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St. John of Damascus on the Antichrist
In the eighth century a monk near Jerusalem gathered the faith of the Greek Fathers into one book. Near its end he gave a single short chapter to the Antichrist. It reads like a summary of all who came before him: a man, not the devil made flesh; a counterfeit holiness that turns to persecution; and a Lord who comes from heaven and ends it with a breath.
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At a glance
| Who | St. John of Damascus (died c. 749 or 750; the dates of his life are uncertain, and older sources, such as the Catholic Encyclopedia, place his death between 754 and 787), born in Damascus, later a monk and priest of the monastery of Mar Saba near Jerusalem, defender of holy images |
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| Standing | Father of the Church Doctor of the Church proclaimed by Pope Leo XIII in 1890 |
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| The work | An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, the third part of his Fountain of Wisdom (also called the Fount of Knowledge): a summary of the faith drawn from the Fathers before him. Book IV, chapter 26 is “Concerning the Antichrist.” The division into four books was added later, probably by a Latin translator, not by John himself. |
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| Translation | S. D. F. Salmond, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 9 (1899), at CCEL; also at New Advent (Book IV) |
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| Weight | A Doctor of the Church deliberately handing on what the Fathers held in common. His outline agrees with them; a few details, such as the temple and the Antichrist's origin, are opinions of the Fathers that the Church has not adopted. |
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Why John of Damascus matters here
St. John did not set out to be original. As the Catholic Encyclopedia puts it, his purpose was not “to set forth his own views, but rather to collate and epitomize” those of the writers before him, and his chapter on the Antichrist shows it. The footnotes of the English translation point to his sources: St. Irenaeus, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. John Chrysostom, and, for the central point that the Antichrist is a man and not the devil in the flesh, St. Jerome on Daniel 7. Reading him is like reading the patristic consensus in two pages.
That consensus is still the core of what the Church teaches: before Christ's return the Church must pass through a final trial, and “the supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist” (CCC 675).
The chapter, step by step
“It should be known that the Antichrist is bound to come.”
- Teaching
- John begins with St. John the Apostle, as the Church does. In one sense anyone who denies the Incarnation is antichrist: whoever does not confess “that the Son of God came in the flesh,” that he is “perfect God and became perfect man.” Scripture says the same: “Whoever denies the Father and the Son, this is the antichrist” (1 John 2:22). “But in a peculiar and special sense he who comes at the consummation of the age is called Antichrist.”
- Why two labels
- The spirit of antichrist is at work in every age; the one Antichrist at the end is still to come (CCC 675). See 1 John 2:18–22.
“First, then, it is requisite that the Gospel should be preached among all nations…”
- Teaching
- John follows the Lord's word: “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). Only then does the deceiver come. With many Fathers he applies to him Jesus' saying, “yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him” (John 5:43), and he reads Paul's “temple of God” (2 Thessalonians 2:4) as “not our temple, but the old Jewish temple.”
- His own opinion
- The expectation that the Antichrist would come above all to the Jews, and would sit in a temple in Jerusalem, was common among the Fathers, but it is their reading, not the Church's teaching. St. Augustine, for one, left open whether the “temple” means a building in Jerusalem or the Church (City of God 20.19). What the Church does teach is that Christ's coming in glory awaits the “full inclusion” of the Jews in the Messiah's salvation (CCC 674). See 2 Thessalonians 2:3–5.
“…he becomes man as the offspring of fornication and receiveth all the energy of Satan.”
- Teaching
- This is the heart of the chapter. The devil himself “does not become man in the way that the Lord was made man.” Only God can truly become man. The Antichrist is a human being, and God, foreseeing the evil choice he would freely make, “allows the devil to take up his abode in him.” The deceiver is a creature, not a rival god; even his power is permitted, and it is limited.
- Where it comes from
- The translation's footnote at this point cites St. Jerome on Daniel 7, who wrote that the little horn is “one of the human race, in whom Satan will wholly take up his residence in bodily form.” See St. Jerome on the Antichrist.
