Dajjal
The Antichrist is a common figure in the Christian eschatology and Islamic - but has its origins in the notion of anti- messiah already present in Judaism .
The term sometimes refers to an individual - often monstrous - sometimes a group. This figure of evil impostor who is trying to replace Jesus Christ will feed many speculations and interpretations from the early development of Christianity through patristic literature , which still get richer over the centuries, placing the intervention of the Antichrist in the last tests before the end of the world .
In Islam, various prophetic traditions reported in various hadith depict al-Dajjal (the Impostor) - the equivalent of the Antichrist - whose arrival is a crucial point in Muslim eschatology. It appears at the end of time and must be removed by the Prophet Isa (Jesus) when returning it to the coming of the Mahdi .
Many characters, personalities or entities are related to the Antichrist over the centuries and until today, mainly in contexts or episodes eschatological and millenarian.
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Etymology and definition
The word "antichrist" comes from the Greek (antikhristos) through the medieval Latin antechristus , a word which comes from the Latin ecclesiastical Antichristus. Although the transformation of the prefix anti-(cons) in ante-(before) dated XII century , we find the form antichrist in Rabelais , in the Bible (translation of the twentieth century ) and in the ninth edition of the Dictionary of French Academy . Despite this transformation, the word antichrist means adversary of Christ and not the one who comes before Christ. Similarly, in Latin, and antechristus Antichristus are synonymous .
Antikhristos word is used in the plural in the Epistles of John , referring to the Judeo-Christian community to stand by their refusal to recognize the full divinity of Christ or his incarnation. Subsequently, different representations of mythical characters of antichrists will be shaped both by the eschatology as Jewish by the Fathers of the Church . French, from the twelfth century , the word has designated all at once, in a popular pejorative sense, a bad man and, in didactic meanings, an evil spirit to appear at the end of time or an opponent of Christ, an apostate .
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the notion of Antichrist
Since its discovery and its publication in 1947 , the manuscript number 2Q246 found at Qumran has provoked fierce controversy . The manuscript refers to a prophecy of the eschatological order, a personality which he writes:
" . "
Another manuscript, 1Qm is considered to be linked to it, describing the war of light against the son of son of darkness. However, according to the Gospels, Jesus called his disciples son of light .
This passage refers to the Antichrist after a careful reading by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg Jr.., And Edward Cook , . They draw a parallel with passages in the New Testament or the title is attributed to Jesus (Luke 1.32-33): "It will be great and be called the Son of the Most High, ... and his kingdom there will be no end. " They state that the fact that a human claiming divine parentage has never been well tolerated in Judaism (test 14, 12-21), and added that according to John, Jesus' contemporaries accused Jesus for this reason , (John 10: 33): "We want to stone you for blasphemy, because although you man you make yourself God" .
However, another concept, that of the Son of Man was used for Jesus in the New Testament in accordance with the Tanakh , and it gradually as the concept of Son of God has finally imposed a systematic way . According to other experts, Jesus himself refers rather the Son of Man, the notion Christological a Son of human rights related to the Father (Abba) made a natural transition within Christianity towards the notion of son of God . As for the Koran , he refutes that Jesus claimed to be God or Son of God and argues that this is a distortion of Christians after Jesus Christ .
Appearance of the word in the New Testament
The term "antichrist" does not appear in the text of the Apocalypse or the Book of Daniel , nor in passages of Paul of Tarsus on the "man of sin" . Jesus does not use the word "antichrist" for his department, including in his discussion of signs "to the end of the world" in the Gospel of Matthew and its parallels.
