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1Pe_4:7. Here begins the third series of exhortations, which has special reference to life in the church, and is linked on to the thought of the nearness of the end of all things (see Introd. § 2).
πάντων δὲ τὸ τέλος ἤγγικεν ] δέ marks clearly the transition to another train of thought. It is accordingly incorrect to connect the clause with what precedes (Hofmann). πάντων τὸ τέλος , equal to: “the end of all things,” refers back to the foregoing ἑτοίμως ἔχοντι κρῖναι ; with the judgment comes the τέλος . πάντων , placed first by way of emphasis, is not masc. (Hensler; “the end of all men”) but neut.;[245] comp. 2Pe_3:10-11; with τέλος , Mat_24:6; Mat_24:14.
ἤγγικε ] comp. Rom_13:12; Jam_5:8; Php_4:5. That the apostle, without fixing the time or the hour of it, looked upon the advent of Christ and the end of the world,—in its condition hitherto,—therewith connected, as near at hand, must be simply admitted.[246]
σωφρονήσατε οὖν καὶ νήψατε ] The first exhortation, grounded ( ΟὖΝ ) on the thought of the nearness of the end of the world. ΣΩΦΡ .; Vulg.: estote prudentes; in this sense the word is not in use in the N. T.; it means rather temperateness of spirit, i.e. the governing omnium immoderatorum affectuum; with the passage comp. 1Ti_2:9; Tit_2:6 (Hemming: σωφροσύνη , equal to affectuum et voluntatis harmonia), in contrast to the licentiousness of the heathen described in 1Pe_4:2 (Wiesinger).
ΝΉΨΑΤΕ ] Vulg.: vigilate, inexactly; ΝΉΦΕΙΝ has here the same meaning as in chap. 1Pe_1:13. It is not enough to understand both expressions of abstinence from sensual indulgence.
ΕἸς [ ΤᾺς ] ΠΡΟΣΕΥΧΆς ] not: in orationibus (Vulg.), for ΕἸς states the aim of the ΣΩΦΡ . and ΝΉΦΕΙΝ , but: “unto prayer,” that is, so that you may always be in the right frame of mind for prayer. If τάς be genuine, it is to be explained on the supposition that the apostle took the prayers of Christians for granted.
A mind excited by passions and lusts cannot pray. The plural points to repeated prayer (Schott). Schott, without any warrant, would understand by it the prayers of the church only.
The fact that both ideas are synonymous, forbids any separation, with de Wette and Hofmann, of ΣΩΦΡΟΝΉΣΑΤΕ from ΝΉΨΑΤΕ , and the conjoining of ΕἸς Τ ΠΡΟΣΕΥΧΆς with the latter term only.
[245] Oecumenius gives two interpretations: τὸ τέλος · ἀντὶ τοῦ , ἡ συμπλήρωσις , ἡ συντέλεια · ἢ τέλος ἠγγικέναι τῶν πάντων προφητῶν · τοῦτο δὲ ἀληθεῖ λόγῳ , ὁ Χριστός , ἡ πάντων γὰρ τελειότης , αὐτός ἐστιν . The second is evidently false.
[246] According to Schott, ἤγγικε means as much as: “not only is there nothing more between the Christian’s present state of salvation and the end, but the former is itself already the end, i.e. the beginning of the end.”