Faith & RitualGreek → English
Antichrist
/ˈæntiˌkraɪst/proper noun
The great adversary of Christ expected before the end of the world.
The Greek roots
ἀντί
antí
against, in place of
Χριστός
Christós
anointed one
Literally: “against the anointed one”
The story of the word
The word appears only in the letters of John, where it is plural as often as singular and covers anyone who denies the Son. ἀντί carries two senses at once, against and instead of, so the figure is opponent and counterfeit in the same breath. Χριστός is simply the anointed one, a word-for-word rendering of Hebrew mashiach, and it began as a description long before it hardened into a name.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- Old English
Same family
Christchrismantithesisantibiotic
In a sentence
Reformation pamphlets called the pope Antichrist and meant it as an argument, not an insult.