:3 The Bible speaks of “the faith”, “the Gospel”, as a set
of doctrines, a deposit of truth which has been delivered to the believer (Eph.
4:4–6) – “the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3
ASV). That truth cannot be added to nor subtracted from, as the Bible itself
makes clear – especially in the appeals of Paul and Peter to maintain the
purity of the one faith. This means that a vitally true doctrine cannot become
‘added’ to that body of truth. Jaroslav Pelikan correctly reflected: “What can
it mean for a doctrine to ‘become’ part of the Catholic faith, which is, by
definition, universal both in space and in time?”.
:4
Jude, Peter And
Corinth
A case can be made that the letters of Peter and Jude were also written to Corinth. Peter visited Corinth, presumably focusing his preaching on the Jewish community, and perhaps he was writing his letters specifically to the Jewish house churches there (1 Cor. 1:12; 3:22; 9:5). The same concerns are apparent as in Paul's letters to Corinth: The need to distinguish between spiritual and unspiritual persons who despised others (Jude 19 = 1 Cor. 2:6 - 3:4; 8:1-3); those who perverted liberty into licence (Jude 4 = 1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23), becoming slaves of sensuality (Jude 8,10,16,23 = 1 Cor. 6:9-20; 2 Cor. 12:21); some eating and drinking abusively at the love feast (Jude 12 = 1 Cor. 11:17-33); refusing the authority of their elders (Jude 8,11 = 1 Cor. 4:8-13; 9:1-12); both Peter and Paul warn Corinth of the danger of worldly wisdom. Peter's reminder to them about the authority of Paul is very understandable in this case. However, the point of all this is to observe the tenderness of Peter and Jude in writing to the Corinthians ["my beloved..."], whilst at the same time warning them of the awesome judgment which there behaviour was preparing for them. It was the same passionate love for Christ's weak brethren which Paul showed them.
:4 Jude
4 parallels rejecting Jesus as Master and Lord with rejecting His moral
demands. If He truly is Lord and Master, we simply won’t live the immoral life
which Jude criticizes.
:5 Jude
5 describes how many of them were destroyed during the wilderness journey: “The
Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed
those who did not believe.” Israel were therefore “saved” from Egypt, as all
those who are baptised are “saved” from sin. If one of those Israelites had
been asked, “Are you saved?” their response could have been, “Yes”, but this
would not mean that they would ultimately be saved.
:6- see
on 2 Pet. 2:4.
There seems
to be the implication in Heb. 9:23 that Christ's sacrifice somehow cleansed the
Angels. We have to emphasize that there were no sinful Angels in Haven at the
time of Christ's sacrifice, and probably never have been. However, we have to
bear in mind that "His Angels He charged with folly" (Job 4:18);
"The Heavens are not clean in His sight" (Job 15:15), and also the
possibility that the "Angels that sinned" (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4) were
actual Angels before the present creation. This was a view supported by John
Thomas; the fact that there are such strong connections between these Angels
and the princes associated with Korah's rebellion
does not mean that his view is necessarily wrong. Jude's other historical
examples are capable of being interpreted with reference to more than one past
incident, not all of which are recorded in Scripture. Thus the dispute about
the body of Moses (Jude 9) could refer to the Samaritans disputing about the people
of Israel or Joshua the High Priest (see Zech. 3), or it could refer equally to Michael the Archangel, the
Angel of Israel, who buried Moses body, disputing with a group of Israelites
who wanted to have Moses' body travelling with them, as those of Joseph and the
patriarchs did (Acts 7:15,16 RV). Similarly Jude 14 talks of
an incident concerning Enoch which is not detailed in the Bible (cp. Jannes and
Jambres in 2 Tim. 3:8 too). Thus there is no reason why "the Angels
which kept not their first estate" of Jude and 2 Peter should not refer to
"Angels that sinned" before creation as well as to Korah's company of Num. 16. Psalm 103 is praise for God's
forgiveness and mercy to sin. David concludes it by asking the Angels
especially to praise God for this (Ps. 103:19-21)-
which would be fitting if they too had benefited in the past from God's mercy
towards sin. The fact that the Angels had crowns when they are symbolized
by the elders in Rev. 4:10 suggests that they had won them through overcoming
some kind of tribulation. See on 1 Cor. 6:3; Heb. 9:23.
