Antichrist in the early church

Didache 16.4Anonymous · ca. 50–150 (often ca. 100) · The world-deceiver will appear as a son of God, doing signs and wonders.
Ascension of Isaiah 4.2Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Ascension of Isaiah 4.6Anonymous · late 1st–2nd century
Epistle of Barnabas 4.4Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Daniel's ten kingdoms and the little king.
Epistle of Barnabas 4.5Anonymous · ca. 70–135 (often ca. 130) · Daniel's fourth beast and the little horn.
Dialogue with Trypho 32.3Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Psalm 110 shows the ascension; the Antichrist of Daniel is near.
Dialogue with Trypho 110.2Justin Martyr · ca. 155–160 · Micah's prophecy is fulfilled in Christ's first coming and will be completed at his second, when the Antichrist will persecute Christians.
Adumbrations on 1 John, paragraph 8Clement of Alexandria · original ca. 200; Latin translation 6th century · On 1 John 2:8–29: the ‘brother’ to be loved includes the Lord; little children, fathers and young men are stages of the soul's progress; the world as creation is good, but its lusts come from us; the antichrist denies that Jesus is the Christ.
Against Heresies 3.6.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul too distinguishes the so-called gods from the one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ.
Against Heresies 3.7.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul often transposes words, as in Gal 3:19 and 2 Thess 2:8–9; read correctly, 2 Cor 4:4 speaks of the true God.
Against Heresies 3.16.5Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The risen Lord, the Gospels, and John's letter teach one Christ who was born, suffered, and rose; those who divide him are antichrists.
Against Heresies 5.25.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist, gathering up all the devil’s apostasy, will set himself up as the one idol and claim to be God, as Paul foretold of the man of sin.
Against Heresies 5.25.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Paul calls the Jerusalem temple the temple of God, showing it was built by the true God; the Antichrist will sit in it, as Jesus foretold.
Against Heresies 5.25.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Daniel’s little horn among the ten horns and Paul’s lawless one describe the Antichrist, who will reign three and a half years before the Lord destroys him.
Against Heresies 5.25.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist is the “other” who comes in his own name and the unjust judge of the parable; Daniel foretells his desolation of the temple for half a week, three and a half years.
Against Heresies 5.26.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · John’s ten horns and Daniel’s ten toes signify ten kings among whom the present empire will be divided before Christ, the stone cut without hands, destroys them and sets up an eternal kingdom.
Against Heresies 5.28.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist, sent at God’s foreknown time as judgment on those who refused the truth, is John’s beast with its false prophet and the number 666, summing up six thousand years of apostasy.
Against Heresies 5.29.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Creation exists for the sake of man; the unbelieving nations are like chaff serving the wheat, and when the Church is taken up the final tribulation will come.
Against Heresies 5.29.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The number 666 sums up the wickedness before the flood (Noah’s six hundred years) and the idolatry after it (Nebuchadnezzar’s image, sixty by six cubits), all gathered in the Antichrist.
Against Heresies 5.30.1Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The true number is 666, attested by the ancient copies and by those who saw John; those who adopt the corrupt reading 616 and invent names for the Antichrist risk being deceived by him.
Against Heresies 5.30.2Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Believers should wait for the tenfold division of the kingdom and then recognize the Antichrist, who, according to Jeremiah, will come from the tribe of Dan.
Against Heresies 5.30.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Irenaeus notes that Euanthas, Lateinos, and especially Teitan add up to 666 but declines to name the Antichrist, since John, who saw the vision late in Domitian’s reign, did not.
Against Heresies 5.30.4Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · The Antichrist will reign three and a half years until the Lord comes from heaven, casts him into the lake of fire, and brings the just the kingdom, the hallowed seventh day of rest.
On Christ and Antichrist 6Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will imitate Christ in everything: lion, king, lamb, apostles, seal, and temple.
On Christ and Antichrist 14Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan, called a lion's whelp and a serpent.
On Christ and Antichrist 15Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Samson only partly fulfilled the prophecy that Dan shall judge his people; it will be fulfilled in Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 16Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Isaiah's oracle against the boastful king of Assyria is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 17Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Isaiah's taunt over the fallen king of Babylon, the Morning Star, is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 18Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Ezekiel's oracle against the prince of Tyre who called himself God is applied to Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 25Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The fourth beast is Rome; the ten toes and horns are future kings, and the little horn is Antichrist.
On Christ and Antichrist 47Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The two witnesses prophesy for half the week until the beast, Antichrist, kills them and wars against the saints.
On Christ and Antichrist 48Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus quotes John's vision of the second beast from the earth and the number 666.
On Christ and Antichrist 49Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The second beast is Antichrist's kingdom, which will revive Roman rule and force sacrifice on all, as Antiochus Epiphanes did.
