ompey, in the second psalm of Solomon, is obviously
represented as the dragon of chaos, and his figure exalted into myth.
Without this assumption of a continual infusion of mythological
conceptions, we cannot understand the figure of Antichrist. Finally, it
must be mentioned that Antichrist receives, at least in the later
sources, the name originally proper to the devil himself.[3]

From the Jews, Christianity took over the idea. It is present quite
unaltered in certain passages, specifically traceable to Judaism, e.g.
(Rev. xi.). "The Beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit" and,
surrounded by a mighty host of nations, slays the "two witnesses" in
Jerusalem, is the entirely superhuman Jewish conception of Antichrist.
Even if the beast (ch. xiii.), which rises from the sea at the summons
of the devil, be interpreted as the Roman empire, and, specially, as any
particular Roman ruler, yet the original form of the malevolent tyrant
of the latter time is completely preserved.

A fundamental change of the whole idea from the specifically Christian
point of view, then, is signified by the conclusion of ch. ii. of the
Second Epistle to the Thessalonians.[4] There can, of course, be no
doubt as to the identity of the "man of sin, the son of perdition" here
described with the dominating figure of Jewish eschatology (cf. ii. 3
&c., [Greek: o anthropos tes anomias], i.e. Beliar (?), [Greek: o
antikeimenos]--the allusion that follows to Dan xi. 36). But Antichrist
here appears as a tempter, who works by signs and wonders (ii. 9) and
seeks to obtain divine honours; it is further signified that this "man
of sin" will obtain credence, more especially among the Jews, because
they have not accepted the truth. The conception, moreover, has become
almost more superhuman than ever (cf. ii. 4, "showing himself that he is
God"). The destruction of the Adversary is drawn from Isaiah xi. 4,
where it is said of the Messiah: "with the breath of his lips shall he
slay the wicked."[5] The idea that Antichrist was to establish himself
in the temple of Jerusalem (ii. 4) is very enigmatical, and has not yet
been explained. The "abomination of desolation" has naturally had its
influence upon it; possibly also the experience of the time of Caligula
(see above). Remarkable also is the allusion to a power which still
retards the revelation of Antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 6 &c., [Greek: to
katechon; o katechon]), an allusion which, in the tradition of