The Construction of the Other

Abstract

"No "construction of the other"' has called for more ingenious and unbridled imaginative resources than the construction of the Anti~hrist.~ It is the purpose of this article to trace the trajectory of the Antichrist from the biblical and pseudepigraphic sources to somewhat beyond the Second Temple period. The focus will be on four aspects of this construction: (1) the Antichrist as external foe(s), (2) the mythic dimensions of the Antichrist, (3) the Antichrist as internal foe(s), and (4) the collective Antichrist. In the course of the paper, as occasion presents itself, we shall inquire concerning the sociological and anthropological implications behind such eagle flights of the imagination"