Volume 2, Slice 2 Part 18 (1/2)

AUTHORITIES.--See, for the progress of the idea in Jewish and New Testament times, the modern commentaries on Revelation and the 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians; Bousset, _Antichrist_ (1895), and the article ”Antichrist” in the _Encyclop. Biblica_; R.H. Charles, _Ascension of Isaiah_, Introduction, li.-lxxiii. For the history of the legend of Nero, see J. Geffcken, _Nachrichten der Gottinger Gesellschaft der Wisscnschaft_ (1899), p. 446 &c.; Th. Zahn, _Zeitschrift fur kirchliche Wissenschaft und kirchliches Leben_ (1886), p. 337 &c.; Bousset, _Kritisch-exegetisches Kommentar zur Offenbarung Johannis_, cap. 17, and the article ”Sibyllen” in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie fur Theologie und Kirche_ (3rd ed.), xviii. 265 &c.; Nordmeyer, _Der Tod Neros in der Legende_, a _Festschrift_ of the Gymnasium of Moos. For the later history of the legend, see Bousset, _Antichrist_, where will be found a more detailed discussion of nearly all the sources named; Bousset, ”Beitrage zur Geschichte der Eschatologie,” in _Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte_, xx. 2, and especially xx. 3, on the later Byzantine prophecies; Va.s.siliev, _Anecdota Graeco-Byzantina_, i. (Moscow, 1893), which gives the texts of a series of Byzantine prophecies; E. Sackur, _Sibyllinische Texte und Forschungen_ (1898), containing (i) _Pseudo-Methodius_, Latin text, (2) _Epistola Adsonis_, (3) the _Tiburtine Sibylla_; V. Istrin, _The Apocalypse of Methodius of Patara and the Apocryphal Visions of Daniel in Byzantine and Slavo-Russian Literature_, Russian (Moscow, 1897); J. Kampers, _Die deutsche Kaiseridee in Prophetie und Sage_ (Munich, 1896), and ”Alexander der Grosse und die Idee des Weltimperiums,” in H. Grauert's _Studien und Darstellungen aus dem Gebiet der Geschichte_, vol. i. 2-3 (Freiburg, 1901); E. Wadstein, _Die eschatologische Ideengruppe, Antichrist, Weltsabbat, Weltende und Welgericht_ (Leipzig, 1896), which contains excellent material for the history of the idea in the West during the middle ages; W. Meyer, ”Ludus de Antichristo,” in _Sitzberichl der Munchener Akad._ (Phil. hist. Kla.s.se 1882, H. i.); Kropatschek, _Das Schriftprincip der lutherischen Kirche_, i. 247 &c. (Leipzig, 1904); H. Preuss, _Die Vorstellungen vom Antichrist im spateren Mittelalter, bei Luther u. i. d. Konfessionellen Polemik_ (Leipzig, 1906).

(W. Bo.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See further, Bousset, _Religion des Judentums_, ed. ii. pp. 289 &c., 381 &c., 585 &c.

[2] See Gunkel, _Schopfung und Chaos_ (1893).

[3] It is, of course, uncertain whether this phenomenon already occurs in 2 Cor. vi. 15, since here Belial might still be Satan; cf.

however, _Ascensio Jesaiae_ iv. 2 &c.; _Sibyll_. iii. 63 &c., ii. 167 &c.

[4] It is not necessary to decide whether the epistle is by St Paul or by a pupil of Paul, although the former seems to the present writer to be by far the more probable, in spite of the brilliant attack on the genuineness of the epistle by Wrede in _Texte und ubersetzungen_, N.F. ix. 2.

[5] Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 8; the Targum also, in its comment on the pa.s.sage of Isaiah, applies ”the wicked” to Antichrist.

[6] See Bousset, _Kommentar zur Offenbarung Johannis_, on these pa.s.sages.

[7] _Ibid._ ch. xvii.: and Charles, _Ascension of Isaiah_, lvii. sq.

[8] Harnack, _Chronologie der altchristlichen Literatur_, i. 573

[9] See Bousset, in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklop. fur Theologie und Kirsche_ (ed. 3), xviii. 273 &c.

[10] Latin text by Sackur, cf. _op. cit._ 1 &c.; Greek text by V.

Istrin.

[11] See Bousset, _Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte_, xx. p. 289 &c.

[12] Published in Merx, _Archiv zur Erforschung des Alten Testament_.

[13] See especially the _Ludus de Antichristo_, ed. W. Meyer.

ANTICLIMAX (i.e. the opposite to ”climax”), in rhetoric, an abrupt declension (either deliberate or unintended) on the part of a speaker or writer from the dignity of idea which he appeared to be aiming at; as in the following well-known distich:--

”The great Dalhousie, he, the G.o.d of war, _Lieutenant-colonel to the earl of Mar_.”

An anticlimax can be intentionally employed only for a jocular or satiric purpose. It frequently partakes of the nature of ant.i.thesis, as--