11.  But as, when formerly He was to take man’s nature, and God was expected to be born of a Virgin, the devil created prejudice against this, by craftily preparing among idol-worshippers ἐν εἰδωλολατρείᾳ may mean either “in idol-worship,” or “among idolaters,” the abstract being used for the concrete, as in Rom. iii. 30:  δικαιώσει περιτομήν. fables of false gods, begetting and begotten of women, that, the falsehood having come first, the truth, as he supposed, might be disbelieved; so now, since the true Christ is to come a second time, the adversary, taking occasion by ἐφόδιον, “provision for a journey,” is here equivalent in meaning to ἀφορμή, “a starting point,” or “favourable occasion.” the expectation of the simple, and especially of them of the circumcision, brings in a certain man who is a magician Antichrist is described by Hippolytus (De Christo et Antichristo, § 57, as “a son of the devil, and a vessel of Satan,” who will rule and govern “after the manner of the law of Augustus, by whom the Roman empire was established, sanctioning everything thereby.”  Cf. Iren. Hær. V. 30, § 3; Dictionary of Christian Biography, Antichrist:  “The sharp precision with which St. Paul had pointed to ‘the man of sin,’ ‘the lawless one,’ ‘the adversary,’ ‘the son of perdition,’ led men to dwell on that thought rather than on the many ψευδόχριστοι of whom Christ Himself had spoken.”, and most expert in sorceries and enchantments of beguiling craftiness; who shall seize for himself the power of the Roman empire, and shall falsely style himself Christ; by this name of Christ deceiving the Jews, who are looking for the Anointed τὸν ᾽Ηλειμυένον, Aquila’s rendering of חישמ, adopted by the Jews in preference to τὸν Χριστόν, from hatred of the name Christ or Christian.  Hippolytus, ubi supra, § 6:  “The Saviour came into the world in the Circumcision, and he (Antichrist) will come in the same manner:”  ib. § 14:  “As Christ springs from the tribe of Judah, so Antichrist is to spring from the tribe of Dan.”  This expectation was grounded by Hippolytus on Gen. xlix. 17., and seducing those of the Gentiles by his magical illusions.