The Antichrist Legend

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 55):

We are, in fact, now in the fortunate position of being able to follow up the cycle of legends back to a far more remote time.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 55-56):

A glance at Malvenda's comprehensive work de Antichristo (I. 570) might have already brought us, in connection with the Gog and Magog legend, to the paragraph in S. Jerome's epistle to Oceanus (77, 8) to the effect that "the swarms of the Huns burst forth from the remote Maeotis Palus [Sea of Azov] between the gelid Tanais [river Don] and the vast nation of the Massagetae, where the barriers of Alexander [at Derbend] confine the rude populations to the rocks of Caucasus." Then Caspari has called attention to the parallelisms between the pseudo-Methodius and the Discourse of the pseudo-Ephrem (p. 20). Once there occurs an exact parallel in pseudo-Ephrem (chap. iv.) with Methodius in the description of Gog and Magog; and here also we find (chap. v.) the important passage: "And already the kingdom of the Romans is abolished and the empire of the Christians is delivered up to God and the Father, and then comes the consummation, when the kingdom of the Romans shall begin to be consummated and all the principalities and powers be brought to an end.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 56):

To be continued...

[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 56-57):

But now comes, on the other hand, a welcome confirmation of the correct epilogue in the pseudo-Ephremite Discourse. Professor W. Meyer directs my attention to Th. J. Lamy's Hymns and Discourses of S. Ephrem the Syrian, where we have a sermon preserved in Syriac "about Agog and Magog and the End and the Consummation," showing the closest connections with the Latin Discourse and with the work of Methodius; thus:

Ephrem, III. 190.

Now, like the Nile, which rising floods the land, the regions shall girdle themselves against the Roman empire, and peoples shall war against peoples and kingdom against kingdom, and from one land unto another shall the Romans hurry as if in flight.

Pseudo-Ephrem, L.

In those days shall many rise up against the Roman state, ... for there shall be commotions amongst the peoples.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 57-58):

But the most striking agreement occurs between Ephrem Syr., chaps. v. et seq., the Discourses of ps.-Ephrem, ch. v., and ps.-Method., VII., chap. v., in the account of the savage peoples of Gog and Magog, "who dwell beyond those gates which Alexander built." Ephrem the Syrian has in common with pseudo-Methodius the enumeration of the twenty-four tribes, while the parallels in the Discourse of Ephrem and the pseudo-Methodius are mere scanty excerpts from the detailed description of these fierce populations. And here are also the mentioned Gog and Magog, that is to say, the Hnns [sic? Huns, see end of sentence], whose irruption into the Edessa district took place during the time of Ephrem himself, as we learn from an Armenian life of him which states that he wrote against the Huns.*

*... With this may be compared the Apocalyptic Commentaries of Andreas, edited by Sylburg (...): "But some consider Gog and Magog to be hyperborean Scythian peoples, whom we call the most numerous and warlike of all the surrounding territory."

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 58):

Here, therefore, we have, as conjectured by Caspari, the common source of the Discourse and the pseudo-Methodius, and probably also the historical event whence arose the Gog and Magog saga in the form with which we are concerned. Then follows in Ephrem the Syrian, beginning with chap. viii., the Antichrist legend proper. Here, however, I have not found any special relations between Ephrem and the Discourse; and remembering the great persistence of the saga, we have to be very careful in comparing two independent sources. On the other hand, pseudo-Methodius, VII., is manifestly dependent on Ephrem, as may be seen by comparing the account of the wonders wrought by Antichrist and of Enoch and Elias. In the Antichrist sage Ephrem has introduced a great many archaic elements. The statement (chap. xii.) that Enoch and Elias are awakened by the angels Michael and Gabriel I have met elsewhere only in the Ethiopic Petrine Apocalypse, in which they are also assailants of Antichrist.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 59):

In the account of the destruction of the world by fire the pseudo-Johannine Apocalypse comes nearest to Ephrem, while Gog and Magog are destroyed by Michael the Archangel (chap. xiii.). The same incident occurs also in the Syriac Apocalypse of Ezra (chap. xiii.), which has been published by Baethgen from the manuscript Sachan, 131. This apocalypse will be dealt with further on.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 59):

Lastly it will be necessary to inquire into the mutual relations of the various writings which have been handed down under the name of Ephrem, and which will have to be repeatedly referred to in the course of our inquiry. At the very outset doubts arise with regard especially to the authenticity of Ephrem's Syriac Discourse itself. In chap. iii. occurs the passage: "The saints shall lift their voice, and their clamor shall mount unto heaven, and from the wilderness shall go forth the people of Hagar, hand-maiden of Sarah, who made the covenant with Abraham, husband of Sarah and Hagar, and they shall be stirred so that they may come in the wilderness as the envoy of the son of perdition."

