1, 2. Inscription and Invocation.

1. Jude. See Introduction, I. The servant — bond-servant. See on 2 Peter 1:1, and especially on 1 Peter 2:18 ("servants") Brother of James. See Introduction, I. The writer may have referred to James, because the latter was better known. James had the oversight of the church in Jerusalem, wrote the Epistle of James, and was a man of influence. (Acts 12:17; 15:13-32; Gal. 2:9.) A man of no humility would have taken pains to mention his kinship to the Lord; a man of ordinary humility might have mentioned it under the notion that thereby his usefulness would be extended. Jude avows himself a servant of the Lord; that he was a brother is not so much as hinted. To them, etc. — more correctly, to the called who are beloved in God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ. ' Called.' See 2 Peter 1:3. Sanctified (properly, beloved) by God. Even if the Greek for sanctified were the true reading, the English should be sanctified in, which expresses a richer thought than sanctified by. Not instrumentality, but close connection with the life of God by communion with God himself is the thought expressed. If the true Greek is beloved (ἠγαπηένις), which is probable, it is beloved in God. Some would supply thus: beloved in God by us, but no supply is necessary. The Father. God is the Father of the regenerated, but here the relation existing between God and Christ seems to be meant, as in Gal. 1:1; Phil. 2:11; Eph. 6:23; 1 Peter 1:2. Preserved— kepf, which is simpler, and is the word generally used. To (for) Jesus Christ. The 'called' are Christ's. Those who are Christ's are God's, and those who are God's are Christ's. (John 17:10.) See especially the petition in the Lord's highpriestly prayer: "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me." (John 17:11.) See also John 17:15. The 'called' are kept for Christ. No richer thought can be found even in the longest of Paul's epistles; a great pearl in a small casket. Thus of the ' called ' two things are affirmed:1. Beloved in God, the Father of Christ; 2. Kept for Christ. God is the keeper, and the keeping is for Christ. Having been kept till the present, it may be believed that they will be kept forever. Kept by God for Christ from evil. The prisoner was kept by a chain binding him to the keeper; the called are kept by love binding them to the Infinite Love.

Remark. — Concerning different readings of Greek manuscripts, such as are found even in this first verse of our Epistle, see "Remarks" in the comments on 1 Peter 1:8.

2. In ten of Paul's epistles, the invocation is an invocation of grace and peace; in three, of grace, mercy, and peace; in Hebrews, of grace, but standing at the end instead of the beginning. In all these but Hebrews, here assumed to be written by Paul, the source of the blessing invoked is given: from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, with very slight variation in form. In James, greeting is used. In both of Peter's epistles it is grace and peace, with the addition, be multiplied; in the Epistle before us, mercy, and peace, and love, with the same addition. John, in his First Epistle, uses no invocation whatever; in the second, grace, mercy, and peace, with the remarkable addition, from God the Father, and from, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father; in the third, peace at the close. Jude's invocation, then, is unlike not only Peter's in the Second Epistle, but all the others in the New Testament. It is worth something as showing his independence. "Grace," found in almost all the other epistles, is wanting. ' Mercy,' found in only three of Paul's epistles, and in Second John, is used, while ' love' is used in the invocation of no other epistle. 'Mercy' is the unmerited source, 'peace' and 'love' are the blissful results, whether by ' love ' is meant the mutual love of the readers, or their love to God, or God's love to them, or all three. See on 1 Peter 1:2.

3, 4. The Necessity for Writing. Compare 1 Peter 1:12, 13; 3:1.