On Christ and Antichrist 50Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Hippolytus cautiously suggests names whose letters make 666, especially Lateinos, without claiming certainty.
On Christ and Antichrist 52Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will conquer Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia, then exalt himself against God and attack Tyre and Berytus first.
On Christ and Antichrist 53Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · After his conquests Antichrist will proclaim himself God, as Ezekiel and Isaiah foretold.
On Christ and Antichrist 54Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Antichrist will gather the Jewish people from the dispersion, promising to restore their kingdom, like Jeremiah's partridge.
On Christ and Antichrist 55Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Like the partridge that lures another bird's young, Antichrist will lure humanity, promising a redemption he cannot give.
On Christ and Antichrist 57Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · The unjust judge is Antichrist and the widow is Jerusalem, which rejected her true Bridegroom and Saviour.
On Christ and Antichrist 58Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · As Moses foresaw, the people who rejected Christ will seek vengeance on the saints through Antichrist, who will decree their death.
On Christ and Antichrist 63Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200–215 · Paul's warning about the man of sin who will seat himself in the temple of God is quoted.
Heads against Gaius, fragment IV (on Rev 9:14-15)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Against Gaius, Hippolytus interprets the four angels bound at the Euphrates as the angels of four nations, held back by the Word until the Antichrist comes.
Heads against Gaius, fragment V (on Rev 11:2-12)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 11:2 and Matt 24:15–20, the forty-two months are read as the half-week of Daniel, and Hippolytus applies the abomination of desolation to the Antichrist rather than to the fall of Jerusalem.
Heads against Gaius, fragment VI (on Matt 24:15-22)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus argues that the great tribulation and the abomination of desolation refer not to Vespasian's siege but to the Antichrist, against whom Enoch and Elijah, the two witnesses, will prophesy before they are killed and raised.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 6 (on Rev 12, 3. 4)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus explains the seven heads of the dragon as seven kingdoms ending with Rome and the Antichrist, and the ten horns as ten kings.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 11 (on Rev 13, 3)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 13:3 Hippolytus explains the healed wound of the beast as the contempt shown to the Antichrist at first, overcome when false signs win obedience to him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 12 (on Rev 13, 11)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · The commentator, against Hippolytus, holds that the beast from the earth comes after the Antichrist rather than before him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 13 (on Rev 13, 11)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the beast's two lamb-like horns as the law and the prophets, a gentle appearance hiding a ravening wolf.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 14 (on Rev 13, 16)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus explains the mark on the hand as prostration and the mark on the forehead as wearing it like a crown.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 15 (on Rev 13, 18)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · The commentator reports that Hippolytus proposed four names whose letters add up to the number of the beast, including Teitan, Euanthas, and Lateinos.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 17 (on Rev 16, 12)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · On Rev 16:12 the commentator poses four questions about the kings of the east and reports Hippolytus's view that they are followers of the Antichrist who come to help him.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 20 (on Rev 17, 8)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus identifies the scarlet beast of Rev 17 with the beast from the sea of Rev 13.
Arabic commentary on the Apocalypse, fragment 21 (on Rev 17, 10)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 200-235 · Hippolytus interprets the five fallen heads of Rev 17:10 as the kingdoms from Nebuchadnezzar to Alexander's successors, the one that is as Rome, and the one to come as the Antichrist.
On Mount Sinai and Mount Zion 5Anonymous · 3rd cent. (disputed) · The names of Abel, Enoch, Job, and Abraham foretold their destinies, including Enoch's return to confront the Antichrist.
Commentary on Daniel 4.5Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The fourth beast is Rome, from which ten horns and then the Antichrist will arise; believers should neither try to fix the time nor doubt that it will come.
Commentary on Daniel 4.7Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Recalling his treatise On the Antichrist, Hippolytus matches the metals of the image to the four beasts: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the ten toes to the ten divided kingdoms.
Commentary on Daniel 4.12-13Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 7:19–28: the little horn is the Antichrist, who will rise from the divided Roman kingdom, kill three kings and war against the saints, until the kingdom is given to the saints of the Most High.
Commentary on Daniel 4.14Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The angel's explanation to Daniel covers the division of the fourth kingdom, the Antichrist's three and a half years of war on the saints, the judgment, and the eternal kingdom given to the saints.
4.15 (continued)Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Christ gave signs instead of a date: as Jerusalem's fall was foretold, so the abomination of desolation must appear first; wars and famines are only the beginning, and the gospel must first be preached to all nations.
Commentary on Daniel 4.21Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Paul agrees with the Lord: the apostasy and the man of sin must come first; what restrains him is the fourth beast, Rome; to long for the day of the Lord is to court danger.
Commentary on Daniel 4.24Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · Hippolytus proves Christ's birth in the year 5500 from the ark's dimensions (5½ cubits) and John's 'sixth hour', and reckons that the Roman kingdom will last five hundred years before the Antichrist and Christ's return.
