Reference: Jude, Epistle of
Easton
The author was "Judas, the brother of James" the Less (Jude 1:1), called also Lebbaeus (Mt 10:3) and Thaddaeus (Mr 3:18). The genuineness of this epistle was early questioned, and doubts regarding it were revived at the time of the Reformation; but the evidences in support of its claims are complete. It has all the marks of having proceeded from the writer whose name it bears.
There is nothing very definite to determine the time and place at which it was written. It was apparently written in the later period of the apostolic age, for when it was written there were persons still alive who had heard the apostles preach (ver. 17). It may thus have been written about A.D. 66 or 70, and apparently in Palestine.
The epistle is addressed to Christians in general (ver. 1), and its design is to put them on their guard against the misleading efforts of a certain class of errorists to which they were exposed. The style of the epistle is that of an "impassioned invective, in the impetuous whirlwind of which the writer is hurried along, collecting example after example of divine vengeance on the ungodly; heaping epithet upon epithet, and piling image upon image, and, as it were, labouring for words and images strong enough to depict the polluted character of the licentious apostates against whom he is warning the Church; returning again and again to the subject, as though all language was insufficient to give an adequate idea of their profligacy, and to express his burning hatred of their perversion of the doctrines of the gospel."
The striking resemblance this epistle bears to 2PE suggests the idea that the author of the one had seen the epistle of the other.
The doxology with which the epistle concludes is regarded as the finest in the New Testament.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot;
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Hastings
This short epistle is an earnest warning and appeal, couched in vivid and picturesque language, addressed to a church or a circle of churches which have become suddenly exposed to a mischievous attack of false teaching.
1. Contents
(1) Text.
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Is this not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will this be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. read more. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.
For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. read more. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away, and will betray one another, and hate one another. And many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
And many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because wickedness will increase, the love of most will grow cold.
And because wickedness will increase, the love of most will grow cold. But he who endures to the end will be saved. read more. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. "So when you see standing in the holy place 'the abomination of desolation,' spoken of by the prophet Daniel (let the reader understand) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe for those who are pregnant and for those who are nursing babies in those days! Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened. Then if any one says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
In the first book, O Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach,
And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying; Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James.
Now there was a man named Simon, who had formerly practiced magic in the city and amazed all the people of Samaria. He boasted that he was someone great, and they all, from the least to the greatest, gave attention to him, saying, "This man is what is called the Great Power of God." read more. And they gave heed to him, because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic. But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed. Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not yet fallen upon any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me also this power, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." And Simon answered, "Pray for me to the Lord, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."
When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came upon a certain magician, a Jewish false prophet, named Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God. read more. But Elymas the magician (for that is the meaning of his name) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not stop making crooked the straight ways of the Lord? Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and unable to see the sun for a time." And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened, for he was amazed at the teaching of the Lord.
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. read more. There were about twelve men in all.
Many also of those who believed now came, confessing and disclosing their practices. And a number of those who practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all; and they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now revealed and made known to all nations through the prophetic writings, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith read more. to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.
But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
not at all meaning the immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.
But in the following instructions, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse.
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.
and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to draw back and separate himself, fearing the party of the circumcision.
yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach
rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, overflowing with thanksgiving.
For we know, brethren beloved by God, that he has chosen you;
Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines,
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
The sins of some men are obvious, going before them to judgment; for others, their sins appear later.
and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a means of gain.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires,
Do your best to come to me soon;
Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed,
whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
This is a trustworthy saying; and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently, so that those who have believed God may be careful to devote themselves to good deeds. These things are excellent and profitable for men.
Do your best to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they lack nothing.
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. read more. Beloved, although I was very eager to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in secretly, those who were long ago marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that the Lord who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that the Lord who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
But these men revile whatever they do not understand; and the things that they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals do, by these things they are destroyed.
These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; read more. keep yourselves in the love of God; wait anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who doubt;
And have mercy on some, who doubt; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with great joy, read more. to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot bear evil men, but you have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and have found them to be false;
But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to practice sexual immorality. So you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Morish
Written by Jude the brother of James, and apparently the same person as the apostle JUDAS, q.v. The Epistle is addressed to "the called ones, beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ." Apostasy had set in, and the saints are exhorted to contend for the faith divinely delivered. Ungodly ones had crept in, who abused the grace of God, and denied their only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Three instances are produced to show how apostasy had been punished:
1. Some of those saved out of Egypt were yet destroyed.
2. Fallen angels are kept in eternal chains for judgement.
3. Sodom and Gomorrha, which lie under the abiding effect of the judgement on them. Then the railers are put to shame by the conduct of Michael the archangel, who when rightly contending with Satan about the body of Moses did not rail against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee."
Three stages of departure from the way of truth are mentioned, with a woe upon those who are found in them:
1. The way of Cain
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and not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.
Smith
Jude, Epistle of.
Its author was probably Jude, one of the brethren of Jesus, the subject of the preceding article. There are no data from which to determine its date or place of writing, but it is placed about A.D.
65. The object of the epistle is plainly enough announced ver. 3; the reason for this exhortation is given ver.
4. The remainder of the epistle is almost entirely occupied by a minute depiction of the adversaries of the faith. The epistle closes by briefly reminding the readers of the oft-repeated prediction of the apostles --among whom the writer seems not to rank himself --that the faith would be assailed by such enemies as he has depicted, vs.
exhorting them to maintain their own steadfastness in the faith, vs.
while they earnestly sought to rescue others from the corrupt example of those licentious livers, vs.
and commending them to the power of God in language which forcibly recalls the closing benediction of the epistle to the Romans. vs.
cf. Roma 16:25-27 This epistle presents one peculiarity, which, as we learn from St. Jerome, caused its authority to be impugned in very early times --the supposed citation of apocryphal writings. vs.
The larger portion of this epistle, vs.
is almost identical in language and subject with a part of the Second Epistle of Peter.
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But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. read more. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words; from long ago their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; and if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; and if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desire and despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and killed, reviling in matters of which they are ignorant, will be destroyed in the same destruction with them, suffering wrong for their wrongdoing. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, as they carouse with you. They have eyes full of adultery, that never cease from sin; they entice unstable souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but he was rebuked for his own transgression by a donkeya beast without speechwho spoke with a man's voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm; for them the blackest darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity, they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved.
Beloved, although I was very eager to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in secretly, those who were long ago marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. read more. Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that the Lord who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in strange flesh, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a reviling judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a reviling judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" But these men revile whatever they do not understand; and the things that they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals do, by these things they are destroyed. read more. Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for the sake of gain they have rushed headlong into the Balaam's error, and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are the men who are blemishes in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the blackest darkness has been reserved forever. It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones,
It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."
to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for their own advantage. read more. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly lusts." These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly-minded, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on some, who doubt; save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.