Thus sayeth Rushputin: “Narrows it down to Jewish Bishops, then, since the Jews will accept the False Prophet and Jews wouldn’t ever accept anyone except a fellow Jew as a Prophet.”
Perhaps. Or he could be a prominent Rabbi, or charismatic any religion.
I think but cannot prove but the same could also be said about Islam. The NT states that there will be 144K Jewish evangelists and it is assumed that the false prophet will tangle with them. But tangling with them isn’t the same as Jews accepting the prophet or more importantly, his message. And since the false prophet will be on the side of the antichrist, many will be deceived. But remember “many” is not “all” as in not all of the Jews or all of the (remaining) Muslims or for that matter secular gentiles will take the bait.
The false prophet will appear in my opinion after the antichrist has risen to power and has completed the political agreements with the nation of Israel. It is interesting to me that modern covenant theologians when pressed to concede a Biblical treaty with Israel spoken of by Daniel, make an exception here and refer to Israel as the Jews instead of “spiritual Israel” or the Church.
If you don't agree that Catholic Bishops are only potential False Prophets get the person responsible for the article to chase you down rabbit holes, not me.