3. Beloved — a form of address seldom used. (3 John 2, 5, 11; 1 Peter 2:11; 4:12; 2 Peter 3:1, 8, 14, 17.) It reflects light upon the writer's character. Without this tender word Jude might have been deemed constitutionally severe. Men who are naturally severe are sometimes, however, very tender in spirit. It is not impossible, therefore, that if we knew more of Jude's nature, we should be under the necessity of modifying a little what has just been said. Diligence, earnestness, implying strong desire and purpose. He was desiring and intending to write them of something, but the desire and purpose were arrested by a necessity which impelled him to do something else. The common salvation. Valuable manuscripts have (ἡμῶν) "our." This is adopted by Westcott and Hort and the Revised Version: our common salvation. This was the subject on which he earnestly desired to write them. ' Common ' — not to Jews and Gentiles, but shared by all believers. See Titus 1:4 ("common faith"); 2 Peter 1:1 ("like precious faith"). See on the latter. 'Salvation' — effected for believers through the redeeming death of Christ, thus their actual salvation, not a system of doctrine. 'The common salvation ' — the same for the learned and the ignorant. From the fact of a common salvation is easily deduced the duty of common Christian love. May the time come when the duty shall be as heartily felt as the fact is strongly believed! Needful — literally, I had necessity — that is, I felt impelled. He was impelled by what he knew of the influence of bad men who professed to be good men. To write — in a strain different from what he intended. A letter of exhortation was necessary. The inspired writers are remarkable for versatility in handling religious truth; sometimes reasoning, sometimes exhorting, sometimes doing both. The exigency required Jude to exhort. We should have been well instructed, doubtless, had he written as he first intended to write — on the common salvation. It is useless to regret that he changed his mind, and decided to rouse saints by rasping sinners. Earnestly contend for— one word in the Greek, a verb compounded with a preposition. The verb without the preposition is used in Luke 13:24 ("Strive enter in"). Agonize is the original word in English dress. It was used with reference to the striving of men in the Greek games to win the prize. As applied to that, it signifies the utmost possible effort of the will, through nerve and muscle, to overcome all competitors. The compound word is, "to fight standing upon a thing which is assaulted, and which the adversary desires to take away" (Dr. Mombert in Fronmüller). The faith — not a formula of words, but the entire scheme of Christianity, here distinguished by its leading characteristic. Once (once for all) delivered. The faith is a finality. It admits no addition and no subtraction. (Rev. 22:18, 19.) But according to Romanism it is otherwise. The more Christianity is studied the more of itself it will reveal, but the book which contains it is complete. The saints — " those consecrated to him (the Lord), and so his. This term, as applied in the New Testament, refers to the normal or prescribed standard of Christian character, rather than the actual one. See 1 Cor. 1:2, as compared with 1 Cor. 3:2; 11:21, etc. It belongs to all who profess to be disciples, and does not distinguish one class of them as superior to others in point of excellence." (Hackett's " Com. on the Acts," 9:13). Yet see 1 Peter 2:9, and comments. Indifference to assaults upon Christianity or any part of it, or to the gradual rise of error, however slight, is unworthy the Christian name. Vigorous defense of truth and positive attack of error is the duty of every Christian. Indifference to error is a sign of false liberalism and humiliating weakness. It finds no countenance in the example of the apostles, (1 Tim. 6:3, 4; 2 Tim. 1:13; 2:16-18; 4:2-4; Titus 1:9-13.) And our Epistle is itself proof of the intensity of Jude's opposition to all departures from Christian truth. A single illustration may be in point. Should one teach that the rite of baptism as enjoined by Christ and the apostles had the form of immersion and no other form, but that in come later age was changed by men ("a human invention") into a rite very unlike it, sprinkling for example, and should defend the change as rightly made, though admitting it to have been made with no divine authority whatever, it is clear that the way would have been prepared for changing the Lord's Supper also. It is clear, indeed, that no limit could be placed to the changes which men might make in the Christian system. But the inspired word, "contend earnestly for the faith," positively forbids the first change, not less than the second, ^{Note 1}

