Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
This early third-century treatise is among the earliest explorations of the Christian end-times focused on the figure of Antichrist. The term "Antichrist" first appeared in the letters ascribed to John (1 John 2:18, 2:22; 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7) where it refers to people who deny that Jesus is Christ. By the late second century "Antichrist" was understood as a false messiah who was expected to come at the consummation of the world, before Christ's second coming. Various passages from the Old and New Testaments were collected that were now understood to speak to this otherwise unnamed figure; this treatise is one of the first to bring them together in a more or less systematic fashion.
Hippolytus seems to have lived in the late second and early third century and left a significant (although disputed) number of treatises, particularly biblical commentaries. Late ancient authors knew many works ascribed to him, but little about his biography. Eusebius,Church History 6.20 describes him as "leader of a church" (proestōs ekklēsias, προεστὼς ἐκκλησίας) who wrote around the time of Origen (mid-third century), and lists several of his texts available in the library of "Aelia" (Jerusalem). He does not include On Christ and Antichrist. Jerome, On Famous Men 61 likewise describes him as "bishop of some church whose city's name I couldn't find" (cuiusdam ecclesiae episcopus nomen quippe urbis scire non potui), and does list De Antichristo among his writings. Later sources refer to the text as On Christ and Antichrist or On the coming of Christ and Antichrist.
This early third-century treatise is among the earliest explorations of the Christian end-times focused on the figure of Antichrist. The term "Antichrist" first appeared in the letters ascribed to John (1 John 2:18, 2:22; 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 1:7) where it refers to people who deny that Jesus is Christ. By the late second century "Antichrist" was understood as a false messiah who was expected to come at the consummation of the world, before Christ's second coming. Various passages from the Old and New Testaments were collected that were now understood to speak to this otherwise unnamed figure; this treatise is one of the first to bring them together in a more or less systematic fashion.
Hippolytus seems to have lived in the late second and early third century and left a significant (although disputed) number of treatises, particularly biblical commentaries. Late ancient authors knew many works ascribed to him, but little about his biography. Eusebius,Church History 6.20 describes him as "leader of a church" (proestōs ekklēsias, προεστὼς ἐκκλησίας) who wrote around the time of Origen (mid-third century), and lists several of his texts available in the library of "Aelia" (Jerusalem). He does not include On Christ and Antichrist. Jerome, On Famous Men 61 likewise describes him as "bishop of some church whose city's name I couldn't find" (cuiusdam ecclesiae episcopus nomen quippe urbis scire non potui), and does list De Antichristo among his writings. Later sources refer to the text as On Christ and Antichrist or On the coming of Christ and Antichrist.
