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.
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Philip, and Bartholomew, Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector, James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus,
and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the [son] of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to [those who are] called, loved 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 not this one the son of the carpenter? Is not his mother called Mary and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
And [as] he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to him privately, saying, "Tell us, when will these [things] happen, and what [will be] the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And Jesus answered [and] said to them, "Watch out that no one deceives you! read more. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will deceive many.
For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will deceive many. And you are going to hear about wars and rumors of wars. See to it that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is not yet. read more. For nation will rise up against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in [various] places. But all these [things] [are] the beginning of birth pains. "Then they will hand you over to persecution and will kill you, and you will be hated by all the nations because of my name. And then many will be led into sin and will betray one another and will hate one another, and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many,
and many false prophets will appear and will deceive many, and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.
and because lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end--this person will be saved. read more. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole inhabited earth for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. "So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken about by the prophet Daniel standing in the holy place" (let the one who reads understand), "then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! The one who is on his housetop must not come down to take things out of his house, and the one who is in the field must not turn back to pick up his cloak. And woe to those {who are pregnant} and to those who are nursing [their babies] in those days! But pray that your flight may not happen in winter or on a Sabbath. For at that time there will be great tribulation, such as has not happened from the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will happen. And unless those days had been shortened, {no human being would be saved}. But for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened. "At that time if anyone should say to you, 'Behold, here [is] the Christ,' or 'Here [he is],' do not believe [him]! For false messiahs and false prophets will appear, and will produce great signs and wonders in order to deceive, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you ahead of time!
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?" And they were offended by him.
I produced the former account, O Theophilus, about all {that} Jesus began to do and to teach,
And when they had entered, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying--Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James [son] of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas [son] of James.
Now a certain man {named} Simon had been in the city practicing magic and astonishing the people of Samaria, saying he was someone great. They were all paying attention to {him}, from the least to the greatest, saying, "This man is the power of God that is called 'Great.'" read more. And they were paying attention to him because for a long time he had astonished them with [his] magic. But when they believed Philip [as he] was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were being baptized. And Simon himself also believed, and [after he] was baptized he was {keeping close company with} Philip. And [when he] saw the signs and great miracles that were taking place, he was astonished. Now [when] the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who went down [and] prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. (For he had not yet fallen on any of them, {but they had only been baptized} in the name of the Lord Jesus.) Then they placed [their] hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now Simon, [when he] saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, offered them money, saying, "Give to me also this power, so that whomever I place [my] hands on may receive the Holy Spirit!" But Peter said to him, "May your silver {be destroyed along with you}, because you thought {you could acquire} the gift of God by means of money! {You have no} part or share in this matter, because your heart is not right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and ask the Lord if perhaps the intent of your heart may be forgiven you!" For I see you are in {a state of bitter envy} and {bound by unrighteousness}." But Simon answered [and] said, "You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said will come upon me."
And [when they] had crossed over the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain man, a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name [was] Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul [and] wished to hear the word of God. read more. But Elymas the magician (for his name is translated in this way) opposed them, attempting to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul (also called Paul), filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him [and] said, "O [you who are] full of all deceit and of all unscrupulousness, [you] son of the devil, [you] enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord! And now behold, the hand of the Lord [is] against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun {for a while}. And immediately mist and darkness fell over him, and he was going around looking for [people] to lead [him] by the hand. Then [when] the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, [because he] was astounded at the teaching about the Lord.
And [when they] heard [this], they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And [when] Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they began to speak in tongues and to prophesy. read more. (Now the total [number] [of] men was about twelve.)
And many of those who had believed came, confessing and disclosing their practices, and many of those who practiced magic brought together [their] books [and] burned [them] up in the sight of everyone. And they counted up their value and found [it was] {fifty thousand silver coins}.
and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
And likewise also, the Spirit helps [us] in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as one ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes [for us] [with] unexpressed groanings.
But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand [them], because they are spiritually discerned.
By no means [did I mean] the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world.
But in giving this instruction 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 along Titus also.
and [when] James and Cephas and John--those thought to be pillars--acknowledged the grace given to me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right [hand] of fellowship, in order that we [should go] to the Gentiles and they to the circumcision.
For before certain people came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles, but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, [because he] was afraid of those [who were] of the circumcision,
but now you have been reconciled by {his physical body} through death, to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,
firmly rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding with thankfulness.
knowing, brothers [dearly] loved by God, {that he has chosen you},
Do not let anyone 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,
Just as I urged you [when I] traveled to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus, so that you may instruct certain people not to teach other doctrine,
Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, to the only God, [be] honor and glory {forever and ever}. Amen.
The sins of some people are evident, preceding [them] to judgment, but for some also they follow after [them].
constant wrangling by people of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who consider godliness to be a means of gain.
For there will be a time when they will not put up with sound teaching, but in accordance with their own desires, they will accumulate for themselves teachers, {because they have an insatiable curiosity},
Make haste to come to me quickly.
Remind them to be subject to the rulers [and] to the authorities, to obey, to be prepared for every good work,
whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
The saying [is] trustworthy, and I want you to insist concerning these [things], so that those who have believed in God may be careful to engage in good deeds. These things are good and beneficial for people.