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 59-60):

There can scarcely be doubt that the Arabs are here meant, and in the following chapters (iii., iv.) a very vivid description is given of the devastation which will be caused by this people of the wilderness. But all the more decidedly is an earlier period indicated in the description of the Huns, which then follows. If we omit chap. iii., from the words "and from the wilderness," and the whole of chap. iv., then chap. v. will accurately fit in with the words: "Then will the divine Justice summon the kings, that is, Gog and Magog." It is obvious that the twofold description of an irruption of a savage people in chaps. iii., v., et seq. would be absolutely meaningless.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 60):

It may even be more clearly shown that we have a passage interpolated in the text. In the enumeration of the twenty-four peoples of Gog and Magog there is an identical parallelism between Ephrem and the pseudo-Methodius; and from a comparison of the two it is seen that the names Thogarma, Medi, Persae, Armeni, "Turcae" have been interpolated. Then we get also the number twenty-four which is expressly given in the Latin version of Methodius; only the Khusas are reckoned twice over. But in other respects the lists of Ephrem the Syrian and in Methodius (both Greek and Latin texts) fully correspond, which at first sight might scarcely be possible.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 60-61):

In other respects there seems to be no objections to the text as it stands. The vivid description of the Huns brings us to the lifetime of Ephrem, and gives credibility to the tradition which assigns this Syriac discourse to him.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 61):

Coming now to Ephrem's authentic Discourse, full support is given to its assumed date about the year 373 by the correct identification of the Huns with the savage people here described. But to the question, Is the Discourse to be also ascribed to Ephrem himself? I think I must give a negative answer. In the Syriac Discourse Ephrem presents a different picture of the destruction of the Roman Empire. Thus in chap. viii.: "And there shall arise in the place of this people the kingdom of the Romans, which shall subdue the world unto its confines, and there shall be no one to stand up against it. But when wickedness shall be multiplied on the earth, ... then shall arise the divine Justice and shall utterly destroy the people, and the man of wickedness [that is, Antichrist] proceeding from perdition shall come upon the earth."

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 61-62):

Remembering that the reigning emperor was tainted with the Arian heresy, we cannot be surprised at this judgment of Ephrem. In the Latin discourse, on the other hand, it is for the first time stated that the Roman Empire shall not perish, but voluntarily deliver up its sway; and for this very reason the Discourse cannot be ascribed to Ephrem. But it originated soon after on the base of the details supplied by Ephrem. But then in what relation does the above-described Greek discourse of Ephrem stand to the Syriac? The fact that it is destitute of any political motives is no reason for doubting its authenticity, because this Discourse deals exclusively with the very last days. It is more important to notice that in the Syriac Ephrem no mention yet occurs of the apparition of the Cross at the universal judgment, a feature to which such prominence is given in the Greek homilies. On the other hand, there is nothing in the Greek Discourse about the part which Michael and Gabriel play in the last days. But on one important and remarkable point the Greek and Syriac are in accord; in both the servants and the messengers of the Antichrist are represented as demons. If we have, in the Greek perhaps, a revision of Ephrem's genuine work, most of the details given by him are doubtless still to be traced back to Ephrem.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (pages 62-63):

Here at last the question of the common source of Adso, II., and of Bede's Sybil can again be discussed. Should not this Sybil, with its allusion to the "king by name and of steadfast mind,"be after all traced back to some period long antecedent to Constans II.? At least the notion that the last Roman emperor delivers up his crown to God already found in a document of the fourth century. It by no means dates from the time of Heraclius, and it may be confidently affirmed that the idea of the Roman empire being destroyed before the appearance of the Antichrist must have very soon undergone some such modification after the empire had become Christian. But if we go beyond the time of Heraclius, then we must assuredly also shift that source back to the fourth century, for the emperor spoken of in it is unanimously described as "king of the Romans and Greeks." Hence there remain but two alternative, to look for the "king by name ... steadfast" ("Constans") either in the fourth century or in the time following the reign of Justinian. It is still, however, possible that in the word "Constans" we have, not the actual name of the king, but merely a play of words; thus here, for instance, the allusion might perhaps be to Constantius, or even, though less probably, Constantius I.

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[John Reece]

The Antichrist Legend

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From The Antichrist Legend: A Chapter in Christian and Jewish Folklore (1895), by Wilhelm Bousset (page 63):

In determining the point we get little help from the twelve years given as the duration of his reign, and this term must be regarded as a purely apocalyptic fancy. The last king is conceived as the counterpart of Alexander the Great, whose reign lasts twelve years in the pseudo-Methodius. The influence of the history of the Macedonian epoch is similarly felt in the Greek apocalypse of Daniel, where is described yet another partition of the world into four kingdoms, as taking place after the death of the king, who in the last times reigns twelve years.

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