The word "antichrist" and "antichrists" ("antichrist" and "antichrists" in the Bible) appear only five times in the Bible , in two of the three epistles of the Apostle John :
Who is a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. "(I John 2:22, LS)
Little children, it's the last time: and as ye have heard that Antichrist cometh, even now many antichrists whereby we know that this is the last hour. "(I John 2:18, LS) ... and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not God is that of the antichrist, which you learned the venue, and now is already in the world. "(I John 4:3, LS) However, another version of this passage is preserved in the Vulgate , in Irenaeus of Lyons and Origen: Every spirit that divides and Jesus Christ, is not of God and this is the antichrist, which you have heard it is coming and he is already now in the world. "(I John 4:3, Saci) For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. He who is such is the deceiver and the antichrist. "(II John 1:7, LS)
The term here seems to describe any false teacher, false prophet or corrupter of the Christian faith, but sometimes it seems to indicate a specific person or just a deceptive spirit that creates a false teaching, and whose presence is a sign of the end times. However, in popular understanding, many Christians identify this particular Antichrist with the "man of sin, the son of perdition" mentioned in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians (2:2) and with various figures of the Apocalypse, there including the Dragon, the Beast, the False Prophet and the Prostitute of Babylon. The Antichrist is understood in different ways, either as a group or organization, either as a system of government inherently evil or a false religion, or, more generally, as an individual, as the leader of a bad government, a chief which replaces religious worship of Christ by false worship, the incarnation of Satan , a son of Satan or a human being under the dominion of Satan.
The idea that the Antichrist is a person appears to be combined in the first epistle of John with that which makes a class of persons. John speaks of "many antichrists" who embody the "spirit of the Antichrist, who would have lived in the first century (and now is already in the world", 4:3) and yet continue to exist until to now. As John writes, such an Antichrist (the adversary of Christ) is anyone who "denies that Jesus is Christ", "denies the Father and the Son" does not recognize Jesus "and" does not recognize his coming ".
Related ideas and references appear in many other places in the Bible and various apocrypha, so that a more complete biblical portrait of the Antichrist was created gradually by Christian theologians and popular piety. The Gospel of Matthew warns against "false Christs" in several places and cons deceivers who pretend to be Christ income. (Matt. 24:5, 24)
In the "Little Apocalypse" of Paul of Tarsus (Second Epistle to the Thessalonians 2:1-12), it is expected that "man of sin", "the son of perdition" is installed in the temple of God, under the pretext that he is God himself. This portrayal of the Antichrist preserves the memory of the king's actions Seleucid Antiochus Epiphanes , who around 170 BC. BC commanded the Jews to sacrifice pigs on the altar, four times a year on the Sabbath, to honor him as the supreme god of the kingdom. Paul seems to tell its readers, by this allusion to past events, they should expect similar misfortunes in the future. If some Christians believe that events predicted in this passage occurred soon after, and therefore have already taken place, many others believe that the Antichrist is not yet published.
In Lutheran theology
Martin Luther , following its conflict with the papacy, came to the conclusion that the Pope was the Antichrist. This statement has greatly influenced the relations between Protestants and Catholics , making any dialogue difficult, if not impossible. However, this assertion is no longer advocated by only a minority of Lutherans today .
Book of Mormon
In Mormonism , the term anti-Christ refers to those who deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, deny the gospel, and are opposed to his faith. Mormons generally recognize three characters in the Book of Mormon as anti-Christs. These are Sherem, and Nehor Korihor, but only Korihor explicitly called an anti-Christ. Sherem accepted the law of Moses, but denied that Christ would exist one day. Nehor was a priest who demanded payments, taught universal reconciliation, but believed that repentance is unnecessary. Korihor was an atheist .
In Islam
Although it does not appear in the Koran , the Muslim tradition mentions a figure eschatological called al-Dajjal (The Deceiver or the Impostor) or al-Masih al-Daajjl (the False Messiah or Christ impostor) corresponding to the Antichrist. It is a false prophet who appears at the end of time and is identified by the Sunni tradition to the " Beast "(dabba) , which says the Qur'an which emerges from the ground amongst other signs. This character is despicable and treacherous presented emphatically as being blind "while God, He is not blind" , and thus must appear perched on a white ass at the head of the army of "enemies of the Imams' from the land of the East called Khurasan , to spread the unfairness and tyranny on the world for forty days (or forty years) . He will restore paganism, the worship of idols before being fought for the establishment of the eschatological justice. Much of his soldiers will be "the Jews of Isfahan , the number of 70 000 but his whole army will be defeated, "and nothing that God has created not conceal Jew in that day without he does so to speak: not a tree, a stone wall, a beast who does not say: oh servant of God, O Muslim , here is a Jew , come kill him! " .