Diligently send on their way Zenas the lawyer and Apollos, so that {they may lack nothing}.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to [those who are] called, loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to [those who are] called, loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. read more. Dear friends, [although I] was making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I considered [it] a necessity to write to you to encourage [you] to contend for the faith delivered once and for all to the saints. For certain men have slipped in stealthily, who were designated long ago for this condemnation, ungodly ones, who change the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, [although] you know everything once and for all, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe.
Now I want to remind you, [although] you know everything once and for all, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe.
But these persons blaspheme all that they do not understand, and all that they understand by instinct like the irrational animals, by these [things] they are being destroyed.
These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly, not having the Spirit. But you, dear friends, [by] building yourselves up in your most holy faith, [by] praying in the Holy Spirit, read more. keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt,
And have mercy on those who doubt, and save others [by] snatching [them] from the fire, and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh.
and save others [by] snatching [them] from the fire, and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh. Now to the one who is able to protect you from stumbling and make [you] to stand before his glory blameless with exultation, read more. to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time and now and for all eternity. Amen.
'I know your works, and your labor and patient endurance, and that you are not able to tolerate evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them [to be] false.
But you do have this: that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, [things] which I also hate.
But I have a few [things] against you: that you have there those who hold fast to 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 commit sexual immorality. So likewise you also have those who hold fast 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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not as Cain, who was of the evil one and violently murdered his brother. And {for what reason} did he violently murder him? Because his deeds were evil and the [deeds] of his brother [were] 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 there were also false prophets among the people, as there will be false teachers among you also, who will bring in {destructive heresies}, even denying the Master who bought them, [thus] bringing on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentious ways, because of whom the way of truth will be reviled. read more. And in greediness they will exploit you with false words, whose condemnation [from] long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but held [them] captive in Tartarus with chains of darkness [and] handed [them] over to be kept for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a proclaimer of righteousness, {and seven others} [when he] brought a flood on the world of the ungodly, and condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having appointed [them] [as] an example for those who are going to be ungodly, and rescued righteous Lot, worn down by the way of life of lawless persons in licentiousness (for that righteous man, [as he] lived among them day after day, was tormenting [his] righteous soul by the lawless deeds [he was] seeing and hearing), [then] the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to reserve the unrighteous to be punished at the day of judgment, and especially those who go after the flesh in defiling lust and who despise authority. Bold [and] arrogant, they do not tremble in awe [as they] blaspheme majestic beings, whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring against them a demeaning judgment. But these persons, like irrational animals born [only with] natural [instincts] for capture and killing, blaspheming {about things} they do not understand, in their destruction will also be destroyed, being harmed [as the] wages of unrighteousness. Considering reveling in the daytime a pleasure, [they are] stains and blemishes, carousing in their deceitful pleasures [when they] feast together with you, having eyes full of [desire for] an adulteress and unceasing from sin, enticing unstable persons, [and] having hearts trained for greediness. Accursed children! [By] leaving the straight path, they have gone astray, [because they] followed the way of Balaam the [son of] Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his own lawlessness: a speechless donkey, speaking with a human voice, restrained {the prophet's madness}. These [people] are waterless springs and mists driven by a hurricane, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved. {For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom [although they] themselves are slaves of depravity. For to whatever someone succumbs, by this he is also enslaved.
Dear friends, [although I] was making every effort to write to you concerning our common salvation, I considered [it] a necessity to write to you to encourage [you] to contend for the faith delivered once and for all to the saints. For certain men have slipped in stealthily, who were designated long ago for this condemnation, ungodly ones, who change the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. read more. Now I want to remind you, [although] you know everything once and for all, that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe. And [the] angels who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling place, he has kept in eternal bonds under deep gloom for the judgment of the great day, as Sodom and Gomorrah and the towns around them indulged in sexual immorality and {pursued unnatural desire} [in] the same way as these, are exhibited as an example [by] undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Despite that, in the same way also these [men], [because of their] dreams, defile the flesh and reject authority and blaspheme majestic beings. But Michael the archangel, when he argued with the devil, disputing concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
But Michael the archangel, when he argued with the devil, disputing concerning the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" But these persons blaspheme all that they do not understand, and all that they understand by instinct like the irrational animals, by these [things] they are being destroyed. read more. Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain, and have given themselves up to the error of Balaam for gain, and have perished in the rebellion of Korah. These are the ones feasting together without reverence, hidden reefs at your love feasts, caring for themselves, waterless clouds carried away by winds, late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shameful deeds, wandering stars, for whom the deep gloom of darkness has been reserved for eternity. And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these [people], saying, "Behold, the Lord came with tens of thousands of his holy ones
And Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these [people], saying, "Behold, the Lord came with tens of thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they have committed in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
to execute judgment against all, and to convict all the ungodly concerning all their ungodly deeds that they have committed in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These [people] are grumblers, discontented, proceeding according to their desires, and their mouths speaking pompous [words], {showing partiality to gain an advantage}. read more. But you, dear friends, remember the words proclaimed beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, for they said to you, "In the end time there will be scoffers following according to their own ungodly desires." These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly, not having the Spirit. But you, dear friends, [by] building yourselves up in your most holy faith, [by] praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt, and save others [by] snatching [them] from the fire, and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh. Now to the one who is able to protect you from stumbling and make [you] to stand before his glory blameless with exultation, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, [be] glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time and now and for all eternity. Amen.