Here begins what has been called the first strophe of the oracle (Matthew 24:5-14), which indicates certain prognostics common to the close of the Jewish theocracy and to the end of the world. Many shall come in my Name ( ἐπι ì τῷ ὀνο ìματι ì μου), resting on my Name, grounding their pretensions thereon.
Saying, I am Christ (the Christ). They who really desired to follow Christ should be tried by the temptation to see in other persons the Messiah. The warning could scarcely have been needed by the apostles themselves; it must have been meant primarily for their converts and the early Christians.
And though we have no account in apostolic Church history of any such pretenders, yet in the age succeeding our Lord's death we read of many impostors who asserted themselves to be inspired prophets, if not the Messiah, and led astray many credulous persons (see Josephus, 'Ant.
,' 20.5. 1; 8. 6, etc.). There were doubtless many false Messiahs whose names are little known, and critics have enumerated twenty-nine such. The pretensions of these persons were not generally admitted, and their adherents were commonly few and uninfluential.
Our Lord probably did not allude to these in his monition. But we may observe that the warning may include such deceivers as Simon Magus and those many false teachers who vexed the early Church, and, without assuming the name of Christ, did Satan's work by undermining the faith.
St. John speaks of there being "many antichrists" in his day (1 John 2:18), and St. Paul had occasion to warn his converts against "heretical seducers" (see 2 Corinthians 11:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17.
; 1 Timothy 6:3, etc.). Since then the prophecy has been fulfilled in the heretics who, professing to come in the Name of Christ and to enunciate his doctrine, or, like Mohammed, to assume his place, have taught lies.
These shall abound in the latter days, and shall be a sign of the approaching end.