Commentary on Daniel 4.35-37Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 9:25–27 and 10:1–19: the last week, with Elijah and Enoch and the Antichrist; the vision by the great river of the Word in the form of a man, his robe, girdle and body interpreted, and his strengthening of Daniel.
4.49Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The Antichrist foretold by all Scripture will conquer Tyre, Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia, rebuild Jerusalem and the temple, gather the Jews and be worshipped as the Christ by the disobedient.
4.51Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · The great tribulation under the Antichrist, Christ's warnings and his coming in glory; Antiochus's abomination and the Antichrist's; Edom, Moab and Ammon as his first followers; the 1,290 and 1,335 days; and the resurrection of the righteous to life and of the Antichrist's followers to shame.
Commentary on Daniel 4.57-58Hippolytus of Rome · ca. 202-204 · On Daniel 12:5–7: the two men by the river are the law and the prophets, the man above the water is Christ; his outstretched hands show the Passion, the 'time, times and half a time' the Antichrist's three and a half years, and the 'scattering' the dispersion of the Jews before the end.
Against Marcion 5.16Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · In 2 Thessalonians the Lord who comes in flaming fire to punish, even those who do not know God, and who sends deceit through the man of sin on those who rejected the truth, is the Creator; so the gospel and salvation are his too.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 24Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Paul's letters to the Thessalonians place the resurrection at the Lord's coming, after the removal of the Roman state and the revealing of the antichrist.
On the Resurrection of the Flesh 25Tertullian · ca. 208–212 · Revelation sets the resurrection at the end of the age; a spiritual rising at conversion may be granted, but only because the bodily one is promised at the end.
Commentary on John 20.173Origen · ca. 230–248 · Rather, the “lie” is the Antichrist, the opposite of the Truth, whose father is the devil.
Commentary on John 20.174Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Antichrist is a lie not by nature but by his own choice, as Ezekiel says of one who “became destruction.”
Commentary on John 20.192Origen · ca. 230–248 · The man of sin does his father's works; our works too are either God's or the devil's.
Commentary on John 32.214Origen · ca. 230–248 · Just as receiving Christ's messengers means receiving God, receiving the Antichrist's messenger means receiving the evil one.
Commentary on John 32.217Origen · ca. 230–248 · Receive Christ's messengers and never an apostle of the Antichrist; the next text is John 13:21.
Homily on Luke 30Origen · ca. 233–250 · In the second temptation the devil shows Christ his own kingdom, the people ruled by sin, and offers it for worship; Christ refuses, wishing to reign over all only so that they may worship God alone.
Homilies on Psalms 36-38 3.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · As Christ, Moses, the prophets, and the apostles are God’s arrows that wound hearts with love, so the Antichrist and all through whom the devil speaks or acts are the devil’s arrows; Origen laments that God’s arrows are few and fears being used as the devil’s arrow himself.
Lines 813–836Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · The barbarian king takes Rome and spares the Christians; then Nero returns from the dead as a new Cyrus, Elijah prophesies, and Nero is worshiped by Romans and Jews.
Lines 933–956Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · Two Antichrists end history, Nero for the Christians and the eastern king for the Jews; when the Jews turn to God, he brings back the hidden tribes from beyond the river, who live in perfect righteousness.
Instructions 1.41Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end Nero will return from hell as Antichrist, reigning half of seven years after Elijah, and will deceive the Jews at Jerusalem.
Instructions 2.1Commodian · 3rd century (disputed) · At the end Christ will bring back the hidden people of the lost tribes, who will overthrow the Antichrist and free Jerusalem before the judgment by fire.
On the Computation of Easter 14Anonymous · 243 · The last of Daniel's seventy weeks is the seven years at the end of the world, when Enoch and Elijah will preach and the Antichrist will rule for 1,260 days before Christ destroys him.
On the Computation of Easter 15Anonymous · 243 · The first seven weeks (49 years) cover the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple, which was later destroyed under Vespasian; the shortened war is the reign of the Antichrist.
Against Celsus 2.50Origen · ca. 248 · Origen shows from 2 Thessalonians that the deceptive signs foretold belong to the Antichrist, and that Christ's miracles, like Moses' against Egypt's magicians, are proven divine by their fruit in changed lives.
Against Celsus 6.45Origen · ca. 248 · Just as Jesus is the height of goodness, the Antichrist will be the height of evil, working false wonders with the devil's help, as the prophets and Paul foretold.
Against Celsus 6.46Origen · ca. 248 · Origen quotes Paul on the “man of sin” and Daniel's prophecy of a fierce king and the abomination of desolation as the Scripture's teaching on the Antichrist.
