The Antichrist

The Antichrist By F. W. Nietzsche Translated from the German with an introduction by H. L. Mencken The Antichrist is a Christian concept based on interpretation of passages in the New Testament. In the New Testament, the term antichrist occurs five times in 1 John and 2 John, once in plural form and four times in the singular. In traditional Christian belief, Jesus the Messiah appears in his Second Coming to Earth, to face the emergence of the Antichrist figure. Just as Christ is the savior and the ideal model for humanity, his opponent in the End of Days will be a single figure of concentrated evil. The Antichrist is a book by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, originally published in 1895. Although it was written in 1888, its controversial content made Franz Overbeck and Heinrich Koselitz delay its publication, along with Ecce Homo. The German title can be translated into English as both The Anti-Christ and The Anti-Christian. The English word Christian is called a weak noun in German and, in the singular nominative case, it is translated as der Christ. Given the content of the book, the title is likely to imply both connotations, the same way as the word Antichristianity would in English. Further, the book is directed at broader concepts of egalitarianism and democracy which are seen as lingering effects of Christian ideals.