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 Alpheus, and Thaddeus,
Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot,
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are beloved by God the Father and have been kept through union with 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 He not the carpenter's son? Is not His mother's name Mary, are not His brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came up to Him by themselves, and said, "Tell us when this is to take place, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age." Jesus answered, "Look out that no one misleads you about it, read more. for many will come bearing the name of the Messiah, and saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many people.
for many will come bearing the name of the Messiah, and saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will mislead many people. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars; take care not to be scared out of your wits. They have to come, but that is not the end yet. read more. For nation will go to war with nation, and kingdom with kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many places. But all this is but the beginning of the agonies. At that time they will turn you over to torture, and will murder you, and you will be hated by all the heathen, because you bear my name. Then many will fall by the way, and will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will appear and mislead many people;
Many false prophets will appear and mislead many people; and because of the increasing crime wave, most people's love will grow cold.
and because of the increasing crime wave, most people's love will grow cold. But whoever bears up to the end will be saved. read more. And this good news of the kingdom must be preached all over the inhabited world, for a testimony to all the heathen, and then the end will come. "So when you see the destructive desecration, mentioned by the prophet Daniel, standing in the Holy Place" -- let the reader take notice -- "then let those who remain in Judea fly to the hills; let him who is on the roof of his house not come down to get his household goods out; let him who is in the field not turn back to get his coat. Alas for women who are expectant mothers and those who have nursing babies in those days! And pray for your flight not to be in winter or on the Sabbath, for there will be greater misery at that time than ever has been since the world began, or ever will be again. And if those days had not been cut short, nobody would have escaped, but for the sake of God's chosen people those days will be cut short. "If anyone at that time says to you, 'Here is the Christ!' or 'There He is!' do not believe it, for false Christs and false prophets will announce themselves, and they will show great signs and wonders to mislead, if possible, God's chosen people. Remember, I have told you beforehand.
Is He not the carpenter, Mary's son, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And do not His sisters live here among us?" And so they found a cause for stumbling over him.
Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who afterward turned traitor.
I wrote my first volume, Theophilus, about all that Jesus did and taught from the beginning
When they reached the city, they went to the room upstairs where they had been staying; they were: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alpheus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
There was a man named Simon in the city, who had kept the Samaritan people thrilled by practicing magic there and by claiming to be a great man. Everybody, high and low, kept running after him, saying, "He is certainly what is known as the Great Power of God!" read more. They kept running after him, because for a long time he had thrilled them with his magical performances. But when the people came to believe the good news proclaimed by Philip about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were constantly baptized. So Simon himself came to believe too, and after he was baptized he continued to be devoted to Philip, and he was always thrilled at seeing such great signs and wonder-works continuously performed. When the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted God's message, they sent Peter and John there. They came and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for as yet He had not come upon any of them, but they had been baptized merely in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them, and one by one they received the Holy Spirit. So when Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was conferred by the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, and said, "Give me this power too, that when I lay my hands on anyone he may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter said to him, "Your money go to perdition with you for even dreaming you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no share or part in this matter, for your heart is not sincere in the sight of God. So repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord, to see if this thought of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are a bitter weed and a bundle of crookedness!" So Simon answered, "Both of you beg the Lord for me that none of the things you have said may befall me!"
Then they went through the whole island as far as Paphos, and there they found a Jewish magician and false prophet whose name was Barjesus. He was an intimate friend of the governor, Sergius Paulus, who was an intelligent man. The governor sent for Barnabas and Saul and in this way tried to hear God's message. read more. But Elymas the magician -- for this is the meaning of his name -- continued to oppose them by trying to keep the governor from accepting the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, because he was full of the Holy Spirit, looked him straight in the eye and said, "You expert in every form of deception and sleight-of-hand, you son of the devil, you enemy of all that is right, will you never stop trying to make the Lord's straight paths crooked! Right now the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be so blind that you cannot see the sun for a time." And suddenly a dark mist fell upon him, and he kept groping about begging people to lead him by the hand. The governor, because he saw what had occurred, was thunderstruck at the Lord's teaching, and so came to believe.
On hearing this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and when Paul laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they began to speak in foreign tongues and to prophesy. read more. In all there were about twelve men.
