinct personalities, not in what one generation may have handed down to another. To understand Revelation we need a fulness of eschatological and mythological knowledge ; to under- stand the Gospel all this may for the most part be dispensed with. Nevertheless this work has also to be done, and such work remains instructive in many respects. It delivers a lesson of modesty and lowliness, showing how each individual, each genera- tion of men is but a ripple in the stream of the endless life of history ; it teaches what an infinite' variety of knowledge, feelings, and sentiments every age un- consciously inherits from previous ages. But it also quickens our vision — and herein lies its fullest value — for all that is original in every living belief ; it shows us indirectly whence flow the living waters of life. The present work comprises two main divisions. In the first I have endeavoured to give a survey of the extremely difficult relations of the literature bearing on the subject. In the second I have pre- sented a reconstruction of the legend, an exposition of its origin and history. In this second part I quote very fully from the various authorities dealing with 18 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. the question in hand. This seemed all the naore necessary that the literature under consideration is very scattered and of difficult access. The second part also often affords support to the exposition of the mutual relation of the sources to each other — an exposition which, owing to the abundance of materials, had often to be given in a very summary manner. CHAPTER II.* Statement of the Problem. A SURVEY of the eschatological parts of the New Testament, and more especially of those referring to the fearful storms and stress of the last days shortly before the general doom, gives a decided impression that we have here nothing more than the fragmentary survivals of a tradition which points at greater associations now shrouded in mystery. This character of the tradition is most pronounced in chap. xi. of the Revelation of S. John. Specially puzzling is here the sudden appearance of the beast that comes up out of the pit and kills the two witnesses (ver. 7). If we suppose that in the expression "the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit " the hand of the " editor " of Reve- lation has been at work, still there is the reference in ver. 7 to a demoniacal power by which the two witnesses are slain. As this can by no means be separated, as Spitta would have it, from the general context, the fragment remains all the more puzzling. In any case the sudden cessation of the testimony of the witnesses after three years and a half must * For Notes ' to ' of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 263, 19 20 THE ANTICHRIST LM6END. still have been bronght about by some hostile power. But where are we elsewhere to look for the appearance of the witnesses and of the beast? According to ver. 8, in Jerusalem. Even apart from the words " where also our [their] Lord - was crucified," Jerusalem is unmistakably indicated both by the connection with vers. 1 and 2, and by the circum- stance that in the earthquake in which the tenth part of the city fell seven thousand men were slain (ver. 13). For the assumption that the scene takes place in Rome there is not a particle of evidence. The assertion that Jerusalem could not be called " the great city " can be shown to be groundless, while the fact that Rome is elsewhere in Revelation also called " the great city " proves nothing for the explanation of this quite exceptional chapter. But if everything thus points to Jerusalem as the theatre of these events, then comes the question, How are we to explain the appearance in Jerusalem of the beast which is elsewhere in Revelation associated with the Roman empire, with Rome itself, or with Nero returning from the Euphrates ? Here a too hasty exposition of a single chapter of Revelation would avail nothing. For after all it is quite possible, nay, even tolerably certain, that we have in this book diverse cycles of thought lying close together. Moreover, who are the two witnesses ? Why are they here introduced at all ? Why, and against whom, do they forebode the plagues? In what relation do they stand to the beast? Why does the beast of all others slay the witnesses? Who ORAL TRADITIONS. 21 are the dwellers upon the earth who rejoice and make merry and send gifts one to another during the three days and a half that the witnesses lie dead ? If we are to suppose that they gathered about Jerusalem, how did they get thither ? Is it the Koman legions that are to tread Jerusalem underfoot ? Bat if so, how can these be spoken of as " they that dwell upon the earth " ? All these are moot points which will never be solved by discriminating the sources within chap. xi. Now let us take it as unquestioned that in this chapter the iSgure of the Antichrist appears in Jerusalem, that he here stands in no relation to Rome and the Roman empire, or to. the Gentiles, who, as would seem, tread Jerusalem underfoot. TheiK a parallel passage will at once be found in the eschato- logical section of the SecondEpistletotheThessalonians, whose authenticity I accept without however in my researches laying too much weight on this assumption. Here the very mysterious fragmentary manner of the exposition is obviously intentional. The author will not say more than he has said, but refers to his previous oral communications, giving the impression of an allusion to some esoteric teaching. In fact Paul speaks of a mystery in the words — "Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things ? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way " (chap, ii., vers. 5-7). We read of " the man- of sin," a " son 22 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. of perdition," who is yet to come. This figure also of the Antichrist appears in Jerusalem ; he sitteth in the Temple of God, and proclaims himself God. His advent will be " after the working of Satan " ; he will work " signs and lying wonders," and will beguile them that perish "with all deceivableness of un- righteousness." y^ Here therefore we' have also an Antichrist who has nothing whate^e'r to do with the Roman empire. For the passage is not applicable even to Caligula and his whim to have his statue set up in the Temple of Jerusalem. By such an interpretation we should miss the most' essential point — that is to say, the threatened profanation of the Temple by foreign armies. Here we^have nothing but signs and wonders and deceits, and it is characteristic of the passage that it contains an altogether unpolitical eschatology— an Antichrist who appears as a false Messiah in Jerusalem and works signs and wonders. And when Paul says that this man of sin will lead astray those destined to perish because "they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved " (ver. 10), it is quite evident that he is thinking of the Jews, to whom a false Messiah will be sent because they have rejected the true Messiah. But whence does Paul know all this, and who is the one that " letteth," who has to be " taken out of the way " before the coming of the Antichrist ? I turn to a third allied passage, the section of the Lord's discourse in Matthew xxiv. and Mark xiii. on the Second Comiiig, and I assume, with many recent ORAL TRADITIONS. 23 expositors, that the distinctly apocalyptic part is a fragment of foreign origin introduced amid genuine utterances of the Lord. It is also evident that com- pared with that of Mark the text of Matthew is the original. ' Here we have again the same phenomenon of short mysterious forebodings. The writer speaks of the " abomination of desolation " in the holy place, followed by I the flight of the faithful (one scarcely knows from what) ; of a shortening of the days (we know not what days, or whether any definite period of time is meant) ; of the' " sign of the Son of man," which still renaains a puzzle, although treated lightly by most exjwsitors. In any case the view is steadily gaining ground that the allusion to the siege of Jerusalem aq|tt the flight of the Christians to Pella is an expla- nation introduced as an after-thought into Revelation. Yet one is reluctant to understand the passage except in' association with the time of the emperor Caligula. How then is to be explained the flight after the pollution of the Temple ? Was the writer one of the advocates of peace, who wished to dissuade his fellow-countrymen fr'om taking to arms ? But if so, he might have spoken in. plainer language. A life-and-death struggle would after all seem probably to have taken place before the S(fttingi up of the emperor's statue. The simplest way out of the difficulty will be to apply 2 Thessalonians to the explanation of Matthew xxiv. Then the profanation will be the Antichrist who takes his seat in the Temple of Jerusalem, and the flight will bei that of the faithful from Antichrist and his jiersecution. 24 THM ANTICHRIST LEGEND. But then the question will again arise, "Whence this whole cycle of thought ? What was the source of this conception of the Antichrist in the Temple of Jerusalem ? Do the last verses of Eevelation ii., 2 Thessalonians ii., and Matthew xxiv. all belong to the same legendary- matter, and will it be possible again to bring the scattered fragments together ? Apart from the New Testament, are there any sources still at all availalble calculated to afford fresh information on this common tradition ? We can now say that there is, in fact, still extant a superabundance of such material. When we pass on to the eschatological commentaries of the Fathers on Daniel, Eevelation, 2 Thessalonians i ii., Matthew xxiv., etc., we everywhere observe the i same phenomenon, a multiplicity of details, causing^s I to ask in amazement, How does it happen that these expositors of the Old and New Testament writings are ! all alike so full of those wonderful and fantastic I i representations which occur precisely in this particular ' domain ? Even beneath the most arbitrary e?;egetic fancies and allegorical explanations we may still per- ceive how this came about. But in this field of research there is opened up a world of fresh eschato- logical imagery, for which scarcely any support is sought in the Bible, at least beyond mere suggestions. Yet these very suggestions or assertions everywhere crop out with surprising persistence, so that when the matter is more closely examined we begin to detect order, consistency, and system in what we had regarded as a mere congeries of marvellous fancies. Doubtless explanations of a chapter in eschatology SIPP0LYTU8 UN THE ANTICBRIST. 25 are not to be sought in the apostolic Fathers or in the apologists. But with Irengeus the above-mentioned statements already begin to be more clearly formulated and supported by a series of instances. I prefer, however, to illustrate the point from Hippolytus' treatise On the Antichrist, reserving for the next section a general survey of the whole material. In chap. vi. Hippolytus sets forth the following con- trasts : " A lion is Christ, and a lion is the Antichrist ; King is Christ, and king is the Antichrist. ... In the circumcision came the Eedeemer into the world, and in like manner will the other come ; the Lord sent apostles unto all nations, and in the same way will the other send false apostles ; the Saviour gathered the scattered sheep, and in like manner will the other- gather the scattered people. The Lord gave a seal to those that believed in Him, and a seal will the other likewise give; in the form of a man appeared the Saviour, and in the form of a man will the other also come ; the Lord stood up and exhibited His holy body as a temple, and the other will also set up the temple of stone in Jerusalem." Whence did Hippolytus get all these data concern- ing the Antichrist? In any case it cannot be said that from the figure of Christ the several features in the figure of the Antichrist were inferred by the law of contrasts ; it would seem rather that the case was here and there reversed ; compare, for instance, the last antithesis, and that other further back, " The Lord gave a seal to those that believed in Him." In what follows a biblical passage is quoted only for the first 26 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. statement— the Christ, like the Antichrist, was called a lion. Then comes a proof (chap, xv.) that the Anti- christ will spring from the t^ibejjf Dan, pnjthejtrength of Genesis xlix. 16, 17 and Jeremiah_viiiiJl6. This last notion, so surprisingly widespread amongst the Fathers, seems, however, to have had its origin in those passages of Scripture, though we cannot yet say when it arose. But before any one thought of applying those passages to the Antichrist, the idea must have already prevailed that the Antichrist would spring from the people of Israel. This idea is also shared by Hippolytus, and thus is obtained another very important factor in the problem. For Hippolytus, the Eoman empire is not the kingdom of the Antichrist, which is all the more remarkable that the Johannine Apocalypse distinctly indicates the Roman empire as the last great foe before the end of the world. JSTor could Hippolytus be personally at all opposed to such an assumption, considering the judg- ment he himself pronounces on the Roman empire at the end of chap, xxxiv. He so far agrees with chap, xiii. of Revelation that he certainly understood the allusion in the first part of the chapter to point at the Roman empire ; but then for him the Antichrist is the second beast with the two horns, who will establish his sway after the fall of the Roman empire. By such an exposition we may gather what violence Hippolytus does to the text of Revelation (see chap, xlix.); nor did his exegesis on this point find much approval in after-times. Yet none the less is the conception itself a commonplace for nearly all the BIPFOLYlUS ON rSE ANl'lCHS,l8f. 27 Fathers, beginning with Irenssus. They hold, not that the Roman empire is the Antichrist, but that the Antichrist will appear after its fall. The Roman empire is the power referred to as "he who now letteth " in 2 Thessalonians ii. 7. In this application the Antichrist saga has made its way into history, and in fact has acquired a historic mission. Bearing this in view, it becomes extremely remark- able that, despite the after-effect of Revelation, the assumption of the Jewish origin of the Antichrist should acquire such general acceptance as to be so unanimously applied to the solution of the really puzzling passage in 2 Thessalonians. How short-lived, on the other hand, was the notion that the relations in Revelation had reference to Nero, and how infinitely varied and manifold are the interpretations of the passage in question I Here we are again confronted with the puzzling assumption of a Jewish Antichrist who appears in Jeru- salem. Hippolytus, like Irenseus, shows (chap, xliii.) that the two witnesses (Rev. xi.) will be Elias and Enoch. He has of course little diificulty in quoting Scripture for the return of Elias ; but he nowhere tells us how he discovered that Enoch was to be the asso- ciate of Elias. This assumption also that Elias and Enoch are the two witnesses is so prevalent in patristic traditional lore that scarcely any other names are mentioned. How is the firm belief in this tradition to be ex- plained? In support of his theory, Hippolytus in one place actually quotes as an inspired authority a 28 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. document absolutely unknown to us (chap, xv.) : " And another prophet says : he [the Antichrist] will gather all his power from the rising to the setting of the sun. Those whom he has called and whom he has not called will go with him. He will make white the sea with the sails of his ships, and the plain black with the shields of his hosts. And whoso will war with him shall fall by the sword." This passage he repeats in chap, liv., and in this and the following chapter he brings together specially remarkable statements regarding the Antichrist, statements the evidence for which we vainly seek in the Old or the New Testa^ ment. We may assuredly regard as unconvincing the occurrence of the curious combination from Daniel vii. and xi., implying that on his first appearance the Antichrist will overcome the kings of Egypt, of Libya, and Ethiopia, a combination with which again is connected the interpretation of Revelation xvii. In these details, however, Hippolytus is dependent on Irenseus. It is again still more difficult to understand how Hippolytus knows that the Antichrist's next exploit will be the destruction of Tyre and Berytus (Beyriit). But so much will suffice to show that in his treatise on the Antichrist Hippolytus is dependent on a tradition which no doubt has something in common with many eschatological parts of the Old and New Testaments, but which none the less stands out quite distinctly as an independent concrete tradition. In fact he may well have borrowed the legend from some document already quoted by him as " a prophet." VIOTOSINUa ON REVELATION XII. 29 As a second case in point I niay appeal to the Comnientary of Victorinus. On the forehoding of the famine under the third seal this "writer observes : " But properly speaking the passage has reference to the times of the Antichrist, when a great famine will prevail." The flight of the woman in the second half of Revelation xii. he refers to the flight of the 144,000, who are supposed to have received the faith through the preaching of Elias, stapporting his inter- pretation with Luke xxi. 21. The water which the Dragon casts out of his mouth after the woman is taken to mean that the Antichrist sends out a host to persecute her, while the earth opening her mouth signifies the woman's miraculous deliverance from the host by the Lord. Although holding fast to the Neronic interpretation, Victorinus connects it in a remarkable way with another. Nero will appear under another name as the Antichrist, and then he continues (chap, xiii.) : " He wUl lust after no women, and acknowledge no God of his fathers. For he will be unable to beguile the people of the circumcision, unless he appears as the champion of the law. Nor will he summon the saints to the worship of idols, but only to accept circumcision, should he succeed in leading any astray. Lastly, he will so act that he will be called Christ by them. The false prophet (Rev. xiii. 11 et seq.) will contrive to have a golden statue set up to him in the Temple of Jerusalem. The raising of the dead to life is mentioned among the wonders wrought by this false prophet." 30 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. Eevelatioa xiii. 2 is explained as indicating the captains or leaders of the Antichrist, who are over- taken by the wrath of God in xiv. 20. Here again we see what a wealth of special traditions is revealed by such interpretations. And again we stand before the figure of the Jewish Antichrist, which is here rarely interwoven with the other figure of Nero redivivus. But to avoid going twice over the same ground, I will break off at this point. Both examples sufiiciently bear out the argument as above stated, and it will be enough here to assure the reader that the demonstra- tion might still be carried to a great length. Mean- while I would draw attention to a few considerations. The farther we advance into the centuries, the richer and the more fruitful become the sources. At the same time it is by no means to be supposed that the later documents merely introduce farther embellishments into the still extant earlier materials. On the contrary, it is precisely from them that we obtain much supplementary matter needed to fill up the gaps and omissions in the earlier and more frag- mentary documents. How is this to be explained ? As seems to me the explanation lies in the fact that in many cases the eschatological revelations have been passed on, not in written records, but in oral tradition, as an esoteric doctrine handled with fear and trembling. Hence it is that not till later times does the tradition come to light in all its abundance. We may learn from Hippolytus (chap, xxix.) what in his time was thought of traditional lore ; " This, THE E80TEBIC TEACHINGS. 31 beloved, I commtmicate to thee with fear. . . . For if the blessed prophets before us, although they knew it, were unwilling openly to proclaim it in order not to prepare any perplexity for the souls of men, but imparted it secretly in parables and enigmas, saying ' whoso readeth let him understand,' how much more danger do we run if we openly utter what was couched by them in covert language ! " With this may be compared Sibyll., X. 290 : " But not all know this, for not all things are for all." ^ It is very significant that Sulpicius Severus {Hist., II. 14) wrote down the Antichrist legend from an oral de- liverance of S. Martin of Tours. Hence the secret teaching concerning the Antichrist was still in the time of S. Martin passed on from mouth to mouth. An interesting passage also occurs in Origen on 2 Thessa- lonians ii. 1 et seq. : " Because perhaps amongst the Jews were certain persons professing to know about the Last Things either from Scripture or from hidden sources, therefore he writes this, teaching his disciples that they may believe no one making such professions " ^ {ill Matthmum Gomm., IV. 329).* In Commodian's Carmen Apologeticum there also occurs the line : " About which, however, I submit a few hidden things of which I have read." ^ In the following chapters I give a survey of the sources here consulted. Besides the Fathers, the later and latest Christian Apocalypses come naturally under "* For this passage I am indebted to BonnemaBn, Kommentar gu den Thess. -Brief en. 32 TSE ANTIOBBIST LEGEND. consideration. Bnt of course mncli of this material is still inaccessible, and the Syriac, Coptic, and Slavic manuscripts will yet yield rich fruits. As, however, the tradition of the Antichrist legend is extremely persistent, the still missing documents will change but little in the general character of the tradition. CHAPTER III.* Pseudo-Epheem : A Latin Homily on the End of the WoELD— S. Epheem : A Greek Homily on the Anti- CHEIST, AND OTHER PeOPHETIC "WRITINGS — PSBUDO- HippoLYTus : On THE End of the World — The PSEUDO-JOHANNINB ApOCALYPSE — S. CyEIL OF JERU- SALEM : Fifteenth Catechbsis— Philip the Solitary : DioPTEA — Pseudo-Chrysostom. THE first group of documents "bearing on the subject is connected with that highly interesting Apocalypse which was published in 1890 by Caspari.t From chap. i. to iv. the treatise has rather the character of a sermon, after which in chap. v. the Apocalypse is related in the usual way in a simple, quiet flow of speech. In the very first chapter a clue * For Notes ' to " of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 263. t Briefs, Abhandlmigen, etc., pp. 208 et seq. (Text), pp. 429 et seq. (Abhandlung). The document is contained in the Codex Barherinus, XIV. 44, srec. viii., under the title : " Dicta sancti Effrem de fine mundi et consummatio sseculi et conturbatio gentium " ; that is, " The Utterances of S. Ephrem about the End of the World, and the Consummation of the Universe, and the Tribulation of the Nations." It occurs also in a codex of S. Gall, 108, 4°, ssec. viii., under the title : " Incipit sermo sancti Ysidori de fine mundi " ; that is, " Here begins the Discourse of S. Isidore on the End of the World." 33 3 34 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. to its dates is afforded in the following sentences : " And amid all these things are the wars of the Persians —in those days will two brothers come to the Roman kingdom, and with one mind they stand forward (?) ; but because one precedes the other, schism will arise between them." ' Oaspari has brought proof to show that these allusions indicate the time of the emperors Valentinian and Valens, the first of whom was raised to the purple in 364, and the second soon after chosen by his brother to share the throne with him. " Schism will arise between them " is referred by Caspari to the division of the empire, which took place soon after. The question might nevertheless be asked, whether with these words the apocalyptic writer does not forebode some dissension foreseen by him, but which has not yet come to pass, whence the future tense " will arise." This would also agree better with the words " because one precedes the other." Caspari, however, is right in supposing the passage was not written before the close of Valentinian's reign, or about the year 373 when the war with the Persians broke out again. At the same time he raises serious doubts against the inference that the treatise was written about 373. For in that case we should have to assume that the writer had projected his own time into the future, after the manner of the Sibylline utterances. But as this Sibylline method is not elsewhere to be detected in the whole treatise, he thinks it more probable that the writer has quite clumsily interwoven some extraneous (Sibylline) matter into the text. If so, we should have nothing but the age of the extant PSEUDO-MPJSREM— APOCALYPTIC HOMILT. 