For the Friedrich Nietzsche book, see The Antichrist. For the Gorgoroth album, see Antichrist (album).
In Christian eschatology the Antichrist or Anti-christ (literally: anti, 'opposite', 'against' or 'as if'; christ, anointed one) has come to mean a person, image of a person, or other entity that is the embodiment of evil. The name antichrist derives from the books of 1 and 2 John, which describe any who denies Christ to be antichrists. The term is also often applied to prophecies regarding a "Little horn" power in Daniel 7, and is used in conjunction with many end times teachings.
Antichrist is translated from the combination of two ancient Greek words αντί + χριστος (antí + khristos), which can mean anti "opposite" (of) khristos "anointed" therefore "opposite of Christ" (the meaning of christ as 'anointed one' having become secondary to its meaning as the honorific of Jesus of Nazareth) or anti "as" (if) khristos "messiah" thus "in place of Christ". An antichrist can be opposed to Christ by striving to be in the place of Christ.
The term itself appears 5 times in 1 John and 2 John of the New Testament—once in plural form and 4 times in the singular, and is popularly associated with the belief of a competing and assumed evil entity opposed to Jesus of Nazareth.