Sir Isaac Newton predicted the world would end in the year 2060, according to theories uncovered by academics in Jerusalem.
The prophecy has been unearthed from little-known handwritten manuscripts in a library.
The pages show Newton's attempts to decode the Bible, which he believed contained God's secret laws for the universe.
The most definitive date he set for the apocalypse, which he scribbled on a scrap of paper, was 2060.
Newton, who was also a theologian and alchemist, predicted that the Second Coming of Christ would follow plagues and war and would precede a 1,000-year reign by the saints on earth - of which he would be one.
Newton's fascination with the end of the world, which has been researched by a Canadian academic, Stephen Snobelen, is to be explored in a documentary, Newton: The Dark Heretic, on BBC2 on March 1.
"What has been coming out over the past 10 years is what an apocalyptic thinker Newton was," Malcolm Neaum, the producer, said.
"He spent something like 50 years and wrote 4,500 pages trying to predict when the end of the world was coming. But until now it was not known that he ever wrote down a final figure. He was very reluctant to do so."