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;
Andrew; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot,
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by 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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Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't His mother called Mary, and His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas?
While He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples approached Him privately and said, "Tell us, when will these things happen? And what is the sign of Your coming and of the end of the age?" Then Jesus replied to them: "Watch out that no one deceives you. read more. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and they will deceive many.
For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Messiah,' and they will deceive many. You are going to hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, because these things must take place, but the end is not yet. read more. For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these events are the beginning of birth pains. "Then they will hand you over for persecution, and they will kill you. You will be hated by all nations because of My name. Then many will take offense, betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold.
Because lawlessness will multiply, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be delivered. read more. This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the world as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come. "So when you see the abomination that causes desolation , spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place" (let the reader understand) , "then those in Judea must flee to the mountains! A man on the housetop must not come down to get things out of his house. And a man in the field must not go back to get his clothes. Woe to pregnant women and nursing mothers in those days! Pray that your escape may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. For at that time there will be great tribulation, the kind that hasn't taken place from the beginning of the world until now and never will again! Unless those days were limited, no one would survive. But those days will be limited because of the elect. "If anyone tells you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Over here!' do not believe it! False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note: I have told you in advance.
Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And aren't His sisters here with us?" So they were offended by Him.
I wrote the first narrative, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach
When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
A man named Simon had previously practiced sorcery in that city and astounded the Samaritan people, while claiming to be somebody great. They all paid attention to him, from the least of them to the greatest, and they said, "This man is called the Great Power of God!" read more. They were attentive to him because he had astounded them with his sorceries for a long time. But when they believed Philip, as he proclaimed the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Then even Simon himself believed. And after he was baptized, he went around constantly with Philip and was astounded as he observed the signs and great miracles that were being performed. When the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had welcomed God's message, they sent Peter and John to them. After they went down there, they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For He had not yet come down on any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, "Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit." But Peter told him, "May your silver be destroyed with you, because you thought the gift of God could be obtained with 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 pray to the Lord that the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity." "Please pray to the Lord for me," Simon replied, "so that nothing you have said may happen to me."
When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they came across a sorcerer, a Jewish false prophet named Bar-Jesus. He was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear God's message. read more. But Elymas, the sorcerer, which is how his name is translated, opposed them and tried to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul-also called Paul-filled with the Holy Spirit, stared straight at the sorcerer and said, "You son of the Devil, full of all deceit and all fraud, enemy of all righteousness! Won't you ever stop perverting the straight paths of the Lord? Now, look! The Lord's hand is against you: you are going to be blind, and will not see the sun for a time." Suddenly a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, seeing what happened, believed and was astonished at the teaching about the Lord.
On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began to speak with [other] languages and to prophesy. read more. Now there were about 12 men in all.
And many who had become believers came confessing and disclosing their practices, while many of those who had practiced magic collected their books and burned them in front of everyone. So they calculated their value, and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver.
This hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings.
Now to Him who has power to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the sacred secret kept silent for long ages, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic Scriptures, according to the command of the eternal God, to advance the obedience of faith among all nations- read more. to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ-to Him be the glory forever! Amen.
But the natural man does not welcome what comes from God's Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to know it since it is evaluated spiritually.
by no means referring to this world's immoral people, or to the greedy and swindlers, or to idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world.
Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, since you come together not for the better but for the worse.
Then after 14 years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.
When James, Cephas, and John, recognized as pillars, acknowledged the grace that had been given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to me and Barnabas, [agreeing] that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
For he used to eat with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party.
But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him-
rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
knowing your election, brothers loved by God.
Don't let anyone deceive you in any way. For [that day] will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.
As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach other doctrine
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Some people's sins are evident, going before them to judgment, but [the sins] of others follow them.
and constant disagreement among men whose minds are depraved and deprived of the truth, who imagine that godliness is a way to material gain.
For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.
Make every effort to come to me soon,
Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,
This [Spirit] He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.
Diligently help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey, so that they will lack nothing.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ.
Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James: To those who are the called, loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ. May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. read more. Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. For certain men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: the Lord, having first of all saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe;
Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: the Lord, having first of all saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe;
But these people blaspheme anything they don't understand, and what they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals-they destroy themselves with these things.
These people create divisions and are merely natural, not having the Spirit. But you, dear friends, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, read more. keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on some who doubt;
Have mercy on some who doubt; save others by snatching [them] from the fire; on others have mercy in fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.
save others by snatching [them] from the fire; on others have mercy in fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, read more. to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen.
I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.
Yet you do have this: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the sons of Israel: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
Morish
Written by Jude the brother of James, and apparently the same person as the apostle JUDAS, q.v. The Epistle is addressed to "the called ones, beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ." Apostasy had set in, and the saints are exhorted to contend for the faith divinely delivered. Ungodly ones had crept in, who abused the grace of God, and denied their only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.
Three instances are produced to show how apostasy had been punished:
1. Some of those saved out of Egypt were yet destroyed.
2. Fallen angels are kept in eternal chains for judgement.
3. Sodom and Gomorrha, which lie under the abiding effect of the judgement on them. Then the railers are put to shame by the conduct of Michael the archangel, who when rightly contending with Satan about the body of Moses did not rail against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee."
Three stages of departure from the way of truth are mentioned, with a woe upon those who are found in them:
1. The way of Cain
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unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother's 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, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. read more. In their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their condemnation, [pronounced] long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep. For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned, but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment; and if He didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to ruin, making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly; and if He rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral (for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority. Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. But these people, like irrational animals-creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed-speak blasphemies about things they don't understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions as they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery and always looking for sin, seducing unstable people, and with hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! By abandoning the straight path, they have gone astray and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, but received a rebuke for his transgression: a speechless donkey spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness. These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. For uttering bombastic, empty words, they seduce, by fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.
Dear friends, although I was eager to write you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write and exhort you to contend for the faith that was delivered to the saints once for all. For certain men, who were designated for this judgment long ago, have come in by stealth; they are ungodly, turning the grace of our God into promiscuity and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. read more. Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: the Lord, having first of all saved a people out of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe; and He has kept, with eternal chains in darkness for the judgment of the great day, angels who did not keep their own position but deserted their proper dwelling. In the same way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them committed sexual immorality and practiced perversions, just as they did, and serve as an example by undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Nevertheless, these dreamers likewise defile their flesh, despise authority, and blaspheme glorious beings. Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses' body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!"
Yet Michael the archangel, when he was disputing with the Devil in a debate about Moses' body, did not dare bring an abusive condemnation against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you!" But these people blaspheme anything they don't understand, and what they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals-they destroy themselves with these things. read more. Woe to them! For they have traveled in the way of Cain, have abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for profit, and have perished in Korah's rebellion. These are the ones who are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. They feast with you, nurturing only themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds; trees in late autumn-fruitless, twice dead, pulled out by the roots; wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever! And Enoch, in the seventh [generation] from Adam, prophesied about them: Look! The Lord comes with thousands of His holy ones
And Enoch, in the seventh [generation] from Adam, prophesied about them: Look! The Lord comes with thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment on all, and to convict them of all their ungodly deeds that they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against Him.
to execute judgment on all, and to convict them of all their ungodly deeds that they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against Him. These people are discontented grumblers, walking according to their desires; their mouths utter arrogant words, flattering people for their own advantage. read more. But you, dear friends, remember the words foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they told you, "In the end time there will be scoffers walking according to their own ungodly desires." These people create divisions and are merely natural, not having the Spirit. But you, dear friends, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on some who doubt; save others by snatching [them] from the fire; on others have mercy in fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. Now to Him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless and with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority before all time, now, and forever. Amen.