4. For introduces the reason for being under the necessity of writing this kind of a letter. Certain men-indefinite, but they must have been known to the readers. To affirm that by ' men ' Jude intended to express the unrenewed nature of the false teachers, shows to what a strain it is possible to put words. There are . . . crept in. The Revised Version renders in the same way. Better, it is thought, certain men crept in. It refers to some past point of time, yet includes the idea that the men are still living, and living as members of churches. That such men were, during a greater or less period, members of churches is clear from Acts 20:29, 30; 1 John 2:19. These men came in stealthily, privily — that is, though openly received as members, they kept their false views to themselves, and managed to conceal awhile their impurity of life. They were hypocrites at the outset. Their errors and impurities may at first have existed only in germ, but they must have been rapidly developed. Whether more or less, their immoralities and errors were kept awhile so concealed that they themselves can be said to have crept into the church privily. Before (of old) ordained— not primarily, predetermined by the purpose of God, but written before; not written in Paul's epistles, or in Peter's, for 'of old' takes us back to an earlier period. They had long ago been described. According to the methods of interpreting the Old Testament in apostolic times, any passage of the Old Testament which foretells the coming of bad men could be applied to the men in question. A more definite reference is unnecessary. Pre-ordination of these men to punishment, however, is as true as preordination of any other sinners to punishment. All incorrigible sinners are ordained to punishment in the sense that unforsaken sin will draw upon itself the punishment which it is God's holy and eternal will to inflict. This condemnation — the punishment, not yet named, but even now in his thoughts. Ungodly men— irreverent toward God, and therefore godless. God around them, over them, within them, yet are they godless. Turning the grace— the third special affirmation relative to certain men. The indefinite is becoming definite. 'The grace' — not grace given in regeneration, for the men give no evidence of renewal, but the grace offered to men in Christianity. Our God. 'Our' marks very beautifully the appropriation of the Divine Being as emphatically theirs, in distinction from the rejection of him by these godless men. 'God,' with no appropriating word, is a sign of weakness of faith; it may be proof of positive unbelief. Into lasciviousness. The word is used in 1 Peter 4:3; 2 Peter 2:7 ("filthy"); 2:18 ("wantonness"). Turning the grace. How? The grace of God, undeserved favor i manifested in forgiving sin for the sake of Christ, brings men into liberty (1 Peter 2:16; Gal. 3:13; 5:1, 13) — that is, into freedom from the law viewed as something to be obeyed in order to be justified from the condemning power of conscience, and from the tyranny of passion. If one who professes to have come into such freedom has come into it, not in fact, but only in pretence, he will be in danger of surrendering himself all the more freely to the dominion of lust. This will be 'turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.' Denying, etc. In several manuscripts God (θεόν) is wanting. It is rejected by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Tregelles, and "Wescott and Hort. The Greek for ' Lord (δεοπότην) is not the word which is commonly used where the English has 'Lord.' Its original meaning is Master, and despot. Widely different in meaning from the Greek is this Greek word in English letters. Jesus Christ is a loving Master., not a despot. But is Lord (that is, Master) here applied to God the Father? or is it applied to Christ? In the New Testament it is in most cases used respecting the former. (Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; Rev. 6:10.) In 2 Peter 2:1 it is applied to Christ. As Jude is here so much like Peter, it would seem that he, as well as Peter, must refer to Christ; but variations from Peter, as the use of only and the omission of that brought them, awaken uncertainty. If we translate the only Master, and our Lord Jesus Christ, which may be the correct rendering, Master would manifestly refer to God the Father. If we translate, which is allowable, our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, then Master, as well as Lord (κύριον) refers to Christ. 'Denying,' etc. See 1 John 2:22. They denied Jesus Christ by a life of excess. Such a life was denial of Christ, since Christ himself was so pure. In words they may have professed to receive him, but probably their sentiments concerning Christ were as bad as their life. One may deny Christ by adding to him something which he is not, or by subtracting from him something which he is. Like his brothers, Jude lived some time without seeing and publicly acknowledging the Messianic claims of Jesus; but there is no evidence that, like these men, he denied the Lord, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.

5-7. Examples of God's Punitive Justice.