:7 Jude warns the believers that
Sodom’s punishment was what awaited those of the new
:8- see
on Zech. 3:1,2.
:9 Jude 9
states that the Angels speak in a soft, gentle way- they do not dare bring a
"railing accusation" against the men they operate upon. Similarly the
wilderness Angel that gave the Law and pronounced the blessings and curses upon
Israel did not do so in a matter of fact 'obey or perish' tone of voice; He
"pleaded with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt",
as He will plead with them to repent in the last days too (Ez. 20:36). The
Angel spoke to Moses "as a man speaketh to his friend" (Ex. 33:11)-i.
e. in a relaxed, friendly way. It should be remembered that it was in this tone
of voice that the "fiery Law" of Moses was given, rather than in a
harsh, judgmental way as is often thought. Similarly Eliphaz had a vision in which he "heard a still voice" (Job 4:16,
AV mg. ); most visions being associated with Angels, it seems fair to assume
this was an Angel's voice- as was the "still small voice" Elijah
heard? (1 Kings 19:12).
Jude 9 gives guidance about how to deal with slander and attacks from false brethren. Jude alludes to the well known Jewish legend, The Testament Of Moses. In it, the ‘devil’ slanders Moses, accusing him of having murdered the Egyptian and therefore being worthy of condemnation, and tries to drag Moses’ body down to punishment. Jude points out that in the story, the Angel Michael doesn’t indulge in justification but rather says that “the Lord rebuke thee”. And may this be our pattern.
Michael
the Archangel’s disputing with the Devil about the body of Moses could refer to
the Angel that led Israel through the wilderness contending with a group of
disaffected Jews (Jude 9).
1.
There is no implication that “the Devil” here is an angel. Seeing that it is
stressed that all the angels are united in doing God’s will and are all
obedient to Him (Ps. 103:19–21; 148:2; Heb. 1:14), it is not possible for there
to be an argument in heaven between angels.
2.
The phrases “Devil” and “Satan” can be used about ordinary men.
3.
This Devil is concerned with the body of Moses not the so–called “immortal
soul” of men (which is not Biblical teaching anyway).
4.
There are many similarities between Jude and 2 Peter 2. Jude 9 has a parallel
in 2 Peter 2:11: “Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring
not railing accusation against them before the Lord”. Peter’s
equivalent of “the Devil” is “them” – implying that the Devil in Jude 9 is not
an individual, personal being, but a group of people. 2 Peter 2:10–12
clearly indicates that the “them” was a group of men.
5.
As with Jude 6, this verse is in the context of Jude 5 – “I will therefore put
you in remembrance”. Jude is therefore reminding them of incidents in Israel’s
history from which they should learn lessons. Thus Jude 9 must be a reference
to an historical incident recorded in Scripture. There is no such incident
concerning an angel called the Devil arguing with another angel.
6.
Michael the Archangel asked God to rebuke, or “forbid”, the Devil. If there is
a super–human person, power or agency, called the Devil causing men to sin and
creating trouble, then there is no evidence that he was ever effectively
forbidden, seeing that sin and disaster are progressively increasing.
1.
The reference to the Devil here is incidental. The purpose of the passage is to
show that angels speak in a gentle, humble way, even about people they know are
in the wrong. They do not show personal vindictiveness, but say “The Lord rebuke
you”. The Judaizers “speak evil of dignities; yet Michael... durst not bring
against him (the Devil) a railing accusation”, i.e. he did not resort to bitter
speaking as they did. Similarly Exodus 33:9–11 says that the angel spoke to
Moses “face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend”, i.e. In a relaxed, friendly way. It should be remembered that it
was with this voice that the “fiery law” of Moses was given by the angel, not
in a harsh manner, as can be wrongly inferred from some parts of the narrative.
Similarly the “still, small voice” that Elijah heard was probably the quiet,
unassuming voice of an angel (1 Kings 19:12 cp. Job 4:16).