And many who became believers kept coming and confessing and uncovering their former practices. Many people who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them up before the public gaze. They estimated the price of them and found it to be ten thousand dollars.
and hope never disappoints us; for through the Holy Spirit that has been given us, God's love has flooded our hearts.
In the same way the Spirit, too, is helping us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself pleads for us with unspeakable yearnings,
To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told, but now has been fully brought to light by means of the prophetic Scriptures, and in accordance with the command of the eternal God has been made known to all the heathen, to win them to obedience inspired by faith -- read more. to the one wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ. Amen.
An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.
not that you are to stop all dealings with sexually immoral people of this world, any more than with its greedy graspers, or its idolaters, for then you would have to get clear out of the world.
But as I am giving you these instructions I cannot approve of your meetings, because they do not turn out for the better but for the worse.
Then, fourteen years later, I again went up to Jerusalem, with Barnabas, and took Titus with me too.
and because they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, the so-called pillar apostles, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, with the understanding that we should go to the heathen and they to the Jews.
For before the coming of certain people from James, he was in the habit of eating with heathen Christians, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof from them, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.
by His death in His human body, so as to present you consecrated, faultless, and blameless in His presence,
with your roots deeply planted in Him, being continuously built up in Him, and growing stronger in faith, just as you were taught to do, overflowing through it in your gratitude.
For we know, brothers so beloved by God, that He has chosen you,
Do not let anybody at all deceive you about this, because that cannot take place until the great revolt occurs and the representative of lawlessness is uncovered, the one who is doomed to destruction,
As I begged you to do when I was on my way to Macedonia, I still beg you to stay on in Ephesus to warn certain teachers
To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever! Amen.
Some men's sins are very evident and clearly lead them on to judgment, but the sins of others lag behind.
and perpetual friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of truth, who imagine that religion is only a means of gain.
For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome teaching, but to gratify their own evil desires will surround themselves with teachers who teach to gratify their own evil desires, because their ears are itching so to be tickled,
Do your best to come to me soon,
Constantly remind people to submit to and obey the rulers who have authority over them, so as to be ready for any good enterprise,
which He abundantly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
It is a message to be trusted, and I want you to be emphatic about these things, so that those who believe in God may be careful to take the lead in doing good. These things are right and render service to mankind.
Give a hearty send-off to Zenas the lawyer, and Apollos, so that they may want for nothing.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are beloved by God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ:
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are beloved by God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace, and love in abundance be given you. read more. Dearly beloved, while I was doing my best to begin writing you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write and urge you to carry on a vigorous defense of the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's people. For certain persons have sneaked in -- their doom was written down long ago -- godless persons, who turn the favor of our God into an excuse for licentiousness, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that although the Lord had saved a people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that although the Lord had saved a people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
But these persons abuse everything they do not understand, and they are going to be destroyed by the very things they know by instinct, like the irrational animals.
These are men who cause divisions; mere animals, destitute of any spiritual nature, But you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit; read more. you must keep yourselves in the love of God and continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life. Some people, who continue to waver through doubts, you must pity
Some people, who continue to waver through doubts, you must pity and save, snatching them out of the fire; and others you must pity with dread, loathing even the clothes that are soiled by their lower nature.
and save, snatching them out of the fire; and others you must pity with dread, loathing even the clothes that are soiled by their lower nature. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in His glorious presence faultless and full of triumphant joy, read more. to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before all time, both now and forever and ever. Amen.
"I know what you have done; your hard work and patient endurance; that you cannot tolerate wicked persons; that you have tested those who claimed to be apostles although they were not, and have found them to be imposters,
But you have it to your credit that you hate what the Nicolaitans are doing, as I do too.
Yet I hold it somewhat against you that you have among you some who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap for the children of Israel, to entice them to eat the meat that had been sacrificed to idols and to commit immoral practices. And you also have among you some who are clinging 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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We must not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and butchered his brother. And why did he butcher him? Because his own actions were wicked and his brother's upright.
