False prophets (Matthew 24:24). These were not necessarily predictors or soothsayers, but teachers having, as they said, a message from God. Such pretenders have arisen in every great crisis; but the Jews a few years later were deceived continually by fanatics or impostors, who professed to be inspired, and premised the infatuated people deliverance, urging them to resist the Romans, in expectation of the coming of Messiah to lead them to immediate victory (comp.
Josephus, 'Bell. Jud.,' 6.5. 2). The designation "false prophets" applies also to those heretical teachers who vexed the peace of the early Church, and of whom St. John expressly speaks, "Many false prophets are gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1).
These were Judaizing and Gnostic teachers, who tried to mar the good work of the apostles (see Acts 20:30; Romans 16:17, Romans 16:18; 2 Corinthians 11:13; Galatians 1:7-9; Colossians 2:18-23, etc.).
Throughout the Christian ages heresiarchs have always raised their evil voices, and the history of the Church is very much composed of accounts of such teachers, and of the efforts made to suppress them and to correct their pernicious doctrines.