2.
There are so many points of contact between this verse and Zechariah 3 that
that chapter must surely provide an historical background to the verse, which
would be appreciated by Jude’s readers:
Zechariah
3:1–2: “And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of
the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said
unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the
Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of
the fire?”
The
most evident similarities are:
Zechariah 3
|
Jude
|
|
The
angel of the Lord |
Michael
the archangel |
|
Satan
|
The
Devil |
|
The
Lord rebuke thee |
The
Lord rebuke thee |
|
A
brand plucked out of the fire (vv. 1,2). |
Pulling
them out of the fire (vv. 9,23). |
The
context in Zechariah 3 was that of the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem
from Babylon under Ezra and Nehemiah. They were trying to rebuild the temple
and re-establish a system of worship there. However, “the people of the land
weakened the hands of the people of Judah, and troubled them in building” (Ezra
4:4), i.e. they acted as Satan – adversaries – to the Jews. They are actually
called “the adversaries of Judah” in Ezra 4:1. They wrote “an accusation
against the (new) inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem” to the king of Persia
(Ezra 4:6). The Hebrew word for “accusation” is related to that translated
“Satan”; שטנה. Zechariah 3:8 clearly tells us that the
characters of vs. 1 and 2 are “men of sign” (A.V. margin), i.e. we have to interpret
them. So the satans – the adversaries – stood before
the angel along with Joshua the High Priest, who “was clothed with filthy
garments” (v. 3) – without a mitre on his head (v. 5 implies).
The
implication is that the inhabitants of the land, the Satan, were complaining to
God, manifested in the angel, that the new Jewish high priest was not really valid, as he did not wear the proper clothes (they had
probably been lost during the captivity). The angel tells Satan, “The Lord
rebuke thee”, and proceeds to clothe Joshua with a set of priestly clothes and
a mitre (vs. 4,5), thus showing God’s acceptance of
him. The inference behind the complaint was that God had not really chosen
Jerusalem for the Jews to rebuild, and that therefore they were going ahead
with their plans without God behind them. But the angel says that “the
Lord...hath chosen Jerusalem”, in the same way as He had chosen Joshua to be
high priest. Thus Joshua represented Jerusalem. “Is not this a brand plucked
out of the fire?” the angel asks Satan concerning Jerusalem. This is quoted in
Jude 23 concerning saving repentant sinners. Thus the angel is in effect
saying, “Jerusalem has repented, therefore I have plucked them out of the fire
of judgment and destruction; you should not therefore be implying that Jerusalem
and the Jews are so sinful that they cannot be restored to their land with Me
behind them”.
Jude
says that the dispute between the angel and the Devil – those opposed to the
rebuilding of the temple – was “about the body of Moses”. This phrase can
therefore either refer to the Jewish people generally, in the same way as the
Christian church is “the body of Christ” (1 Cor. 12:27) because we look to him
for guidance, rather than being in the “body of sin” (Rom. 6:6) because we
follow sin, or to Joshua the high priest. Joshua was the “body of Moses” in the
sense that “body” can be a figure of speech for a “slave”, e.g. Revelation
18:13; Hebrews 10:5; Psalm 40:6; and Exodus 21:2–6, and Romans 6:6 where having
a “body of sin” probably means being a “slave of sin”. The High Priest was thus
the slave of Moses.
3.
Another suggestion it that the “body of Moses” was Moses’ literal Body; Michael
the archangel was the angel of Israel (Dan. 12:1) who led them through the
wilderness in the cloud and fire (Ex. 23:20–21). The dispute may have been
between the angel and a group of Jews – “the Devil” – who wanted to take the
body of Moses with them. But the angel had buried Moses’ body and would not
tell anyone where it was (Dt. 34:6). Remember that the body of Joseph was
carried up into Canaan by the Jews (Josh. 24:32) as were the bodies of Jacob
and the twelve patriarchs from Egypt (Acts 7:15–16 R.V..); and we know that the
bodies of the kings of Israel were used in wrong worship rituals (Ez. 43:7); it
is to be expected, therefore, that some of the Jews would also want to take the
body of Moses, their great leader, with them. The Jews laid great store by
having the remains of their leaders physically with them – they are condemned
for keeping the corpses of their kings in the temple (Ez. 43:7–9).