35 manuscripts to help us in determining the age of the work. But all these assumptions of Oaspari are groundless. A mere cursory perusal pf the document makes it tolerably clear that the author simply reproduces not a contemporary but an early prophecy regarding the Antichrist, merely superadding a short historical and exhortative introduction. This view will be confirmed by the comparative study of the sources appended below. The author speaks in his own person only in the first chapter, where he partly brings the ensuing revelation into connection with current events, partly introduces it with commonplace exhortations. Thus we see that the first chapter alone is available for determining the period. Nor is it easy to imagine that a writer living centuries later would have accepted such a distinct earlier prophecy had he not seen its fulfilment in his own days. In this Apocalypse on the Antichrist we have accordingly a document com- posed about the year 373. 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 * For the present I assume the genuine character of the Greek homilies here in question ; nor do I know any reasons against their ascription to S. Ephrem. In any case the whole of this literature is closely associated with the name of Ephrem. Compare, for instance, the Syriac homily on the Antichrist, which will be dealt with farther on, and which has also been handed down under the same name. 36 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. Ephremite •writings under consideration, despite the incredibly careless way that Ephrem has been edited by Assemani. The extant mannscripts 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 collections in the most diverse ways. Thus four distinct documents, a, b, e, d, are, for instance, found recurring in such combinations as a + b; a + b + c ; b + c + d; c + d, and so on ; so that in Assemani the same manuscripts get printed three, four, or five times over — a fact only in the rarest instances noted by the editor. A case in point is the very first document under consideration, the " Discourse on the Coming of the Lord, and about the End of the "World, and on thfe Coming of the Antichrist," ^ which appears in Vol. I., pp. 222-230 ; and again (all but the first section, that is, pp. 222-225 E of Vol. II.) in Vol. III., pp, 134-143, this, however, being by far the better text. During the first revisions numerous shorter sections disap- peared, and the originality of the last recension can be determined only by a comparison with Gerard Vossius' Latin edition of Ephrem (Antwerp, 1619, pp. 172 et seq), which, however, was itself partly based on still more valuable manuscripts, and with a writing of the pseudo-Hippolytus to be considered farther on. Proofs in detail will be given in due course. An excellent means of restoring the text is, more- MPBREM'S APOCALPYTIC WRITINGS. 37 over, presented by the remark made by Professor W. Meyer tliat Ephrem's homilies were composed and even translated in verse, although no doubt verse of a very peculiar kind, heedless of quantity, stress, or cadences. Syllables alone are reckoned, an Eastern process which Ephrem was probably the first to employ in Syriac. Vossius' Latin edition, where is still to be seen the transition from one measure to another, shows that we have here two kinds of versi- fication. There is first of all the stanza foot of seven lines, each consisting of fourteen syllables, the ceesura falling almost invariably in the middle, and every two verses forming a strophe. Then comes the stanza of four lines, in which each verse consists of sixteen syllables, with a c^sura throughout on the eighth, and wherever possible every fourth syllable coincides with the close of a word. In quoting Ephrem I have as far as possible restored this metrical system. For the Antichrist document I have also been able to utilise several collections and extracts from manu- scripts * kindly placed at my disposal by Professor Meyer. As the text can be restored with almost absolute certainty on the above-mentioned principles, I have not noted the variants occurring in manu- scripts, but quote from the recension in Vol. III., so far as it is still extant, and for the first part from W. Meyer's extract and collations. According to the Latin edition and the pseudo-Hippolytus, the title runs : " About the End of the World and about the * Vindob. Theol., 165 ; Vatican, 1524, 1815, 2030, 2074. 38 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. Antichrist "; ^ and according to the Greek manuscripts : " Discourse of S. Ephrem on the Antichrist." * Other Ephremite writings bearing on the subject, comprising four documents differently thrown together in the different codices, may be tabulated as under : A. A Discourse about the Gross/ B. A Discourse on the Second Advent of Christ.^ C. and D. Questions and Answers concerning the Last Judgment/ There are also to be considered the following writings, here given as they occur in Assemani's edition : III., pp. 144-147 : On the Sign of the Cross.' II., pp. 247-258 : Discourse on the Precious and Life-giving Cross, and on the Second Coming, and about Love and Almsgiving." IL, pp. 192-208 : On the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." IL, pp. 377-393 : Questions and Answers." IL, pp. 209-220 : About the Universal Resurrec- tion, and on Eepentance and Love.^^ III., pp. 215 et seq. : Questions on Renunciation.*' III., pp. 371-375 : About Repentance and the Judgment, and on the Second Coming." In the following scheme I have grouped these seven writings together just as the pages of the respective documents correspond, roughly of course, with each other. Wherever necessary I have more BPSREM'S APOCALTPTIO WRITINGS. 39 carefully indicated the openings of the corresponding sections, as well as the conclusion of A, B, C, D, by the subdivisions of the pages in Assemani. By means of the cross-lines the four original documents, from which the seven homilies have been composed, stand out clearly and distinctly. III. II. II. ill. II. III. III. 247 248 B 371 F A 249 372 144 250B 192 212F 373A 145 251 193 213 374 B 146 252 194 214 375 147 253F 195 (A, B) 215 254 166 377 215F 215 255B 197B 380E 217C 217B 256 BC 198DE3820 218D 218 257B 200B 384A 219D 219A 258A 201 E 385E 220F 202A 385F 203 386 204 387 205 DE 388 206 389B D 207 390 208 391 392(393) Parallelisms with the Apocalypse about the Anti- christ are offered especially by our document B, which thus gets printed no less than five times in Assemani. 40 TBE ANTICSBI8T LMGEND. From a more thorougli examination, which for lack of space cannot here be given in detail, it results that there are extant two recensions of this document, which differ not a little from each other, bat neither of which can claim absolute superiority in all respects. One of these (1) occurs in III., p. 144, and 11., p. 192; the other (2) in II., pp. 250, 212 ; III., p. 373, so that the last two stand again in the closest connection. In my quotations the recension is given. Moreover, chap. ii. of the Apocalypse (comprised in the exhortative part) shows direct contacts with Ephrem's " Discourse about Eepentance," III., pp. 376-380, and vdth the twentieth essay on the " Other Beatitudes," I. 294-299,** and still more with the Latin translation * of the latter treatise (Caspari, pp. 447, 456). Contacts with the other writings brought forward by Caspari are unimportant. 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). Yet this conclusion itself needs to be more ac- curately 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 * " Liber de beatitudine animEe." PSEUDO-HIPPOLTTtrS—APOCALTPTlO S0MIL7. 41 beyond doubt only for the exhortative part in chap. ii. And evea here it has again to be asked, Whence has Ephrena 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 current in his time. But then immediately follows the important inference that in the Antichrist treatise we have the same apocalyptic material still in the relatively origiaal 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. There comes next under consideration the homily bearing the name of Hippolytns (Lagarde, p. 92), 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 chap, xxii.) on Ephrem's homily bearing the same title, which is included in the original recension, III., pp. 134-143. But it is still more intimately related to the homily which is found in the Latin edition, and which is itself closely connected with III., pp. 134-143. The proof of this wUl be given in the third section by a continuous clause for clause comparison of the texts. After chap, xxxvi., which again depends on 42 THE ANTICBRIST LEGEND. Hippolytas' genuine work, the pseudo-Hippolytus utilises those documents in Ephrem's homilies which I have above indicated by the letters and D. In these sections, which deal with the Last Judgment (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 this series belongs also the pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse, which is comprised in Tischendorfs Apocalypses Apocrypkce, 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 (chap. 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 imitations of the canonical book of Revelation, as, for instance, in chap, xviii. With regard to the widely diverging traditions occurring here and there in some of the manuscripts, CTRIL'S CATECHETICAL LECTURE. 43 those are to be considered the best in whicb the text of the pseudo-John approaches nearest to the apocalyptic tradition of our group. Such is especially E Cod. Yenet. Marc, Class II., cod. xc, as is best seen in chap. vi. of the Apocalypse. Here in E alone occurs a report on the first appearance of the Antichrist, which corresponds exactly with the tradition con- tained in our group. After E consideration may next be claimed by B Parisiensis (N. 947, anno 1523), and lastly A Venet. Marc, Class XI., cod. xx. (15th century). 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. In the same series is comprised the version occurring in the Dioptra of Philip the Solitary, III. 10 ei seq. (in Migne's Patrol. Groec, CXXVII.), which is likewise closely connected with Ephrem. Nevertheless here also are found some interesting details which cannot be traced directly back to Ephrem. Lastly, here may be tentatively introduced a frag- ment to which Professor Bonwetsch has called my attention. It occurs amongst the works of S. Chry- sostom (Migne, LXI. 776), under the title, " On the 4i THM ANTICHRIST LEGEND. 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 cor- responding Antichrist legend is completely preserved in Slavonic under the name of Palladius. CHAPTER IV.* Two Medieval Sibylline Documents (Bede and Usingee) — Adso on the Anticheist— Pseudo-Methodius — S. Epheem: Syeiac Homily on the Antichemt — Review of the Geoup of Epheemite Weitings— The Common Souece of Adso's Aptticheist and of Bede's Sibyl— S. Jeeome's Apocalyptic Mateeial. I NOW come to a second group of extremely in- teresting documents, whose literary connection, however, presents extraordinary difficulties. I begin with the latest, a paraphrase or revised text of some earlier Sibyl, which occurs both in Bede (Migne, Vol. XC, p. 1183), and in the Pantheon (Book X.) of Godfrey of Viterbo {pb. 1190), and which has with some probability been ascribed to Godfrey himself.f 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 * For Notes ' to '^ of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 264. t Zezschwitz, 45 ; Usinger, Forsclmngen zur deutschen Geschichte, X. 629, 46 46 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. letters. The list of the 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 de- scription of a 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. Farther on we come upon a similar paraphrase, which has been published by Usinger {pp. cit., pp. 621 et seq.), but which is extant only in a fragmentary state. It begins somewhat obscurely with a pre- diction of the period of the three Othos (tenth cen- tury), and then carries on the history down to the time of Henry IV. (1050-1106). f 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 Eomans and Greeks, having written on his forehead that he shall uphold the kingdom of the Christians, 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 the Saracens will rise up for seven times, and they will do all evil things throughout the whole world, and nearly destroy all Christians. After these * " Kex nomine et animo Constans." At least, so it runs in the original text of Godfrey of Viterbo {Monum.enta, 22, 146), not rex nomine H animo Gonstans (Gutschmid, 149, Anmerkung 1). t According to Zezschwitz and Gutschmid («6. 147). BBDE'8 AND ADSO'S SIBYLLINE WRITINGS. 47 things the kingdom of the Eomans will arse and smite them, and thereafter there will be peaie and the kingdom of the Christians unto the time of the rule of the Antichrist." ^ Then follows a hrief reference to the Antichrist's rule, to the appearance of Gog and Magog, and the announcement that the last king will found his throne in Jerusalem. Retracing our steps from these Sibylline writers of the end of the twelfth and eleventh centuries, we come to a work which was written in 954 by the monk Adso * at the request of Queen Gerberga. From Adso it was borrowed by Albuinus, a priest of Cologne, who embodied it in a comprehensive treatise dedicated to Archbishop Herbert. Thus it happened that the work became current under the name of Albuin, and even got printed both amongst Alcuin's and Austin's works (Migne, CI. 1289, and XL. 1130). It forms a collection of eschatological essays, in the last part of which Adso gives a Sibylline treatise on his own authority. To Zezschwitz t is due the credit of having shown that the Sibyl utilised by Adso is the same that lies at the base of the document in Bede. The close agreement begins with the account of the last ruler ; whence it must be inferred that the whole of the previous list of rulers, as in Bede, was not found in the common source, according to which the account of the last ruler ran thus : * W. Meyer, Lxidus de Antichristo, Munich, 1882, p. 4. t Op. eit., p. 42, and in his Zusammenstellung der Texte, p. 159. 48 THE ANTICSRIST LEGEND. i Beds. Adso. And then will arise a king In tlie time of the said by naaie and of steadfast king, whose name will be C, mind. The same will be the king of the whole Roman steadfast king of the Romans empire. . . .^ and Greeks.^ Then follows an account of the glorious appearance of this king, and of the opulence which will prevail in his time ; after which we read : Bedb. Adso. And the king himself will He will always have be- have before his eyes the fore his eyes the Scriptui-e Scripture saying : thus saying : The king of the Romans [will] claim for himself [acquire] the whole kingdom of the lands [of the Christians] ; there- fore will he lay waste all the islands and cities [of the heathen], and destroy all the temples of the false gods, and all the pagans will he call to baptism, and the cross of Christ [Jesus] shaU be raised over all the temples.' During the reign of this king the Jews are to be converted, and he will vanquish the nations of Gog and Magog with their twelve or twenty-two kingdoms which had once been reduced by Alexander the Great ; " [and thereafter the king] will come to Jerusalem, and there laying aside his diadem [and all his royal state], he will resign unto God the Father and His Son Christ Jesus the Christian kingdom." * The length of the king's reign is given in Bede as one hundred and twenty-two, in Adso one hundred and twelve, BEDE'S AND ADSO'S SIBYLLINE WRITINGS. 49 and in manuscripts twelve years. That this last alone is correct, and the others nothing more than fabulous embellishments, is evident from a surprising parallelism in the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel, which will be considered farther on : " And after him another sprung of him will reign twelve years. And he, fore- seeing his death, went to Jerusalem in order to deliver his kingdom unto God." ^ Who is this king whose description is found in all these sources (compare above Usinger's Sibyl) ? By a comparison of the various notices, especially those in Bede (the king byname, etc.) and in the account in the Sibyl of Henry lY.'s time of the victories of the king in question over the Ishmaelites, Gutschmid infers that it was Constans II., so that the common sources would have originated at the beginning of this emperor's reign, a conclusion which is certainly very attractive. At the same time it is to be considered that the reign and personality of Constans II. by no means correspond with the description, which would accord- ingly have to be regarded as purely fantastic ; further, that there is no mention of triumphs over the Ishmael- ites in the source of the documents in Adso and Bede ; lastly, that the quibble with the name of the king might conceivably point just as well to a Const'antins or a Constantine. The account of the king here intro- duced also agrees with the fourth century, the early period of the Christian emperors, quite as weU as with the seventh century. On the other hand, Zezschwitz (p. 43) is fully justified in suggesting that in the concluding part of 4 50 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. this apocalyptic tradition events are no longer passing in the "Western but in the Eastern empire. At the close the prediction points to its Oriental origin, while the idea of the last Roman emperor going to Jerusalem and there abdicating could have arisen only in times preceding the Crusades. Zezschwitz accordingly ex- tends his investigations to the apocalyptic collection known as the Revelation of the pseudo-Methodius. In the more detailed account of the last emperor's abdication in Jerusalem he shows a direct parallel between the Sibyl of the time of Henry IV. and the pseudo-Methodius (p. 162) ; he also finds in the description of the appearance of Gog and Magog a parallelism between pseudo-Methodius and Adso. On the pseudo-Methodius itself no clear idea can be formed pending a trustworthy edition of that work. The available text is found in the Monumenta Patrum Orthodoxographa, 2nd ed., Basel, 1569, Vol. I. (Greek 93, Latin 100 pp.). The Greek text, however, is according to Gutschmid (p. 152) a free re-cast dating from the twelfth century. Relatively far more valu- able appears to be the editio princeps, Cologne, 1475. The editions of the Latin text all derive from that of Augsburg, 1496. Some of the sections of this interest- ing work, and those the most important for our purpose, have been reproduced by Caspari ; * the Greek from the second edition of the Orthodoxographa, the Latin from two revised manuscripts. In Gutschmid's opinion (p. 152) nearly all the materials are lacking in the original Greek text, on * Brief e wnd Ahhandlungen, pp. 463 ei seq. PSEUDO-METHODIUS. 51 ■whicli all attempts have hitherto been made to assign a more accurate date to the document. Such is especially the long section giving a detailed account of some siege of Byzantium. Zezschwitz,* who has taken great pains to determine the date of this docu- ment, points to the blockade of Byzantium, which took place in 715 and the following years, and to the three rulers whose names occur in this connection — Philippicus Bardanes, Leo the Isaurian, and Con- stantine V. (Copronymus). It seems to me that these indications are correct, and I may here point to the interesting parallel passage in the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (117, 2 et seq.). The ruler here described as the liberator and the restorer of peace is Leo the Isaurian. No doubt he reigns according to the Greek text thirty-six, but according to the Slavonic translation thirty-two years, f like the Leo of the pseudo-Methodius in the revised text. Farther back (117, 55) occurs the passage : " And the great Philip with eighteen tongues and they shall be gathered together in the Seven Hills and prepare for war." * Here we have Philippicus Bardanes, while a perfect parallel passage occurs in 117, 61 ': "Then shall the ox bellow and the arid hill lament." '' There is, however, a discrepancy. The successor to Leo is described in the Apocalypse of Daniel as the last emperor who lays aside his crown in Jerusalem, whereas in the pseudo-Methodius this ruler (Con- * Pages 64 et seg. t According to a communication kindly made to me by Professor Bonwetsch. 52 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. stantiue V.) is very unfavourably judged. The passage in Daniel may, however, possibly be older than the corresponding passage foisted into pseudo-Methodius ; for the expectation of a good emperor as successor . to Leo could only have arisen before the reign of the hated Constantine, We thus obtain a standpoint for fixing the age of the pseudo-Methodius through the discovery that a document dating from the eighth century had already been interpolated into this work. Gutschmid also thinks that it was certainly composed before the over- throw of the Ommiades, which is again confirmed by the existence of manuscripts of the Latin translation as old as the eighth and ninth centuries. Gutschmid goes even so far as to assert with some confidence that the work was composed between the years 676-678. Considering the hopeless confusion of the textual tradition as embodied in this Methodius, it may seem somewhat risky to venture any further opinion on its contents. Nevertheless to me it seems safe to conclude that the Latin and Greek texts in the Ortho- doxographa belong to two totally different streams of tradition, so that wherever these two witnesses agree they stand on tolerably safe ground. All the pieces excluded by Gutschmid, on the strength of his better manuscripts, are also shown by a like collation to be interpolations now in the Latin, now in the Greek text. The pseudo-Methodius is, in fact, a collection of apocalyptic materials, which, however, is pervaded by a uniform sentiment. It was obviously composed PSEUBO-METHODIUS. 53 under the powerful and vivid impression produced by tlie ceaseless and irresistible onslauglit of Islam against the whole civilised world as at that time constituted. In it may be distinguished about seven different documents. 1. A survey of the early history of nations, beginning with Adam. 2. Gideon's victory over the Ishmaelites, concluding with the ominous foreboding that these nomads will once again issue from their settlements in the wilderness and lay the world in ruins, but that at last the Eoman empire will still come out triumphant. 3. The history of Alexander the Great ; the erection of the rocky barrier against Gog and Magog ; the prediction of the irruption of these nations in the last days (compare Bede and Adso) ; the marriage of Bisas, first king of Byzantium, with Khuseth, mother of Alexander,* and of their daughter Bisantia with Romulus, " who is also called Armeelius." f 4. A comment on the Pauline pre- diction in 2 Thessalonians, chap, ii., with the indication that by the kingdom which lasts to the end is to be understood the Roman empire, despite the ascendency of the Ishmaelites. 5. On the " reign of terror " of Islam. 6. On the brilliant victory of a Roman emperor, who must no doubt be identified with Constantine IV. when he fixes the date of the work at 676-678 a.d. : " Then will suddenly arise a king * On the evolution of these fables, see Zezschwitz, pp. 52 et seq. t " Qui et Armseleus dictus." This gloss, which is not found in the Greek text, is here introduced because it confirms the identification of the Jewish Antichrist Armillus, ArmUaos, with Komulus. 