Against Celsus 6.79Origen · ca. 248 · One Christ rising from Judaea was enough to enlighten the world, and those who teach his word faithfully are themselves “anointed ones” sharing in his anointing, as the oil runs down from Aaron's head.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 30Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Figuratively, the saints intercede for the human temple; the sinner is a temple destroyed little by little; and the Old Testament's letter is a temple to be rebuilt more spiritually, while heresies sit in it like Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 33Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · The many who come saying “I am the Christ” are above all false interpretations of Scripture and feigned virtues; doctrinal error, even among churchmen, is worse than moral failure, and every counterfeit of truth or virtue is Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 40Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Origen interprets Daniel's seventy weeks, reckoning a week as seventy years, of the period from Christ's coming to the destruction of Jerusalem, which will remain desolate until the end; he denies that earthly Jerusalem will be rebuilt except for Antichrist.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 42Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · Spiritually, the holy place is Scripture, in which the false word of heresy stands as the abomination of desolation; the reader must flee from the letter to the mountains of spiritual sense and not turn back to what he has left.
Commentary on Matthew 12.2Origen · ca. 246–248 · The Pharisees sought a sign from heaven because they suspected earthly signs might come from Beelzebul, but signs from heaven too can be false, as in Job and in the coming man of sin; Jesus’ raising of Lazarus, calming of the sea, and teaching showed him truly the Son of God.
Commentary on Matthew 14.10Origen · ca. 246–248 · Origen explains why the debtor of many talents comes first at the start of the reckoning, links the debt to grave sins, and suggests he may be the man of sin or the devil.
To Quirinus 3.118Cyprian of Carthage · ca. 248–250 (book 3 perhaps later) · The Antichrist will come in the form of a man.
Letter 58.1Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Unable to visit Thibaris, Cyprian writes to prepare the people for a fiercer persecution at the approaching end of the age: those who drink Christ's cup daily must be ready to shed their blood for him.
Letter 58.7Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Antichrist is coming, but Christ follows to avenge his people; fear God, not persecutors, for the worshipers of the beast face eternal punishment.
Letter 59.3Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · Threats are no reason to relax discipline; Scripture shows that the proud, who speak from the spirit of Antichrist, are brought low, and the tongue is punished for what it has spoken.
Letter 59.18Cyprian of Carthage · 249/250–258 · It would be absurd for those outside the church, the lapsed and guilty, to judge its bishop and force their way in by threats; bishops will not yield, but pray for their enemies' conversion.
To Fortunatus 0.1Cyprian of Carthage · 253 or 257 · Cyprian explains that Fortunatus asked him for Scripture passages to strengthen believers for persecution as the time of Antichrist approaches.
Symposium 6.4Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd century · The lamp of the old law gave way to the Sun of righteousness; the parable's delay, sleep, midnight, and cry signify the time before Christ's coming, death, the Antichrist's reign, and the resurrection trumpet.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The angel from the east is Elijah, who will come before the Antichrist to restore the churches and turn the Jews to faith.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 8.1Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The church's prayers and the seven trumpets mean the archangels sent to strike the Antichrist's kingdom, as the Gospel foretells.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The court left to the nations is the useless members of the church; the two witnesses will preach for three and a half years, and the Antichrist will reign as long.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The Antichrist, rising from the abyss, will kill the two witnesses; he was once among the Caesars, as Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Paul show.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The woman's flight on eagle's wings is the church's flight in the last time, aided by Elijah and his fellow prophet, for three and a half years.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 12.6Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The war in heaven marks the beginning of the Antichrist's coming, after Elijah's three and a half years of preaching.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.2Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The seven heads are Rome's hills and the emperors from Galba to Nerva; the beast, of the seven and the eighth, is Nero returning as Antichrist.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.3Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The head healed of its mortal wound is Nero, who will return under another name as a false Christ to the Jews, with the number 666.
Commentary on the Apocalypse 13.4Victorinus of Pettau · late 3rd century · The beast from the earth is the false prophet, who will work false wonders, set up the Antichrist's image in the Jerusalem temple, and impose his mark.
Church History 3.18.2Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus, discussing the number of the Antichrist in Revelation, speaks of John.
Church History 5.8.5Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus defends the number 666 in the Apocalypse as found in the best copies and attested by John's hearers.
Church History 5.8.6Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · Irenaeus refuses to name the Antichrist and dates John's vision to the end of Domitian's reign.
Church History 6.7.1Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 300–325 · A writer named Jude, commenting on Daniel's seventy weeks, thought the Antichrist was near.
Acta Archelai (Latin) 40Hegemonius · early to mid 4th century (Greek original) · Archelaus denounces Manes as a forerunner of Antichrist who works no miracles and knows only Chaldean; the judges then ask him whom Paul was awaiting when he spoke of "what is perfect."
