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-gatherer; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname is Thaddeus;
and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Zealot,
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. To those who are in God, the Father beloved, kept for Jesus Christ, and called.
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 the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
When he had seated himself on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came 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?" "Take care," Jesus answered, "that no one mislead you; read more. for many will come in my name saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many.
for many will come in my name saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see to it that you are not afraid. Such things must happen, 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 things are the beginning of birth-pangs. Then they will deliver you up to suffer affliction, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will stumble and fall, and will betray one another, and hate one another. Many false prophets will rise up and mislead many;
Many false prophets will rise up and mislead many; and because of the increase of iniquity the love of the majority will grow cold;
and because of the increase of iniquity the love of the majority will grow cold; but he who endures to the end will be saved. read more. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed throughout the whole inhabited earth, for a testimony to the Gentiles, and then will come the end. "So when you see the Abomination of Desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place let the reader take note of this, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is upon the housetop not go down to get the things in his house, and the man in the field not turn back to get his cloak. Alas for thee women who are with child, and for the nursing mothers in those days! "But pray that your flight may not be in the winter; nor on a Sabbath; for then shall be a time of great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never shall be again. And if these days had not been shortened, no flesh would have been saved; but for the elect's sake these days will be cut short. "If at that time any one should say to you, 'See, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' believe him not. For false christs and false prophets will arise, and will work great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if it were possible, the very elect. See, I have forewarned you! So if they say to you,
Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?"
Jude the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who was the traitor.
My first account, O Theophilus, dealt with all that Jesus began doing and teaching from the beginning down to the day when,
On entering the city they went to the upper room where they were accustomed to meet. They were Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
Now for some time a man named Simon had been practicing sorcery in that city, and had amazed the people of Samaria. He gave himself out to be some great person. Many from all classes would give heed to him, declaring, "This man is the Power of God, known as the Great Power." read more. They were giving heed to him because, for a long time, he had amazed them with his sorceries. But when they believed Philip, who was preaching glad tidings about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women. And Simon himself also believed, and after his baptism he remained with Philip, and was full of amazement as he beheld the signs and striking miracles which were performed. The apostle at Jerusalem, when they heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, sent to 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 the apostles laid their hands upon them, and they received the Holy Spirit. But when Simon perceived that, by the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Spirit was given, he offered them money saying, "Give me, too, this power, so that on whomever I lay my hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him. "Your money perish with you, because you have supposed that with money you can obtain God's free gift!" "You have no part or lot in this matter." Your heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent then of this your wickedness, and beseech the Lord to forgive you this purpose of your heart. "For I perceive that you still stand in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness." And Simon answered, "Pray to the Lord for me, both of you, that nothing which you have said may happen to me."
They had John Mark as an assistant; and after going through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a certain Jewish sorcerer and false prophet, named Bar-Jesus, who belonged to the suite of the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. He summoned Barnabas and Saul, and sought to hear the word of God. read more. But Elymas, "the sorcerer," for that is the translation of his name, opposed them, and tried to divert the proconsul from the faith. So Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily at him, and said: "O full of all craft and cunning, you son of the devil! You enemy of all goodness! Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? "The Lord's hand is now upon you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season." Instantly there fell on him a mist and a darkness, and groping about, he sought some one to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, seeing what had happened, believed. He was astounded at the teaching of the Lord.
When they heard this they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus; and after Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak with tongues, and to prophesy. read more. They were in all about twelve men.
Many also of those who became believers used to come to confess and to declare their deeds. And some of them who had practised magic arts, collected their books, and burned them in the presence of all. And they counted the price of them, and found it to be fifty thousand silver coins.
In the same way the Spirit also takes hold with us in our weakness; for we know knot how to pray as we ought; but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now I commend you to Him who is able to keep you stedfast, according to my gospel, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, whereby is unveiled the secret truth which was kept secret through immemorial ages, but now has been brought to light, and by command of the eternal God made known to the Gentiles by the scriptures of the Prophets, so that the Gentiles might hold obedience of the faith. read more. Unto Him, the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever. Amen.