64 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. of the Greeks or of the Eomans, like unto a man refreshed with wine from sleep." ' 7. The end : Gog and Magog and their overthrow by the Eoman emperor ; the birth of the Antichrist ; the emperor's abdication ; the sway of the Antichrist ; the last judgment. Now the relation with the already described sources stands thus. Adso and Bede with their common source coincide only in one point with Methodius (see below), but are only more remotely connected with No. 7, while Usinger*s Sibyl shows a closer relation to No. 7, and Adso in the first part of his work with Nos. 4t and 7. Adso, however, has here nothing of the further development of the Methodius saga, according to which the crown laid aside in Jerusalem is to be borne heavenwards with the cross. These remarks enable us to advance a conjecture regarding the apocalyptic sources which lie far beyond the Methodius itself. This work is not, as was still supposed by Zezschwitz (p. 50), the last link of the chain bearing on the subject. Even Gutschmid has already noticed that Adso, Bede, [and Usinger] lead us back to an earlier document, which, as he thinks, dates from the time of Constans II. (642-668). In the common source of Adso and Bede the above-mentioned expansion of the statement regarding the deposition of the crown is not yet found, though already occurring in Usinger. Zezschwitz himself retraces his steps, and con- jectures that the historical foundation of the apoca- lyptic expectations in Methodius is to be sought in FSEUB0-METH0DIU8. 55 the reign of the emperor Heraclius. During his triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Heraclius is sup- posed, in accordance with the saga, to have been arrested by an angel at the city gate, and to have laid aside both crown and purple before entering Jerusalem (p. 58). He is also supposed to have summoned to his aid against the Saracens the nations of Gog and Magog, whom Alexander the Great had shut up within the Caspian gates (p. 61). The Heraclius saga would thus be the starting-point of that apocalyptic tradition, with which view Gutschmid agrees. But it may well be asked whether its origin may not be traced still farther back. We are, in fact, now in the fortunate position of being able to follow up the cycle of legends back to a far more remote time. A glance at Malvenda's comprehensive work de Antichristo (I. 570) might have already brought us, in connection with the Gog and Magog legend, to the paragraph in S. Jerome's epistle to Oceanus (77, 8) to the effect that " the swarms of the Huns burst forth from the remote Mseotis Palus [Sea of Azov] between the gelid Tanais [river Don] and the vast nation of the Massagetse, where the barriers of Alexander [at Derbend] confine the rude populations to the rocks of Caucasus." * Then Caspari has called attention to the parallelisms between the pseudo-Methodius and the * " Ab ultima Mseotide inter glacialem Tanain et Massage- tarum immanes populos, ubi Caueasi rupibus feras gentes Alexandri claustra cohibent, erupisse Hunnorum examina" (compare Hegesippus, de Excidio Jer., V. 50). The legend that 56 TBE ANTICBBIST LEGEND. Discourse of the pseudo-Ephrem (p. 20). Once there occurs an exact parallel in pseudo-Ephrem (chap, iv.) with Methodius in the description of Gog and Magog ; and here also -we find (chap, v.) the important passage : " And already the kingdom of the Eomans is abolished and the empire of the Christians is delivered up to God and the Father, and then comes the consum- mation, when the kingdom of the Romans shall begin to be consummated and all the principalities and powers brought to an end." ° Even allowing that Caspari's doubts regarding the date of the Discourse (about 373) were justified, we are in any case led back beyond the reign of Heraclius. For there is still no trace in the Ephremite Discourse of the irruption of Isldm, the foes of the Roman empire being still the Persians. Thus the apoca- lyptic tradition in question cannot be founded on the Heraclius saga, which could not possibly have sprung up till after the year 629. But now comes, on the other hand, a welcome confirmation of the correct epilogue in the pseudo- Ephremite Discourse. Professor W. Meyer directs my attention to Th. J. Lamy's Hymns and Discourses of S. Ephrem the Syrian,* where we have a sermon pre- served in Syriac " about Agog and Magog and the End and the Consummation," t showing the closest Alexander built the Caspian gates against the incursions of the surrounding -wild tribes goes even still farther back (Pliny, NaiuT. Historia, VI. 13). * SanctiEphraem Syri Hymni et Sej'moMes,Vol. III., pp. 187 et seq. t " De Agog et Magog et de fine et consummatione." P8EVD0-METH0DIU8. 57 connection with the Latin Disconrse and with the work of Methodius ; thus : Epheem, III. 190.10 Pseudo-Epheem, I.i" Now, like tlie Nile, which In those days shall many rising floods the land, the rise up against the Roman regions shall girdle them- state, ... for there shall selves against the Eoman be commotions amongst the empire, and peoples shall peoples, war against peoples and kingdom against kingdom, and from one land unto another shall the ilomans hurry as if in flight. But the most striking agreement occurs between Ephrem Syr., chaps, v. et seq., the Disconrse of ps.- Ephrem, ch. v., and ps.-Method., VII., chap, v.,* in the account of the savage peoples Gog and Magog, " who dwell beyond those gates which Alexander built." t Ephrem the Syrian has in common with pseudo- Methodius the enumeration of the twenty-four tribes, while the parallels in the Discourse of Ephrem and in pseudo-Methodius are mere scanty excerpts from the detailed description of these fierce populations. And here are also mentioned Gog and Magog, that is to say, the Huns, whose irruption into the Edessa district * The parallelisms between pseudo-Ephrem and pseudo- Methodius brought together by Caspari (pp. 463 et seq.) are explained by their common dependence on Ephrem the Syrian. t " Qui sunt ultra illas portas quas fecit Alexander." 68 THE ANTICHRIST LSaEND. took place during the time of Ephrem himself, as we learn from an Armenian life of him which states that he wrote against the Huns.* Here, therefore, we have, as conjectured by Caspari, the common source of the Discourse and of pseudo- Methodius, and probably also the historical event whence arose the Gog and Magog saga in the form with which we are concerned. Then follows in Ephrem the Syrian, beginning with chap, viii., the Antichrist legend proper. Here, however, I have not found any special relations between Ephrem and the Discourse ; and remembering the great persistence of the saga, we have to be very careful in comparing two independent sources. On the other hand, pseudo- Methodius, yil., is manifestly dependent on Ephrem, as may be seen by comparing the account of the wonders wrought by Antichrist and of Enoch and Elias. In the Antichrist saga Ephrem has introduced a great many archaic elements. The statement (chap, xii.) that Enoch and Elias are awakened by the angels Michael and Gabriel I have met elsewhere only in the Ethiopic Petrine Apocalypse,t in which they are also the assailants of Antichrist. J * Lamy, 198, remark 2. With this may be compared the Apocalyptic Commentaries of Andreas, edited by Sylbm'g (p. 94, 45) : " But some consider Gog and Magog to be hyper- borean Scythian peoples, whom we call the most numerous and warlike of all the surrounding territory." " t In pseudo-Johannes, however, chap, ix., the universal awakening of the dead after the murder of the two witnesses is also brought about by Michael and Gabriel. % Cf. also Adso and Bede. TBE PSEUDO-JOHANNINE APOCALYPSE. 59 In the account of the destruction of the world by fire the pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse comes nearest to Ephrem, while Gog and Magog are destroyed hy Michael the Archangel (chap. xiii.). The same incident occurs also in the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra (chap, xiii.), which has been published by Baethgen from the manu- script Sachau, 131.* This apocalypse will be dealt with farther on. Lastly it will be necessary to inquire into the mutual relations of the various writings which have been handed down under the name of Ephrem, and which will have to be repeatedly referred to in the course of our inquiry. At the very outset doubts arise with regard especially to the authenticity of Ephrem's Syriac Discourse itself. In chap. iii. occurs the passage : " The saints shall lift their voice, and their clamour shall mount unto heaven, and from the wilderness shall go forth the people of Hagar, hand- maiden of Sarah, who made the covenant with Abraham, husband of Sarah and of Hagar, and they shall be stirred so that they may come in the name of the wilderness as the envoy of the son of perdition." ^^ There can be scarcely a doubt that the Arabs are here meant, and in the following chapters (iii., iv.) a very vivid description is given of the devastation which will be caused by this people of the wilderness. But all the more decidedly is an earlier period indicated in the description of the Huns, which then follows. If we omit chap. iii. from the words " and from the wilderness," and the whole of chap, iv., then chap. v. * Zeitschr.furalttestamentliche Wissenschaft.,Yl.,'pp. Wietseq. 60 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. will accurately fit in with the words : " Then will the divine Justice summon the kings, that is, Gog and Magog." It is obvious that the twofold description of an irruption of a savage people as in chaps, iii., v., et seq. would be absolutely meaningless. It may even be more clearly shown that we have a pas sage interpolated in the test. In the enumeration of the twenty-four peoples of Gog and Magog there is an identical parallelism between Ephrem and the pseudo-Methodius ; and' from a comparison of the two it is seen that the names Thogarma, Medi, Persfe, Armeni, " Turcae " have been interpolated. Then we get also the number twenty-four which is expressly given in the Latin version of Methodius ; only the Khusas are reckoned twice over. But in other respects the lists in Ephrem the Syrian and in Methodius (both Greek and Latin texts) fully correspond, which at first sight might scarcely be supposed possible,* In other respects there seems to be no objections to the text as it stands. The vivid description of the Huns brings us to the lifetime of Ephrem, and * Bearing in mind the above-indicated interpolations, we find tlie numbers almost completely corresponding. Thus Eph. 1-8; Metb. Gr. 1-8; Metb. Lat. 1-2, 5-10 (M. Lat. puts Nos. 18, 17, Mosakb Tubal, in 3 and 4 of the list) E. 9-13 =. M. Gr. 14, 15, 18, 16, 17 = M. Lat. 16-20. E. 14-19 = M. Gr. 9-13 (12 seems = 17 -H 18) = M. Lat 11-13, 4, 3, 15. E. 20-24 M. Lat. 14, 20-24 (in M. Gr, 20 and 21 are missing). In E. I take 20 to be the Nemrukhaei = M. Lat. Lamarcbiani, and a glance at tbe Syriac text will sbow tbe possibility of tbis transposition ; 22, bowever, tbat is, Pbisolonici, tpiKovUwt, cannot be fitted in, unless we suppose it derived from the Syriac ^o]3;i.'3 197, 3. EPSBEM'S SYRIAC DISCOURSE. 61 gives credibility to the tradition which assigns this Syriac Discourse to him. Coming now to Ephrem's authentic Discourse, full support is given to its assumed date about the year 373 by the correct identification of the Huns with the savage people here described. But to the question, Is the Discourse to be also ascribed to Ephrem himself? I think I must give a negative answer. In the Syriac Discourse Ephrem presents a different picture of the destruction of the Eoman empire. Thus in chap. viii. : " And there shall arise in the place of this people the kingdom of the Eomans, which shall subdue the world unto its confines, and there shall be no one to stand up against it. But when wickedness shall be multi- plied on the earth, . . . then shall arise the divine Justice and shall utterly destroy the people, and the man of wickedness [that is, Antichrist] proceeding from perdition shall come upon the earth." ^^ Eemembering that the reigning emperor was tainted with the Arian heresy, we cannot be surprised at this judgment of Ephrem. In the Latin Discourse, on the other hand, it is for the first time stated that the Roman empire shall not perish, but voluntarily deliver up its sway ; and for this very reason the Discourse cannot be ascribed to Ephrem. But it originated soon after on the base of the details supplied by Ephrem. But then in what relation does the above- described Greek Discourse of Ephrem stand to the Syriac ? The fact that it is detetitute of any political motives is no reason for doubting its authenticity, because this Discourse deals exclusively with the very 62 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. last days. It is more important to notice that in the Syriac Bphrem no mention yet occurs of the apparition of the Cross at the universal judgment, a feature to which such prominence is given in the Greek homilies. On the other hand, there is nothing in the Greek Discourse ahout the part which Michael and Gabriel play in the last days. But on one important and remarkable point the Greek and the Syriac are in accord ; in both the servants and messengers of the Antichrist are represented as demons. K we have, in the Greek perhaps, a revision of Ephrem's genuine work, most of the details given by him are doubtless still to be traced back to Ephrem. Here at last the question of the common source of Adso, II., and of Bede's Sibyl can again be discussed. Should not this Sibyl, with its allusion to the " king by name and of steadfast mind," be after all traced back to some period long antecedent to Constans II. ? At least the notion that the last Roman emperor delivers up his crown to God is already found in a document of the fourth century. It by no means dates from the time of Heraclius, and it may be confidently affirmed that the idea of the Roman empire being destroyed before the appearance of the Antichrist must have very soon undergone some such modification after the empire had become Christian. But if we once go beyond the time of Heraclius, then we must assuredly also shift that source back to the fourth cpntury, for the emperor spoken of in it is unanimoisly described as "king of the Romans and Greeks." Hence there remain but two THE SOXTRCE OF AD80 AND BEBE. 63 alternatives, to look for the "king by name . . . steadfast " (" Constans ") either in the fourth century or in the time following the reign of Justinian. It is still, however, possible that in the word " Constans " we have, not the actual name of the king, but merely a play of words ; thus here, for instance, the allusion might perhaps be to Constantius, or even, though less probably, to Constantine I. , In determining the point we get little help from the twelve years given as the duration of his reign, and this term must be regarded as a purely apocalyptic fancy. The last king is conceived as the counterpart of Alexander the Great, whose reign lasts twelve years in the pseudo-Methodius. The influence of the history of the Macedonian epoch is similarly felt in the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel,* where is described yet another partition of the world into four kingdoms, as taking place after the death of the king, who in the last times reigns twelve years. An interesting confirmation of this legend is afforded by a remark made by Zezschwitz (p. 21). In the chronicle where Godfrey of Viterbo sings the glories of Alexander, the Conqueror is introduced as saying : Eeddo tibi restituamque thronum, Te solo dominante volo tibi regna relinqui. That is to say : " To thee I deliver up and restore the throne ; to thee, sole ruler, will I that the kingdom be resigned." Thus in some particulars are merged together the Alexander and the Antichrist sagas. Here may, in conclusion, be ext mined another special * Klostermann, lliJ, 84. 64 THE ANTICEBIST LEGEND. feature from the cycle of traditions under considera- tion. It occurs in the Ludus de Antichristo, a play which was composed ahout the year 1160, and the author of which has not hitherto heen quoted as a special authority because he draws his material mainly from Adso.* Here we read how the Anti- christ overcomes the Greek king by war, the French by gifts, and the German by miracles. The source of these fancies has now been discovered by Meyer in the following passage of Adso : " Against the faithful will he rise up in three ways — that is, by terror, by gifts, and by wonders ; to the believers in him will he give gold and silver in abundance ; but those whom he shall fail to corrupt by presents he will overcome by fear, and those whom he shall fail to vanquish by fear he will seek to seduce by signs and wonders " (1294 A)." These fancies, however, are still more widespread, as seen in the Elucidarium (treated below), where are enumerated four kinds of temptations used by the Antichrist : 1. divitice (riches) ; 2. terror ; 3. sapientia (wisdom) ; 4. signa et prodigia (signs and wonders). In Eterianus also (see below) occurs the passage : " By threats, blandishments, and all [other] ways will he seduce." ^ But in their essence all these passages may be traced back to S. Jerome. In his Commentary on Daniel xi. 39, Jerome is already able to tell us that " Antichrist also will lavish many gifts on the beguiled, and will divide the world among his army, and those whom he shall fail * Of. W. Meyer, the Lvdus de Antichristo, pp. 10 et seq. and 14 et seq. JEROME ON TBE APOCALYPSE OF DANIEL. 65 to quell by terror he will overcome by greed." " Scarcely has Jerome extracted this information from the obscure passage in Daniel, which he is even unable to translate, when he falls completely back on apocalyptic tradition, as will be shown farther on* Here we again clearly see how deep-rooted are even such apparently remote and isolated elements of our apocalyptic tradition. It is noteworthy that we here come for the second time on a parallelism between Jerome and the group of Antichrist documents under consideration. Hence Jerome's apocalyptic tradition, which occurs chiefly in his Commentary on Daniel as well as in his epistle to Algasia (Qucestio XI.), belongs also perhaps to the cycle of traditions in question. In the documents just dealt with we have accord- ingly a literary series which, beginning with Ephrem, extends through pseudo-Methodias and Adso to the medieval Sibylline writers and the miracle play composed in the Hohenstaufen epoch. Thus may be seen how the Antichrist legend gets modified when the Koman empire embraces Christianity, and how it preserves traces of such events as the beginning of the migrations of the peoples and the irruption of the Huns. It also tells us about the history of the Byzantine emperors and the destructive effects of the flood of Islam bursting over the Eastern provinces. Lastly we find it interwoven with the history of the German empire and the Crusades. * Cyprian also goes beyond Jerome in his reference to " Anticlirist's threats and corruptions and dens of vice " (Anti- christi minas et comiptelas et lupanaria) in de Mortalitate, 15. 5 CHAPTEE v.* The Greek and Armenian Apocalypses of Daniel — The Arabic, Syriac, and Ethiopio Apocalypses of Peter — The Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra. A THIRD group of sources is from later apoca- lyptic works now to be considered. In the Stichometry of Nicephorus and in tlie Synopsis of Athanasius there is a Book of Daniel, while a seventh Vision of Daniel is mentioned in a list of apochrypha hy Mekhithar of Airivank in 1290.t The text of a Greek Apocalypse of Daniel was first published by Tischendorf {Apocalypses Apocryphce, xxx.-xxxiii.), and again in a legible form by Klostermann (Analecta zur Septuaginta, Leipzig, 1895, pp. 1\^ et seq.). An Armenian seventh Vision of Daniel has also been published by Gr. Kalemkiar in the Vienna Zeitschr. fiir die Kunde des Morgenlandes (Vol. VI. 109 et seq., 227 et seq.). A comparison of the two documents made by Zahn { before the appearance of Klostermann's text showed that both, although quite dififerent, point back to a common source. Here we shall endeavour to bring out this source still more distinctly. * For Notes ' to ' of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 266. + Zahn, Foraclmngen, Vol. V., 115, 116. t Hid., V. 119. GREEK AND ARMENIAN APOC. OF DANIEL. 67 ' In the opening, couched in the Sibylline style, the two writings have much in common. Yet these predictions, as they are generally considered, defy all interpretation. But both apocalypses agree in one important detail, a prophecy launched against Rome, the city of the seven hills, which clearly points to the end of the Western empire (compare the Armenian, 237, 9, with the Greek, 116, 28). After referring by name to the reign of Olybrius (472) = Orlogios, that is, if Zahn's conjecture is right,* the texts run : Greek. '^ Aemenian. 37. But the sons of per- Z. 30. And the king will dition. standing up will turn turn his face towards the their faces to the setting of west. the sun. 38. Woe to thee, Seven- Then woe to thee, thou hilled, from such wrath Seven-hilled, when thy king [/ when thou wert girdled is a youth. round by a great host, and [when] a youth shall rule over thee wretched. Then follows in both a reference to the beginning of the Gothic rule, the dynasty " of another religion, that is Arianus," t as it reads in Ar. ; or " of the fair race," t as it runs in Gr. But whether we are to understand Ar., 238, 29-32 to refer to the establish- ment of the exarchate of Ravenna is not quite clear. * Zahn, Forschungen, Vol. V., 118. t TO ^avBov ytvos. 68 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. This particular clause is not found in Gr., hence must be a later insertion. Then, immediately after the mention of these events, Ar. gives an account of the rule of the Anti- christ and of the end, while the Greek Apocalypse also concludes with the details about the Antichrist. The source of both apocalypses now comes out clearly and distinctly. The essential element is the old apocalypse about the Antichrist, who according to remote tradition was to come when the Roman empire lay in ruins. Nothing was more natural than the revival of this old Antichrist legend (introduced with an allusion to current events) at tlie time when the Western empire was falling to pieces. In any case, the title of this revelation was doubtless the Apocalypse of Daniel. But it is another question whether the common source itself also bore this name (see above). Thus the two later legends (Ar. and Gr.) had their origin in the earlier apocalypse. In Ar., 230, 24 et seq. the destinies of the Eastern empire are predicted by anticipation. Marcian is mentioned by name (231, 19) ; the history of Leo I., of Zeno and of the usurper Basiliscus is still clearly related ; while Kalemkiar finds events predicted down to the emperor Heraclius — a conjecture, however, which is already questioned by Zahn. If, however, 234 refers to the seven-hilled Babylon,* to the reign of a widow, and to a dragon who is to persecute the foreigners, * The author of Ar. no longer understands it in this sense (231, 16). GREEK AND ARMENIAN APOC. OF DANIEL. 69 then we have here some elements again borrowed from the common source of Ar. and Gr. In Gr. also there is a prediction entirely independent of Ar. It has reference to the history of the Eastern empire, which, as would seem (117, 42), hegins with the fall of the Western empire, and lasts till the reign of Constantino V. Thus it becomes quite clear how the interpolation came about. Like the Armenian, the Greek writer has also forgotten the meaning of the "seven-hilled" (119, 88). He accordingly dissociates the sway of the Antichrist from the fall of the Western empire, his relation passing from the Western to the Eastern empire, whereas in Ar. the order is reversed. In the common source a Sibylline style is evident, and is very pronounced, especially in the opening section of the apocalypses. The very word eTrraXoc^o? (" seven-hilled ") has also become current in Sibylline literature as the distinctive by-name of Eome. In this connection I may call attention to the article by Kozak on the apocryphal biblical literature amongst the Slavs in the Yahrbuuch fur Protest. Theologie, 1892, 128 et seq. From N. xviii. of Kozak's papers it appears that a Vision of Daniel has also been preserved and already printed in the South Slavonic (Serb) and Eussian languages, and according to this authority the documents correspond with the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel.* In N. xxxviii. mention * Professor Bonwetscli has kindly favoured me with a trans • lation of some parts of the Slavonic Apocalypse, which seems identical with the Greek. 70 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. is made of a Narration about the Antichrist, which, as briefly summarised, contains a record of the Byzantine emperor, a prediction of a famine, and the rule of a virgin who receives the Antichrist as a bird, the appearance of John the Theologian and his contention with the Antichrist, the appearance of ; (Elias and his death, the sway of the Antichrist and ' the end of the world.* The mention of the rale of a virgin is interesting. With it is to be compared the frequent reference to the rule of a widow in Ar. and in Gr. : " And there being no man available, a polluted woman shall reign in the [city of the] seven hills, and defile the holy altars of God, and standing in the midst of the seven hills shall cry out with a loud voice, saying : Who is God but I, and who shall resist my sway ? And forthwith the seven hills shall be shaken and all life cast into the deep." ' Then follows (119, 100) the dominion of the Antichrist. Perhaps some light is thrown by this passage on an obscure part of the Sibylline literature. In Sibyl III. 75 we read : " And then verily the whole world under the hands of a woman — there shall be a ruler and a prevailer in all things — then when a widow shall rule the whole earth — and cast gold and silver into the vast deep — the bronze and eke the iron of mortal men — shall cast into the sea, then truly all the elements — shall be bereft of order when God dwelling on high — shall roll up the heaven."^ * It may further be mentioned that a fourteenth Vision of Daniel is extant in some Coptic manuscripts (Klostermann, 114). 6REEK AND ARMENIAN APOC. OF DANIEL. 71 It is noteworthy tliat here the appearance of the Antichrist (Belial) comes first. On the title of the Apocalypse of Daniel it is further to be noted that Lightfoot (quoted by Zahn, 120) draws attention to a miscellaneous codex of the twelfth century in Wright's Catalogue of Syriac MSS., I. 19, which, after the deuterocanonical additions to Daniel, contains a fragment " from the Little Daniel on our Lord (?) and the End of the World." * Here we may perhaps conjecture that we have a part of the Apocalypse, which again lies at the base of the rediscovered source. Zahn is further of opinion that, in accordance with a notice of Ebed Jesu (Assemani, Bill. Orient:, III. 15), Hippolytus had already commented on this apocryphal book of the Little Daniel. Professor Bonwetsch, who was consulted by me on the subject, is inclined to see in the notice of" the Little [Young] Daniel and Susanna" only one and the same work — that is, the apocryphal history of Susanna and Daniel of the Old Testament. I should greatly desire to have this matter cleared up, for it would be very important to find that Hippolytus had already known and commented upon an Apocalypse of Daniel. What has been said higher up regarding Hippolytus is no longer an impossibility. The relations of the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel to the pseudo-Methodius, and especially to the inter- * Compare what is stated below on a Jewish Book: of Daniel of the ninth century. Apocalyptic material also occurs in the Life of Daniel contained in Vitce Prophetarum (" Lives of the Prophets ") wrongly attributed to Epiphanius. 72 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. polated passage on the siege of Constantinople, has already been discussed (p. 51). Here may further be mentioned the interesting title of a treatise occurring in Fabricins : " The Last Vision of the Great Prophet Daniel," etc* At the head of a further group of documents I place the apocalyptic writings, which are still extant in the Arabic, the Ethiopic (Geez), and probably also the Syriac languages under the name of Liher dementis discipuU 8. Petri ("Book of S. Peter's Disciple Clement"), or also Petri Apostoli Apocalypsis per Clementem, etc. (" Apocalypses of the Apostle Peter by Clement," etc.). A review is given by Bratke of the very confused tradition respecting this book.* To Dillmann, however, is due the fullest survey of the Ethiopic translation of this work, which has nowhere yet been printed. But we have to consider the special eschatological sections, which, according to Dillmann, are found in the second and fourth parts, the first being a prediction about Islam, the second another about the rule of the Antichrist. Farther down it will be made evident that both of these now separated sections are essential parts of an original apocalypse, possibly that of S. Peter. The section most interesting to us contains especially a prophecy on the history of Isldm, which Dillmann has interpreted with brilliant success. First comes a reference to twelve rulers of the Ommiades (Muhammad to Abu-Bekr II.), the first four of whom are indicated by their initial letters (Muhammad, Abu-Bekr, Omar, * Zeitschr. fiir Wissenschaft. TJieologie, 1893, 1., pp. 454 etseq. ARAB., ETHIOP., AND STB. APOO. OF PETER. 73 Othman). Then the history is continued through six rulers down to Merwan II., after which follows an account of battles fought by the King of the South (Merwan) against the King of the Bast (the Abassides), and we are told how the King of the East conquers Egypt. The author speaks of four empires : the Eagle representing the Babylonian, the Panther the Greek, the Lion the Roman (of which it is remarked " the king of Eome reigns till my second coming "), and a beast called Arn^ (Dragon, Snake), the children of Ed°y6. By this last, which takes the second place, presumably according to its rank, is represented the empire of IsMm. At that time, when the dynasty of the Ommiades was overthrown, the Lion's son rises again and triumphs over Islam, this Lion's son being, according to Dill- mann, Constantine Copronymus. Damascus, capital of the Ommiades, is to be destroyed ; but when the Lion's son returns from his expeditions, then the end is near, as was known to Peter. Then comes an unintelligible indication of a period when all this is to happen. Here should probably immediately follow that section about the Antichrist which is now found in the second part of the book. We have here, there- fore, an apocalypse, the solution of which is complete in all its details. To show that in the Arabic Apocalypse_of S. Peter we have an almost identical work, the reader may consult Nicoll's BibliotJieccB Bodleiance Codices Manuscr. Orient. Catalog., Oxford, 1821, II., pp. 149 et seq. Unfortunately the contents of chaps, xxxi.-xliv. are not 74 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. given. In chap. xlvi. we have already the mention of the Lion's son; while in chap, xlvii. the four empires are enumerated as above. The second empire is that of the Beni'l Abn, the fourth that of the Eomans, of which it is said that " this shall remain tOl the advent of Christ." * Chap, xlviii. has a description of the Beni'l Abu, the beginning of whose rule is determined by the year 923 from Alexander. A discrepancy is shown in chaps, lii. and liii., inasmuch as here the Lion's son is represented as a foe of the Christians, and a promise given of his overthrow by the archangel Michael. In chap. Ixvii. we are told of " the going forth of the ac- cursed son of Dan, who is Antichrist, and of the descent of Elias and Enoch, and that these he is to kill and perform great wonders and many marvels." ® In the second and third parts of the Ethiopic Apoca- lypse of S. Peter were also comprised the fragments of a " Syriac Apocalypse of Simon Peter," which are published by Bratke (pp. 468 et seq.). A comparison of the two fragments on the Antichrist here given at pp. 471 and 481 shows that in the details great changes naturally occur. Here therefore we have in all probability an Ethiopic, an Arabic, and a Syriac recension of the same work, the apocalyptic elements of which were composed about the time of the fall of the Ommiades. By a lucky chance Dillmann has given us a transla- tion of the following fragment touching the Lion's son (p. 73 a) : "I will awaken the Lion's son, and he shall * " Quorum hoc ad Christi adventum mansurum est." ARAB., HTMIOP., AND SYR. APOC. OF PETER. 75 slay ntterly all the kings and tread them down, for I have given him the power thereunto, and therefore is the appearance of the Lion's son like that of a man who is awakened from his sleep." This stands in obvious relation to the passage quoted above (p. 54) from the book of Methodius (Part VI.). But a close connection is also manifest between the Ethiopia Petrine Apoca- lypse and the pseudo-Methodius. It may therefore be conjectured that the pseudo-Methodius was one of the sources of the Petrine document, even though in other respects Gutschmid may be right in identifying the Byzantine ruler of pseudo-Methodius with Oon- stantine IV. Starting from this assumption, we shall now arrive at a solution of the puzzle to which the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra published by Baethgen gives rise.* Obviously the opening of the Apocalypse is a re-cast of the Petrine Apocalypse. In chap. iii. a Serpent appears with twelve horns on its head and nine on its tail. When this is compared with the above given particulars, it becomes evident that here the allusion is to the rule of the Ommiades. Certainly the number nine does not agree with the enumeration in the Petrine Apocalypse of the second line of rulers sprung from the House of the Ommiades ; but such a slight discrepancy is immaterial. An Eagle coming from the South destroys the last horns of the Serpent — that is, the sway of the Abassides. From the East comes a Viper, which stands in * Zeitschr.f. alttest Wissemchaft., VT., pp. 200 et seq., from the MS. Sachau, 131, in the Berlin Eoyal Library. 76 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. association with the land of Egypt, and therefore represents the Fatimite dynasty. We thus see that the two particulars " from the South," " from the East," are taken from the Petrine Apocalypse and wrongly applied. The four kings on the Euphrates river, the Ravens which come from the East, are the Tilrki Sultanates, four of which are already mentioned by contemporary historians. Then comes (chap, vii.) the account of the young Lion's victories concluding with the destruction of Damascus, after which follows (chap, viii.) the description of the time of the Anti- christ. It is thus made clear that we have here an adaptation of the Petrine Apocalypse dating from some- where about the time of the first Crusades. But another interesting observation has still to be made. I hold that the description of the Lion's son in chap. vii. does not derive directly from the Petrine Apocalypse, but from an earlier one dating from the time of Heraclius, which already formed the foundation of the Petrine and of the pseudo-Methodius. Here the account turns entirely on a fight between a Lion and a Bull, of which animal no mention had previously been made. But when we find it stated that he is the King of the Ravens (chap, vii.), it becomes clear even from the image itself that we have here a compilation. The Bull who " stirs up the East " is Chosroes, King of Persia. Chosroes marches with three armies against Heraclius ; the Bull also has three horns, with which he tosses. One of his horns wages war with the young Lion (Heraclius) ; with another army Chosroes laid siege to Constantinople, and in pseudo-Ezra the STBIAC APOCALYPSE OF EZRA. 77 Bull plans an evil design against the seven hills and the city of Constantinople. At that time Heraclins summoned Tilrki hordes to his aid, while in 4 Ezra the yonng Lion strikes an alliance with the Leopard of the North, with whom multitudes advance like winged locusts. Then the young Lion leaps up between the horns of the Bull, both of which he breaks. And then we read at the end : " And the young Lion will march with a mighty host to the Land of Promise, . . . and up to Jerusalem will he ascend with great pomp, and from thence will he depart and march up to his royal city." I can scarcely believe that the whole of this account can originally have referred to any person except Heraclius and his defeat of Chosroes. In support of this view the following considerations present themselves. Li the Ethiopic version we have a little before the passage dealing with the Lion's son a list of emperors brought down to Heraclius.* In pseudo-Methodius also we have the account of the Byzantine emperor making his entry into Jerusalem on his victorious march against Islam. Is this a fancy picture, or, as seems much more probable, an adaptation from some early account dating from the time of Heraclius ? Wben Heraclius made his entry into Constantinople people thought the end of the world was near. Compare the above-quoted passage of the Petrine Apocalypse : " But when the Lion's son shall have returned from bis expeditions, * So also in the Arabic Apocalypse of S. Peter (Lagarde, Mitteilungen, IV., pp. 6 et seq.). 78 TEE ANTICHRIST LEGENB. let Peter know that the time of the end is near." The author of the Armenian Apocalypse of Daniel probably expected the end to come in the time of Heraclius. Thxis we have again secured fresh connecting links. The pseudo-Methodius and the kindred recensions of the Petrine Apocalypse show how the Apocalypse of the Antichrist legend became modified with the rising flood of IsMm. The luminous picture of the victorious Lion's son delineated on the obscure background is probably of still earlier date, and has its historic foundation in the events of Heraclius' reign. The Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra is a living witness to show how unintelligible predictions were again and again reproduced in ever fresh combinations. CHAPTER VI.* CoMMODIAN's CaeMEN ApOLOGETICUM — LACTANTItrS : In- sxiTUTioNES Divine, VII. x. — Eblations of Com- MODIAN TO THE WoRK OF HlPPOLYTUTS ON THE AUTICHEIST — S. MaETIN OF TOUES : ESCHATOLOGICAL TESTAMENT — VlCTOEINUS : COMMENTAEY ON EbVELATION — The Paets OF THE Book of Clement, and of the Ascensio Jesai^ eefeeeing to the Last Things ; Kelations TO 4 EZEA. WE now come to a smgularly interesting group, in •wliicli the cMef documents are Commodian's Carmen Apologeticum and the Sibylline source of the eschatological details embodied in the Institutes of Lactantius. The connecting element in the writings in question is their common recognition of a twofold appearance of an Antichrist — one as a Eoman emperor (the Nero redivivus), and another who appears in Jerusalem. The eschatological part of Commodian begins with ver. 791,t for fixing the date of which we have the trustworthy guidance of Ebert.| In the interpretation * For Notes ' to ' of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 267. t In Dombart's edition of the Corpus Sci-iptorum Eccles. Lat, 15. % In his contributions to the Abhandlungen der Koniglich 79 80 THE ANTICSBIST LEGEND. of this work it must be steadily borne in mind that the prophetic fancies of the writer begin with the appearance of the Nero redivivus (Cyrns) in ver. 823. The statement in ver. 871 that Nero adopts {sihi addit) two Casars is not to be explained in the light of contemporary events, but is rather to be interpreted by the passage in ver. 911. In accordance with the early Antichrist legend, this person (the second ruler in Commodian, who nevertheless is the Antichrist proper) on his first appearance overcomes and slays three kings. But these kings had to be found some- where, and so Commodian has the " happy thought " to make Nero redivivus adopt the two C^sars, for which the Eoman empire itself afforded him a pre- cedent. But it would be more than absurd to ask, "Who then were these Caesars ? Hence there remain but two alternatives to help in determining the date of the poem. Following up the clue afforded by the ap- pearance of the Goths, as described in ver. 810, Ebert refers the Apocalypse to the time of Philip the Arab or of Decius, holding, however, that it could scarcely have been written during the severe persecution of Decius. Yet Commodian states (ver. 808) that the beginning of the end was the then raging seventh persecution ; and it is remarkable that in later accounts of these persecutions of the Christians that of Decius is always reckoned as the seventh.* Hence SUchsischen Ges. der Wissenschaften, Vol. V., pp. SS? et seq. Rovers' recently attempted elucidation (Apocalyptische Studim, pp. 89 et seq.) misses the mark. * Thus Sulpicius Severus, Historia Sacra, II. 32 ; Jerome, de INSTITUTES OF LACTANTIUS. 81 it is after all probable enougb that Commodian's Carmen Apologeticum was really composed during the Decian persecution. The eschatological matter bearing on the present subject, which we owe to Lactantius, occurs in his In- stitutiones Divince, VII., chap. x. et seq. He frequently quotes as his authority a Sibyl, VII. 16 (VII. 18 alia Sibylla). As in Commodian, here also the Antichrist has a " double," and here also the second Antichrist kills the first, that is, the last ruler of the Eoman empire : " There also shall arise another king from Syria, who shall destroy the remnants of that first evil one together with the evil one himself." * It is further noteworthy that, whereas elsewhere according to the universal tradition two witnesses appear against the Antichrist, Elias and Enoch, Lactantius knows of nothing except of an appearance of Elias. In Com- modian we have a double tradition ; in vers. 839 and 850 Elias alone is spoken of, but in 853, 856, 858, prophets are mentioned in the plural— evidently an extremely careless fusion of two different traditions. But, after what has been said, we can scarcely be wrong in conjecturing that the same, or at least very similar, Sibylline sources were accessible to Com- modian and Lactantius, between whom in other respects also there is much agreement. Nearest to these assumed common sources comes the passage in Script. Eccles., chap. Ixii. ; Orosius, Book VII. 21 (see Malvenda, de Antichristo, II. 132). * '' Alter rex orietur ex Syria qui reliquias iUius prioris mali cum ipso simul deleat " (VII. 17). 6 82 THE ANTICHRIST hEGENB. the Sibyl II., pp. 154 et seq. Here also we have the appearance of the Antichrist (Beliar) at p. 167, and of Elias alone at p. 187. As in Commodian, the ten (twelve ?) tribes appear in the last days, and the de- struction of the world is similarly described (pp. 186 et seq.). The description of the new life resembles that occurring in Lactantius. This Sibyl, however, has been retouched, and is far from covering the whole ground embraced by Lactantius and Commodian. Now this Sibylline source utilised by Commodian must stand in some relation to the treatise of Hippo- lytus on the Antichrist. Higher up (p. 28) I have drawn attention to the unknown quotation twice made by Hippolytus from an unnamed prophet. A parallelism occurs in the Carmen Apohgeticum, vers. 891 et seq. : " Again shall arise in the slaughter of this Nero — a king from the East with four nations therefrom — and summon to himself very many nations unto the City — who shall bring aid although he be himself most valiant — and fill the sea with ships many a thousand — and whoso shall oppose him shall be slain by the sword — and first he takes the captured Tyre and Sidon." 1 Although the prophecy is based on Daniel xi. 40, still the parallelism between Hippolytus and Com- modian is not explained by the passage from Daniel ; hence there was some common source other than our Book of Daniel. A parallel to this passage occurs also in Hippolytus a little before the place where he for the second time quotes the unnamed prophet in chap. lii. : " But his assault will first be against Tyre BOOK OF CLEMENT. 83 and Berytus."^ Doubtless a common Sibyl was in any case drawn npon by Commodian and Lactantius, and Hippolytus quotes his authority as prophets. Still both writings cannot have been identical, although they may have stood in the closest relation to each other. It may be assumed that the Sibyl was based on the prophet quoted by Hippolytus ; but the reverse can scarcely have been the case. Moreover, the Antichrist legend, as will be shown farther on, is found in a decidedly more original form in Hippolytus than in Lactantius and Commodian. Can Hippolytus after all have at the end already known and com- mented upon the Little Daniel, and is this very document that quoted as " another prophet " ? In his Dialogue, II. 14, Sulpicius Severus has left us the oral tradition of S. Martin of Tours on the Antichrist and the end. Here also we find the double of the Antichrist. The Antichrist proper here again makes his appearance in Jerusalem, and it is quite distinctly stated that " Nero himself is at last to be destroyed by the Antichrist." ^ Lastly, here should be mentioned the short treatise comprised in Lagarde's Reliquiae Juris, etc., 80 et seq., " The First Book of Clement called the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ."* Here we read, 81, 15 : " But there shall arise in the dissolution a king of another nation, lord of many devises, a godless slayer of men, a beguOer . . . hating the faithful, a perse- cutor." Then (82, 40) : " Then shall come the son of perdition, the adversary and boaster and vaunter/' etc,' 81 TRE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. As will be shown later, we have in these apocalypses, where the Antichrist appears in double form, a mingling of two cycles of legends — on the one hand the old and simple Antichrist saga, on the other its political adaptation to Nero redivivus. As above already remarked (p. 29), we have in the Commentary of Victorinns another interesting blending of the currents of thought. Victorinus knows of but one appearance of Antichrist, and for him the demonic figure of Nero is still the Antichrist. Of all com- mentators on Revelation down to the period of the Reformation he is the only one who was aware that the Neronic saga had any bearing on the Johannine Apocalypse. But for him Nero, the Nero redivivus, has now become the Jewish Antichrist, as will be more fully explained below. The work of Victorinus has accordingly to be included in the group of docu- ments now under consideration. One branch of the twofold Antichrist tradition, which at last brought about those wonderful combina- tions, finds its chief witnesses in the still extant Sibylline literature. Here have specially to be con- sidered Books (II.), III., IV., v., VIII. (XII., XIII.), where we have everywhere the fusion of the Neronic with the Antichrist legend.* All the chief points will be dealt with lower down. Lastly, there remains to be mentioned a fragment of the Visio Jesaice. In chap. iii. (beginning at about iii. 23) and in chap. iv. we have an interpolated * Cf. Zahn, Zeitschr.fii/r KiroUiche Wissenschaftund Kirchliches Leben, 1886, 32-45, 77-87, 337-352. BOOK OF CLEMENT. 85 Antichrist Apocalypse, which is especially interesting, because in it the figure of the Nero redivivus has been foisted into an earlier apocalyptic tradition, which can be clearly recognised. This point also will be estab- lished farther on. In connection with the foregoing may here be appended a reference to the Antichrist Apocalypse interpolated in the already mentioned Book of Clement. In the Text and Studies (II. iii., pp. 151 et seq.) has recently been published an apocalyptic fragment in Latin, which seems to represent the early source utilised in the Book of Clement. The obviously later detailed description of the destruction of the Church before the coming of the Antichrist (Clement, p. 81, 1. 33 — p. 82, 1. 38) now appears in the light of the Latin parallel as an addendum, so that here we have again a relatively ancient source. At the end of the Latin fragment the name of the Antichrist is stated to be Dexius,* which James (p. 188) conjectures to be meant for Decius. There is much to support this suggestion, though the weighty objection still remains, that in this (compare Clement), as in all the other apocalypses, no Eoman emperor appears to be originally identified with Anti- christ. Still the clause might after all be a later gloss, which would then show that our Apocalypse must have already existed in the time of Decius. In any case it was composed while the persecutions of the Christians were still raging, at least if we may, as seems highly probable, refer to it the passage in * " Dexiua erit nomen Antichristi." 