Recognitions 3.61Anonymous · Greek original 3rd–4th century; Rufinus's Latin translation before 407 · Peter lists the ten pairs of evil and good figures from Cain and Abel to Antichrist and Christ.
Testament of Our Lord 1.3Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 1.9Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Testament of Our Lord 1.10Anonymous · ca. 350–500
Prophetic Extracts 3.4Eusebius of Caesarea · before 325 (probably ca. 310–320) · Eusebius interprets Ecclesiastes' poor and wise youth as Christ, the old and foolish king as the devil, and the second youth as the Antichrist.
Divine Institutes 7.17.4Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The false king claims to be God and does signs.
Divine Institutes 7.17.5Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will bring fire from heaven and make an image speak.
Divine Institutes 7.17.8Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · He will burn the just with the Scriptures and rule forty-two months.
Divine Institutes 7.17.10Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The just flee; the Antichrist besieges them.
Divine Institutes 7.19.6Lactantius · ca. 303–311 · The Antichrist is defeated in the fourth battle.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.7Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · An impious king, enemy of God, will arise and devastate the earth.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.8Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · The Antichrist will persecute for 42 months, claim to be Christ, and work false wonders.
Epitome of the Divine Institutes 66.9Lactantius · ca. 314–320 · Those refusing his mark will be tortured; two-thirds will perish and a third flee.
On the Deaths of the Persecutors 2.8Lactantius · ca. 314–315 · Lactantius rejects the belief, drawn from the Sibyl, that Nero lives on and will return before Antichrist.
Theophany 4.35Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 325–337
Oration III Against the Arians 49Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Christ's “not even the Son knows” protects believers against demons and the Antichrist who claim to know the end, and keeps them watchful, since neither the world's end nor one's own death is known.
Catechetical Lecture 15.2Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Malachi and Paul speak of Christ's two comings; at the second this world will be renewed, though no one may know the time, and Christ himself warned the apostles against deceivers.
Catechetical Lecture 15.9Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Division among Christians prepares for the Antichrist; the apostasy Paul foretold is already present in the heresies that confuse Father and Son or make the Son a creature.
Catechetical Lecture 15.11Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · As the devil prepared pagan myths to discredit the virgin birth, so he will raise up the Antichrist, a sorcerer claiming to be Christ, to forestall the second coming.
Catechetical Lecture 15.12Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Antichrist will arise at the end of the Roman empire after ten kings, rule by deceit and cruelty for three and a half years, and be destroyed by Christ at his coming.
Catechetical Lecture 15.14Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Satan will work in person through the Antichrist, deceiving the crowds with false miracles.
Catechetical Lecture 15.15Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The Antichrist will seat himself in the ruined Jewish temple, claiming to rebuild it as David's heir, and will persecute the saints.
Catechetical Lecture 15.16Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Christ allows the weak to flee the Antichrist while the strong may stand; Daniel limits his reign to three and a half years.
Catechetical Lecture 15.17Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · The martyrs under the Antichrist will be the greatest of all, for they will fight Satan in person; God permits the persecution in order to crown them.
Catechetical Lecture 15.18Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril urges the candidates to remember and pass on the signs of the Antichrist, for he fears the wars, schisms and hatreds of his own day.
Catechetical Lecture 15.33Cyril of Jerusalem · ca. 350 · Cyril concludes: worship Christ as the everlasting King, flee the Antichrist, and keep the faith by good works to inherit the kingdom.
Commentary on Matthew 25Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds Matthew 24:1–28: the temple’s destruction, false Christs (Simon Magus) and false prophets (Nicolaus), the fall of Jerusalem after the gospel is preached, the abomination of desolation as Antichrist, and the flight, housetop, pregnant women, and winter flight read as figures of the soul, with the eagles gathered at the place of the passion.
Commentary on Matthew 26Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Hilary expounds Christ’s coming in glory (Matt 24:29–44): the fig tree’s branch as Antichrist, the passing of heaven and earth, the Son’s “ignorance” of the day as a merciful silence, the two in the field, at the mill, and in the bed (believers and unbelievers, believing and unbelieving Jews, catholics and heretics), and the call to watch.
To the Bishops of Egypt 9Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 356 · Athanasius warns that the Arian envoys are antichrists who use Scripture's words as bait, and that it is the mind and conduct, not the wording, that show a true believer.
On the Trinity 6.42Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · John's letters teach that love for the Father includes love for the one born from him, and that whoever denies the Son is antichrist and lacks the Father.
On the Trinity 6.46Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · Denying the Son, whom the Father, the Son himself, Peter, John, and Paul proclaim, is not ignorance but hatred, preparing the way for the Antichrist.
On the Trinity 9.22Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 356–360 · In John 5:40–44 Christ comes in the Father's name and gives life, while the one coming in his own name is the antichrist.
