"The" Antichrist?
By
Kerry Duke
The idea of a single and thoroughly evil world leader near the end of time called "the Antichrist" is a popular, though unbiblical, belief. I have often stressed that the Bible speaks of "antichrists" or "an antichrist" but not "the Antichrist." After making this remark in a sermon, I was surprised to be approached by a brother who denied this claim. He showed me the New King James Version rendering of I John 2:18: "Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour."
Both the King James and American Standard Versions have "antichrist" in the first part of the verse. The New International Version drops the capital and reads "the antichrist," while the Contemporary English Version reads "the enemy of Christ." The Living New Testament also has "the Antichrist." The New English Bible has "Antichrist," while the New Revised Standard Version has "antichrist." The major Greek texts also differ. The Textus Receptus has the definite article (ho antichristos), while the United Bible Societies and Nestle Greek texts have simply antichristos.
In the English language we have the definite article the and the indefinite article a or an. But biblical Greek, like other modern languages such as Russian, has no indefinite article. And what is strange to those unfamiliar with Greek is that sometimes even when the definite article is used with a noun in Greek, it is not to be translated with the English definite article the. For instance, the Greek definite article (ho, he, to) is sometimes used before proper nouns: ton Petron ("the" Peter – Acts 2:37), ho Ioannes ("the" John – Matt. 3:4), ho Iesous ("the" Jesus – John 3:22). Yet we simply translate these "Peter," "John," and "Jesus." The Greek definite article is also sometimes used before abstract nouns, as in Titus 2:2: te pistei ("the" faith), te agape ("the" love), te hupomone ("the" patience). Yet we rightly translate these "faith," "love," and "patience" in this passage. Conversely, the English definite article is rightly used in translating Greek nouns which do not have the definite article: arche ("beginning," yet we rightly translate "the beginning" even though the definite article te is not used before arche in John 1:1).
These examples could be multiplied many times. The context, not the mere presence or absence of the definite article, is the most important factor in determining the meaning and translation of the noun in question and any of its modifiers such as the definite article.
With this very brief clarification in
mind, consider the Greek text of passages in First and Second
John concerning antichrist
and the translation of these passages in the New King James
Version:
Greek
NKJV
I John 2:18a
ho antichristos
"the Antichrist"
I John 2:18b
antichristoi
"antichrists"
I John 2:18b
antichristoi
"antichrists"
I John 2:22
ho
antichristos
"antichrist"
I John 4:3
tou
antichristou "the
Antichrist"
II John 7
ho antichristos
"an antichrist"
Obviously, the New King James Version translators knew that the definite article in Greek is not always translated with the English definite article the. Why would they translate ho antichristos "the Antichrist" in I John 2:18 but "antichrist" in I John 2:22 and "an antichrist" in II John 7? They must have done so for a theological, not a grammatical, reason: the dispensational premillennial belief in "the Antichrist."
Even without a knowledge of the Greek, one can see the inconsistency of translating I John 2:18 "the Antichrist." Even the New King James Version, after giving this rendering in the first part of verse eighteen, contradicts the idea of one single "Antichrist" by translating in the second part "even now many antichrists have come." If there are many antichrists, there cannot be just one.
John’s definition of an antichrist is someone who "confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (I John 4:3). If we stick to that definition, we will not be in danger of misunderstanding – or mistranslating – the Word of God.