5. First Example. Therefore is an error of translation. It should be but, and will should be desire, thus: But I desire to put you, etc. Compare 2 Peter 1:12. Though, etc— literally, knowing this, as knowing this. They already know the historical facts which he is about to give, and for that very reason he puts them in remembrance. Once— once for all. (ver. 3.) This. Manuscripts favor the reading which means all things, and this is adopted in the Revised Version. They know, once for all, all things pertaining to God's revealed will, whether of the Old Testament, or of the New. How that— more simply, that: I desire to remind you that, etc. The Lord — God, the Father. But Jesus is another reading. "Some primitive error" would seem to have crept in. See Westcott and Hort. What is the correct reading it may never be possible to decide. In 1 Cor. 10:4 is a representation of Christ, with which, to say the least, the reading Jesus is in harmony: "And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them: and that rock was Christ." (Rev. Ver.) If Christ, in his pre-existent, divine nature, therefore as the Son of God, as the Word, who afterward appeared as man, accompanied the Israelites during their march through the wilderness, protecting and helping them (Meyer on 1 Cor. 10:4), why may it not also be true that the deliverance of the people from Egypt, and the subsequent destruction of those that believed not, were effected by God through the medium of the same pre-existing Son? But the student will notice that, according to the suggested reading, Jude uses the name (Jesus) by means of which, as Huther says, is denoted the earthly, human personality of Christ. It may, indeed, be deemed contrary to all analogy of Scripture to ascribe to Jesus, rather than to Christ, or the Eternal Son, the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, etc.; yet, as Huther himself says, Jude could have done this from the consciousness of identity of the Eternal Son and the Son of Mary. If the commonly received reading is correct. Lord must probably be understood as referring to God the Father. The people — a people. There is no article in the Greek. Unconsciously, perhaps, the writer strikes a minor key by the omission of his. Compare Matt. 1:21; Luke 1:68; Rom. 11:1 (his people). Afterward —the second time. The idea is this: That the Lord, having delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, the second time did not deliver, but destroyed them that believed not. The history shows that all but the young, and Joshua and Caleb, perished in the wilderness. Fronmüller interprets: "He destroyed them the second time, and should be referred to two judgments of destruction; once when the people, with the exception of a few, perished in the wilderness, and again to the Babylonish captivity," which seems to be more "forced" and "unnatural" than the explanation which he rejects. Notice here Jude's independence of Peter. He takes a new example. In the corresponding part of his Second Epistle, chapter 2, Peter says nothing of the kind, but takes an example from the history of the flood. Believed not — trusted not in their Divine Deliverer from Egypt, but murmured and fell into immorality. On the nature of faith, see on 1 Peter 1:5, and respecting the word ' believe,' see on 1 Peter 1:8. See also Heb. 3:18, 19. This example of punishment is intended partly (ver. 20, 21), not wholly, as a warning to Christians. It is also intended to assure Christians that the immoral heretics will be punished. Thus it serves as an encouragement as well as a warning.

6. Second example, having the same object as the first. Angels — not the angels, a contrast with men, referred to in ver. 5; yet not all angels, for a limitation is made by the clause which follows. First estate — correctly, as in the Revised Version, their own principality. In the Greek there is but one word for first estate, and that meaning, literally, what is first, whether in time or place. Here it refers either to their original state, or their original position: if the former, it must mean their sinlessness and bliss; if the latter, their honor or dominion. Both may be included. Inquisitiveness would desire a more definite statement. Some poets, as Milton, Dante, Mrs. Browning, and others sing as if knowing much concerning such high things, but inspired men must be silent where it is permitted poets to strike the harp with a bold hand. Some who are not poets presume to know too much to believe that there are any angels whatever. Kept not. They could have kept; there was no compulsion. But left. They could have remained. 'But' left — not and left; and therefore this clause does not express another distinct act, but it defines the act expressed in the first clause. Yet it adds something to the thought, for the first is negative, while this is positive. Their own habitation — their proper habitation. The Greek for their own (ἑαυτῶν), before first estate, is not the same as here (ἵδιον), and it is desirable to indicate it by the use of a different word, as proper, though this term is a little ambiguous. By 'habitation,' heaven may be meant, perhaps the dwelling place especially theirs in heaven. If the latter is the meaning, the nature of the wrong here also is not described. Compare the corresponding 2 Peter 2:4, where angels are said to have sinned. Though in Peter the representation is more general, it is more easily understood. Jude gives particulars, and for that very reason his meaning is less obvious. Hath reserved — hath kept, which brings out the contrast more clearly: they kept not; God has kept them. The perfect tense takes the readers back to the time of the wrong doing, and brings them forward to the writer's day. They have been kept through the entire period. In everlasting chains under darkness. Peter: chains of darkness. Jude adds the idea expressed in everlasting. Farrar, in harmony with his erroneous interpretation of 1 Peter 3:19, 20, "preached unto the spirits in prison," makes 'everlasting' (ἀῖδίοις) express a limited period, though affirming, at the same time, that it is stronger than eternal or everlasting (αὶωνιος). The latter word occurs in the very important passage. Matt. 26:46. The 'chains' (bonds) can never be broken; no restoration, therefore. ' Darkness,' of hell. (Matt. 25:30, 41.) The great day — the day of general judgment, when the fallen angels will be publicly judged. See "that great and notable day" (Acts 2:20); "the great day of his wrath" (Rev. 6:17); "that great day of God Almighty." (Rev. 16:14.) A great number will be gathered together, a division will be made, and from that division great results will follow. (M»tt. 25:32, 33, m, 41.) See on the entire corresponding 2 Peter 2:4.