:10 The path of Cain involved reviling what he did not
understand (Jude 10,11). He didn’t understand, or didn’t let himself
understand, the principles of sacrifice, and so he reviled his brother and
God’s commands, he became a true child of the Biblical Devil – because he
didn’t understand.
:11 The
condemned amongst the first century ecclesias "cast themselves away
through the error of Balaam" (Jude 11 RVmg.)- and
yet it is the Lord who will "cast away" the bad fish in the last day.
Yet those He casts away have in fact cast themselves away. Those who lay in
wait for others to kill them "lay wait for their own blood, they lurk
privily for their own lives" (Prov. 1:11,18).
There is a direct relationship, in God's judgment, between how we treat
others and what will happen to us.
:14
saints- see on Gen. 8:1.
Jude speaks about the false teachers of the first century. He recalls how Enoch had spoken of how the wicked of his day were destroyed in the flood: “Behold the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment” (Jude 14,15 RV). And yet Jude says that “To these also [i.e. the first century false teachers] Enoch… prophesied” (Jude 14 RV). Enoch’s words were primarily addressed to his own generation, but his words ought to be taken as speaking directly to the first century apostates. In similar vein, the Lord said that Isaiah’s words to his generation were prophesy “of you” in the first century.
Jude and the Book of Enoch
A rather detailed argument – and yet a very powerful one –
that Angels don’t sin is actually provided by considering the passages in 2
Peter 2 and Jude which are used by some to prove that Angels sin. We have here
what we meet many times in Holy Scripture – a series of allusions to a
contemporary, uninspired, popular piece of literature in order to show that it
is in fact wrong. This point may easily be lost on us, reading as we do from
our distance from the original context. It’s been observed that there are “more
than thirty” allusions to the popular first century BC ‘Book of Enoch’ in 2
Peter and Jude. This book claimed that 200 Angels were expelled from Heaven and
then married beautiful women on earth. Peter and Jude allude to it in order to
show how wrong it is. In the table below are some of the allusions:
In the Book
of Enoch, it is claimed that the righteous Angel Michael brings accusation
against the 200 supposedly rebellious Angels But
|
Jude |
Book of Enoch |
|
“Enoch the Seventh from Adam prophesied” Jude 14 |
Enoch 60:8 |
|
“dry springs” Jude 12 |
Enoch 48:1,96:6 dried up fountains |
|
“waterless clouds” Jude 12 |
Enoch 18:5,41:4–5,100:11–12 |
|
“reserved for blackest darkness” Jude 13 |
Enoch 21:3 “darkness shall be their dwelling” Enoch 46:6 |
|
“trees without fruit” Jude 12 |
Enoch 80:3 |
|
“plucked up” Jude 13 |
Enoch 83:4 |
|
“raging waves” Jude 12 |
Enoch 101:3–5 |
|
‘See the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of
his holy ones to judge everyone and convict the ungodly of all the ungodly
acts they have done’.” (Jude 14–15) |
“See the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of
his holy ones to judge everyone and convict the ungodly of all the ungodly
acts they have done” (Enoch 1:9) |
|
“reserved
unto the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6) |
Reserved
unto the day of sorrow Enoch 45:2 |
Peter consciously contradicts this by stressing that “angels
do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence
of the Lord” (2 Pet. 2:11), and Jude is even more specific by saying that this
is true of Michael the Archangel (Jude 9). According to the Book of Enoch, the
man Enoch judges the sinful Angels, but 2 Peter 3 warns that actually Angels
will come with Lord Jesus in order to judge men. We can now understand
why Peter claims that “bold and arrogant these men (the false teachers) are not
afraid to slander celestial beings” (2 Pet. 2:10) – i.e. the Angels. The Book
of Enoch slandered Angels by claiming 200 of them sinned. As Jude 8 puts it,
the false teachers “reject authority and slander celestial beings”. The idea
that the 200 Angels had sexual encounters with enticing women was therefore a
slander. We need to reflect on the implications of all this – for claiming that
Angels sin is actually spoken of by Peter and Jude as if it is serious
blasphemy. Those early Christians were returning to their earlier Jewish and
Pagan beliefs, which according to 2 Pet. 2:22 is to be seen as a dog returning
to its vomit. This is how serious the issue is.
