- A hated Roman emperor that many believed
would rise to persecute again. A mysterious figure whose frequent portrayals
in art and literature gave him celebrity status. A feared politician with
a diabolical assignment.
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- Those descriptions add up to what experts
say may have been the year 1000's version of Y2K: obsession over the antichrist.
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- Several medieval scholars at the University
of Cincinnati have formed a monthly discussion group to explore the theme
of the antichrist as troublemaker of the Middle Ages - a sort of Y1K puzzle.
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- "The antichrist was so much a part
of their lives that they thought about it all the time," said University
of Cincinnati philosophy professor John Martin, co-director of the medieval
millennium faculty group.
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- "The end of the world was a prominent
theme. Evil was a prominent theme," Martin said. "You didn't
need the year 1000 to worry about it. They worried about it all the time,
whenever the century turned."
-
- Funded by the University of Cincinnati's
Faculty Development Council, the medieval millennium project is exploring
ways that the antichrist has been depicted in art, literature, music and
religion.
-
- The antichrist's expected arrival in
1000 may have been as feared as the predicted Y2K computer problems.
-
- It was the coming of the antichrist that,
many believed, would signal the end of the world, the battle of Armageddon
and the millennial reign of Christ.
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- "People tried to understand when
the end was coming by looking for signs," said Heather Arden, professor
of romance languages and literature at the University of Cincinnati.
-
- One of those signs was the appearance
of the antichrist on the world stage.
-
- Identifying the antichrist by name was
important so that all alliances with him could be avoided, said University
of Cincinnati art historian Jonathan Reiss. "One needed to know that
he was in the world or about to come into the world," Reiss said.
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- That priority was often taken to extremes
through the practice of labeling one's enemies as the antichrist, Martin
said. Antichrist was a common epithet in the Middle Ages, he said.
-
- Some scholars believe that the "beast"
described in Revelation is a coded reference to the Roman emperor Nero.
The sum total of the letters in Nero's name, when given their numerical
equivalent in Hebrew, is the number 666, described in Revelation 13:18
as the mark of the beast.
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- The topic of the medieval millennium
may seem technical but it is also relevant, Reiss said.
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- The Rev. Jerry Falwell recently caused
a stir when he speculated that the antichrist was now living and was probably
a Jewish male.
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- Stephen Huba is a reporter for The Cincinnati
Post
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