7. Third example, with the same object as that of the two previous ones. As is related to likewise in the next verse. The two words express comparison between the inhabitants of the cities and "these filthy dreamers." Sodom and Gomorrah — situated, as the evidence thus far obtained serves to show, in a district at the southern end of the Dead Sea, not, as a recent writer has attempted to prove, at the northern end. The cities about (around) them — Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela. (Gen. 14:2; Deut. 29:23.) A comma should Stand after them, but none after manner, which should be closely connected with the following clause. As in the Revised Version, with these should have appeared in the Common Version (the proper rendering of the Greek word τούτοις in the text). In like manner with these — that is, the inhabitants of Gomorrah, etc., gave themselves over to fornication in the manner like that which characterized these. But who are meant by these is uncertain. Some say Sodom and Gomorrah, but these are included with the other cities in the sin. Others, as Farrar, refer it to the angels (ver.6), but that rests on a false interpretation of Gen. 6:1, 2— that the sons of God who took daughters of men for wives were angels. But, according to Farrar, Jude himself, "like the Jews of his day, attributed the fall of the angels to sensuality." Others refer it to the false teachers (ver. 4) mentioned also in ver. 8 as "these filthy dreamers." If the latter is the true reference, Jude anticipates what he is about to say, which is deemed by some as inadmissible. It is a question not easily decided, but the latter reference seems to be preferable. Giving themselves over — one word in the Greek, but a word of such strength that more than one word in the English is

necessary to express the idea. It implies a thorough and continued abandonment to lust. And (yet more) going (away) after. They went fearfully out of the right way. Strange. "The Greek," says Dr. Lillie, "occurs ninety-eight times, but it is nowhere else translated 'strange.' " They went after other flesh. The disgusting forms of licentiousness here referred to are mentioned in Gen. 19:4 5; Lev. 18:22, 23; Rom. 1:24, 26, 27; and no facts of history are more strongly attested than that they greatly prevailed in Rome and Greece. There is reason to believe that almost the entire heathen world were sunk in similar pollution at the time of Christ's birth. Would that such painful proofs of the fall of man could not be gathered from Christian countries! Are set forth. The original is striking: lie before — that is, lie before our eyes. Compare with 2 Peter 2:6 ("making them an ensample"). To lie before is explained by Fronmüller thus: "The Dead Sea is to this day a testimony of that catastrophe; ruins of the sunken cities were perhaps still visible in the days of Jude." [!] But Bengel says: "The cities, therefore, were situated, not in the Dead Sea, but upon the shore." Even Huther speaks of the Dead Sea as "continually testifying to the punishment inflicted." De Wette, in Fronmüller, says that " subterranous fire is presumed [!] to be beneath the sea that covers the cities." To the notion, so common, that the cities stood where the Dead Sea is, the Scriptures give no support, and geological considerations lead to the belief that the Dead Sea must have had existence long before the time of Abraham. In the destruction of the cities the Scriptures assign no agency to water, but attribute their overthrow to fire; and unless scientific investigation shall show it to be otherwise, the view must continue to be held that the district on the south of the Dead Sea bears marks which corroborate the theory that that is the spot where the cities stood. The cities lie before us in history. For an example. Some connect with eternal fire (as an example of eternal fire). So the marginal reading of the Revised Version. It is better to connect with 'set forth.' The next clause expresses what the men who inhabited the cities are suffering in the other world. The vengeance (or punishment) of eternal fire — the fire of hell, and this they have been suffering from the time of the first visitation of divine wrath. See on 2 Peter 2:6.

