Category Archives: Byzantium

Many Faces of Antichrist

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The figure of the Antichrist appears in several places in the New Testament before he appears in the Apocalypse (Book of Revelation). In the first epistle of St. John, we read Children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come; therefore we know that it is the last hour.” (1 John 2:18) The antichrists are those who oppose the apostle’s teaching. They are the heretics (lit. “the choosers”) who choose a different teaching and place themselves in opposition to the Church.

In the 2nd epistle to the Thessalonians, the antichrist is the “man of lawlessness” (2 Thess. 2:3-10) who opposes peace, order, and harmony–both civil and ecclesiastical. The seven-headed, ten-crowned dragon of the Apocalypse is typically identified with this “man of lawlessness,” the Antichrist. The dragon deceives and destroys, confusing and laying waste to the Church and the known world.

St. Paul makes the cryptic remark: “… the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.” (2 Thess. 2:7) Who restrains the Antichrist? St. Paul seems to presume that his readers know but later readers have had to surmise. Even St. Augustine threw up his hands and exclaimed, “I admit that the meaning of this completely escapes me.” (City of God, Book 20, chapter 19)

St. John Chrysostom considered the Antichrist to be the personification of chaos and destruction. It was the power of Rome (even in her pagan days) that kept complete anarchy and destruction at bay. Chrysostom thought of himself as a “Roman” living in the “New Rome” of the ongoing Roman Empire that continued to constrain the Antichrist. Many early fathers and preachers agreed with him and would probably say that “that which restrains the Antichrist” continued to do so until 1917-1918, when Austro-Hungary and imperial Russia–the last two governments to see themselves as the continuation of the Roman Empire–finally collapsed or were overthrown.

The idea that imperial rule kept the world safe from evil is ancient. In the Old Testament, it seems that the ancient Israelites thought the kings of Israel were the “first line of defense” against the evil angels. (For more about this, see Margaret Barker‘s book, The Last Prophet.)

“I am wounded with love”

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Painter: Greek School 17/18th Century Medium: Tempera on panel Location: National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta, Malta

The bride says: “I am wounded with love.” (Song of Songs 2:5) She explains that the dart has gone right through her heart and the Bowman is love. We know that God is love (1 John 4:8) and that he sends forth his only begotten Son as his chosen arrow (Isaiah 49:2) to the elect, dipping … its tip in the Spirit of life. The arrow’s tip is faith and unites to the Bowman whomsoever it strikes. (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Song of Songs)

The bride in the Song is wounded by the arrow shot by the divine Bowman. The arrow, whose tip is dipped in the Spirit of life rather than the venom or poison common in the ancient world, binds her to the one who shot the arrow: God, the Father. Christ is the arrow and—unlike most arrows we are familiar with—this arrow’s wound does not kill; it causes the bride to live. Forever. Bound by faith and love to the Bowman who shot the arrow into the world, she shares the divine life of the Bowman (the Father), the arrow (Christ), and the Spirit.

The Mother of God, brought to the Temple when she was three years old, is presented by her parents to be brought up serving the Lord in his house. We see in the upper left hand corner of the icon the angel that brought her bread from heaven each day; this is a pictorial way of saying that she trusted in the Lord for her sustenance and support and so was capable of conceiving the one who is the true bread come down from heaven. This bread that she received from the angel united her in love to the giver of the Living Bread just as the arrow united the bride to the Bowman. The bread brought by the angel is spiritual sustenance just as the arrow’s point was said to be anointed with the Spirit.

Annunciation is the only time we read of in the Bible when the first words out an angel’s mouth were not “Don’t be afraid! Fear not!” The daily visitation of the angel to bring bread to the Mother of God is also a way to explain why she was not shocked to see the angel Gabriel although she was shocked at the angel’s announcement.

“Arise, Come, My Love… My Dove”

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 Altarpiece depicts the Mother of God holding Christ while treading the serpent underfoot in St. Jürgen church in Gettorf (Schleswig-Holstein). In Genesis, God tells the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Genesis 3: 14 – 15). Christians have always understood this promise to be made not to Eve, but to the new Eve, the Virgin Mary.
“He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” Scripture scholars over the years have debated regarding the word “he.”  Should it be translated he or she or even they? In other words, the he is generally understood to refer to the Messiah but can also be understood to refer to Mary and to the descendants of Mary, as well; i.e., Christ and the Church.

“Arise, come my love, my beautiful one, my dove” (Song of Songs 2:13-14).

“The bride hears this command,” St. Gregory of Nyssa explains, “and she is empowered by the word; she arises, advances, comes close, becomes beautiful, is called a dove. Now, how can you see a beautiful image in a mirror unless something beautiful has come near the mirror? So it is with the mirror of human nature: it cannot become beautiful until it draws near to the Beautiful and is transformed by the divine Beauty.”

The bride in the Song of Songs becomes beautiful because she comes close to the bridegroom, who is Beauty itself. Or, she has embraced the Beauty which has come close to her. The movement is twofold: bride and groom approach each other and the groom proclaims his desire for his beautiful bride, who becomes beautiful because she is close to him.

But this beauty is not a static presence. The bride becomes more beautiful the closer she is to the groom and the longer she remains there but if she were to pull away, her beauty would fade just as the reflection in the mirror fades if what is reflected is taken away. Her beauty is constantly growing or shriveling, intense and intensifying or fading and faded.

Many of us have heard the quote from Dostoevsky’s book The Idiot that “beauty will save the world”…. But we do need to read the whole conversation in the book to get the fuller picture, for this statement is soon followed by the question, “But what is beauty?” just as Pilate asked, “What is truth?”

St. Gregory tells us, “When our human nature lay fallen upon the earth, it looked towards the serpent and reflected it. But now our nature has arisen and looks toward the Beautiful, turning its back on sin and reflecting the Beauty which it faces. For now it looks at that archetypal Beauty… turning towards the light, it has been made into the image of light and within this light it has taken on the lovely form of the dove–I mean the Dove that symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit.”

Human nature has turned its back on the serpent and now reflects the divine Beauty, radiant and filled with light. The bride, now the beautiful one because of of the Beauty she reflects, is also the place where the Dove can be found.