It should be
noted that the Book of Enoch and other such writings are frequently alluded to
in the Apocalypse – again, to deconstruct them and show a first century
readership the real meaning of the terms used in the popular uninspired literature of the time. Thus
the descriptions of the Heavenly “Son of man” in Enoch 47:3–7 are alluded to in
the description of the Lord Jesus in Rev. 1:15–17 (1).
Notes
(1)
This and many other such allusions are to be found tabulated in Hugh Schonfield,
The Original New Testament: Revelation (London: Firethorn Press, 1985).
:15 - see
on Mt. 12:36; Lk. 13:28.#
Num. 32:23 prophesied of Israel in their time of
condemnation: "You will be sensible of your sin when evil overtakes
you" (LXX). Truly has Ez. 6:9 prophesied of the rejected: "They shall
loathe themselves for their evils which they have committed in all their
abominations". Jude 15 would even suggest that the purpose of judgment
being executed is to convict the rejected of all their ungodly deeds and
hard words. Through realising their condemnation they will realize in awful
detail exactly why this had to be. Our own self-examination now will be
stimulated by realising the depth to which we deserve condemnation, even
though by grace we are saved rather than condemned.
:19 Particularly
by our attitude to our brethren can we condemn ourselves. If we hate our
brother, we state we are already in darkness- the darkness to which we will be
thrown in judgment day. If we go out from the fellowship of the brethren, we
declare we are not of them (1 Jn. 2:19). Jude 19 speaks of those who separate
themselves- those who diakrino themselves,
judge themselves, by their separation from us. And yet this condemnation can so
easily be undone by a studied application to brotherly love.
:20 Who
we are as persons is effectively our prayer and plea to God. This conception of
prayer explains why often weeping, crying, waiting, meditating etc. are spoken
of as "prayer" , although there was no specific verbalizing of
requests (Ps. 5:1,2; 6:8; 18:1,2,3,6; 40:1; 42:8; 64:1 Heb.; 65:1,2; 66:17-20;
Zech. 8:22). The association between prayer and weeping is especially common: 1
Sam. 1:10; Ps. 39:12; 55:1,2; Jn. 11:41,42; Heb. 5:7,
especially in the Lord's life and the Messianic Psalms. "The Lord hath
heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord
will receive my prayer" (Ps. 6:8,9) crystallizes
the point. Desire
is also seen as effectively praying for something (Rom. 10:1; Col. 1:9; 2 Cor.
9:14). Weeping, desiring, waiting, meditating etc. are all acts of the mind, or
'spirit' in Biblical terminology. There is therefore a big association between
our spirit or state of mind, and prayer. The spirit (disposition) of Christ
which we have received leads us to pray
"Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6). "Praying in the holy
spirit" (Jude 20) is to be seen in this context. Prayer is part of the atmosphere of spiritual
life, not something hived off and separate- it is an expression of our spirit.
Thus there are verses which speak of many daily prayers as being just one
prayer (Ps. 86:3,6; 88:1,2); prayer is a way / spirit
of life, not something specific which occurs for a matter of minutes each day.
The commands to "pray without ceasing" simply can't be literally
obeyed (1 Thess. 5:17). "Watch and pray always"
in the last days likewise connects prayer with watchfulness, which is an attitude of mind
rather than something done on specific occasions. This is not to say that
prayer in no sense
refers to formal, specific prayer. Evidently it does, but it is only a verbal
crystallization of our general spirit of life.
:21 Jude 20,21 exhorts us: “building up yourselves... keep yourselves in the love of God”. The use of the plural ‘yourselves’ rather than a singular ‘thyself’ suggests that we are to understand this as meaning that we should build up our community, keep each other in the love of God. Jude had begun by exalting that we are “sanctified by God the Father, and preserved [s.w. “keep yourselves”] [by God] in Jesus Christ”. His conclusion is that we are kept / preserved by God in Christ insofar as we, the ministers of Christ, keep / preserve each other. The Greek for ‘building up’ occurs in Eph. 4:16: “From [Christ] the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase [builds up] of the body unto the edifying of itself in love”. The body builds itself up, if each part contributes. If they don’t, then there is no building up. Using the same figure, 1 Cor. 3:10-14 speak of us building up God’s house, the believers, on the foundation of Christ. And we will be judged for the quality of what is built- our final judgment will be a reflection of the quality of our brethren, in that their spirituality is partly determined by our efforts for them. But Col. 2:4 uses the same word to say that we are built up “in [Christ]...as [according as] ye have been taught...beware lest any man spoil you [through false teaching]. The life of fellowship with our brethren in Christ is what builds us up, if we teach each other the right things. But false teaching means that the house of believers will not be built up. This would have been especially so in ecclesias of largely illiterate members. The point is, we are all builders, each part has something to contribute, and the doing of every ecclesial service must be consciously to the end of building up one another.
:22 “Praying in the Holy Spirit... of some have compassion, making a difference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire” (Jude 20-23), just as the Angel had pulled Lot from the fire (Jude 7)- in this sense, Jude seems to suggest, we can do God’s work for him. Likewise we must “make a difference” concerning some, just as the Angels “contended” [s.w.] for men (Jude 9 cp. 22). The fire of condemnation at the judgment is in a sense already kindled, as the Lord Himself had taught (Lk. 12:49). The weak brother condemns himself by his way of life, and falls into condemnation even now, before the judgment (James 5:12; 1 Tim. 3:6; Tit. 3:11). We see this, and have the power in some cases to save the brother by pulling him out of that fire of condemnation. Surely the point is that we can save our brother from condemnation at judgment day by what we do for him now.
:23 In the same way as the
resurrection and establishment of the Kingdom have happened in prospect, so too
has the judgment. "If we would judge ourselves (i.e. examine ourselves to
the point of realizing we deserve condemnation at the judgment), we should not
be judged" (1 Cor.11:31), i.e. condemned, at the judgment seat of Christ.
Thus Jude 23 speaks of pulling a man out of the fire, i.e. saving him from
condemnation in Gehenna, as if to some extent the unworthy are now experiencing
their punishment, as the righteous are their reward. See on Rom. 12:20.
:23,24-
see on Zech. 3:1,2.
:24- see
on Eph. 1:4.
Our amazement and incomprehension at the judgment is brought out in 2 Thess. 1:10, which speaks of the saints 'admiring' Christ in that day, using a Greek word meaning 'to marvel at in incomprehension'. This praise will also be on account of our being "presented faultless" before the judgment (Jude 24). The Greek for "presented" is the same word translated "stood" in Lk. 21:36, showing that our angel is able to stand us up in the august presence of the Lord, only by reason of our faults having been totally covered by Christ's imputed righteousness. Col. 1:22 has a similar message: "...to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable (Gk. 'free from accusation') in his sight". This freedom from accusation explains why none of our bad deeds will be mentioned to us then. One wonders if Paul's appearance before the judgment seat in Acts 25 is described as it is in order to help us imagine this; he has no accusers, and therefore can be acquitted.
He can even, somehow, withhold men from sinning (Gen. 20:6),
and keep us from falling (Jude 24). We should therefore have no essential
objection to the idea of the Lord granting us His Spirit, in the sense of His
thinking, His heart / mind.
:25 The
Roman proconsuls were to be called “Saviour”. But for Christians, there was
only one Saviour,
the Lord Jesus. The Caesars were frequently called "Saviour"-
Josephus thus addressed Vespasian. Hence the radical import of the way that
Jude 25 calls the Lord Jesus our only
Saviour. ‘Caesar is Lord’ was the cry of the Roman empire.
Pliny wrote that he considered refusal to make the customary gesture to the
emperor’s statue to be a criminal act punishable by death. But “To us there is
but one Lord, Jesus” the Christ, i.e. Jesus the Messiah of the despised, weird
Jewish race.