As Anaxagoras appeared to Aristotle {Met, i. 3) like a sober (k^^wc) man among a crowd of drunk- ards, so in a deeper sense must the Christian appear. Similarly in Ro I3'^"" the night is the sphere of spiritual blindness resulting in all manner of riotous excess, but the day calls for wakefulness, sobriety, and spiritual readiness. St. Peter (1 P 1") com- pares the Christians to the Israelites in Egypt ready to march out. His warning against a relapse into their former life of lusts indicates that he does not forget the possibility of actual drunkenness, but this is only one symptom of spiritual stuj)or — ignorance of God (1 Co 15'^). Just as pleasure and ease must not tempt to slumber and drunken stupor, so must not danger and suffering ; rather should suffering warn them against this sin and make them cast their cares on God (1 P5'-^2Ti4'*). The unusual compound avavriipoi occurs in 2 Ti 2='. Those who resist the Christian evangelist are taken captive by the devil to do his will. (It is forced to refer this to God's will or the will of the Evangelist.) They are in his snare, but perhaps by considerate dealings they may be aroused to sobriety [avavrjcpia only here in the NT and not in the LXX).
We may thus say that cij^u on its positive side is the watchful, alert state of soul which knows that the day of Christ has already dawned, the earnest expectation {awoKapaooKla) of the coming of the Master, the prayerful, hopeful, longing spirit of love for the coming of the full day of Christ. On its negative side it implies a knowledge of the power of evil, of the night in which the Great Adversary roams for prey, when sons of Belial flown with insolence and wine are .active, the night of secret sinful conclaves. The Christian soldier is armed against this by a life of sobriety, of right- eousness, of longing prayer. Thus he cannot be surprised by the force of the enemy, or by the suddenness of his Lord's returning, as the Baby- lonians were by Cyrus or the Egyptians by the angel of death. It is specially indispensable for the Christian evangelist to have this wakeful
attentive attitude for himself and for those under his care, for whom he must give account (He 13"; cf. also Ac 20=", Mk 13"). So St. Paul says to Timothy, ' Be sober in all things,' not like the dumb dogs, the blind watchmen of Isaiah's time (Is 50""''-, an instructive contrast).
I'he a<lject ive Ktji^dXiot is conlined to the Pastorals. The bishop must be sober (1 Ti 3-, Tit 2-'), so also deacones.ses (1 Ti 3"). The question here is whether the word is used in its primary meaning of ' not given to much wine ' (m') oivif woWif npo<r- ^X""''". 1 i'i 3* ; fiT) Tdpoivos, 1 Ti ,3') or in the more general sense of 'vigilantes aninio' (Bengel, on 1 Ti 3-). The Greek interpreters favour the wider meaning, but much can be .said for the more re- stricted one. Jo.seohus says that .Moses did not per- mit priests to drink wine so long .as they wore tlieir .sacerdotal garments {Ant. iii. xii. 2), and the word i'ij<t>d\ios seems to be a sacro.sanct term for ])riestly sobriety or the prerequisite of a true worshijiper. lEdipus considers it a favourable omen that he came unt.asting wine to the seat of the Erinyes, who loathe the wine cup in libations ollcred to them (Soph. ffif/. Col. lOu). This is similar to the usage in 1 P 4', ' Be sober unto prayer,' and it is attested by inscriptions (see Exp, Ttli ser., ix. [1910] 284). P'ielding's Parson Adams was never wholly unknown in the Christian Church. On the other hand, the warning to Timothy, ' Be sober in all things,' favours the wider reference, as doesal.so the f.act that there is no reason to suppose that Christian ministers or members were addicted to this special vice. The wider meaning includes the narrower without unduly submerging it.
2. o-u(j)pove'u and cognates. — Ciciro found difii- culty in rendering the ideas included in these terms in Latin {Tnsc. iJisp. iii. 5), ,and he used three words — tempiirantia, muderat'm. modestia (ih. iii. 8 ; de Off. i. 27). The same difficulty is felt in regard to our own language, and as these words were used in a technical sense in Greek philo.sophy there is a danger, in fixing their connotation, of being over- precise.
(ffl) The words in Greek often mean 'sanity' in its literal sense, and aucppovia is thus used in the Gospels (Mk 5'', Lk 8'') of the Gadarene demoniac, after he was healed by Jesus. He was clothed and in his right mind — 'rationis usu,' as Bengel has it (inloc). The opposite is ;uacio. Thus when Helen is told that Ajax fell on his own sword and destroyed himself she exclaims, ' W<as he mail, for no sane person would do so ? ' {puxv^vt\ kircl tU aucppovwy rXalrj TdS' &v ; Eur. Hel. 97). Xenojihon also says that Socrates ' was ahvaj's discussing about human afiairs, asking what piety was, and what impiety, what beauty, what ugliness . . . what sanity {autppoauvij) .and what insanity {fj-avla)' {Mem. I. i. 16). Insanity is the supreme example of mental derange- ment, of lack of self-control, and so 5ai^ovIfe<rflai is the very opposite of (iui4>pov€lv. Akin to this is St. Paul's usage of the wonl in Ac 26'^, 2 Co 5". Festus, as he he.ird the Christian message, especially of the Resurrection, from St. Paul's perfervid lips, exclaimed, ' Paul, thou art mad ; thy much learn- ing doth turn thee to madness' {eh navlav). In tlie ancient world the enthusiastic utterance of an oracle-giver was attributed to a temporary sup- pression of the reason. ' No man, when in his wits, attains projihetio truth and inspirati<m ; but when he receives the inspired word, either his intel- ligence is enthralled in sleep, or he is demented by some distemper or possession ' (Plato, Timaitis. 71 E, tr. B. Jowett', Oxford, 1802, vol. iii. ]>. 493). St. Paul's courteous but linn reply reveals that he at once grasped Festus's attitude. He wjis not mad, but spoke the words of truth and sanity. It was natural for a man like Festus to imagine that St. Paul was living in a world of illusions and that