Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 John 2:18 - 2:18
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Little children (παιδία)
See on 1Jo 2:13.
The last hour (ἐσχάτη ὥρα)
The phrase only here in the New Testament. On John's use of ὥρα hour, as marking a critical season, see Joh 2:4; Joh 4:21, Joh 4:23; Joh 5:25, Joh 5:28; Joh 7:30; Joh 8:20; Joh 11:23, Joh 11:27; Joh 16:2, Joh 16:4, Joh 16:25, Joh 16:32. The dominant sense of the expression last days, in the New Testament, is that of a period of suffering and struggle preceding a divine victory. See Act 2:17; Jam 5:3; 1Pe 1:20. Hence the phrase here does not refer to the end of the world, but to the period preceding a crisis in the advance of Christ's kingdom, a changeful and troublous period, marked by the appearance of “many antichrists.”
Antichrist
Peculiar to John in the New Testament. The absence of the article shows its currency as a proper name. It may mean one who stands against Christ, or one who stands instead of Christ; just as ἀντιστράτηγος may mean either one who stands in the place of a στρατηγός praetor, a propraetor (see Introd. to Luke, vol. 1, p. 246, and note on Act 16:20), or an opposing general. John never uses the word ψευδόχριστος false Christ (Mat 24:24; Mar 13:22). While the false Christ is merely a pretender to the Messianic office, the Antichrist “assails Christ by proposing to do or to preserve what he did, while denying Him.” Antichrist, then, is one who opposes Christ in the guise of Christ. Westcott's remark is very important, that John's sense of Antichrist is determined by the full Christian conception of Christ, and not by the Jewish conception of the promised Savior.
Cometh (ἔρχεται)
The prophetic present, equivalent to is about to come. The same term is used of Christ (Joh 14:3; Joh 21:22; Rev 22:20).
Are there (γεγόνασιν)
Rev., more correctly, have there arisen.
Whereby (ὅθεν)
Lit., whence. Only here in John. It is found in Matthew and Luke, and frequently in Hebrews, and not elsewhere.