86 THE ANTICSRIST LEGEND. Clement, p. 81, 1. 15 et seq. : " But there shall arise in the dissolution a king of another nation . . . hating the faithful, a persecutor ; and he shall rule over barbarous nations and shed much blood, . . . and there shall be in all cities and in all places rapacity and incursions of robbers and bloodshed." " This description would apply in a special manner to Decius. To show that we have here an earlier source, we may conclude with the subjoined striking parallelisms with some eschatological parts of 4 Ezra : And a sound and a voice and seething of the sea. And on the earth shall be monsters, a generation of dragons of men (?) and like- wise of serpents. And presently a woman shall wed [and] bring forth children uttering perfect words.' Ezra, chap. v. 7. The sea of Sodom . . . shall give out a voice by night. Chap. V. 8. And the beasts of the field shall stray beyond their ground, and women . . . shall bring forth monsters. Chap. vi. 21. And babes of a year shall speak with their voices, and the preg- nant shall bring forth im- mature babes of three and four months.' CHAPTER VII. The Apocaiypse of Zephaniah — Sukvey of othee Pateistic Weitings beaeing on the Antichkist Legend. QUITE a special inquiry, such as would be im- possible till we had reached this point, is called for by the recently discovered Apocalypse of Zephaniah. A series of fragments from this source are found in the Upper and Lower Sahidic dialects of Coptic, repre- senting two recensions of a single work, as appears from a comparison of the fragments where they run parallel. These have all been collated and translated by Stern,* though we are concerned only with the fifth and sixth, f It is no easy matter to fix the time of this Apocalypse. To be sure it is already quoted by Clement of Alexandria ; J but the passage cited by him, which strongly recalls the Ascensio Jesaice, does not occur amongst our fragments. § Even were it recovered, * Zeitschrift fii/r agyptische Sprache, 1886, pp. 115 et seq. t lb., pp. 122 et seq. % Cf. the passage in Fabricius, Cod. Pseud. Vet. Test., I. 1140. § Cf. the close analogy with the Ascensio at the end of the fourth fragment, p. 122. 87 88 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. it might be assnined with some coDfidence on d priori grounds that the document quoted hj Clement has survived to our time only in a greatly modified form. Such is the inference to be drawn from all the observations hitherto made, and even from a mere comparison of both recensions of the Apocalypse itself. Stern (p. 135) from their language and contents refers the fragments to the fourth century, which would give us a certain standpoint for estimating the period of the document lying at the base of both recensions. Further determinations of the date can be obtained only from the beginning of the fifth fragment, although here the two recensions show great discrepancies. The details regarding the struggle between the Persian and Assyrian kings with their fabulous imagery are found only in the Upper, not in the Lower Sahidic recension. But both have one characteristic feature in common. Immediately before the appearance of the Antichrist they each, although even here with great differences, describe the dominion of a ruler, who restores peace and favours Christianity, and is hostile to the heathen. The key to this passage is afforded by the foregoing inquiry into the history of the Antichrist saga. Here we find, although still only half understood and overladen with fantastic accessories, the characteristic element that was added to the saga during the epoch of the first Christian emperors (see above, p. 62).* Hence the original * According to the Zephanian Apocalypse the Antichrist is to come in the fourth year of the peaceful emperor, while elsewhere twelve years are given as the duration of his reign. APOCALYPSE OF ZEPHANIAH. 89 draft of the Zephanian Apocalypse, as it now stands, would also date at the earliest from the second half of the fourth century, so that both recensions should perhaps be referred to a somewhat later time than that assigned to them by Stern. Immediately before the description of the peaceful king the following passage occurs in the Upper Sahidic version : " And when they shall behold a king rising up in the North, then shall they call him the King of Assyria and the King of Unrighteousness. On Egypt shall he bring his many wars and disorders." This extract vividly recalls Lactantius, YII. 16. In both places a special forerunner of the Antichrist is spoken of; in both this forerunner is called a king from the North, although in Lactantius the second king comes from Syria. In the Lower Sahidic recension alone (although it cannot be positively asserted that it was not originally found also in the Upper Sahidic) there occurs at p. 124 the following highly remarkable description of the advent of Christ : "The Christ, when He cometh, shall come in the form of a dove, with a crown of doves about Him, hovering on the clouds of heaven, with the sign of the Cross before Him, whom* all the world shall behold like unto the sun shining from the * Whom in reference to Christ, although it may be asked whether the relative might not refer to the sign of the Cross. Farther on I will give the parallel passages from Ephrem embodying a similar conception. 90 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. regions of the rising to the regions of the setting thereof." We are warned by this fantastic image also not to go too far hack in search of the source of our document. Material representations of these apoca- lyptic fancies may be found even in later times. From a poem by Paulinus of Nola describing such a conception, F. Wickoff has reconstructed the mosaics of the apsis in the Church of S. Felix at Nola.* Here we see the Cross appearing in the sky encircled by a crown of doves, emblematic of Christ with the twelve Apostles. A similar picture is seen in the apsis of the Church of S. Clement in Rome.f "With the other writings already discussed the Zephanian Apocalypse shows the most manifold literary relations, as in the account of the wonders worked by the Antichrist with pseudo-Methodius, and the description of the Last Days of the Antichrist (p. 128), and in many other places with the Ephremite group. In the account of the glorious times preceding the Antichrist rule Zephaniah agrees with pseudo- Johannes, with Adso, and the other writings bearing on the subject. But it is above all noteworthy that the description of the Antichrist (p. 125) stands in the closest literary connection with a series of Jewish apocalypses to be dealt with farther on. Surprising parallels are shown especially by the Apocalypse of Elias found in the * RSmische Quartalschift, 1889. t De Eossi, Mus. Christ, Plates VII., VIII. For these particulars I am indebted to my colleague Dr. Achelis. VICTORINUS—TICONIVS. 91 Bet-ha-Midrash. It would seem that in this docu- ment, before all others, the many earlier records worked into it should be investigated. Moreover, the Zephanian Apocalypse comprises many other original and archaic elements which shall be discussed in their proper place. Meanwhile the assumption in any case does not lack support that, behind this Coptic Apocalypse of Zephaniah, there stands a much earlier work, which is probably of Jewish origin. In fact the Zephanian work is found, like the Vision of Daniel, the Ascension (Vision) of Jesse and others, in a series of canonical lists amongst the Old Testament Apocrypha. It would be a laborious task to give even an approximate survey of the patristic literature which touches on this subject. Here I must confine myself to the most important, while referring the reader to Malvenda's careful and valuable collations in his work on the Antichrist.* In this connection the foremost place amongst the commentaries on the Johannine Apocalypse is taken by that of Victorinus, which has already been referred to in the Introduction. Thanks especially to its exu- berant and archaic exegesis, this work is of the very highest interest. The later Latin commentaries depend all alike on the spiritualistic interpretations of Ticonius. Hence amongst them are only occasionally found some stray realistic features derived from the Antichrist * De AniichHsto, pp. 2 et seq. I may here remark that in my quotations from the Fathers I have in many places been aided by Malvenda's indications. 92 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. tradition. Valuable also is the Commentary of Andreas, as well as that of his follower, Aretha. In Andreas is comprised a quantity of very important materials, which come at many points in contact with the tradition emanating from Eplirem. Compare, for instance, the identification of Gog and Magog with the Huns. In the later Commentary of Beatus there is a special section showing how the Antichrist is to be recognised.* Nor can the commentaries on Daniel be overlooked, and especially the interpretations of chaps, vii., xi., and xii., where the commentaries of Jerome and of Theodoretus are of the first importance. Much valuable material is found also in the commentaries on 2 Thessalonians, chap, ii., such as those of the so-called Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, Chrysostom, Theodoretus, and Theophylactus ; those on Matthew, chap, xxiv., and the corresponding passage of Mark (Hilarius, Ambrosius, Chrysostom, the author of the unfinished work on Matthew in Chrysostom, Buthymius) ; on John v. 43 (Chrysostom, Theophylactus, Euthymius) ; lastly on Genesis xlix. and Deuteronomy xxxii. (Ambrosius, Eucherius). "We have further some more lengthy treatises, such especially as Irenseus, Adversus Hcereses, V., chaps, xxviii. et seq., where the details in many places come in contact with Hippolytus, de Antichristo ; Jerome, epistle ad Algasiam (121), Qusestio XI.; Prosper Aquitanicus (?), de Promissionibus et Preedictionibus, IV., p. 4, 1. 16 ; Theodoretus, Hceret. Fabulce, Book V. (see section 23 on the Antichrist) ; S. John of Damascus, * " Qualiter cognosoatur Antiohristus," pp. 443 et seq. HlLDEeAED—HOlSrORIUS OF ATJTUN. 93 "EKOea-i'i Triv ; from ScjSaorJr, revered, venerable— lience answering to the Latin Augustus. THE SIBYLLINE DOCUMENTS 97 Bearing this in mind, we also begin to understand the puzzling statement in Suetonius (chap, xl.) that to Nero during his lifetime was already foretold the dominion of the Bast, and even specially that of the kingdom of Judah. Here we have a Sibylline prophecy that Nero is to be the Antichrist, and that he will consequently, like the Antichrist himself, be regarded as king of the Jews.* In this Sibyl, III. 45 et seq., there are no Christian elements. On the contrary, its Jevrish origin may be confidently inferred from the vers. 69 et seq. ; so that from- this aspect of the case our deduction is established. This political interpretation of the Beliar Apocalypse points at some earlier source, in which such an inter- pretation had not yet been made. A description of Beliar, such as might here be pos- tulated, is presented in Sibyl II. 167 et seq., although no doubt in a very summary manner. That a literary connection exists between the two passages at 154 and 213 is shown by a comparison of the two descriptions of the destruction of the world by fire in III. 80-92 and II. 196-213. The original con- ception of the Beliar saga is found, as we see, in Sibyl II., though even here no longer in its pristine state. For the document, as must be admitted, has already undergone a Christian transformation. t But that here also a Jewish Sibyl forms the background must also be franldy admitted. Thoroughly Jewish, for instance, is especially the expectation of the return * Of. Zahn, Zeitschr.fur Kirch. Wiss. u. Kirch. Lebcn, VII. 337. t C1-. vers. 168, 170, 178-182. 7 98 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. of the ten (twelve) lost tribes (170 et seq.). The obscure vers. 174 et seq. find their explanation only in the later Jewish tradition. On the assumption of a Christian origin, the account of one precursor of the Thesbite Elias (187 et seq.) also presents something unusual ; while the " triple signs " * will also probably find their explanation in the Jewish traditions. We may go farther. Friedlieb t has shown with much probability that Sibyls I. 1-323 and II. 6-33 constitute originally a Jewish prediction, in which the Sibyl foretells the history of the ten generations of man from the beginning to the end. In the Sibyl the end seems to be missing; but I now hold that this is really found in a slightly modified form in II. 154-213. For in the fourth Sibyl after the account of the universal doom (47) we read : " But verily all these things shall be accomplished in the tenth generation; but now will I tell who shall be from the first generation."^ In fact the fourth is merely an echo of an earlier sibyl, in which was described the fate of the ten generations of man down to the judgment. This is clearly shown in what follows, where a strained attempt is made to harmonise the assumption of ten generations (vers. 50, 56) with four universal empires. Equally clear is Sibyl VIII. 199 : "But when the tenth generation [shall descend] into the house of Hades " ; ' after which comes the account of the t Oracula SihylUna, XX. Here it is rightly seen that the Christian interpolations begin with I. 324 and II. 34. THE SIBYLLINE DOCUMENTS. 99 rale of a woman, as is also described in Sibyl III. 77 in the last days. That here the consummation is expected after the tenth generation cannot mislead as as to the final result, which may also be described as taking place after the tenth generation in the source drawn upon by Sibyls I. and II. An eleventh generation of men is even spoken of by Sibyl IV. 20. Here we may also briefly refer to those passages in which mention is made of the rale of a woman at the end of the world. In Sibyl III. 77 we read : " Then when a widow shall rule over the whole world " ;* and in VIII. 20 : " Thereafter great [shall be] the power of a woman ; surely shall God Himself increase many evils when she shall be crowned with royal honour."* Have we here merely an allusion to Cleopatra? Or rather the exposition of an earlier mysterious pre- diction touching the sway of a mighty woman in the last days ? The line in Sibyl V. 18, " And an unvan- quished woman falling on the waves," ^ gives a picture of Cleopatra distorted to a superhuman demonic form. From this the expectation of a woman's rule would appear to have also found its way into the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel. Here I would venture with some hesitation to offer a suggestion. If the Antichrist, as will be shown farther on, is to be regarded as the embodiment in human form of the old figure of the Dragon, may we not have in this woman " falling on the waves " a surviving reminiscence of the same marine monster originally conceived as of the female sex ? The 100 TBE ANTICMBIST LBGEND. passage, however, may also recall the ■woraan !of Babylon "that sitteth upon many waters." From this a fresh ray of light falls on the Sibyl imbedded in Bede. For here also we have in the opening part a survey of the generations of men. I cannot, however, explain how the ten have shrunk to nine generations in Bede. But if the decidedly later central part be removed, that account will then be immediately followed by a prediction of the Anti- christ and of the last things. Thus are completed the links in a chain of written tradition, which embraces a period of about a thousand years.* In conclusion it may be mentioned that in the Christian re-cast of Sibyl II. the description of hell shows a close relationship with the earlier Petrine Apocalypse. And in this form, as will be more fully explained farther on, the Sibylline document makes its influence felt down even to the Edda poems. Of Jewish literature there are here also to be con- sidered some sections of 4 Ezra and of the Book of Baruch. Amongst these are especially to be men- tioned the accounts of the signs of the last times in * Perhaps Ezra also (xiv. 11) read, according to the Ethiopic version : " For in ten parts is the world divided " {decern enim partibus dispositus est mundus). With the literature here under consideration may also be compared some isolated passages of the Sibyl. Such is the description of the end of the world in IV. 172 et seq. (V. 288 et seq.) ; V. 376 et seq. ; VII. 118 ; VIII. 15 ; VIII. 203 et seq. ; but above all the acrostic (VIII. 217 et seq. and VIII. 337 et seq.) already known to Lactantius ; lastly, all passages referring to the Nero redivivus, as above pointed out. LATER JEWISH SOURCES. 101 4 Ezra, which are loosely connected with the first three chief visions.* Here in the opening of V. 1 et seq. the reference is quite clear to the fall of the Eoman empire. It will be shown below that the prediction " he shall reign whom they expect not " f also alludes to the Antichrist. Attention will more- over be drawn to many points of contact occurring elsewhere in the accounts of the signs of the end. t For reasons which will be fully explained farther on, special attention will have to be paid to the Testament of Dan, comprised amongst the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs. Unfortunately the passage bearing on our subject has reached us in a very corrupt form. Mention has already been made of the Ascensio Jesaice (see above, p. 87). I think I shall be able to show that the passage here interpolated (chaps, iii. and iv.) is of Jewish origin. Further details follow below. Coming to the later Jewish apocalyptic writings, I must here confine myself to briefly pointing out that their evolution was completed in direct association with the Antichrist legend. Leaving the exploration of this field to specialists, I will confine myself to a * Cf. V. 1 et seq. ; VI. 20 et seq. t " Regnabit quem non sperant." t I would also call attention to Ezra v. 4 = Sibyl VIII. 203 ; Ezra xi. 21 = Sibyl II. 155. Cf. further 4 Ezra xiii. and Baruch, chaps, xxxvi.-xl., chap, xxvii. (48, 34), chap. Ixx. ; be- sides the above-mentioned parallelisms between 4 Ezra and the Book of Clement. Moreover, Sibyl II. 155, etc., goes probably back to Hesiod ; cf. Dietrich, Nekyia, p. 184 (Anmerkung 2), Sibyl II. 165 ct seq., and the Egyptian Gospel in Clement of Alexandria (Strom, iii., p. 445). But I cannot follow Dietrich in his further comments on Sibyl II. 102 TSE ANTICHBIST LEGEND. few indications which can make no claim to exhaust the subject. Higher up attention has already heen called to the expectation of the return of the ten tribes of Israel, a notion by which Commodian amongst others was influenced. It belongs to the very earliest elements of the apocalyptic tradition with which we are here concerned, and is already found in Ezra xiii. 34 et seq. Here it is stated that under God's miraculous aid the ten tribes wander away beyond the Euphrates to a far- distant land, whence they are some day to return. The same myth occurs again in Oommodian's Carmen Apolo- geticum, where God leads against the second Antichrist a people of whom we read (942) : " But enclosed are the Jews [in the land] beyond the Persian stream, where God willed they should bide to the end."'' Then follows immediately a detailed description of the glorious wonderland where the Israelites dwell. So also in the Othoth ha-Mashiakh (for which see below) a glowing description is given of the homeward march of the ten tribes of Israel from the river Gozan out of the land of Khalakh and Khabor, this being the tenth and last sign of the end — that is, after the j appearance of the Messiah. That the ten tribes dwell I beyond a great river is likewise in accordance with 'an ancient legend, from which were later developed in the Eabbinic traditions monstrous fables about the river Sabbation.* * See Eisenmenger, II. 533 et seq. On the Book of the Danite Eldad mentioned here (1238), cf . Malvenda, II. 206. The founda- tion of these fables is already found in Josephus, B. J., VII. 24. ZATER JEWISH SOURCES. 103 In Sibyl II. 170-176 we have also an acconnt of the return of the ten trihes and of their victories ; and the passage, though very short, is important. It would appear from the extremely obscure text as if the triumph of the ten tribes is not to be final, but that they are again to be overcome by the Gentiles. Thus, however, the legend of the ten tribes assumes a close resemblance to that of Gog and Magog. From this it also becomes evident that a fusion of both took place in the hands of mediaeval Christian writers. We read, for instance, in Godfrey of Viterbo (XI.) that " Alexander shut in Gog and Magog for ever. The eleven tribes of the Hebrews he compassed round in the mountains for ever."^ With this is to be mentioned another and later tradition — that is, the assumption of two distinct Messiahs, one overcome and slain in battle, the other triumphant. The notion of a suffering and dying Messiah would seem to have been suggested by disputations with the Christians, by reference, for instance, to such telling passages of Scripture as those of Zechariah xii. 10 et seq. Justin, however (^Dialogus cum Tryphone), knows nothing yet of these speculations, and considering his great familiarity with the Jewish theological treatises, this argument based on his silence is not without weight. A stand- point for approximately determining the date of this conception is afforded by the fact that a very distinct application of Zechariah xii. 10 to the Messiah ben Joseph is already found in the Jerusalem Talmud.* * See Wiinsche, Leiden des Messias, 110 et seq. lOi THE ANTICHRIST LE&END. But then comes the question, What gave rise to the conception of a Messiah ben Joseph or ben Ephraim ? It may presumably have been suggested by the already existing legend of the return of the ten tribes of Israel. The Messiah ben Joseph is the leader of the ten tribes on their return, and in fact he is so described in the later work of Mikw^h Israel.* But it may still be doubted whether all this suffices to sufficiently account for the origin of the two Messiahs. Here I would merely raise the question whether the notions both of the two witnesses, widespread in the Christian Apocalyptics, and of the two Messiahs, may not both rest upon a common source, which, however, is still to be sought farther back than Jewish tradition. As Victorinus in his Commentary calls the two prophets (Apoc. 11) the eagle wings of the woman, so we read in Yalkut Khadash : " His [Israel's] two wings shall be the two Mes- siahs, the Messiah ben Joseph and the Messiah ben David." t But, to return to the further development of the cycle of legends, that Messiah of the ten tribes had to suffer and perish, and the commentators appear to have assumed that Gog and Magog were the power by which he was to be overthrown. % Thus stands the tradition in the Haggaditic or Homiletic Exposition of * Fol. 47, 48 (Wiinsclie, 115 et seq.). t Fol. 132 (Wiinsche, 114). X On the influence of the Alexander saga on this point, see Wiinsche, 117. THE MT8TERIES OF SIMON. 105 the Messiah* and in the Pesikta Sutarta,] and a translation also occurs in Schottgen's Messias Judmo- rum. X Other evidence of the same tradition may be seen in Wiinsche, 117. At this stage of its development the legend begins to be again influenced by this Jewish apocalyptic tradition through the tradition of the Antichrist. The figure that now stands out in the foreground of the new apocalyptic picture is that of Armillus, which is the Hebrew form of Komulus. This name is itself significant, for the political application of the Anti- christ legend, which disappeared in the Christian tradition, was preserved in the Jewish. The Eomans — kingdom of Edom, children of Esau, dominion of Sammael — remained the fierce hereditary foes of the Jews, more especially after the Koman empire had become Christian. Hence the Antichrist power, the Antichrist himself, is Armillus (Eomulus). As already remarked, a trace of this Jewish apocalyptic conception is already found in the Latin, though not in the Greek, test of Methodius, where it is expressly stated that Eomulus is Armasleus. § The following are the writings with which we are here concerned : (1) The Mysteries of Simon ben * Jellinek, Bet ha-Midrash, III. 141 et seq. Jellinek pro- nounces this work to be one of the earliest (III., XXVIII.). The Krke (Sayings) of the Messiah, III. 68-78, seems dependent on it. t Fol. 58, 1 (twelfth century, Schiirer, I. 103). t German translation, Leipzig, 1748, pp. 163 et seq. § " Romulus, qui et Armseleus." 