8-16. The False Teachers Described.

8. Likewise, connecting with "as" in ver. 7, introduces comparison of the dreamers of this verse with the sinners of that verse. But again our translators fail to translate. In the Greek is a word meaning nevertheless, and this indicates the failure of the false teachers to profit by the example lying before them in the destruction of the cities. Yet (in like manner) do also these, etc. Filthy — unnecessarily supplied, in italics. Dreamers — literally, dreaming. The word stands in close relation to both the clauses that follow, but they are not represented as doing three distinct and co-ordinate things: 1. Dreaming; 2. Defiling the flesh and despising dominion; 3. Speaking evil of dignities. They are in a state which is represented as dreaming, and while in that state or being in that state, they do the things specified. Of these men as dreaming different views have been taken. All explanations which assume that dreaming in sleep is intended are to be rejected. It must be taken as a figurative word intended to express baseless, incoherent imaginings with respect to religious things, and which are unworthy the name of principles. Defile the flesh — of others and of themselves. It has its explanation in the fearful description of the cities, (ver. 7.) See a similar description in Isa. 56:10, 11. Despise dominion — the same thought as Peter expresses in 2 Peter 2:10, but the verbs are not the same, Jude's being the stronger. Speak evil of dignities — the same in Peter. See on the entire parallel verse. This verse might be deemed a remarkably correct description of Mormonism.

9. Yet (but) introduces the great contrast in respect to one point, between the false teachers and Michael the archangel. That one point is the spirit shown by the former relative to earthly rulers, and by the latter to the devil. The particulars here given are not even hinted at by any other inspired writer; and it is said by those who have examined it, that they are not to be found in the book of Henoch. (Ver. 14.) To suppose that the facts were unknown to all others, and were given to Jude by the Holy Spirit through direct revelation, is inadmissible. It is clear that they were received by the Jews generally. Paul (2 Tim. 3:8) makes use of a fact relative to Janues and Jambres, and it is specially to be noticed that it pertains to Moses before death, as the case before us pertains to Moses (to his body) after death, but of which fact also the other Scriptures take no notice. It has been shown from an examination of some Egyptian names as quite probable, that what Paul says of Jannes and Jambres was an actual fact, and in the absence of proof to the contrary it must bo held that Jude also gives us actual facts, though we have not the means of verifying them. But it should never be forgotten that all the inspired writers were kept by inspiration as well from errors of fact as from errors of doctrine. Michael. To only two of the angels do the Scriptures give names. Michael and Gabriel. Michael is mentioned in Dan. 10:13, 21; 12:1; Rev. 12:7. It was a Jewish name (1 Chron. 5:13, and many other places), and means, who is like God. The division of angels into classes, as angels and archangels, is not recognized in the earlier history of the Jews. We read first in Daniel of "one of the chief princes" (Michael). In Rev. 12:7, he is the leader of other angels (" Michael and his angels"). Jude calls him 'archangel,' and Paul speaks of an archangel. (1 Thess. 4:16.) An archangel is a chief, or prince, angel. Contending— in words. With the devil — a loyal angel in contest with a rebel angel, a prince angel in contest with the prince demon, the subject of the dispute being the body of Moses. The detail of the dispute is wisely hidden from us. Study the revealed, instead of prying into the unrevealed. "Origen says that the allusion is taken from an apocryphal book called ' The Ascension of Moses.' " (Farrar, "Early Days of Christianity.") It must be admitted that Jude may here be using a Jewish legend. As an illustration he might have used it with as much propriety as Paul used, for illustration, quotations from heathen writers. It is a matter concerning which one need not be very confident. Durst not — not through want of courage, (Rev. 12:7-9.) Moral considerations restrained him. He stood in holy awe of God. " Why dared not?" asks Farrar. "The entire reasoning shows that the answer is: 'Because of Satan's former greatness.'" Railing accusation — a judgment or sentence of reviling; that is, a judgment containing words of railing, and implying undue severity of spirit and assumption of power. Though severe, this Epistle of Jude is not a railing accusation. Jude is not, then, to be unfavorably contrasted with Michael. Had it been the archangel's business to blow the alarm against these 'filthy dreamers,' it would not have been like him to use less vigor (fortiter in re, courageously) than Jude. The Lord rebuke thee. (Zech. 3:1-3.) Compare this verse with 2 Peter 2:11. The similarities and the dissimilarities are striking. Peter is the more general; Jude the more particular.