The unspiritual man rejects the teachings of God's Spirit; for him it is folly. He cannot understand it, for it is spiritually discerned,
Not that in this world you were actually to have no contact with the immoral, the avaricious, the thievish, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world, altogether.
But in giving you the following instructions, I cannot praise you; your solemn assemblies do more harm than good.
Fourteen years later I went up to Jerusalem again, with Barnabas, and took Titus also with me
and when they recognized the grace which had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, then thought to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.
For until certain men came from James he used to eat with the Gentile Christians, but when they came, he began to draw back and to separate himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.
he has now in his human body reconciled to God by his death, in order that he may bring you into his presence, holy and unblemished and irreproachable.
since you are rooted in him, and in him continually built up. Be firmly established in the faith as you were taught it, and continually abound in it with thanksgiving.
For I know, O brothers, beloved of God, that he has chosen you;
Let no one deceive you by any means. For it will not come until after the Great Apostasy, and the revealing of the Man of Sin, the son of perdition,
As I begged you when I was setting out for Macedonia, stay where you are at Ephesus, and instruct certain individuals there not to be teaching heterodoxy,
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen!
Some men's sins are notorious, and lead them straight on the way to condemnation; but others' sins follow them up.
and wrangling between men whose minds are corrupt and destitute of the truth; who suppose that godliness is a source of gain.
For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome teaching, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will heap up for themselves teachers upon teachers to satisfy their own fancies.
Do your best to come to me speedily,
Remind them to be submissive to their rulers and authorities; let them be obedient, ready for every good work;
which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
This saying is trustworthy. On this I want you to firmly insist; that those who have faith in God must be careful to maintain honest occupations. Such counsels are good and profitable for men.
Speed Zenas the lawyer, and Apollos, on their journey diligently.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. To those who are in God, the Father beloved, kept for Jesus Christ, and called.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James. To those who are in God, the Father beloved, kept for Jesus Christ, and called. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you. read more. Beloved, although I was making all haste to write to you in regard to our common salvation, I am compelled to write you an appeal to defend the faith once for all committed to the saints. For certain men have crept in stealthily??en predestined in ancient prophecies for this condemnation??mpious ones! They pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny Jesus Christ, our sole Master and Lord. I wish to remind you of what you already know right well, that although the Lord once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those who did not believe;
I wish to remind you of what you already know right well, that although the Lord once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those who did not believe;
Yet these men blaspheme about matters of which they know nothing, while they use such things as they do understand by instinct (like the animals who have no reason) for their own destruction.
These are the men, sensual and unspiritual, who cause divisions. But you, beloved, continually building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and ever praying in the Holy Spirit, read more. must keep yourselves in the love of God, while waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ends in life eternal. Pity some who are wavering, and save by dragging them out of the fire;
Pity some who are wavering, and save by dragging them out of the fire; others pity, but with caution, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.
others pity, but with caution, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto Him who has power to guard you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, faultless and exultant, read more. to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be ascribed glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before time began, is now, and ever shall be to all the ages. Amen.
I know your works and your toil and stedfastness, and that you cannot endure evil men, and that you tested those who called themselves apostles, though they are not, and how you found them false.
But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I hate.