- His own opinion
- That the Antichrist will be born “of fornication” is John's detail, not something Scripture says; this site presents it as his opinion. The point that matters, and in which the Fathers agree, is that he is a man.
“…in the beginning of his rule, or rather tyranny, he assumes the role of sanctity.”
- Teaching
- The Antichrist does not begin as an open monster. He begins by looking holy. “But when he becomes master he persecutes the Church of God and displays all his wickedness.” He comes, as Paul says, “with all power and signs and lying wonders” (2 Thessalonians 2:9 in the translation's wording), and John adds that they are “fictitious and not real.” Jesus himself warned that false messiahs “will perform signs and wonders so great as to deceive, if that were possible, even the elect” (Matthew 24:24).
- For now
- The lesson for every age is discernment. Holiness is known by its fruit, by humility and charity and fidelity to Christ, not by display. A counterfeit of goodness is still a counterfeit.
“But Enoch and Elias the Thesbite shall be sent and shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children…”
- Teaching
- Before the end, John says, two prophets will be sent. He takes the words from Malachi, “He will turn the heart of fathers to their sons, and the heart of sons to their fathers” (Malachi 3:24), and explains them as the turning of “the synagogue to our Lord Jesus Christ and the preaching of the apostles.” Then, he says, “they will be destroyed by him”: the two witnesses die at the Antichrist's hands, as in Revelation 11.
- Why mystery
- Scripture promises that Elijah will come before the day of the Lord (Malachi 3:23), and Jesus said that this was fulfilled in John the Baptist (Matthew 11:14), who, as the angel had foretold, came “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). Many Fathers also expected Enoch and Elijah in person as the “two witnesses” (Revelation 11:3). The Church has not defined who the two witnesses are. See Malachi 3:23–24 and Revelation 11.
“And the Lord shall come out of heaven, just as the holy apostles beheld Him going into heaven…”
- Teaching
- The end of the Antichrist is not a battle won by his enemies on earth. It is the coming of Christ. John joins the angels' promise at the Ascension, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11), to Paul's: “the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord [Jesus] will kill with the breath of his mouth” (2 Thessalonians 2:8). In John's words, the Lord “will destroy the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction, with the breath of His mouth.”
- Counsel
- And so a warning against every false messiah: “Let no one, therefore, look for the Lord to come from earth, but out of Heaven…” Anyone who claims to be Christ returned and walking among us is not he (Matthew 24:23–27; CCC 675–676).
Where he speaks for himself
| Point | John of Damascus | The Church |
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| The Antichrist is a man | Yes, a man in whom the devil dwells, not the devil made flesh | Agrees with the common teaching of the Fathers; the Church speaks of “the Antichrist” and his deception (CCC 675) |
| Born “of fornication” | Stated as fact | Not in Scripture; not taught by the Church |
| The temple | The old temple in Jerusalem | Not settled; Augustine thought it uncertain |
| Enoch and Elijah as the two witnesses | Stated as fact | A widely held patristic opinion; the Church has not defined it |
| The time | He gives no date and no span of years in this chapter | “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority” (CCC 673) |
Reading him rightlyJohn wrote as a faithful compiler, and that is his strength: what he says about the Antichrist is what the Fathers before him held in common, set down with no date and no names. Where his details go beyond Scripture, this site labels them as his opinion. The Church names no one as the Antichrist and sets no date. Our hope is not in calculating the end but in the Lord who comes from heaven.
For reflection
What does real holiness look like?
St. John warns that the deceiver will begin by wearing the mask of sanctity. Where do I look for holiness in display rather than in charity, humility and faithfulness? Whom do I know whose quiet goodness points to Christ, and not to themselves?
Sources
- St. John of Damascus, An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, ch. 26, “Concerning the Antichrist,” trans. S. D. F. Salmond, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 9, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (1899), CCEL; Book IV also at New Advent
- Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience on St. John Damascene, May 6, 2009, vatican.va
- “St. John Damascene,” in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), New Advent
- St. Augustine, City of God 20.19, CCEL
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 673–677, vatican.va
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