Letters 5Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Athanasius praises Lucifer's confession, laments the Arian persecution, and asks for a copy of what Lucifer wrote to Constantius.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 24Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · From John's command to test the spirits, Lucifer argues that, as those who deny Christ's incarnation are antichrists, so the Arians, who deny that the Son is truly born of the Father's substance, carry the spirit of Antichrist.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 30Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · To justify calling Constantius the forerunner of Antichrist, Lucifer quotes in full Daniel's vision of the four beasts and the little horn that makes war on the saints.
On Not Sparing Those Who Sin against God 31Lucifer of Cagliari · ca. 356–361 · Lucifer explains that he quoted Daniel's whole vision to show that persecuting tyrants are called beasts, and argues that Constantius, speaking against God by calling the Son a creature, is either Antichrist or his forerunner.
History of the Arians 46Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius laments the exile of Liberius, Hosius, and many others, which proves that the charges against all of them were pretexts, and calls the persecution a prelude to Antichrist.
History of the Arians 70Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius describes Constantius as the slave of his advisers, condemns the order handing all the churches of Egypt and Libya to the Arians as worse than any persecution, and begins to list the original Arians now restored.
History of the Arians 73Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius applies Daniel’s vision of the Antichrist to Constantius, who wars against the saints, overthrew three rulers, and changes the Church’s laws by imposing bishops from afar.
History of the Arians 76Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius recounts how at the Council of Milan Constantius made himself Athanasius’s accuser and exiled the bishops who protested that an absent man could not be tried.
History of the Arians 77Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius calls Constantius’s presiding over the church and handing it to the Arians the “abomination of desolation”, and warns that the heresy may be the apostasy preceding Antichrist.
History of the Arians 80Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 357 · Athanasius closes the History by urging the faithful to separate from the heresy; after a gap there follows the end of the Alexandrian people’s protest describing the night attack of the duke Syrianus on the church in February 356.
Letter 139Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil encourages the orthodox of Alexandria, persecuted by the Arian party, with the hope of the martyrs' crowns and the coming of Christ.
Letter 264Basil of Caesarea · ca. 357–378 · Basil writes to the exiled Barses of Edessa asking his prayers that God will soon restore peace to the persecuted Churches, wondering whether the present troubles are the prelude to the Antichrist.
Tractates on the Psalms 140.11Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · The rock is Christ; at his coming the wicked and their prince, the man of lawlessness, will be swallowed up as death is swallowed in victory.
Against Auxentius 2Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Whoever denies the Christ of the apostles is antichrist, even under the appearance of preaching him.
Against Auxentius 5Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Hilary sees the age of antichrist in the Arian disputes, carried on by Valens, Ursacius, Auxentius, Germinius, and Gaius.
Against Auxentius 12Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Hilary urges the faithful to leave Auxentius and the church buildings he holds, preferring the wilderness to communion with antichrist.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul sets out the order of the Lord’s coming: Christ, the archangel who is God, descends to fight the Antichrist; the dead in Christ rise first, and the living, after a momentary death, are caught up to meet him.
Commentary on 1 Thessalonians 5:1–5Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Christ will come suddenly, like a thief, when the followers of the Antichrist feel secure after killing Enoch and Elijah, and will destroy them.
Prologue to the Commentary on 2 ThessaloniansAmbrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The prologue says the second letter speaks, veiledly, of the end of the Roman empire, the Antichrist, and some idle brothers.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul warns against claims that the Lord’s day has come, even in forged letters, since the Roman empire must first fall and the Antichrist appear, probably a Jew, claiming to be God.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:5–6Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · What restrains the Antichrist is the Roman empire; when it fails and he appears, the Lord’s coming will follow.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:8–9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · After Rome falls, Satan, cast down from heaven, will work through a man who imitates Christ with lying signs to be worshiped as the highest god, until Christ destroys him.
Commentary on 2 Thessalonians 2:10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The Antichrist’s deceptions succeed only with those who rejected the truth preached by the apostles and are therefore abandoned by God.
Letter 21.35Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome voices Israel's complaint that no redeemer died for it, answers that Christ the Lamb has been offered to it too, and warns of the Antichrist.
Letter 121.4Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome notes the literal reading of Matt 24:19-20 (the Antichrist, or the Roman siege of Jerusalem) and gives a spiritual one: souls newly pregnant with faith are endangered by heresy in the church.
Letter 121.11Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 2 Thess 2: before Christ's return the Roman empire must fall and the Antichrist appear, whom Christ will destroy by his coming.
Book of Rules 6Tyconius · ca. 380 · Tyconius’s sixth rule: Scripture often recapitulates, telling of the same whole time again in parts, or describing a present event as the likeness of a future one; and he warns that the Antichrist is recognized by works, not words, since denying Christ in the flesh means hating his members.
