Antidicomarianites or Antimarians, a sect of Christian disciples who appeared in Arabia at the end of the fourth century, and taught that Man- had children by Joseph after the Lord's birth. They were not heretics, but doubtless honest opponents of the growing Mariolafcry of the time. — Gieseler, Ch. Jhst. div. i, § 97 ; AValch, Hist, der Ketzereien, iii, 578 ; Epi- phanius, Hares. 78, § 19.
Antidoron (dvriSiopov, a gift in return or ex- change), the title given to the bread which, in the Greek Church, is distributed to the people after the mass. It receives its name from its being received instea:d of the iiytov StUpov, or holy communion, by those who were not prepared to receive the latter, though also by those who were. It was also called eulogia, or the " blessed" bread, and was sometimes sent by the bishop of one church to him of another in token of intercommunion. — Goar, Hit. Grcec. p. 154.
Antigonus (ArTiyovoc, a frequent Greek name, Signifying apparently against his parent), the name of two members of the Asmoniean family.
1. A son of John Hyrcanus, and grandson of Simon Maecabaeus. His brother, Aristobulus, made him his associate in the kingdom, but was at length prevailed upon by their common enemies to put him to death, B.C. 105 (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 18 and 19).
2. A son of Aristobulus (brother to Hyrcanus and Alexandra), sent as a prisoner to Rome, with his fa- ther and brother, by Pompey, who had taken Jerusa- lem. After remaining in Italy for some time, he re- turned to Judaea, and, after a variety of fortunes, was established king and high-priest, Herod being com- pelled to fly to Rome, B.C. 40- Having obtained as-
sistance from Antony and Ciesar, Herod returned, and, after a firm and protracted resistance on the part of Antigonus, retook Jerusalem and repossessed himself of the throne. Antigonus surrendered to Sosius, the Roman general, but he was carried to Antioch, and, at the solicitation of Herod, was there ignominiously put to death by Antony, B.C. 37. He was the last of the Maccabajan princes that sat on the throne of Judaea (Josephus, Ant. xiv, 13-16; Wars, i, 18, 3; Dio Cass. xlix, 22 ; respecting the date, see Wernsdorf, D< ji It Mace. p. 24 ; Ideler, Chronol. i, 399).— Calmet, s. v.
Antigua, a British West India island, of the Lee- ward group, which in 1848 had a population of 36,190 souls. It is the see of a bishop of the Church of Eng- land, whose diocese comprises, beyond Antigua, the British islands of St. Christopher's (population in 1848 23,127), Nevis (population in 1851 10,200), Barbuda (population 1600), Montserrat (population in 1850 7800), Dominica (population in 1842 18,291), Tortola (popu- lation in 1844 6689), Anguilla (population in 1844 2934), and the Danish islands St. Croix (population in 1850 23,720) and St. Thomas (population 13,666). The diocese had, in 1859, twenty-seven clergymen in the British islands (including two archdeacons) and three in the Danish islands. See Clergy List for 1860 (Lond. 1860, 8vo). See America.
Antileb'anon. See Antilibanus.
Antilegomena (dvTiXeyopiva, contradicted or disputed), an epithet applied by the early Christian writers to denote those books of the New Testament which, although known to all the ecclesiastical writ- ers, and sometimes publicly read in the churches, were not for a considerable time admitted to be gen- uine, or received into the canon of Scripture. These books are so denominated in contradistinction to the homologoumena (upoXoyooptva'), or universally ac- knowledged writings. The following is a catalogue j of the Antilegomena : The Second Epistle of Peter ; the. ! Epistle of James; the. Epistle of Jude; the Second and j Third Epistles of John ; the Apocalypse, or Revelation j of John; the Epistle to the Hebrews.
The earliest notice which we have of this distinc- j tion is that contained in the Ecclesiasticcd History of Eusebius, who flourished A.D. 270-340. He seems to have formed a triple, or, as it appears to some, a quad- ruple division of the books of the New Testament, terming them — 1, the homologoumena (received) ; 2, the antilegomena (controverted) ; 3, the nothi (spuri- ous) ; and 4, those which he calls the utterly spurious, as being not only spurious in the same sense as the former, but also absurd or impious. Among the spuria ous he reckons the Acts of Paul, the Shejyhei-d of Her- nias, the Revelation of Peter, the Epistle of Barnabas, and the Instructions of the Apostles. He speaks doubt- fully as to the class to which the Apocalypse belongs, for he himself includes it among the spurious : he then observes that some reject it, while others reckon it among the acknowledged writings (homologoumena'). Among the spurious writings he also enumerates the Gospel according to the Hebrews. He adds, at the same time, that all these may be classed among the antilegomena. His account is consequentlj' confused, not to say contradictory. Among the utterly spurious he reckons such books as the heretics brought forward under pretence of their being genuine productions of the apostles, such as the so-called Gospels of Peter, Thomas, and Matthias, and the Acts of Andrew, John, and the other apostles. These he distinguishes from the antilegomena, as being works which not one of the ancient ecclesiastical writers thought worthy of being cited. Their style he considers so remote from that of the apostles, and their contents so much at variance with the genuine doctrines of Scripture, as to show them to have been the inventions of heretics, and not worthy of a place even among the spurious writings, These latter he has consequently been supposed to have