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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Now there were false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you too, who will insidiously introduce destructive heresies and deny the Master who has bought them, thus bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many people will follow their immoral ways, and because of them the true Way will be abused, read more. In their greed they will exploit you with messages manufactured by themselves. From of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction has not been slumbering. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but hurled them down to Tartarus and committed them to dark dungeons to await their doom, and if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others when He brought the flood upon the world of godless people; and if He condemned, by burning them to ashes, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, making them an example to godless people of what was coming to them, and saved the upright Lot who was constantly distressed by the immoral conduct of lawless men -- for as long as that upright man was living among them, his upright soul, day and night, was always being tortured by what he saw and heard in their lawless actions -- surely, then, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from trial and to keep wrongdoers under punishment for the day of judgment, especially those who satisfy their lower nature by indulging in its evil passions which defile them, and who despise authority. Daring, headstrong men! They do not tremble when they abuse persons of majesty, whereas angels who are far superior in strength and power to these beings bring no abusive accusation against them before the Lord. These men, like irrational animals, mere creatures of instinct created to be caught and killed, abuse the things that they do not understand, and so by their corruption they will be destroyed, suffering wrong as punishment for their wrongdoing. They think their daily luxurious living real pleasure; they are spots and blots, deceitfully living in luxurious pleasure while they continue their religious feasting with you. They have eyes full of adultery and insatiable by sin. They practice enticing unsteady souls. They have trained their hearts in greed. They are doomed to a curse! They have left the straight road and gone astray. They have followed the road that Balaam, the son of Beor, trod, who fell in love with the profits of wrongdoing but was reproved for his offense; a dumb animal spoke with a human voice and stopped the prophet's madness. Such men are dried-up springs, clouds driven by the storm, and they are doomed to densest darkness. For by uttering arrogant nonsense, through base desires of the lower nature, they entice into immorality men who are just escaping from those who live in error, promising them freedom, though they are slaves of destruction themselves; for a man is the slave of anything that conquers him.
Dearly beloved, while I was doing my best to begin writing you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write and urge you to carry on a vigorous defense of the faith that was once for all entrusted to God's people. For certain persons have sneaked in -- their doom was written down long ago -- godless persons, who turn the favor of our God into an excuse for licentiousness, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. read more. Now I want to remind you, though you know it all already, that although the Lord had saved a people out of the land of Egypt, He afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And angels, who did not preserve their original rank but left their proper home, He has kept in everlasting chains under darkness, for the day of judgment, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns which like them indulged in grossest immorality and unnatural vice, stand as a perpetual warning, in suffering the punishment of eternal fire. In just the same way these dreamers defile the body, discard authority, and deride the majesties. But the archangel Michael himself, when he disputed and argued with the devil about Moses' body, did not dare to bring against him a charge of blasphemy, but merely said, "May the Lord rebuke you!"
But the archangel Michael himself, when he disputed and argued with the devil about Moses' body, did not dare to bring against him a charge of blasphemy, but merely said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" But these persons abuse everything they do not understand, and they are going to be destroyed by the very things they know by instinct, like the irrational animals. read more. Alas for them, because they have trod the road that Cain did; for gain they have rushed into Balaam's error and have perished in rebellion like that of Korah! They are blots on your love feasts while they feast with you, daringly caring for no one but themselves; rainless clouds swept along by winds; leafless trees that bear no fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shame; wandering stars that are forever doomed to utter darkness. It was about such men also that Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied when he said: "See! The Lord comes with myriads of His people
It was about such men also that Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied when he said: "See! The Lord comes with myriads of His people to execute judgment upon all, to convict all the godless of their godless deeds which in their godlessness they have committed, and of all the harsh things that godless sinners have said against Him."
to execute judgment upon all, to convict all the godless of their godless deeds which in their godlessness they have committed, and of all the harsh things that godless sinners have said against Him." These persons are grumblers, ever complaining about their lot. They live to satisfy their evil passions, their lips boast arrogant things, and they flatter others for personal gain. read more. But you, dearly beloved, must remember the words that have already been spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, because they said to you, "In the last times there will be mockers who will live to satisfy their own godless passions." These are men who cause divisions; mere animals, destitute of any spiritual nature, But you, dearly beloved, must continue to build yourselves up on the groundwork of your most holy faith and to pray in the Holy Spirit; you must keep yourselves in the love of God and continue to wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, to bring you to eternal life. Some people, who continue to waver through doubts, you must pity and save, snatching them out of the fire; and others you must pity with dread, loathing even the clothes that are soiled by their lower nature. Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in His glorious presence faultless and full of triumphant joy, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, as it was before all time, both now and forever and ever. Amen.