Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary: Apocalypse
3, p. 386. Antichrist is called the man of sin, because by nature a man, who will call himself the Christ, &c, God hath decreed he shall appear at the end of the world: para ton tes sunteleias kairon. St. Cyril of Jerusalem: (Cat. xv, p. 162. Ed. Par. 1640): The devil will bring a certain man, a magician, falsely calling himself the Christ. And this will come after the time of the Roman empire, and when the end of the world shall approach: tes tou kosmou sunteleias. He shall be destroyed by the glorious coming of Christ. He will act only for three years and six months: epi tria ete mona, kai menas ex. He brings proofs, p. 165 and 166, to shew that antichrist's reign will last but three years and a half, being also expressed by months. And these things, says he, we draw from the divine Scriptures, ek theion graphon, yet does not bring any place out of the Apocalypse. I do not cite Hippolytus on the Apocalypse, because that book we now have with his name is thought not to be his. Theophylactus, Œcumenius, and Euthymius follow St. Chrysostom. In the BB. Patrum, (tom. 4. Ed. Colon. p. 517) we have a commentary on the Apocalypse of Andreas, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, and another (tom. 6. p. 59) of Arethas, bishop of the same city, which is in a manner an abridgment of the former. They both agree that the reign of antichrist will last but three years and a half, for which also they cite Hippolytus. St. John Damascene, in the eighth age[century], (lib. 4. Orthod. fid. chap. xxviii. Ed. Basil. p. 389) says that antichrist is to come at the end of the world. None of these writers dreamt that the bishops of Rome were antichrist. The Latin Fathers, upon antichrist, deliver us the very same truths. Tertullian, to omit other places, lib. de Resur. carnis. chap. xxvii. Those, saith he, in antichrist's time at the end of the world, &c. St. Cyprian, in the middle of the third age[century], (Ep. 56. Ed. Rig. and in other epistles) was apprehensive that the time of antichrist was then approaching, as divers of the Fathers feared the same in their time, but he always joins with antichrist the end of the world. Scire debetis et occasum sæculi, et antichristi tempus appropinquasse....prænuntiata sunt hæc futura in fine sæculi, deficiente jam mundo et antichristo propinquante. See Ep. 68. ad Clerum in Hispania, p. 115. See Lactantius, lib. 7. div. Institut. chap. xvii: Antichrist, says he, will come; imminente jam temporis conclusione, &c. St. Hilary (on Matt. xxiv. can. or cap. 26)
tells us, that antichrist is to come when the day of judgment is at hand. See also can. 33. See St. Ambrose, (t. 1. de ben. Prophet. chap. vii. p. 523) where he also thinks that antichrist will be of the tribe of Dan. See t. 2. in Psalm xlv. p. 1028. St. Jerome (on Daniel vii. tom. 3, p. 1101. Nov. Ed.) says, that by the little horn is meant antichrist. "Let us say what all ecclesiastical writers have delivered to us, that at the end of the world, when the kingdom of the Romans is to be destroyed, there will be ten kings, who will divide among them the Roman world, and the eleventh will rise up, a little king, who will overcome three of those ten....and the other seven will submit to the conqueror." Take notice, that these words, "what all ecclesiastical writers have delivered to us," quod omnes ecclesiastici scriptores tradiderunt, in consummatione mundi, quando regnum est Romanorum, &c. are not to be extended to every particular in this sentence, but only to what he and other ecclesiastical writers agreed in, to wit, that antichrist was not to come till about the end of the world, and that the heathen Roman empire was first to be destroyed. But it does not follow, that presently after the destruction of the Roman empire, both antichrist and the end of the world (which others also join together) should happen. This was indeed, for some time at least, the particular opinion of St. Jerome and of some other Fathers; but divers others hold that the Roman empire is now long ago destroyed, though antichrist be still to come. St. Jerome also tells us that ten kings shall divide the Roman world; but St. Augustine puts us in mind, that by ten may be signified many. And besides, there are other expositions on these kings and on Babylon, which are very probable, as shewn already. St. Jerome also (on Daniel, p. 1103) says, the reign of antichrist will last but three years and a half. On the 12th chapter, (p. 1133) he takes notice that the same short time is signified by 1260 days. P. 1127, he tells us Antiochus was a figure of antichrist, but that many things in that prophecy agree better to antichrist himself at the end of the world: rectius in fine mundi hœc facturus est antichristus. See also his Ep. to Algasia, tom. 4, part 1, q. 11, p. 200. St. Augustine began his learned work, de Civ. Dei[City of God], soon after the destruction of Rome by Alaric, about the year 410[A.D. 410], as he tells us, lib. 2. retract. chap.
xliii, though he did not finish these books about the year 427. He is far from finding any certainty of the approach of antichrist, as I shall have an occasion to shew on chap. xx. of this Apocalypse; and shall only here take notice, that he delivers it as a certain truth, that the reign of Antichrist will last but three years and a half, (lib. 20, chap. xxiii) which he tells us we are the more certain of, the same short time being expressed in the Scriptures by years, by months, and by days: tres annos et semissem, etiam numero dierum aliquando, et mensium numero declaratur. St. Gregory, in his moral books on Job, (tom. 1) makes frequent mention of antichrist, little dreaming that his predecessors for almost two hundred years, that he himself and his successors for so many ages[centuries], were antichrist, foretold in the Apocalypse. Lib. 12, chap. xv, p. 410, he says antichrist will be permitted to be exalted for a little time; parvo tempore. Lib. 13, p. 32, he calls him that damnable man whom the apostate angel will make use of at the end of the world; in fine mundi: and again, (lib. 29, chap. vii, p. 925,) in mundi termino, &c. --- Now to conclude from what hath been said. The Scripture, and all both Greek and Latin Fathers, acknowledge no particular antichrist, properly so called, but him who shall be one single man, who is not to come till about the end of the world, who is to reign but a short time. Let our adversaries reconcile this doctrine with their systems of the popish antichrist, whether emphatical or mystical. They tell us that 1260 days, being prophetic days, must be taken for years; and that just so long must reign the popish antichrist. It is true we have two examples in Scripture, and only two, as the bishop of Meaux observes, in which days are put for years, to wit, Numbers xiii. 34. and Ezechiel iv. 5. and in both places we are admonished that days unusually stand for years. And certainly, unless we have particular proofs to the contrary, days even in the writings of the prophets are to be taken for days, months for months, years for years. Now in this place, since the same term of antichrist's reign both in Daniel (to whom St. John alludes) and in the Apocalypse, is also expressed by as many years and months as come to no more than 1260 days, it is manifest that St. John by days means days, and not years. So[See?] divers other convincing proofs of this matter in the advertisement of the bishop of Meaux, num. 24.