Panarion (Adversus Haereses), Haer. 1-64 34.1.3Epiphanius of Salamis · 374-377 · Marcus claimed great power and was a forerunner of Antichrist.
Apostolic Constitutions 7.32.2Anonymous · ca. 380 · The deceiver of the world will appear and be slain by Christ.
On the Christian Faith 2.15Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose closes the second book: Peter’s confession is enough for faith, the Arians shut their ears like those who heard the Father’s voice as thunder, and Paul and John warn against such sowers of questions and antichrists.
Book of Heresies 107.11Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · Spiritually, the period ends with the Jews deceived by the Antichrist.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 87Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Before the judgment the 'son of sin,' the Antichrist, will come.
Altercatio, chapter 2, speech 8Evagrius of Gaul · ca. 400 · Theophilus reads the words as Christ’s warning against the Antichrist, citing Zechariah’s worthless shepherd.
Exposition of Psalm 118 3.34.2Ambrose · ca. 386-397 · The devil wished to be like God; his disciple, the man of iniquity, will exalt himself above God.
Letter 199.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine notes that the obscure prophecy of 2 Thessalonians 2 says nothing about how long the mystery of iniquity will work.
Letter 199.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine says 2 Thessalonians 2 foretells the Antichrist's appearance and destruction but says nothing of when.
Homilies on Matthew 76.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The days were cut short for the believers among the Jews, and the end of the temple hinted at the end of the law; turning to his second coming, Christ warns against false christs and the Antichrist and describes his sudden, universal appearing, the darkened heavens, the sign of the cross that will convict his crucifiers, and the gathering of the elect.
Homilies on Matthew 77.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Claiming to know God’s essence while denying the Son knowledge of the day is absurd; Christ withholds the day for our good, and the examples of Noah, of those taken and left, and of the thief show that he will come suddenly upon a world at ease, so that we must always be ready.
On the Blessings of the Patriarchs 32Ambrose · ca. 387-392 · The serpent from Dan signifies the Antichrist, and the fallen rider signifies Christ, betrayed by Judas, who fell in order to raise up all.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 37.29.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Iniquity festers when it rules the head; its height is the man of iniquity to come.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.25.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Dan’s prophecy points beyond Samson to the Antichrist, who will come from that tribe.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 40.25.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Dan (“judgment”) points to the Antichrist, who will judge only the people of impiety; the believer is not judged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.7.8Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · When Christ comes, all will be full of his light; we must not believe the Antichrist’s heralds but the signs Christ foretold.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.8.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The “half-days” are the days of faithlessness under the Antichrist, not short days, for David lamented that his sojourning was prolonged.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.20.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God’s proper name is Father of Christ; those who refused Christ, who came in the Father’s name, will receive the Antichrist.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 45.10.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · The depths are the evil powers; from the abyss the beast, the Antichrist, will rise against God’s witnesses.
Sermon 129.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Donatist who says “I justify” imitates Antichrist, who honors his own name; a believer baptized anywhere in the Catholic Church is clean, because Christ, who is everywhere, is the one who baptizes.
On Illustrious Men 52Jerome · 392–393 · Jude wrote on Daniel's seventy weeks and wrongly expected Antichrist in his own day.
Against Jovinianus 2.21Jerome · 393 · Jerome accuses Jovinian of turning Stoic in teaching equal merits, and turns the argument against Jovinian's own change from ascetic to luxurious life.
Life of Saint Martin 24Sulpicius Severus · ca. 396–397 · After noting false prophets and messiahs as signs of the Antichrist, Sulpicius tells how the devil appeared to Martin as a royal Christ and was unmasked.
Commentary on the Apostles' Creed 34Rufinus of Aquileia · ca. 404 · The prophets foretold Christ's coming to judge and his endless kingdom, and warned of Antichrist, who will imitate his coming.
Dialogues 2.14Sulpicius Severus · ca. 404–406 · Martin foretold that Nero would return in the West and Antichrist, already born, would rule from Jerusalem; the conversation breaks off at the arrival of the presbyter Refrigerius.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 29.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Antichrist will seek his own glory; Christ, though equal to the Father, sought the Father's glory and so gives us an example of humility.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · It is the last hour because many antichrists have already come, though the Antichrist is still to come.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Antichrists are those contrary to Christ; heretics and schismatics who leave the Church were never truly of it, and some inside are like bad humours in the body.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The liar denies that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed; those who stumble at Christ in his humility will be crushed by him when he comes in judgment.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Since all confess Christ with the tongue, the antichrists are those who deny him by their deeds, as Scripture shows.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 3.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Many inside the Church are also antichrists by their sinful deeds, which God did not make; all creation praises God, but sin does not.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · The sign that a spirit confesses Christ come in the flesh seems not to distinguish, since Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, Montanists, and Novatians all confess it, yet they are antichrists.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 6.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Those who 'dissolve' Christ by breaking up his Church deny that he came in the flesh; as in the Gospel, deeds rather than words are the test.
