Constructing Antichrist: Paul, Biblical Commentary, and the Development of Doctrine in the Early Middle Ages. By KEVIN L. HUGHES.

Abstract

This study makes a useful complement to the Richard Bauckham's Tudor Apocalypse, which looks back to the period at which this book ends. It would have been interesting to see the link made. The book is not cited, perhaps because here the author is approaching the topic from within a different cluster of disciplines. Here we have the story from New Testament times, told principally in terms of the history of the exegesis of 2 Thessalonians. Antichrist was encouraged to emerge from the pages of Scripture in the course of early Christian debate. 2 Thess. 2:3–4 contributes the theme of Antichrist as the deceiver and usurper, the reverse of what Christ is, and pretender to his throne. The urgency of the early expectation of the second coming gave way to increasingly complex speculation about the way the end would come and when and where, and about the role within the process of an Antichrist figure. The genre of apocalyptic literature emerged from Hellenistic Judaism not Christianity and not until the third century.