This work was accepted by the Department of Studies in Religion of the
University of Queensland as a Ph.D. dissertation in July 1989. It is published,
in virtually the identical form as that in which it was submitted to and
accepted by the University, as a contribution to the continuing investigation of
early Christianity and of the Antichrist tradition in particular.
Dr Michael Lattke, Associate Professor in the Department of Studies in
Religion, University of Queensland, has encouraged me throughout this project.
It is due to his encouragement and practical support that this manuscript finds
its way into publication so quickly. I also owe a considerable debt to the
senior colleagues who examined the dissertation and encouraged me to seek its
publication: Dr Paullen Allen, Professor Francis I. Andersen and Professor John
J. Collins. I am deeply grateful, too, for the confidence which Professor Dr
Erich Crasser has shown in accepting this study as part of the series Beihefte
zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft.