1 John 2:18

Aug.: “Pueros alloquitur, ut festinent crescere, quia novissima hora est.… Proficite, currite, crescite, novissima hora est”. 1 John 2:28 puts it beyond doubt that ἐσχάτη ὥρα means “the end of the world,” and rules out various attempts which have been made to give it another reference and absolve the Apostle from the current misconception: (1) Aug. says vaguely: “the last hour is of long duration, yet it is the last” (novissima hora diuturna est; tamen novissima est). And Calv.: “Nothing any longer remains but that Christ should appear for the redemption of the world.… He calls that ‘the last time' in which all things are being so completed that nothing is left except the last revelation of Christ”. (2) Lightfoot, Hor. Heb., on John 21:22, compares אַחֲרִית הַיּמִים i.e., “the last times of the Jewish city, nation, and dispensation,” and remarks: “Gens ista vergit jam quam proxime in ruinam, cum enatus jam sit ultimus et summus apex infidelitatis, apostasiæ et nequitiæ”. (3) Beng. with unwonted ineptitude: The advanced age of St. John and his contemporaries in contrast to his “little children”. “ Ultima, non respectu omnium mundi temporum: sed in antitheto puerulorum ad patres, et ad juvenes ”. (4) Westcott: “a last hour,” i.e., “a period of critical change”. This is possible but improbable. The omission of the def. art. in the pred. is regular. Ἀντίχριστος (anarthrous) is a proper name. Nowhere in N.T. but in the Johannine Epp. It may mean (1), on the analogy of ἀντιφιλόσοφος, ἀντικάτων, ἀντικείμενος, ἀντίθεσις, “adversary of Christ,” Widerchrist (Luth.); cf. Orig. C. Cels. 6:45: τὸν τούτῳ κατὰ διάμετρον ἐναντίον, Tert. De Praescript. Hær. : “antichristi, Christi rebelles,” Aug.: “Latine Antichristus contrarius est Christo”; (2), on the analogy of ἀντιβασιλεύς, ἀνθύπατος (proconsul), “antipope,” a “rival of Christ,” usurping His name, a ψευδόχριστος (cf. Matthew 24:24 = Mark 13:22); cf. Aristoph. Eq. 1038 sq. : ἐγὼ γὰρ ἀντὶ τοῦ λέοντός εἰμί σοι. / καὶ πῶς μʼ ἐλελήθης Ἀντιλέων γεγενημένος; St. John seems to combine both ideas. The heresy arose in the bosom of the Church and claimed to be an enlightened Christianity; yet, while calling themselves Christians, Cerinthus and his followers were adversaries of Christ. Wetst.: “Qui se pro Christo gerit, ideoque ei contrarius est”. ἀντίχριστοι πολλοί, the exponents and representatives of the antichristian movement were a numerous party. γεγόνασιν, “have arisen,” in contrast to the true Christ who “was in the beginning”. Cf. the contrast between the Word and the Baptist in John 1:1; John 1:6.