“Antichrist” and “antichrists” appear in the Bible only in 1 John 2:18, 22; 4:3; 2 John 7 and are unknown elsewhere in Christian literature before Polycarp in the 2nd century C.E. Yet by the beginning of the 3rd century (e.g., Hippolytus) the expectation of an eschatological Antichrist had become highly developed in Christian theology and has ever remained a topic of intrinsic interest to many Christians. Attempts to identify an individual Antichrist have a long but dismal history