Homilies on the First Epistle of John 7.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 407 · Believers overcome the antichrist, who violates love, not by their own strength but by Christ in them; they must humbly carry the Lord like a beast of burden.
City of God 18.52Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine rejects the scheme of exactly ten persecutions matching the ten plagues of Egypt, pointing to persecutions under Herod, Julian, Valens, the Goths, and the Persians, and leaves the number of future persecutions undecided.
City of God 20.13Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine argues that the saints reign with Christ even during Antichrist's three-and-a-half-year persecution, so the thousand years either measure the devil's binding only or round off that short span.
City of God 20.19Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine reads 2 Thessalonians 2 as foretelling Antichrist before the day of the Lord, confesses he does not know what “holds him back”, and reports without endorsing the views that it is the Roman empire or hidden evil within the church.
City of God 20.23Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Daniel foretells Antichrist's short and savage reign of three and a half years before the judgment and the saints' everlasting kingdom, and the resurrection of many to life or to shame.
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.27Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Sheshach is Babel written in the reversed alphabet (atbash), a concealment Jerome compares to Paul's veiled reference to the Roman empire as the restrainer of the Antichrist; he rejects the allegorists' reading (Jer 25:26).
Apologetic Book 16.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius as forerunner of Antichrist.
Apologetic Book 28.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Even Antichrist comes in his time.
Seven Books of History against the Pagans 7.27.16Orosius · ca. 417–418 · Antichrist and his followers will perish in the lake of fire.
Part 1, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Cain and Abel prefigure the Jewish people and Christ the shepherd killed by them; Enoch, taken up with Elijah, will be one of the two witnesses at Christ’s return.
Part 2, chapter 34Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s fifth to eighth visions (Nebuchadnezzar’s tree, the four beasts, the ram and goat, Belshazzar’s feast) show God humbling and restoring the proud, the Antichrist to come, and the judgment on kings who profane sacred vessels.
Part 4, chapter 5Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The mark of the beast is to imitate and glory in the devil’s works under the name of Christ; the many antichrists are the heretics, especially the Arians, who tear the Church’s unity, while the Catholic is the one in communion with the apostolic Church of Jerusalem, Ephesus, Asia, and Rome.
Part 4, chapter 6Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Job, Paul, and Christ foretell the lying signs of the Antichrist; the author adds recent devilish signs he knew: a possessed young nun at Carthage healed at the Eucharist, a false monk with fraudulent cures, and an impostor near Naples expelled while Pope Leo was suppressing the Manichaeans and Pelagians.
Part 4, chapter 7Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The harlot Babylon on the beast in the Apocalypse is the worldly city spread through the world, drunk with the martyrs’ blood and claiming eternity, from which God’s people must come out; Paul foretells the lawless one whom Christ will destroy.
Part 4, chapter 8Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The seven heads and ten horns of the beast in the Apocalypse and Daniel are kings who persecute the Church, including the Arians who rebaptize; the Antichrist, the eighth, is by some identified with a returning Nero.
Part 4, chapter 9Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s vile king who exalts himself above every god and Jacob’s blessing of Dan as a serpent show that the Antichrist will come from the Jews, of the tribe of Dan, after the fall of the worldly empire; the unbelieving will believe him.
Part 4, chapter 10Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Daniel’s vision of the persecutor who profanes the sanctuary, against whom the people who know God stand firm and Michael arises, is applied to the Antichrist’s persecution, foreshadowed by the Arians; Christ and the Apocalypse confirm it, and the martyrs of the end will complete the number of the elect.
Part 4, chapter 11Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Ezekiel’s prince who says “I am God,” Paul’s man of sin seated in God’s temple, and the beast with lamb’s horns and its three froglike spirits describe the Antichrist’s pride and his heralds’ signs in Asia, Europe, and Africa.
Part 4, chapter 12Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The Antichrist will be known not to be Christ because he will come in pride and will not fulfil the prophecies of humility, passion, death, resurrection, ascension, and the gift of the Spirit that Christ fulfilled; his end is the lake of fire.
Part 4, chapter 13Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Malachi’s Elijah and the two witnesses of the Apocalypse are Elijah and Enoch, who will expose the Antichrist, as Moses and Aaron withstood Jannes and Jambres and Peter and Paul withstood Simon Magus; the forty-two months of trampling are already begun by the Arian Goths and Moors.
Part 4, chapter 15Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · The beast will kill the two witnesses, Elijah and Enoch, and the impious will rejoice over their unburied bodies, but sudden destruction will come on them.
Part 4, chapter 16Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · After three and a half days the two witnesses will rise and ascend to meet Christ, who will destroy the Antichrist and reign for ever.