The English Moral Plays 347 
most complete dramatization of the story is also the earliest play 
in which allegory is used, that it deserves consideration here.' 
The origin of the legend of Antichrist is hidden in remotest an- 
tiquity. It certainly was not, as its name may seem to indicate, an 
outgrowth of Christian eschatological speculation; for at the hands 
of Jewish theologians it had received full development before the 
beginning of the Christian era.2. Nor may one suppose that the 
legend is no older than the writings of the Old Testament; for, 
hypothetical as are some of the theories of Gunkel and Bousset, 
they come little short of proving that it is only an anthropomorphic 
version of the old Babylonian myth, the story, transformed, of the 
dragon who waged war on the gods in heaven.’ It would be 
futile, however, in this connection to follow in detail these ex- 
cursions into Oriental folk-lore; the Christian interpretation of the 
legend grew from certain prophetic writings of the Old Testament, 
and from certain incidents in the history of the Jewish people.* It 
is enough, therefore, for a student of medieval religious teaching to 
know the belief regarding Antichrist that prevailed among the later 
Jews and early Christians. 
The earliest versions of the legend in the Bible represent Anti- 
christ not as a single personality, human or superhuman, but as 
a power for evil lodged in a hostile rival nation. By these heathen 
foes the chosen people, for their faithlessness toward God, are as- 
sailed and oppressed until God himself sends relief. “It shall come 
to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of 
Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face. 
... Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of 
Israel.”® Such is Ezekiel’s conception. It was soon transformed in 
certain essential respects by the subjection of the Jews to the rig- 
orous persecutions of Antiochus IV. The pagan races were then 
no longer depicted as instruments of vengeance in the hands of 
Israel’s angry God; they were made to appear as a power for 

1 There were other dramas on Antichrist, not allegorical. A play on 
Antichrist in the Chester cycle was assigned to the dyers. Another 
English miracle-play on the subject has been printed by Collier (see 
bibliography). I have read, also, a German play of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, Des Entkrist Vasnacht. 
2 Jewtsh Encyclopedia. 3’ Bousset-Keane, 13, xi—xxvi. 
* Realencyklopedie, from which I adopt the threefold division of the 
history of the legend. 
5 Ezekiel, 38. 18, 19.. See the whole of chaps. 38, 39. 
® See Encycl. Brit. for details. Date, 2e¢ century B. C. 