The Islamic tradition also speaks of " Al-Mahdi "another important figure in the Islamic eschatology which will fight the Dajjal, also corresponding to the twelfth Imam of the Shia tradition (Kitab al-Kafi), who died in 940 . He will be joined in the battle of Isa - Jesus - has come to the white minaret to the east of Damascus (hadith of An-Nawwaasse ibn Sam'ane about the release of Ad-Dadjaal and descent of ISA). For the Sunni tradition, it's ISA itself fighting al-Dajjal. In some Sunni , Isa is replaced by the Mahdi , the eschatological savior Indeed, some Muslim theologians have sometimes denied the existence of the Mahdi, now the return of the Messiah who after the death of Dajjal, will marry, have children and will be buried next to Muhammad in the cemetery of Al-Baqi in Medina. According to Yusuf al-Waabil, the source of more redundant is the version where it Isa itself that kills the Antichrist at the gate of Lod as well as where the Mahdi as the main characteristic of non-combat not the Antichrist himself but his army.
Both current Sunni and Shia agree on the overall description of the character of the Antichrist Dajjal called. However, in Shi'ism, the Antichrist does not have the same value dogmatic, nor his opponent, al-Mahdi , the latter also corresponding to the last hidden imam allegedly owned by the descendants of ` Ali ibn Abi Talib the son of Prophet Muhammad , and fourth caliph of Islam.
Historically, the belief of the Mahdi arrives later as a transposition of Islam in the popular legend of noncanonical Christian Grand Monarque who had appeared with the first esoteric interpretations of the Apocalypse in the middle of the first millennium and following prophecies apocryphal as that of Augustine of Hippo.
Traditional Narratives
The many stories circulating about the Antichrist are inconsistent on some points the main one being that he appears before the end of time to try and deceive humanity and ask him to believe in him performing miracles prodigies and then claiming to be God himself. Various Muslim traditions depict characters evoking the Antichrist - as a young Jewish man named Ibn Sayyd - that Muhammad met in an episode reported in Sahih Muslim , which seems to have been a prophet rival of the latter and is sometimes equated with the Antichrist - or made in connection therewith, like the Christian convert to Islam named Tamim ad-Dari, telling Muhammad to have, during a trip, met with the Antichrist , behemoth and hardest pinioned "but soon released and ready to roam the whole earth except Mecca and Medina , protected by angels .
His physical appearance
His physical appearance is rather vague and differs according to the commentators: it is sometimes described physically as a young man , , blind in one eye , while the other is sometimes described as wearing a "membrane thick " , generally described as having hair "frizzy" , , but as having hair "smooth" according to a hadith considered low hair also described as "dense" , . According to some, it bears the inscription " Kafir "(infidel or unbeliever) between the two eyes .
Philosophy
In his book The Antichrist , the philosopher Nietzsche analyzes the future of man in light of the history of Western values that are widely disseminated in the world. He said these values undermine the progress of humanity because they are based on hatred and fanaticism of Christian morality, the essential value of this system resentment is pity that considers the life of a pessimistic view ( "Why bother?" Why suffer? "There's a better life that justifies it."). The author raises the question of whether there is an answer to this derogatory interpretation of suffering in life. The concepts by which it responds to these questions (will to power, eternal return, Superman) are not mentioned explicitly in the text and focuses primarily on Nietzsche's criticism against the falsification of Christian values References Bibliography
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