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1Th_5:7. A reason for the exhortation in 1Th_5:6 by a reference to the practice of the outward life.
νυκτὸς μεθύουσιν ] refers to the known custom of devoting the evening and the night for debauchery.
μεθύσκεσθαι is entirely synonymous with μεθύειν . It is not to be assumed that the change of the verb is intentional, in order to denote with the first “the act of getting drunk,” and with the second “the state of being so” (Macknight); since, as also the analogy of the first half of the sentence proves, the progress of the discourse is contained in the addition of νυκτός , and accordingly only the idea already expressed in μεθυσκόμενοι is again taken up by μεθύουσιν . The view of Baumgarten-Crusius, repeated by Koch and Hofmann, that 1Th_5:7 is to be understood in a figurative sense (comp. already Chrysostom and Oecumenius), and that Paul intends to say: “A want of spiritual life ( καθεύδειν ) and immorality ( μεθύσκεσθαι ) belong to the state of darkness ( νυκτός ), thus not to you,” is logically and grammatically impossible, since νυκτός , on account of the same verbs as subjects and predicates, can only contain a designation of time. In order to justify the above interpretation, οἱ γὰρ καθεύδοντες καὶ ( οἱ ) μεθυσκόμενοι νυκτός εἰσιν would require to have been written.