But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat food offered to idols, and to practise immorality. So you have also some who hold 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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We are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the Evil One, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? It was 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 there were false prophets, too, among the people, just as among you also there will be false teachers. These will secretly bring in destructive sects, denying even the Master who bought them, and bringing swift ruin upon themselves. Then there will be many who will follow their immorality, because of whom the Way of the Truth will be maligned. read more. In their covetousness, with cunning words, they will make merchandise of you; those whose doom has not been idle from of old, and whose destruction has not been slumbering. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to chains of darkness, and reserved them for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon an ungodly world; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and reduced them to ashes, thus holding them up as a warning to all who would live ungodly; and he delivered righteous Lot who was worn out by the lascivious life of the wicked (for that righteous man, living among them, tormented his righteous soul in seeing and hearing, day after day, their lawless deeds), then be sure that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and to keep the wicked (who are even now enduring punishment) for the "Day of Judgment"; especially those who spend their lives following the flesh in the lust of defilement, and in despising all authority. Audacious and willful, they feel no awe in railing against dignities; even where angels, though surpassing them in strength and might, do not bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord. But these men, like irrational creatures, mere animals, born to be taken and destroyed, continually rail about matters of which they know nothing. In their corruption they will surely be destroyed, suffering wrong as the wage of wrong which they have done. These are men who count it pleasure to carouse in open daylight; they are spots and blemishes reveling in their deceit, even while they are feasting with you. They have eyes full of harlots, eyes that cannot stop sinning. They entice unsteady souls. Their heart is trained in greed. They are an accursed generation. They have forsaken the right way; they have lost their way, and followed the road of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrong-doing. He was, however, rebuked for his own transgression; a dumb ass spoke with a man's voice, and stopped the madness of the prophet. Such men are like waterless springs, or mists storm-driven; for them the blackness of darkness has been reserved. For speaking great swelling words of vanity, they entangle, by their lasciviousness, in the lusts of the flesh, those who are just about to escape from the men that live in misconduct. They promise them liberty, while they themselves are slaves of rottenness! (For indeed a man is the slave of anything which masters him.)
Beloved, although I was making all haste to write to you in regard to our common salvation, I am compelled to write you an appeal to defend the faith once for all committed to the saints. For certain men have crept in stealthily??en predestined in ancient prophecies for this condemnation??mpious ones! They pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness, and deny Jesus Christ, our sole Master and Lord. read more. I wish to remind you of what you already know right well, that although the Lord once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, he afterward destroyed those who did not believe; while the angels who did not keep their first domain but left their proper abode, are held by him in blank darkness, in everlasting chains, in preparation for the judgment of the Great Day. So also Sodom and Gomorrah and the near-by cities which in like manner glutted themselves in sensuality and unnatural vice, are exhibited as a warning of the eternal fire, in the punishment they undergo. Yet in just the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, while they set at naught dominion and scoff at dignities. But Michael, the Archangel, when in contending with the devil, he was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce sentence for blasphemy, but said, "The Lord rebuke you."
But Michael, the Archangel, when in contending with the devil, he was disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce sentence for blasphemy, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." Yet these men blaspheme about matters of which they know nothing, while they use such things as they do understand by instinct (like the animals who have no reason) for their own destruction. read more. Alas for them! They have walked in the path of Cain; for the sake of gain they have rushed headlong into Balaam's error, and have perished in Koran's rebellion. These are they who are stains upon your love-feasts; when they feast sumptuously without scruple, looking after none but themselves. They are clouds without water, driven along by the winds; trees of autumn, fruitless, doubly dead, torn up by the roots, wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever. It was to these, too, that Enoch, the "seventh in descent from Adam," prophesied, saying, "Lo! the Lord is come with myriads of his saints,
It was to these, too, that Enoch, the "seventh in descent from Adam," prophesied, saying, "Lo! the Lord is come with myriads of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which in their ungodliness they have committed; and of all the hard things which they have spoken against Him, ungodly sinners that they are!"
to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly deeds which in their ungodliness they have committed; and of all the hard things which they have spoken against Him, ungodly sinners that they are!" For these are murmurers, always complaining. They always go where their passions lead, and their mouth speaks great swelling words, while they pay court to men for the sake of the advantage they can get. read more. But as for you, dearly beloved, remember the words spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how they used to say to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will be led only by their godless passions." These are the men, sensual and unspiritual, who cause divisions. But you, beloved, continually building yourselves up on your most holy faith, and ever praying in the Holy Spirit, must keep yourselves in the love of God, while waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ends in life eternal. Pity some who are wavering, and save by dragging them out of the fire; others pity, but with caution, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto Him who has power to guard you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of his glory, faultless and exultant, to the only God, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be ascribed glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before time began, is now, and ever shall be to all the ages. Amen.