10. These — the false teachers. But gives additional contrast between them and Michael, while the verse as a whole stands related to ver. 8. There the errorists are said to ' speak evil of dignities'; here not to know that of which they speak; there to defile the flesh; here in that lower knowledge, which they have in common with brutes, to corrupt themselves. Those things — whatsoever things, things pertaining to dignities, (ver. 8.) See on the parallel phrase in 2 Peter 2:12. Licentiousness, since it is itself lawless, disqualifies for attaining just knowledge of government. This kind of knowledge requires a clear head and an honest heart, and these men have neither. But, on the other hand, what (whatsoever) they know naturally. There is a lower kind of knowledge, connected with indulgence of the appetites, in which they are proficients, but it is brute knowledge.

                                  What is a man.
If his chief good, and market of his time,
Be but to sleep and feed? a beast, no more.

The false teachers do worse than to "sleep and feed" — they corrupt themselves, and by so doing, destroy themselves. Slow suicide (not always slow) is the result of such beastliness. Shortness of life in animals is natural; in animalized man it is both natural and unnatural. Compare with Peter, and note here also the similarity and the dissimilarity.

11. Woe — a denunciation often used by Christ against hypocrites, seldom by apostles against any. In some cases it expresses grief; here, merited punishment. Cain, Balaam, and Core— three representative men, murderer, false prophet, and rebel, alike in that they were depraved, but different in the form of their depravity. Have gone — went. In the way — figuratively, manner of life. "This allusion to Christ is obviously" [not] "to the Cain of Jewish Hagadoth" [legends], but to the Cain of Genesis. " St. Jude can hardly be charging these teachers with murder" (Farrar), which may be true, and he not allude to a Jewish legend. See Farrar's "Early Days of Christianity," Excursus V. 6. To refer it to the murder would be too specific, but Cain was a man of excessive self-assurance, which drove him to reject God's method of justification, and at length to a most fearful outburst of passion. In these respects the false teachers were like him. Balaam. See on the parallel 2 Peter 2:15, and on ver. 6. Ran greedily — rushed on; stronger than Peter's "following the way." The error — his covetous life, including all the defects and sins to which it would naturally lead. The love of money is a "root of all evil." (1 Tim. 6:10.) A reward — hire; connect with 'Balaam,' a condensed way of saying that his error (his covetousness, etc.) had a reward (" wages,"' 2 Peter) for its end. In this respect the false teachers were like Balaam. Core — in the Old Testament, Korah, after the Hebrew. Core (two syllables) is in conformity with the Greek Kore. It means baldness.^{Note 2} Korah headed a rebellion against Moses and Aaron. He was dissatisfied that he was not put into the priest's office, [Num. 16.) Gainsaying — (derived from "against" and "say") — contradiction. See a specimen of it in Num. 16:3, but his entire rebelliousness was a contradiction against Moses and Aaron, and against God. Compare Heb. 12:3, and for the translation gainsaying, see Rom. 10:21. Perished. Jude conceives them as having finished their course (finished, how differently from Paul's! 2 Tim. 4:7); so certain is the terrible end. The false teachers are like Korah, inasmuch as their spirit and life are a contradiction to the truth revealed by God and taught by the apostles.

