1 Peter 4:4

1 Peter 4:4. on which account they think it strange that ye run not with them into the same effusion (or, slough) of profligacy, speaking evil of you. The ‘wherein' of the A. V. (which the R. V. also retains) is so far misleading, as it naturally means to the English reader ‘in which vices' The sense, however, is not = they think it strange that ye run not with them in' their vices into the same slough, etc. The construction of the sentence, which is somewhat dubious, may be put either thus, ‘at which matter they are astonished, namely, the matter of your not running with them,' etc.; or thus, ‘at which state of affairs they are astonished, seeing that you do not run with them,' etc.; or best, perhaps, thus, ‘on which account (i.e on account of the fact that ye did once walk in these excesses) they are astonished when ye do not now run with them,' etc. The several terms are remarkable for their force and vividness. The first verb, which occurs repeatedly in the N. T., with its primary sense of ‘receive a stranger,' ‘lodge,' etc. (Acts 10:23; Acts 28:7; Hebrews 13:2), has here the secondary sense of ‘counting strange' or ‘being astonished,' which it has also in 1 Peter 4:12, and in Acts 17:20. The second (comp. also Mark 6:33; Acts 3:11) conveys the idea of eager companionship in running. The noun rendered ‘excess' by the A. V., and the text of R. V., is not found elsewhere in the N. T. In the Classics, where also it is of very rare occurrence, it seems to mean primarily effusion or outpouring, and secondarily an estuary. Different senses are proposed for it here, some preferring the local sense of ‘sink,' ‘slough,' ‘puddle' (Alford, Fronmüller, etc.); others that of ‘stream' (Schott, etc.), or ‘flood' (margin of R. V.); others the more general sense of ‘overflowing' (Huther, Hofmann); others again the sense of ‘softness' (Gerard)or ‘wantonness'(de Wette). The old Greek lexicographers explain it as=‘slackness,' ‘looseness,' etc. The other noun, rendered ‘riot' by the A. V. and R. V., means rather dissoluteness or lewdness. In Greek ethics it denotes the prodigal squandering of one's means, and then a profligate, dissolute mode of life, the two ideas of wasteful expenditure and expenditure on one's appetites being near akin. It occurs again in Ephesians 5:18 (A. V. ‘excess'), and in Titus 1:6 (A. V. ‘riot'). The adverb is found once, viz. Luke 15:13, in the phrase ‘with riotous living.'

speaking evil of you, i.e slandering, reviling you. It is the term which, when used of God, is rendered blaspheme. With what power do these few bold strokes depict the rush of the mass of the heathen over all barriers that stand in the way of vicious indulgence, and their haste to drag others with them on to the same goal of a life of appetite! Wordsworth thinks the point of the comparison is the idea of ‘foul streams flowing together into one and the same sink;' a metaphor which he considers peculiarly expressive ‘in countries where after violent rains the gutters are suddenly swollen, and pour their contents together with violence into a common sewer.' With this N. T. picture of the banded troops of the Gentiles ‘rushing together in a filthy confluence for reckless indulgence and effusion in sin,' compare such pictures in the polite literature of the heathen as that which Ovid draws of the Bacchic orgies (Met. iii 529, etc.; see also Dr. John Brown, in loc.).