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Home , Antichrist, Victorinus of Pettau

374 BOOK REVIEWS one". None of these authors suggests that traces of very ancient stages of Christological thinking are preserved in the documents under discussion. Also in the articles which form the first section of the book the authors are reluc- tant to ask back to the very beginnings of . J. Gnilka discusses (very briefly) the theological problem of the "Rückfrage" (a favourite term of Hahn's) to the historical . Only P. Stuhlmacher, in the single hermeneutical and homiletic contribution at the very end of the book (" Zur Predigt an Karfreitag"), makes some statements on Jesus' own views on his mission; in the given context only in passing and without detailed argumentation. H. Paulsen has an interesting article on the development of theological speaking from "undefined" to "defined" in early Christianity, avoiding terms like orthodox and heretical, but he refrains from giving detailed Christological examples. Interesting is M. Hengel's attempt to sketch the various uses of Ps. 110:1in early Christianity in the longest article in the collection. He traces the development back to the very first years after the crucifixion but keeps an open mind about Jesus' own use of this psalm. H. von Lips discusses Wisdom traditions in early Christianity under the title "Christus as Sophia". He stresses the variety in Jewish Wisdom material and the variety in the Christian adaptation of it. He devotes attention to early elements in the letters of Paul and in Q. To sum up: this is a valuable collection. If it is somewhat one-sided, because it does not pay enough attention to the very beginnings of Christology, the editors are not to be blamed. What is given here represents the main stream of present- day scholarship. The book is well-produced and the number of misprints is small; the preface reveals that it was typeset by Cilliers Breytenbach with the assistance of Christine Gerber and Heidi Breytenbach and some others. Together they have done a good . Leiden M. DEJONGE

GREGORYC. JENKS, The Origins and Early Developmentof the Myth (BZNW 59; Berlin, New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1991), 416 pp., with 33 tables. DM 158,-

This book is an elaboration of the Ph.D. dissertation by the author which was accepted by the Department of Studies in Religion of the University of Queensland in July 1989. The publisher announces it as "the first major study of the topic since Bousset's classic study." As far as the sources studied are con- cerned, this is indeed the case. Jenks studies the third-century "Antichrist myth", as he calls it, and tries to establish its backgrounds in Jewish literature from ca. 200 BCE onward and in early Christian literature. Had Bousset assumed a secret, oral, pre-Christian Antichrist tradition, the main point Jenks makes is that the myth is of Christian origin. He bases this thesis on a traditio-historical reconstruction of the developments which have led to the existence of the myth. The author divides his book into three sections. The first part deals with " myth in the third century CE", the second with "antecedent traditions to the Antichrist myth" and the third with "the emerging Antichrist myth". The reason for this division is the assumption of the author that the first explicit appearance of the myth is to be found in literature of the period of ca. 175-300 CE, the period which Jenks describes as "the third century". The authors whose writings Jenks uses as sources for the study of the third cen- tury are: , , Hippolytus, , , Commodian and 375

Victorinus of Pettau. He also makes use of the of , the Apocalypse of the Holy John the Theologian and the Pseudo-Clementine literature. The author pictures the following image of the appearance of the Antichrist myth in these sources. The Antichrist was seen as a satanic counterpart of , a Deceiver, which by doing false Signs and Wonders would lead astray the followers of Christ. As Jenks depicts it, the third century image of the Antichrist sprung more from internal ecclesiastical upheavals and schisms than from external pressure. This indeed matches with the religious character of the conflict with the Jews, that also to a certain degree influenced the Antichrist myth. It was the religious conflicts of the third-century church that account for the development of the myth, more than the political conflicts. According to Jenks, this is the reason why the signs of the Antichrist's advent were seen in the activities of false teachers and in divisions within the church and not in the persecution of the church by the . Nevertheless, the Antichrist was thought to be a ruler of a new, revived Roman empire which would arise after the present empire had fallen apart. The Antichrist would at first seem to be a pious and just ruler, but later reveal his true identity as a despotic and cruel tyrant, claiming divine honours. Even though the evil of his reign would be unprecedented, it would not last longer than the period God in his sovereignty had asigned to it: forty-two months, the "eschatological half week". Jenks summarizes the result of his search for characteristics in a table (T 4, p. 114), as is his method throughout the book. He also remarks that "not every element of the complete myth is to be found in each of the extant writings which refer to it" (p. 112). Still, in the eyes of the author, there is a myth. The author now turns to a number of Jewish sources from the period of ca. 200 BCE to 70 CE which might account for the diversity of the elements of the third century myth: 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Martyrium Isaiae, parts of the Sibylline Oracles, Testament of , 1 and 2 Maccabees, Psalms of Solomon and various texts found in Qumran. He distinguishes two major lines of traditions which have had their influence upon the development of the Antichrist myth: the traditions concerning demonic powers and those concerning Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Apart from these two there are a number of minor traditions that are parallelled in the third-century myth: traditions concerning false teachers and heretics, lawlessness and the climax of evil, the deceit motif, the "Endtyrant" figure, the Jewish people, the persecution of the elect, the divine sovereignty, the destruction of the hostile powers and an ambivalence towards the Roman empire. The traditions and images Jenks treats in the second part of his book are charac- terized as "antecedents" to the Antichrist myth. In part three the author discusses "the emerging" myth. Here, his main thesis is elaborated: the idea of an Antichrist figure is a Christian concept which can only emerge in a messianic con- text. The concept of a was of little importance in Judaism of the hellenistic period. Only after the elaboration of this theme in Christian circles the context existed for an Antichrist myth to emerge. The emerging of this myth is depicted by Jenks in different categories. Firstly, he states that the historical crises of 40 CE and 66-73 CE have given new impulses to thoughts about an "Endtyrant" figure. The author illustrates this development in his discussion of the Synoptic Apocalypse, 2 Thessalonians (regarded as authentic and dated to 52 CE) and Revelation (dated to 68/69 CE). In Revelation, the author states, the -legend has been transformed to a Nero-redivivus myth, which also occurs in later sources. This Nero-redivivus myth has strongly influenced the Antichrist myth. Secondly, Jenks discusses several sources from after 70 CE to show that the Antichrist myth was only one possible solution to the problem of God and evil. From the Epistle of , 4 Ezra, the Apocalypse of , the Odes of