106 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. Yokhai,* which Graetz has dealt with in his History of the Jews (V. 191 et seq.). It gives a clear account of the period of Merwan II., and was evidently com- posed at the time of the overthrow of the Ommiades rulers. (2) A closely related eschatological tractate on the Antichrist and the two Messiahs included in the Midrash va-Yosha on Exodus xiv. 30 ; xv. l-8.t (3) The Othoth ha-Mashiakh, | of which there is a translation in Eisenmenger, II. 703 et seq. (4) The Book of Zorohahel, § which covers the period from the destruction of the Temple to the end, some 990 (970) years, hence cannot have been written later than the eleventh century. The three last-mentioned hooks, which seem to have had a common history, were published collectively in the year 1524 || in Constanti- nople, but judging from the specimens given by Eisenmenger (II. 708 et seq.) in a recension showing considerable variants. In the Mysteries of Simon and in the Signs of the Messiah, the eschatological predictions properly so called begin with the prophecy of a nine months' renewed dominion of the " wicked " Eoman (Byzantine) empire. In this characteristic statement we see the * Jellinek, III. 78 et seq. ; the chief passages translated by Wiinsche, 120. t Jellinek, I. 35 et seq. This work was known to Yalkut, and was consequently composed before the thirteenth century. t Jellinek, II. 58 et seq., from the Amsterdam edition, ■pan np3K. § Jellinek, II. 54 et seq. II Eisenmenger, II. 708 ; Jellinek mentions (II., XXXIII.) an edition dated Constantinople, 1519. THD BOOK OF ZOBOBABEL. 107 connection between the Christian legend and these Jewish apocalypses. Here also, since the time of the book of Methodius, a dominant trait is the expectation that in the end the Byzantine empire will prevail over Islam and conquer Palestine. Then in both apocalypses appears the Messiah ben Joseph, who overthrows the Eoman empire * and rebuilds the Temple, after which comes Armillus. In all the documents except the Midrash va-Yosha we find the puzzhng statement that Armillus is to be begotten by Satan of a stone, and in the Signs of the Messiah t he is expressly called the Antichrist. Then follows in all except the Book of Zorobabel a description of this Antichrist, who is represented as a frightful monster. Then comes everywhere an account of the flight of Israel to the wilderness, and the death of the Messiah ben Joseph in the battle with Armillus ;. only in the Midrash va-Yosha this Messiah is slain in Jerusalem. Both in the Signs of the Messiah and in Zorobabel, Armillus is already distinctly described as a false Messiah. But in the other sources also he is prominently mentioned in connection with the Bomano-Byzantine empire, which, in fact, is alluded to by his very name. Here again is clearly seen the influence of the Christian legend. Then comes the Messiah, the son of David, called * In the Midrash va-Yosha, which seems to represent a somewhat earlier tradition, we have the reference to the Eoman empire replaced by an account of the destruction of Gog and Magog. t Jelhnek, II. 60. 108 THE ANTICSRIST LEGEND. also the Menakhem ben Ammiel, while the Messiah hen Joseph takes also the name of Nehemia ben Uziel. Now the son of David slays Armillus with the breath of his mouth ; in the Signs of the Messiah, however, Armillns is killed by God Himself. It is characteristic of these sources that the description of the end does not abruptly break oif with this event, as it does in the Christian tradition. For there still follows the description of the revival of the New Jerusalem, and also the resurrection of the dead, and in the Signs of the Messiah the return of the ten tribes. In the Mysteries of Simon we have even the description of a kingdom lasting for two millenniums, after which comes the last judgment. It is noteworthy that in this Jewish tradition there is much more in common with the Johannine Apocalypse than is found in the Chris- tian tradition. We have especially in the Book of Zorobabel some striking points of contact, for instance, with Revelation, chap. xvii. So also the description in the last part of the Mysteries of Simon : " And fire falls from heaven and consumes Jerusalem, and sweeps from the midst of her all strangers and uncircumcised and unclean."* Direct parallelisms with John are also found in the interesting Apocalypse of Blias.t It should be mentioned that here this figure of Elias comes on the scene, although quite in the background, together with that of the Messiah ben David. With this may be compared what has been stated above * Wiinsche, 121. t JeUinek, III. 65. TSE PERSIAN BISTORT OF DANIEL. 109 (p. 82) about Lactantins and Commodian ; and also Sibyl II. 187. In the development of the Jewish legend a special place is taken by an apocalypse which has been preserved in the Persian language, and for the text and translation of which we are indebted to Zotenberg.* The very title, History of Daniel, is significant, and recalls the evidences brought forward higher up in support of the early existence of an Apocalypse of Daniel. The treatise in question begins with a description of the Muhammadan caliphs, Muhammad himself being easily recognised in the opening (407). In the ruler with his three sons we may also confidently recognise Har6n ar-Eashid,t after whom mention is made of two other rulers. Hence the Apocalypse must date from the first half of the ninth century. Then follow the eschatological predictions, beginning with an account of the victory of a Roman ruler Over Islam, and of his reign lasting for nine months (see above, p. 106). Then we are told another, whose name is not given, is to come, who will proclaim himself as the Messiah, and whose personal appearance is described in the usual way. With him will come Gog and Magog, while Israel takes refuge in the wilderness. Then we read : " Thereupon a man shall appear in that distant place, and every Israelite shall leave his seat, and they shall all be gathered." That * Merx, Archiv, I. 386 et seq. t 411, 12 ; I have toj thank my colleague Dr. Eahlfs for this communication. 110 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. man shall be of the children of Ephraim, and they will all of them flock to that wicked one, who says, " I am the Messiah, yonr king, your possession." The Israelites will ask signs of him, which he cannot perform ; and especially is he unable to raise the dead again. Then he persecutes the Israelites, and Israel flees to the desert. Then are the Israelites made partakers in the grace of God, who opens the floodgates of heaven ; a month will be as a week, a week as a day, a day as an hour. Then shall Michael and Gabriel appear to the Israelites in the wilderness, and they shall slay the false Messiah. Thereupon comes the Messiah ben David andf kills the wicked one (that is, the above-mentioned ruler) with the breath of his mouth ; " and the banner of the Messiah, son of David, shall appear." The same shall kill the whole host of Gog and Magog, after which comes Elias. Then shall the;[new era be announced with four blasts of the trumpet. The dead arise ; the Israelites are gathered from all q[uarters of the world (on the wings ''jof Simurg ?) ; a pillar of fire appears in the Temple, the glory of God is made manifest, and all mountains disappear. Then follows for thirteen hundred years the time of rejoicing and of domination, and then the everlasting great doom. Obviously the Apocalypse is a genuine collection of manifold traditions, and betrays the influence of the Christian legend in far greater measure than the other sources. From this influence, which may]|even be closely followed in the style of composition itself, TSE PERSIAN HISTORY OF DANIEL. Ill it also becomes probable that here the Messiah ben Joseph has been transformed to the Antichrist. The statement, however, on this point is not quite clear. Presumably Abar ben-el may have also had a similar tradition in mind, when in his work, the Mashmia Yeshua, he utters the enigmatical sentence : " The Messiah, son of Joseph, whom we expect to come in the beginning of the deliverance, is the Antichrist, whose coming they, the Christians, predict." * Or in these few surviving fragments have we not rather a primeval tradition about some false Messiah destined to appear amongst the Jews ? But no final judgment can yet be pronounced on this point. In any case we have in the remarkable document under consideration a great mass of archaic traditions. In its whole composition it also shows the closest connection with the Mysteries of Simon. Let me add that we are here told how at first the Jews do not believe in the Messiah ben David, who thereupon hides himself, until at last he appears to them as the Son of man in the clouds of heaven.f But on the;whole the conclusion may be hazarded that the Jewish cycle of legends taken collectively, with the figure of Armillus and of both Messiahs, was developed in this connection in the seventh and eighth centuries under the influence of the Antichrist saga. The survey of this Jewish literature has revealed numerous interminglings of the Jewish and Christian * Eisenmenger, II. 747. t With ttis may be compared the end of the Midrash va- Yosha. 112 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. traditions of our apocalyptic material. In the light of the evidence brought together in chap, vii., the conjecture becomes a certainty that the expectation of an Antichrist had its origin on Jewish ground. Thus the tradition might have been traced back to a period prior to that of the New Testament writings, while full confirmation is given to the view advanced in the Introduction that the apocalyptic documents there described imply the existence of an earlier tradition. Thus, while the Antichrist legend was adopted by the Christians from the Jews, the fully developed Christian tradition reacted in its turn on the Jewish eschatology during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries. But this eschatological tradition of the Antichrist has also made its influence felt beyond the pale of the Christian and Jewish worlds. Here I shall bring together a few notices on the subject, without making any pretence to completeness. In a full and careful inquiry into the Voluspd of the elder Edda (Berlin, 1889), E. H. Meyer has endeavoured to follow step by step the influence of Christian tradition on the poem which covers the whole ground from the creation to the last judgment. Still more definitely has he advanced the view that the author of this poem depends essentially on the theological works of Honorius of Autun, and especially on the Elucidarium. But if the Volmpd depends on the one hand on Honorius, it is influenced on the other by the Antichrist legend, and in fact works up the same material. Still, despite its comprehensive TSE V0LTT8PA. 113 and learned treatment, the question seems to me not yet cleared up. For Meyer's assumption tlie strongest argument seems to be the fact that the last great battle between the good and evil powers of the world, that is to say the end, begins with the Brothers will one another slay, and Murderers one of another become ; Kindred their kinsfolk will kill ; Heavy times are in the world. . . . As will be seen farther on, this has become an almost stereotyped introduction to the tradition of the Antichrist. The description also recalls the punish- ments in Hades,t while the opening strongly reminds one of the Sibylline literature as known to us. Hence a general connection of the Edda with the Christian literature and with the Antichrist legend admits of no denial. But in the details much remains uncertain. The difficulties we had to contend with in the elucidation of these poems may be seen, for instance, in strophe 47 (in Meyer, 46). Here the usual translation is, " The world all burns at the blast of the horn " ; whereas Meyer (190) here reads, " The Healer shines on that old renowned cross." If Meyer is right, which, however, is doubtful, owing to the express mention that follows of Heimdall's horn, then we have here * A. Holtzmann, die Ultere Edda uhersetzt und erJdart, Leipzig, 1875, p. 23. t Page 23, ver. 43. 114 THE ANTICHRIST LE&END. again a characteristic feature of the Antichrist tradition. Altogether Meyer seems to me to have gone mtich too far in his attempt to establish direct Christian influences in the Eddas. He greatly underrates the primeval mythological stuff contained in these lays. Take, for instance, what is told in Voluspd (3) of the giant Ymir and of Chaos, and in Vaf-drilomsmdl (21) of the creation of the universe. It is a great mistake to derive these primitive myths from a passage in Honorius, where all analogy completely breaks down. According to Honorius the body of (the first) man is formed from the several elements of the earth. From this Meyer argues that the creation myth of the Edda has been evolved by a kind of reverse process ! Equally strained and wide of the mark seems Meyer's attempt to derive from Eevelation the magnificent description of the five battles of the gods, with which the end of the world is introduced ( Voluspd, strophes 50 et seq.). With what an effort the required number five is here obtained by the expedient of tacking on Hades and Death to the three hostile powers, the Beast, the Dragon, and the False Prophet I * Nor does Meyer seem to me to establish with his vague parallelisms the identity of Siirtr (strophe 51) with the Antichrist (p. 206). To my mind primeval myths stand in the background of the descriptions of the battles between the gods, as well as in the account of the two monsters, the Midgard Serpent and Fenris the Wolf. * Brjplov, SpaKav, ijrevSo7rpo(f)^Tris. THE BAHMAN YAST. 115 But if the influence of the Antichrist saga on the earlier Edda can he spoken of only as slight, it is otherwise with the Muspilli, an old Bavarian poem, dating from the ninth century. In this half- heathen, half-Christian work, the local colouring employed in the description of the destruction of the world is taken hodily from our tradition. This statement needs no further proof, as the parallel passages bearing on the point will be given farther on.* Clear traces of the Antichrist legend are also found in the literature of the Parsees extant in the Pehlevi language. Here attention is claimed especially by the Bahman Yast Apocalypse, of which a translation is contained in the Sacred Books of the East, Vol. V., 191 et seq. As far as I can make out, the Bahman Yast is based on an apocalypse which was composed at the time of the overthrow of the Irdnian (Persian) monarchy by the Muhammadan Arabs in the seventh century. In II. 14 et seq. Zaratustra (Zoroaster) sees a tree with seven branches, which alludes in the usual way to seven dynasties. The sixth is that of Chosroes (the Sassanides), and in the seventh is described the irruption into happy Irdn of the demons with upraised spear and streaming hair. This irrup- tion of IsMm was witnessed by the author of the original Apocalypse, who after that event expects the end of the world. It is this consummation that is described under the direct influence of the Antichrist * For this reference to the Muspilli I have to thank my young friend W. Liieken. 116 TME ANTICHRIST LEGEND. legend, as will appear from tlie large number of parallel passages quoted farther on.* This Apocalypse appears to have undergone a re- vision in the time of the Crusades (see especially III. 3 et seq.), when an intricate eschatological system with several Messiahs was also foisted into the text.t Last of all the Antichrist legend found its way to the Arab world. In Tabari's Chronicle J we have an interesting excursus on the Antichrist. He is to be a ting of the Jews, who rules the whole world, whose figure overtops the welkin, and whose name will be Dejjal. He will appear at the end of time, when Gog and Magog break through the walls built up against them by Alexander the Great. § On his march he will be accompanied by monsters, snakes, scorpions, dragons; he will reduce the greater part of mankind, and no one will be able to resist him in war. He will march from east to west, to the north and to tlie south, and his sway will last forty days. But the * Cf. II. 30 et seq., the signs of tlie end ; II. 54, the rule of the Wicked Spirit ; III. 13, the birth of the Messiah, with the sign of the star announcing the event ; III. 24, the two messengers, N§ri6sang and SrSsh ; III. 26 et seq. (cf. 30), the advent of the Messiah (Pgshy6tan{l), and the overthrow of the Antichrist vrith his whole host. t On the Persian eschatology, see also Spiegel, Avestci, Leipzig, 1852, pp. 32 et seq. t Translated by Zotenberg, Paris, 1867. See chap, xxiii., p. 67. For this reference I am indebted to Professor W. Meyer. § This cycle of sagas, for the diffusion of which see Zezscli- Avitz, p. 170, is also given in detail inTabari, c.xii., p. 518. TABARI ON THE ANTICHRIST. 117 faitlifal will flee before him ; and then Jesus, together with the Mahdi (the Guided) Muhammad ben Abdallah, will overthrow the Antichrist.* This relation with its reminiscences both of Jewish and Christian traditions, the Bahman Yast Apocalypse, and the Jewish eschatologies above collated, all serve to illustrate in a striking manner the religious syncretism (combination, communion) that prevailed during the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries be- tween Christians, Jews, Muhammadans, and Parsees. * Dietricli, Abraxas, 125 (Anmerkung 1), mentions an old Muttammadan tradition tliat Jesus is to vanquish tlie Anti- christ (Dajjat) before the walls of Lydda. PAET II. HISTORY OF THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. CHAPTER IX.* Signs and Foee warnings — The Fall of the Eoman Empire BEFORE THE End — ORIGIN OF THE ANTICHRIST. ATTENTION has already been called (p. 86) to the striking analogy between 4 Ezra and the Apocalypse which forms the basis of the Book of Clement in the account of the premonitory signs of the end ; and it was further seen how individual traits reappear in Sibyl II. and in Ephr. Gr. Sach parallelisms show of themselves that we have here a widely ramifying current of tradition. Our limited space prevents 'the reproduction of all the excerpts bearing on the point. But the various descriptions of tremendous convulsions in the realm of nature, all cast in the same groove of thought, may be compared, as they are recorded in 4 Ezra v. 1 et seq. and vi. 2\ et seq., and again in pseudo-Hippo- tus, chaps, viii., xcvi. 26, and in Lactantins, II. 16. But in the Antichrist legend a specially character- stic feature recurs again and again. It turns on the account of the ever-increasing hatred which will be * For Notes ' to ' of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 269. 121 122 TBB ANTIOBBIST LEGEND. stirred np in the world even between kith and kin, and which goes hack to Micah vii. 6 : " A man's ' enemies are the men of his own honse." Thus in : 4 Ezra v. 9 : " And all friends shall overcome one I another utterly " ; ^ and vi. 24 : " And it shall happen I in that time [that] friends shall overthrow friends as I foes." " In psendo-Hippolytus the section describing : the signs of the last days begins with a detailed account j of this strife between kindred, with which compare ' the opem'ng of pseudo-Ephrem, chap. i. So intimately associated is this trait with the Antichrist tradition that even in quite remote authori- ties it affords the very first indication of the influence of the legend. Thus, as already seen, we read in the Voluspa how " brothers will one another slay," etc. So in the Bahman Tast the unmistakable influence oi our saga begins with the description (II. 30) : " All men will become deceivers, great friends will become of different parties, the affection of the father will depart from the son, and that of the brother fron^ his brother, . . . and the mother will be parted and estranged from the daughter." The uprising of nation against nation, as in Matthew sxiv. 7, is also frequently described in the opening of the apocalypses,* and , lamentations are poured out especially on the discord, the unrighteousness, and misrule prevailing in the world. Here may be mentioned 4 Ezra ; the Apocalypse of Baruch, chap. xlix. 32 et seq., and chap. Ixx. (cf. XXV. 3) ; Lactantius, VII. 15, all of * Cf . 4 Ezra v. 5 ; Lactantius, VII. 15 ; pseudo-Ephrem chap. i. ; Book of Clement, etc. FALL OF TBE ROMAN EMPIRE. 123 which stand in perceptible literary connection with each other.* In many apocalypses the general descriptions of the forewarnings are replaced by more definite pictures of current events. But the mention of one distinct premonitory sign constantly recurs in nearly all the sources. The end is at hand when the Roman empire perishes. In 2 Thessalonians ii. 6, 7 we read : " And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work : only he who now letteth will let, untU he be taken out of the way." With this compare 4 Ezra V. 3 : " And of disorderly condition shall that region be which thou now beholdest domiaant, and they shall see it desolate ; but if the Most Biigh shall grant thee to live and thou behold [those things which] after the third [hath passed away ?] in disorder. . . . " ^ Here the allusion is to the fourth (Roman) empire which succeeds the third (Greek), and after the fall of which the end comes. Irenseus (V. 26), drawing on Daniel ii. and Revela- tion xvii., is able to tell us that iu the last days the Roman empire will be partitioned into ten kingdoms, after which the Antichrist will appear in the character of a foreign ruler. Hippolytus (chaps, xxv. and liv.) t * Cf. also the detailed descriptions in tlie Ascensio Jesaim, III. 23 et seq., in Bk. K., in pseudo-Hippolytus, and elsewhere. t Cf . with this Jerome on Daniel vii. 8 : " Ergo dicamus quod omnes scriptores ecclesiastici tradiderunt " (" Therefore let us relate what aU the Church writers have delivered "). 124/ THE ANTICHRIST LUGEND. borrows from Irenaaus, and neither of these writers has derived his knowledge of the future from a mere investigation of Daniel and Kevelation. Special consideration is next claimed by Tertullian {Apologetics, 32) : " There is also a greater need for us to pray for the emperors as also for the whole state of the empire, and for Roman affairs since we know that by the provision [^ prosperity ?] of the Roman empire the mighty power impending on the whole world and threatening the very close of the century with frightful calamities shall be delayed ; and as we are loth to suffer these things, while we pray for their postponement we favour the stability of Rome." And again, ad Scapulam (2) : " The Christian is hostile to no one, least of all to the emperor, to whom ... he wishes well, with the whole Roman empire, so long as the world shall last, for so long it shall last," * that is, so long as Rome endures. In VII. 15 (634, 18) Lactantius writes : "The Sibyls, however, openly speak of Rome being destined to perish. Hystaspes also, who was a very ancient king of the, Medes, . . . predicted long before that the empire and name of Rome should be effaced from the globe." And in 16 (635, 1) : " But how this shall come to pass I will explain. ... In the first place, the empire shall be parcelled out, and the supreme authority being dissipated and broken up shall be lessened, . . . until ten kings exist all together ; . . . these . . . shall squander everything and impair and consume." VII. 25 (664, 18) : " The very fact proclaims the fall and destruction to be near, except FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRF. 125 that SO long as Rome is safe it seems tliat notMng of this need be feared. But when indeed that head of the world shall fall and the assault begin that the Sibyls speak of coming to pass, who can doubt that the end has already come ? . . . That is the city that has hitherto upheld all things, and we should pray and beseech the God of heaven, if indeed His decrees and mandates can be postponed, that that detested tyrant may not come sooner than we think." ^ So in pseudo-Ephrem, 1 : "And when the kingdom of the Romans shall begin to be consumed by the sword then the advent of the Evil One is at hand." 5 : " And already is the kingdom of the Romans swept away, and the empire of the Christians is delivered unto God and the Father, and when the kingdom of the Romans shall begin to be consumed then shall come the consummation." ° And Cyril, xv. 11 : " The man magician . . . seizing for himself the power of the kingdom of the Romans, . . . and this predicted Antichrist cometh when are fulfilled the seasons of the kingdom of the Romans." ' In the works of Ephrem (I. 192) we find under the name of Jacob of Edessa an exposition of the prophecy in Genesis xlix. 16 on Dan, where the words "that biteth the horse heels so that his rider shall fall backward " are referred to the Antichrist : " That that empire belongeth to those that are called Latins, the Spirit hath already . . . declared and taught through Hippolytns in that book in which he interprets the Revelation of John the Theologian." * This widespread accordance acquires extraordinary 126 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. significance from the following consideration. In the Johannine Apocalypse the Roman empire is plainly enough indicated as the last anti-Christian power, and it might be supposed that those vivid pictures of fierce hatred and sublime imagery would for ever have branded imperial Rome as the anti-Christian power that rises up against God. The legend of Nero redivivus survived long enough in association with the prophecies of Revelation ; the whole of the Sibylline literature is overshadowed by this weird demoniac personality ; even Victorinus was still familiar with the relations of the Johannine Apocalypse to Nero. How then, it may once more be asked(see above, p. 26), was it possible that such a conception as an Antichrist hostile to Rome could have arisen in the very teeth of Revelation and in direct opposition to its teachings ? Surely the Roman empire gave. the Christians reason enough to regard it as the last anti-Christian power, and in one of its rulers to see the Antichrist himself, the devil incarnate. How did it come about that the very opposite notion acquired such unlimited preva- lence ? For now the Roman empire so far from being the Antichrist stands in the way of his coming, while he is declared to be a non-Roman ruler. How was it possible that, even where the Neronic saga still survived, as with Lactantius, Commodian, and S. Martin of Tours, Nero redivivus came to be looked upon as the last Roman emperor, precursor of the Antichrist ? Hippolytus fully understands that in the first half of Revelation xiii. the allusion is to the Roman empire. Yet for him (chap, xlix.) the second beast " coming FALL OF TSE ROMAN EMPIRE. 127 out of the earth " is the Antichrist rule which is to come after the Eoman empire. Hence he has to refer the two horns of the beast to the false prophet who, according to the Apocalypse itself, was to accompany the Antichrist. Then the description of the second beast as minister of the first he explains in such a way as to represent the second beast as ruling the world " according to the law of Augustus " * (the first). Whence originates this persistent and violent distor- tion of the clear sense of Revelation ? It might be pointed out that 2 Thessalonians ii. reacted on the eschatology of the Fathers of the Church. Still it is d priori improbable that this short Pauline allusion could have had a more potent in- fluence than the whole of Revelation, which at least in the first age (IreuEeus, Hippolytus, TertuUian, Yictorinus) enjoyed unquestioned authority. But then fresh problems present themselves. Whence did Paul himself, or whoever was the author of 2 Thes- salonians, derive this notion ? And how does it happen that the extremely enigmatical allusions of this epistle were expounded with such confidence, definiteness, and unanimity by the whole body of patristic writers ? Austin alone seems to hesitate, remarking {City of Ood, XX. 19) that "some think this was said of the Roman empire."' Chrysostom also mentions another interpretation. But with this general unanimity compare the wild gropings of modern expositors, some of whom suppose that in the passage of Thessalonians Paul expresses himself * Karat tov Avyoicrrov vdjiov. 128 THE ANTJOSBIST LEGEND. in this mysterious manner in order to avoid openlj' speaking of the fall of the Eoman empire* Nor are we helped much by a reference to the influence of Daniel vii., on the strength of which the last beast with the ten horns is supposed to repre- sent the Eoman empire. But in that case one scarcely sees how the idea could have arisen of explaining the small (eleventh) horn as some foreign non-Eoman ruler. Even from Eevelation xvii. such an inference could not be arrived at independently. Here no doubt the Neronic Antichrist marches with the ten kings against Eome ; but here also he is too clearly identified with the Eoman emperor himself. In fact the endless embarrassment of the Fathers in expound- ing the passage in question plainly shows that the writers did not draw their apocalyptic ideas from, but rather read them into, this chapter of Eevelation. There is but one solution of the problem. Before the composition of this work a fully developed Anti- christ legend was already current, no doubt derived partly from, but also partly independent of, Daniel. This legend was still destitute of any political meaning, such as the application of the coming of the Anti- christ to the Eoman empire, to Nero redivivus, or to any other Eoman ruler. On the contrary, the Eoman empire is regarded in the tradition as the power which so long as it holds together wards off the frightful time of the last days. It is, moreover, highly probable that this conception of the Eoman empire * Cf. Jerome, Epist, ad Algasiam ; Austin, Clirysostom, and others. FALL OF THE SOMAN JEMPIRF. 129 must liave arisen some considerable time before the destruction of Jerusalem. The sources of this tradition are deeply rooted in the past. It had already influenced Paul ; and that we have here no genuine Christian eschatology is evident from its contacts with 4 Ezra. It will be shown farther on that chaps, li. and following of this book are to be taken as direct sources of the Antichrist saga. Both Paul and 4 Ezra clearly exhibited the enigmatic and purely suggestive treatment of the esoteric tradition which we had assumed for all this eschatological legendary matter. Gunkel (224) con- jectures that in the " he who now letteth " of Paul is contained an earlier mythological tradition. That by these words Paul himself understood the Roman empire from the parallel passages handed down to his time I have no doubt. But what may have been originally understood by the expression is compara- tively speaking irrelevant so far as regards the exegesis of the New Testament. The Book of Revelation itself was unable to give another direction to this tradition. In the second century the earlier figure of the Antichrist might seem to have been once for all banished by the ghost-like image of the Nero redivivus, as current, for instance, in the Sibylline literature. But that the lingering influence of the Johannine Apocalypse and of the Neronic legend should have so rapidly died out was also essentially due to the fact that the old hallowed tradition in its turn soon obliterated the later political application of the Antichrist legend. Henceforth the 9 130 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. figure of the Nero redivivus still persists at most as a secondary form in apocalyptic imagery, or else, as in Victorinus, it becomes identified with. tJie earlier embodiment of the Antichrist originating in pre- Eoman times. It was precisely in this form, in which it was not directed against Rome, that the Antichrist legend exercised a most powerful political influence. For what could have been of more far-reaching conse- quence than the idea, everywhere current in the early Christian communities, that after all the Roman empire did not represent the Antichrist rule — that, on the contrary, the time of the Antichrist would be far more dreadful and calamitous ? The Roman empire and the Cfesars were prayed for, because they were looked upon as the last bulwark against the coming sway of the Antichrist, as is evident from the above- quoted passages from TertuUian and Lactantius. We have also seen how the legend took another turn with the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Henceforth it became impossible any longer to imagine that the holy Roman empire could perish at all. Accordingly the last C^sar is not vanquished, but voluntarily delivers up his crown to God. Probably we have this new application of the saga already in psendo-Ephrem, chap. v. : " And the empire of the Christians is delivered up to God and the Father." * This would harmonise with the assumption that such * With this, inspired by 1 Corinthians xv. 24, compare the above-quoted passages in Adso and pseudo-Methodius and in Bede's and Usinger's Sibyls ; also the parallelisms in Wetstein FALL OF THE ROMAN FMPIBE. 131 a notion had already been developed in the first half of the fourth century. Thus the legend j^[entjs[anderingahont, ever assum- ing, new. aspects nndei-J;he. shifting-conditions of the ' Jtimes. "When Rome fell at last and was followed by the rule of the Northern Barbarians, hopes were turned towards the new Eome (Constantinople) and the Byzantine emperors.* Then arose a holy Roman empire of German nationality, and the legend again wandered westwards, as we find it in Adso. But with the epoch of the Crusades thoughts were once more turned eagerly towards Jerusalem, and the notion again became possible that a last Roman emperor might after all deliver up his crown to God in the holy city. Thus was the saga quickened to new life, becoming in the renewed freshness of ail its details the source of the twelfth-century miracle play of " the Antichrist." With the Reformation it assumes a new aspect, for the necessity now arises of opposing the dangerous tendency of the Protestants to identify the power of the Antichrist with modern Rome and the Papacy. The Roman Catholic interpreters, some of them men of vast erudition, accordingly fell back on the early unpolitical tradition of the Antichrist, gathering traces of it from all quarters in huge tomes full of colossal industry. Here it will suffice to mention (iV^. Te»t., II. 167, 24) from Abarbanel and Elieser's Pirhe ("Sayings") (Zezschwitz, p. 167). * Cf. Apocalypse of Daniel (above, pp. 67 et seq.), and pseudo-Methodius. 132 THE ANTICHRIST LHaEND. sucli writings as the Commentaries of Ribeira and Alcassar, the works of Cardinal Bellarmine and of Malvenda, from all of which there is still much to learn. Thus were laid the foundations of a scientific inquiry into these apocalyptic and mythological traditions, which in the course of ages have assumed so many marvellous phases. Their persistency as well as the progress of their evolution can be measured only by the duration of recorded time. CHAPTER X.* The Jewish Oeigin of the Ajstticheist— His Name— The Devil and Aijtichrist — Belial — The Anticheist figured as a monstee. HERE we shall toucli only on the more important points, without attempting to exhaust the : subject. Fuller details will be given in subsequent chapters. We already learn from Paul that the Man of Sin shall be seated in the Temple of God : " Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all: power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish ; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie : that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness "' (2 Thess. ii. 9-12). That Paul is here thinking of the unbelieving Jews, who have rejected the true Messiah, and have therefore received the false one from God, there can scarcely be any doubt. A_dire.ct_ parallel is presMited by John v. 43 : "I am come in My Father's * For Notes ' to ^ of this chapter, see Appendix, p. 270. 133 134 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. name, and ye receive Me not : if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." I do not know who else can here be understood except the Antichrist. For a perfectly distinct person is spoken of, and the allusion can surely not be to Bar-Cochab. We thus come nearer to a solution of the enigma, how the beast, coming out of the bottomless pit, appears in Jerusalem (Eev. xi.). In the course of our inquiry clear proof will also be given that the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (Matt. xxiv. 15), is the Antichrist. We are ever and everywhere confronted with this spectacle of an Antichrist, who appears in Jerusalem, a godless power, who in the last days rises up amid the holy people, a false Messiah equipped with signs and wonders. We now also understand how Hippolytus came to know (chap, vi.) that " in the circumcision the Saviour came into the world, and he [Antichrist] in like manner shall come." ^ It also becomes clear how the idea occurred to Victorinus of speaking of Nero in such language as this : " Him therefore God having raised up shall send as a king worthy to the worthy [of such], and as a Christ such as the Jews deserved. . . . And since he shall bring another name, he shall likewise institute another life, so that him the Jews may receive as Christ, [for] saith Daniel (xi. 37), ' Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women,', he who hereto- fore had been most foul, for no one shall be able to seduce the people of circumcision unless [he ORIGIN OF THE ANTICBRIST. 135 be himself] a defender of the law." ^ So universal is the unanimity on this point that it will suffice to adduce one more witness, Jerome on Daniel xi.. 21 : " But our [expositors] interpret both better and more correctly that at the end of the world these things \ shall be done by the Antichrist, who is to rise up ■ from a small nation — that is, the nation of the Jews." ' In Lactantius alone occurs the variant (VII. 17, 638, 14) : "Another king shall rise up out of Syria " ; * but even by Lactantius this alien king is described as the pseudo-Messiah. So also Oommodian (vers. 891 et seq.) : "Again there shall arise ... a king out of the East."' But at 933 he also is spoken of as a false Messiah : " For us Nero, for the Jews He [Christ], is made the Antichrist."" Moreover, this ruler, after slaying Nero, marches on Jud^a, which, is obviously assumed to be the seat of his power. Thus, in the Jewish source common to Lactantius and 'Oommodian, the false Messiah is again transformed to &. hostile ruler, but in such a way as to leave the origin'sl figure clearly perceptible. Still more clearly and distinctly is now seen the whole aspect of that apocalypic tradition : an Anti- christ is expected, but not from the Koman empire, which, on the contrary, is the power that still bars the way to the appearance of the Antichrist. Hence the godless power, a false Messiah who claims divine worship, arises in Jerusalem in the midst of Israel itself. But is it con|;eivable that in this form the prediction can have at all originated on Jewish ground ? How did the notion arise ? Have we not here an apocalyptic 136 TSE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. dream of nascent Christianity inspired by hatred of the Jews? In any case this naust be a very early prediction which was current in the first centuries of the new era, and which had already assumed a definite form for Paul — a prediction which, being at first un- political, dates neither from the time of Caligula nor of Nero. The name, however, of the Antichrist (1 John ii. 18 ; 2 John 7) is not older than the New Testament. By Paul he is spoken of quite in a general way as the " man of sin," " the son of perdition " (2 Thess. ii. 3). Yet even Paul seems already to know of some distinct name, as seen from the following passages : 2 Corinthians vi. 15: "And what concord hath Christ with Belial ? " This association of Christ with Belial (Beliar) is significative. Testam. Patriarcharum, Dan 5 : " And unto you shall ascend from the tribe of Judah and of Levi the salvation of the Lord, and he shall make war against' Beliar."' Sibyl II. 37 : " And Beliar shall come and/work many signs for men." ' Sibyl III. 63 : " But hereafter shall Beliar come from the Sebastenes."" Compare also III. 73. Ascensio Jesaim, IV. 2 : " Beliar a great angel, king of this world, shall descend ... in the form of man." '" This name Belial occurs also in the Dioptra ; and in the Book of Zorobabel Belial isj the father of Antichrist ; with which compare the Commentary of Andreas, 92, 2. \ Paul was thus acquainted with a distinct name of ANTICBRIST AND BELIAL. 137 t]i^B_^jijiclirisfc— BeliaL ox ._Beliar, being somewhat equivalent to the expression,. " man of sin." It is noteworthy this very name has. a wide currency in Jewish literature. The ahove-quoted Sihylline passages are certainly taken, one (II.) directly the other in- directly, from Jewish writings ; and the extract from the Testament of Dan seems to me to be derived from the fundamental Jewish element in that book. The Ascensio Jesaics (III. and IV.) is also probably based on a short Jewish apocalypse, while in a late Jevrish document the name of Belial has survived with reference to the Antichrist. The original meaning of this word will be dealt with farther on. The following descriptions of the Antichrist may also be quoted for the sake of their literary associations : Irenasus, V. 25 : " He . . . shall come ... as an- apostate and wicked one and murderer, as a robber." " Pseudo-Ephrem, 5 : " Then shall appear that most wicked and detestable dragon, he whom Moses named in Deuteronomy, saying, ' Dan is a lion's whelp ; he shall leap from Bashan.' For he croucheth that he may seize and destroy and slay. . . . But a lion's whelp not as the lion of the tribe of Dan, but roaring with rage that he may devour." '^ With this compare Hippolytus, de Antichristo, chap. xiv. ; and the de- scriptions in pseudo-Methodius and Adso (1292 B). Ephr. Gr., II. 225 et seq. : " For since the thief — and the persecutor and cruel one Shall first come — in his own times Wishing to steal and — to slay and destroy. Pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse, 6 : " Then shall 138 TBE ANTICBRIST LEGEND. appear the denier and he who is born of darkness, who is called the Antichrist." " Greek Apocalypse of Daniel, 104 : " And the thrice accursed demon shall prevail." " Noteworthy are also the following : 4 Ezra v. 6 : " And he shall reign whom the dwellers on earth expect not." " Irentens, V. 30, 2 : "He who shall come of a sadden claiming the dominion for himself." " Armenian Apocalypse of Daniel, 239, 1 : " After the coming of him whom they desired not nor hoped for." By a collation of these parallelisms we may perhaps restore a passage in the Ascensio Jesaice, V. 13 : " And many of the faithful and of the saints, when they beheld Him whom they expected (not) [the Lord Jesus Christ suspended, when I Jesse saw Him who was suspended and ascended (?), and the believers also in Him, of those but few shall remain in those days, His ministers] fleeing from desert to desert, awaiting the coming of Him (the Lord)." ^' The mention of the crucifixion of Christ in the middle of a description of the Antichrist times is quite meaningless. But if the clause in square brackets be struck out, there remains the puzzling "whom. they expected," which in the light of the parallel passages should perhaps read "whom they expected not." Then the sense will be completed by simply supplying the words " the Lord " at the end of the sentence. These preliminaries bring us to the specially impor- tant subject of THE Devil and the Antichkist. On the mutual relations of these two personalities the greatest THE BEVIL AND THE ANTICBBIST. 139 discordance prevails in traditional lore. Yet it is of the greatest interest to investigate these discrepancies and conflicting fancies. For this very chaos of clash- ing views enables us to get behind the beginnings of our eschatological tradition, and thus follow them up to their essential original form. The Fathers of the Church, whose writings have acquired great influence in this exegesis, speak very plainly and distinctly. Foremost amongst them is Jerome on Daniel vii. 8 : " Nor let. us think that he [Antichrist] . . . is the devU ora demon, but one of men iu whom _ Satan, is wholly to dwell bodily." " Quite in a similar sense runs Chrysostom's exposition of 2 Thessalonians ii., in HomUy 2 : " But who is this one ? Think you, Satan ? By no means, but some man possessed of all his energy." ^ So also Irenaeus, Y. 25, 1 : " Eeceiving all the virtue of the devil, . . . summing up within himself the apostasy of the devil." In any case it is clear enough that this, and this alone, is the New Testament view of the Anti- christ. The inflaence of Jerome may be distinctly traced in the Western Church, and that of Chry- sostom in the Eastern Church.* Henceforth ' the assumption that the Antichrist is the devil himself practically dies out of ecclesiastical tradition. Yet the very interpretations of Jerome and Chry- * For Jerome, cf. Haymo of Halberstadt on 2 Thessalonians ii. ; for Chrysostom, John of Damascus, 'Exfleo-is t^s ipdoSo^ov iria-Tfcos, Verona, 1531, p. 135 ; also the Commentaries of CBcu- menius arii Theophylactus on the passage of 2 Thessalonians in question. 140 TSM ANTICHRIST LEGEND. sostom presuppose an earlier tradition, in which Satan was identified with Antichrist, or at least was brought into a much closer relation with him than is assumed in the notion of a man possessed of satanic energy. To begin with the earliest evidence, in Hippolytus the relations are already far from clear. Here (chap, vi.) we read : " In the form of man appeared the Saviour, and he also [the Antichrist] shall come in the form of man." ^ From this quite another repre- sentation might be inferred. Farther on, where we are told of the birth of the Antichrist in the tribe of Dan, it is added (chap, xiv.) : " ' Dan shall be a serpent.' . . . But who is the serpent except the deceiver from the beginning, he who in Genesis is called the beguiler of Eve and the crusher of Adam ? " ^^ In what follows the Antichrist would seem to be called " the devil's son." Although the identification is not complete, still for Hippolytus the Antichrist is in any case Satan incarnate. But in Firmicus Maternus the identification is clenched with the words : " The devil is Antichrist himself" * Equally clear is the passage of pseudo- Hippolytus, xxii. 105, 21 : " Because the Savioar of the world, wishing to save mankind, was born of the immaculate Virgin Mary, and in the form of flesh trod underfoot the enemy by the special virtue of His own divinity, in the same way the devil also shall come of a polluted woman on the earth, but be born by deception of a virgin, for our God dwelt with us in the flesh. . . . But the devil, even if he take flesh * Liber de Erroribus, chap. xxii. TBB DEVIL AND TSE ANTICHRIST. 141 he does so by simulation." ^^ The passage points back to the source of pseudo-Hippolytus, and to Ephr. Gr., III. 134 C : " Let us learn, my friends — in what form shall come on earth — the shameless serpent — Since the Redeemer — wish- ing to save all mankind — was born of a Virgin — and in human form — crushed the enemy — with the holy power — of His godhead." 137 B : " This then the enemy having learnt — that again shall the Lord come from heaven — in the glory of His divinity — thus bethought him — to assume the form — of His coming — and [thus] beguile all men. ... So in very truth shall he be born — of a defiled woman — his instrument — [though] he shaU not [really] be incarnate." ^* Although here everything is based on the notion that Satan, simulating the birth of the Lord, appears personally in the Antichrist, still at the close the point of this notion is blunted, the Antichrist after all appearing only as the " organ " or instrument of Satan. It is strange that the pseudo-Hippolytus, who depends on Ephrem, here shows quite a strained sequence of thought. Are we to suppose that Ephrem was accessible to him in some other recension ? Moreover, as will be seen farther on, the Antichrist is elsewhere also in the homily of the Greek Ephrem ^ absolutely described as_a demoniac-superhuman-fignre.^. But so far as^ the Ephremite Greek text runs, the relation between Satan and Antichrist is after all here conceived in a different way from Jerome and Chrysostom. This is at once seen from the parallel passage (already alluded to in Hippolytus) between the appearance of 142 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. Satan on eartli in the Antichrist and the miraculous birth of Christ. So also Amhrosiaster on 2 Thessa- lonians ii 3 : "As the Son of God in His human birth manifested His divine nature, so also shall Satan appear in human form." A like comparison, though in a somewhat weakened manner, is drawn by Theo- doretus commenting on 2 Thessalonians ii. 3 : " For the persecutor of men simulates the incarnation of our God and Saviour ; and as He by assuming our human nature accomplished our salvation, so that one also by making choice of a man capable of receiving the fulness of his power shall tempt men." ^° In this last conception Theodoretus certainly approximates to the idea of Jerome and Chrysostom, but still he obviously goes beyond them. Another parallel occurs in the work passing under the name of Prosper Aquitanicus, On the Promises and Predictions of Ood, IV. 8, where the Antichrist appears in a man, "just as, on the other hand, the holy angel in the Book of Tobias assumed the form and resemblance ... of Azarias."^' But somewhat different again seems the relation in Lactantius : " begotten of an evil spirit " ; ^ and in S. Martin of Tours : " conceived of an evil spirit." ^ We thus see how the tradition wavers between the concept of the Antichrist as of a man controlled by the devil and that of his identiiication with Satan. But it is manifest that the notion of him as of a superhuman spectral and demoniacal apparition is widespread and primeval ; possibly this is the earlier, and consequently comes again and again to the surface. TBE DEVIL AND THE ANTICHRIST. 143 Side by side with these ideas we find still a character- istic intermediate form in later writers, who firmly hold that the Antichrist was to come into the world in the natural way from human parents, hut that Satan must at least have co-operated in his conception. How are we to explain these discrepancies in the notion of the Antichrist ? In my opinion only by a reference to the origin of the Antichrist legend itself. Whence comes the idea of such a personality at all, that is, of a hostile pseudo-Messiah, who rises up in the midst of the people of God themselves, as repre- sented in Paul, Matthew xxiv.. Revelation xi., and here obviously on the ground of Jewish traditions ? Gunkel (pp. 221 et seq.) is fully justified in holding that the expectation of an Antichrist in no way originated in any distinct political situation, and that all explanations have failed that are based on current events, whether those of Caligula's or of Nero's reign. Such times of political excitement give rise to no new eschatological yearnings, whose growth and being are a much slower process, in fact one to be measured by centuries. Long-standing expectations may indeed be interpreted by contemporary history, but no fresh imagery takes its rise in this way. Gunkel holds that we are to regard the Antichrist tradition as a Jewish dogma, which had its origin in such visions as those of Daniel vii. and the like, by imparting a spiritual meaning to a tradition which had at first a political character. But to me it still seems that it is a far cry from Daniel vii. to 2 Thessalonians. How did the description " a foreign dominion revolting against God give rise to Hi THE ANTIOBRIST LEGEND. tk§_idea_of a godless jjower risjng, iip_against_God ia the midst of the people of God themselves ? More- over, the notion of the Antichrist seated in the Temple of Jerusalem is so concrete and vivid, that it becomes difficult to imagine it inspired by Daniel's foreboding of the dreadful desolation of the holy place. With the knowledge that Daniel's prophecy itself was not uttered for a definite purpose, but rested on an earlier tradition, Gimkel held in his hands the clue to a correct solution of the problem. My belief is that we have here merely an exposition, and that behind this Antichrist saga there lies an earlier myth. As con- vincingly shown by Gunkel himself,* we find in the Old and here and there in the New Testament litera- ture very numerous traces of a primeval Creation mjdih, which was later transformed to an expectation of the last things. As may still be seen in Eevelation, there existed in the popular Jewish belief the fore- bodiQg of another revolt of the old marine monster with whom God had warred at the creation, but who in the last days was again to rise and contend in heaven-storming battle with God. The expectation is not of any hostile ruler and of the oppression of Israel by him and his army, but of a struggle of Satan directly with God, of a conflict of the Dragon with the Almighty throned in heaven. To me the Antichrist legend seems a simple incarnation of that old Dragon myth, which, has in the first instance nothing to do with particular political powers and occurrences. For the Dragon is substituted the man armed with * Schiipfung und CImos, passim, TSM DEVIL AND- TSE ANTICHRIST. 146 miraculous power wlio makes himself God's equal — a man who in the eyes of the Jews could he no other than the false Messiah. But the Antichrist legend is after all unable quite to conceal its origia in a far wilder and more fantastic world of thought and sentiments, from which it has received an indelible impression. I)uring:.jts^-further development there continually arises behind the Anti- christ the still wilder figure of the God-hating demon, of Sata.n, ever seeking to thrust Him aside. The history of the saga bears on its face the impress of our assumption regarding its origin, as will be more clearly seen in the following remarks. To begin with, the Antichrist is even still frequently represented as a dragon and a demon. Especially is this the case in Bphr. Gr., whose homily opens with the announcement that he is about to speak " on the most shameless and terrible dragon who is to bring disorder into the whole world." ^ Here the term " dragon " often recurs, and as in Ephr. Syr. the mes- sengers and ministers of the Dragon are demons. So the pseudo-Ephrem : " Then shall appear that most wicked and detested dragon " ; * while in the Greek Apocalypse of Daniel (116, 35) we have the character- istic expression : " The serpent that sleepeth shall awaken.'"' At 119, 105, the Antichrist is "the thrice accursed demon " ; and in Cyril (xv. 15) " the fearful * " Tunc apparebit ille nequissimus et abominabilis draco " (cf. chap. viii.). In chap. vii. also the Antichrist is the " nequis- simus serpens," with which compare the " signum serpentinum " of chap. viii. 10 146 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. beast, the great dragon, unconquerable by men " ; ^^ while Philip the Solitary " compares him to the subtle and deceitful dragon," ^ as in Genesis xlix. 1 7. Without further quotations, and especially omitting those passages in which the figure of the Dragon might somehow have arisen under the influence of Revelation xii., I turn to some highly interesting and suggestive details. In the opening of Ephr. Gr. we have the following description of the Antichrist, which nowhere recurs in later writings : A great conflict, Brethren — ^ia those times Amongst all men — but especially amongst the faithful, When there shall be — signs and wonders [Wrought] by the Dragon — in great abundance (?) When he shall again — manifest himself as God In fearful phantasms — flying in the air And [show] all the demons — in the form of angels Flying in terror — before the tyrant, For he crieth out loudly — changing his forms also — To strike infinite dread — into all men.^* A detailed description drawn directly from this source occurs in pseudo-Hippolytus, xxix. Ill, 10 : " For his demons he shall represent as angels of light, and hosts of bodiless [spirits] he shall lead forth, of whom there is no number, and before the face of all he exhibits him received into heaven with trumpets and shouts and great cries hailing him with unutterable hymns, and shining like a light that shareth in darkness, and now flying aloft unto heaven, and now coming down on the earth in great glory, and again ANTICSRIST AND SIMON MAGUS. 147 marshalling the demons as angels to do the will of him with much fear and trembling."^* A reflection of this image occurs in Philip the Solitary : " Flying aloft as an angel, nay as a demon, and fashioning terrors and wonders unto deception." ^ Perhaps light is thrown by these passages on a puzzling sentence in the old Apocalypse of Baruch, where it is stated (chap, xxvii.) that in the eighth time of the Messianic end there shall come " a multi- tude of phantasms and a gathering of demons (?)." Here we may have a parallel to those later and fuller descriptions. But is all this strange and absolutely unique imagery really nothing more than fantastic accounts of the marvellous works of the Antichrist ? We are warned to be guarded in our conclusions by the very circumstance that we have here evidently cropping out that Dragon myth which lies behind the Antichrist legend. And in point of fact it is highly probable that this marvellous spectacle of the Antichrist encircled by his angels and flying in the air had originally a far more serious meaning. Here we are carried further by the consideration that the Antichrist saga is beyond question connected with another cycle of legends, which has become interwoven with the person of Simon Magus of Samaria.* In the following remarks it will be shown that the further * Cf. The Acts of the Apostles, ed. Lipsius and Bonnet, I., 1891 ; Actus Petri cum Simone, chaps, xxxi., xxxii. ; Martyriwn Petri et Pauli, ib., 118 et seq., chaps, liii.-lvi. ; Ada Petri et Pauli, 178 et seq. ; Passio Petri et Pauli, 223 et seq. ; Arnobitis lis THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. development of the history of Simon Magus in the apocryphal legendary matter of apostolic times has been carried out under the influence of the Antichrist legend. When the Simon Magus legend is viewed from this standpoint, we are at once struck by a parallelism in this connection. In the fabulous relation dating back to the second century and perhaps earlier, the magician's end is brought about in the following way. After promising to fly heavenwards before the as- sembled multitude, and thus prove himself God, he is borne aloft by the aid of demons ; but on the prayer of Peter he tumbles down, and so perishes miserably. A special original version occurs in Arnobius, II. 12 : " For they [the Romans] had seen the flight of Simon Magus and his fiery chariots dissipated by the breath of Peter and vanish at the name of Christ ; they had seen . . . the truster in false gods betrayed by them in their terror and precipitated by his own weight." But either way the legend of the flight to heaven already acquires a deeper meaning, and in the case of Simon it becomes an essay to prove his divinity — an ascension I We are also told that on beholding him soar upwards the people begin to hail him as a god. The narrative is thus seen to be a direct revolt against God.* ad'o. Gentes, II. 12 ; Cyril, Catechetical Lecture, VI. 15 ; Sulpicius Severus, Sacr. Hist., II. 28 ; Theodoretus, Beeretic. Fahulai-um, I. 1 ; Austin, de Hmresihus, I. ; Constit. Apost., VT. 9. * Cf. also Actus Petri cum Simone, chap, iv., where Simon performs his flight in Eome ; and Martyrium Petri et Pauli, II., where amongst his wonders it is related that he has been able to appear flying in the air. ANTICBniST AND SIMON MAGUS. H9 It now becomes highly sigaificant to note that in the Scivias of S. Hildegard the same end is related of the Antichrist. Here we read : " For when he shall have fnlfiUed all the pleasure of the devil, the begniler, because in the just judgment of God he shall not by any means be permitted any longer to have so much potency for his wickedness and cruelty, he shall gather all his host and say unto the believers in him that he intendeth to go aloft — and lo ! as if stricken by a thunderbolt suddenly coming [down] he strikes his head with such force that he is both cast down from that mountain and delivereth his soul unto death." "" The supposition must be at once excluded that S. Hildegard invented these fancies herself ; evidently she must have been acquainted with some surviving primeval traditions, whence she drew her predictions. Nor is this description of the fate of the Antichrist borrowed from the Simon Magus legend. We need but ask ourselves whether this idea of the attempted, or here only planned, ascension adapts itself better to the Antichrist or to Simon Magus. We infer rather that in S. Hildegard's Visions is preserved a variant of the Antichrist legend, which is itself presupposed by the Simon Magus saga. The Antichrist perishes in the attempt to fly aloft and thus prove himself God, and by God is hurled down.* How is it possible here to overlook the deeper * Of. for instance, Constit., VI. 9, 165, 11 : hiyav eJj oipavois aviivai KUKeWev avrdls to. dyada eVi^op'/y"!' (" Saying that he goes unto heaven and thence sends them [all] good things "). This 1-50 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. \ sense of the saga and its connection in this point with the earlier Dragon myth ? The notion that the Dragon < storms the heavens and in the assault on the throne of , God is cast down is found quite clearly expressed in ' the New Testament, and Kevelation xii. is assuredly based on the same myth. In chap, xiii., ver. 6, also we have an echo of the legend in the words " to blaspheme His name, and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven "; so also, " I saw Satan like unto the lightning falling from heaven." In that variant of the Antichrist legend and in that of Simon Magus we have reminiscences of the primeval myth, which even Ephrem seems to have known, only with him the ascension of Antichrist becomes a miraculous spectacle. In Ephrem (see above, p. 146) it is further related that in his flight the Dragon changes his form, with which may be compared the Martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, chap. xiv. : " But he [Simon] began sud- denly to change his forms, so as instantly to become a child, and after a little an old man, and again a youth ; . . . and he raged, having the devil a helper." ^ Then we read of the Antichrist in Philip's Dioptra : " But also altogether like Proteus by changes of forms and colours [he makes himself] one from another, . . . flying on high like an angel, nay, lilce a announcement is of frequent occurrence, as in Mart. Petri et Pauli, where Simon says to Nero : Uiiiifrai rovr dyyiXovs /iov irpSs a-t Kol TToi^o-u a-e l\6uv irpds fit (" I will send my angels to thee and cause thee to come unto me"). ANTICHRIST AND THE DRAGON MYTH. 151 demon, and fashioning portents and wonders nnto deception."^' So also in the Apocalypse of Ezra (p. 29) we have concerning the Antichrist : " And he becomes a child and an old man, and no one believeth in him that he is my beloved son." *" Similarly in the Apocalypse of Zephaniah (123) in the sight of the onlookers he transforms himself, growing at one time yonng at another aged. Here is clearly seen how both cycles of legends come in contact. In early Christian (New Testament) times the Antichrist saga had already acquired a political tendency with reference to Nero. When the figure of this ruler, returning with the Parthians after the lapse of a generation, had gradually been distorted to a demoniac and spectral being, the elements of the primeval Dragon myth also found their way into this picture of Nero returning from the lower regions. Oases in point are presented in superabundance by ' the Sibyls, Thus V. 214 : Weep thou also, Corinth, for the dire undoing of thee; For when with their twisted threads the three sister Fates, Having ensnared him fleeing by the Isthmian oracle. Shall raise him on high, then let all look to it.*'^ In VIII. 88 the figure of the Dragon stands out clearly : The fiery-eyed Dragon when he cometh on the waves With full belly, and shall oppress the children of thee. Famine also pending and fratricidal strife. Then is nigh the end of the world and the last day.*^ 152 THE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. And again, VIII. 154 : From the Asian land [he shall come] mounted on the Trojan chariot, With the python's (?) fury ; but when the isthmus he shall cross, Changing from sea to sea in eager search of all, Then shall he encounter the great beast of black blood.*' And V. 28 : And whoso hath fifty horns (?) received, lord shall he be, A dire serpent begetting heavy war. 32 : And the height 'tween two seas shall he sever and with gore befoul. And unseen shall be the pernicious one ; [but] again shall he return, Holding himself equal to God, and shall contend that He is not.** Here is lastly to be mentioned yet another reference in Bplir. Syr., 7,* where the Antichrist comes from a place which is translated by Lamy "perdition," but which probably means from the lower world, that is, the Hebrew Abaddon.] Although in Eevelation this is a personal name, it is translated in the Old Testa- ment by the Syriac term in question. Andreas, who in his Commentary points to many coincidences with Ephrem, remarks on Revelation xi. 7 : " The Antichrist coming out of the dark and THE FieXIRE OF BELIAL. 153 deep recesses of the ground, to wHch tlie devil had been condemned."*^ Here might again be compared the Abaddon of Eevelation ix. 11, and the expression " son of perdition " in 2 Thessalonians ii. 3. Note on Belial. As above remarked, Paul was already acquainted with this name as that of the Antichrist (2 Oor. ii. 3), and the Greek expression " man of sin " (properly " man of lawlessness ") is probably a trans- lation of the Hebrew Beli-al.* We thus, come upon firm Jewish traditional ground. Who then is Belial ? The best explanation occurs in Ascensio Jesaice, IV. 2 : " . . . And after the consummation the angel Berial shall descend, the great king of this world, over which he ruleth since it existeth, and he shall descend from his firmament [in the form of man, king of wickedness, matricide ... he is king of this world] . . . . This angel Berial [in the form of this estate] shall come, and with him shall come all the powers of this world, and they shall hearken unto him in all things as he shall will."" It may be, and indeed is probable enough, that the reference to Nero (see the clauses in square brackets) is not here made for the first time. Still we clearly see that originally Belial had naught to do with Nero, but is an evil angel, who is called the ruler of this world, who has his abode in cloudland, and to whom 154 TBE ANTICHRIST LEGEND. are subject other angels, the " powers of this world." Of this Belial it is announced that he is to set np his dominion at the end of the world. In equally plain language Belial is also described as the ruler of the last time in Sibyl III. 63 et seq., where he is brought into relation with Nero : " And from the Sebastenes shall come Beliar." Although this reference is lacking in Sibyl II. 167, Belial is also in the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs an evil spirit, apparently the devil or Satan himself, and here also we read of the " spirits of Beliar." ^' Likewise in the Testament of Daniel, Belial is spoken of as the foe of the last days ; as in chap, v., where it is said of the Messiah that "He shall make war against Beliar, and the vengeance of victory shall He grant for our translation [to heaven]."** Some of the following passages also have perhaps been modified in a Christian sense. Thus, while Codex R reads "in the kingdom of Jerusalem," all the others have " in the new Jerusalem." Some light may now be shed on a passage in the Aseensio Jesaice, VII. 9 : " And we ascend into the firmament, I and he, and there I beheld Sammael and his powers, and a great battle was there and Satanic speeches, and one was wrangling with another ; . . . and I asked the angel : What is this strife ? And he said to me : So is it since this world existeth until now, and this contest [abideth] until He shall come whom thou art to behold, and He shall destroy it [the world]."*" It is not clear in what relation Sammael stands to Belial, and possibly Sammael was not originally in the TEE FIQmtE OF BELIAL. 155 text at all.* But in any case here also we read of an evil spirit whose domain is the sky (" firmament "), and who in the last days is to be vanquished. How is the figure of Belial himself to be explained'?: Whatever view be taken, it is a figure which from itsj name and tradition must have originated on Jewish ground, and in it we have seemingly to recognise a first phase of the Antichrist legend. The Dragon . who revolts against God is here metamorphosed to | a wicked angel who becomes the ruler of the sethereal j regions and prince of this world. Thus is accom- j plished the first step in the migrations of the Baby- i Ionian mythology. As seen, Paul is already familiar with the figure of Belial as the opponent of the Messiah in the last days. But what can Christ and Belial have in common ? But jnth_ Paul, Belial, has. already ceased to be an angel or a demon, and becomes "the man of lawlessness." This determination is of unusual importance. Even allowing that the notion of the Antichrist seated in * The Latin text (Dillmann, 11) varies greatly; but the Ethiopic version is confirmed by the Latin fragment, p. 85. Still there remains the possibility that the original reading has been preserved by the Latin text I., as compared -with the two other documents. This text knows absolutely nothing of Sammael, while in the recension represented by the Ethiopic and Latin IL Sammael and Belial are brought into artistic relation one with the other. Thus p. 84 (III. 13) : " Fuit enim Beliac bilem habens in Esaiam propter quod in se ostenderit Samael " (" For Beliac was enraged against Isaiah for that he held up Samael against him "). 156 THE ANTIOSBIST LEGMND. the Temple originated with Christianity in opposition to the Jews, nevertheless it has its roots in Jadaism, that is, in the distinctly Jewish expectation of the revolt of the aerial spirit, Belial, and this again in the Babylonian Dragon myth. The Antichrist in the Character of a Monster. In this connection it may further be mentioned that a description of the Antichrist as of a human monster is found widely diffused. Such a variant of the Antichrist occurs in the Apocalypse of Ezra, where we read (Tischendorf, Apocalypses Apocryphce, xxix.) : " The form of the face of him as of a field ; his right eye as the morning star, and the other one that quaileth not ; his mouth one cubit ; his teeth of one span ; his fingers like unto sickles, the imprint of his feet two spans, and on his brow the ' ' inscription Antichrist." ^ So also in some manuscripts of the pseudo- Johannine Apocalypse, chap. vii. Moreover, we have in the Armenian Apocalypse of Daniel (239, 11) a different description couched in similar language, as also in the Book of Clement, with which compare the part extant in Latin. Then the same fanciful description reappears in the accounts of Armillus occurring in the late Jewish apocalypses. So also in the Apocalypse of Elias, where, however, no reference yet occurs to Armillus, though, strange to say, appeal is made to a Vision of Daniel. In the Midrash va-Yosha ( Wunsche, 119) we read : " He ANTICHRIST iS A HUMAN MONSTER. 157 shall be bald-liea(led,with a small and a large eye ; Ms right arm shall b a span long, but his left two and a half ells ; on .'s brow shall be a scab, his right ear stopped, b •, the other open." Similar accounts may bej, seen i the Mysteries of Simon ben Yokhai, in the Book of Zor6u&DL,in the Signs of the Messiah, and in the Persian History of Ijaiel.* It is very noteworthy that a description clothed with this distinctly Jewish tradition occurs also in the Apocalypse of Zephaniah, p. 125. Such a coinci- dence points at the original Jewish character of the work. With this compare also the extravagant description of the personal appearance of Judas Iscariot in the fragment of Papias.f About its source there can no longer be any doubt. * Cf. also Qucestiones ad Antiochum, 109 (Migne, XXVIII.) : Kai