12. These points them out as in ver. 10. By a series of five metaphors — spots, dry clouds, autumnal trees, wild waves, wandering stars — the description is continued. Each metaphor is sharpened by means of additional words or phrases, all which combined constitute a specimen of invective as powerful, probably, as is to be found in Greek or Roman oratory. Apart from divine teaching, Jude is here seen to be a man of more than common ability both in thinking and in the art of expression. The false teachers. Spots— or, "rocks in the sea," Thayer "Lex"; "hidden rocks," Revised Version. That the false teachers are rocks in the feasts of charity may mean either that on these rocks the feasts of charity are wrecked (their usefulness as means of improvement), or that the false teachers aim to ruin others.

Note. — By taking into the text the article (οὶ), found in many manuscripts, and accepted by Tregelles, Tischendorf, Lachmann. and Westcott and Hort, as the true reading, we have: These are they who are rocks; or, these are they, who, rocks in your feasts, feast together. The former seems preferable. The Vulgate Version made the mistake of using maculœ (spots), the English Roman Catholic Version (Douay), translated from the Vulgate, has spots, and King James' translation has the same. 2 Peter 2:13 has spots, but there the Greek is different. Rocks — that is, hidden rocks, is the meaning of the word used by Jude. It belongs to the literary singularities of Jude, that instead of using Peter's word (σπῖλοι, spiloi), he should have rejected it, and used a word (σπιλὰς, plural (σπιλάδες, spilades) sounding very much like it, but having a different meaning.

Feasts of charity — love-feasts; one word in the original (ἀγάπαις). "These feasts were public banquets of a frugal kind, instituted by the early Christians, and connected by them with the Lord's Supper. The provisions were contributed by the more wealthy, and were common to all Christians, whether rich or poor, who chose to partake. Portions were also sent to the sick and absent members. These agapae were intended as an exhibition of mutual Christian affection; but they became subject to abuses, and were afterward discontinued." See 1 Cor. 11:2034, for proof of the disorder which crept into love-feasts, apart from the yet grosser perversions, which were made by the false teachers mentioned by Jude. The word agapae occurs only here. When they feast — in a reveling manner. With you. The others are not united with them in their disreputable conduct, but the explanation of their being together may be this, that the lawless men persisted in being present. Satan had been found among the sons of God before this, and such intrusions have not yet ceased. The love-feast does not seem to have been enjoined. Though it was a spontaneous outgrowth of Christian affection, yet, as an organic form of social life, its continued existence was not demanded by the spiritual necessities of believers. It is possible to countenance forms of social life in a church under expectation of strengthening church ties, which will have a much stronger tendency, by their unadaptedness to the spiritual nature of the renewed soul, to weaken them than to strengthen them. The purpose to obtain means to meet the current expenses of a church, or to aid a benevolent enterprise, has no tendency to sanctify a worldly way of doing it. One may steal the livery of heaven to serve the devil in. Feeding themselves without fear. The order of the Greek would justify the connection, reveling together fearlessly. It would therefore be confirmatory of the first clause of the verse. They were like the unjust judge, regarding neither God nor man. (Luke 18:4.) Though in this case no terrifying handwriting appeared on the wall (Dan. 5:5, 25), yet "the terror of the Lord" was not to be delayed forever.

                             But 'tis not so above:
There is no shuffling, there the action lies
In his true nature; and we ourselves compelled
Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence.

Compare 2 Peter 2:13, last half of the verse, and see comments. ' Feeding themselves.' See 1 Peter 5:2,3, and comments. It is the second confirmation of rocks in your love-feasts, and at the same time it strengthens the clause immediately preceding. They should feed others; they should supply the wants of the poorer members, and look after the Lord's flock in general, instead of which they aim to gratify their own sensual nature. Reveling together and feeding themselves! Self-pampering ministers will quail before the "great white throne." Clouds without water. Peter says (2 Peter 2:17) "wells without water." See the comments. It is another instance of likeness and variation. This metaphor, as aptly as Peter's, expresses the character of the false teachers. Such men can give forth no refreshing, fructifying influence,

and that for the reason that they have no spiritual life. Without divine interposition nothing but sterility can be expected. Carried about— driven along; a touch of the pencil to give deeper shading to the picture. Trees, etc. More correctly, late autumnal trees. "These deceivers are likened by the apostle" [?] "to trees as they show in late autumn, when foliage and fruit alike are gone." (Trench, Common Version.) See Liddell and Scott on the meaning of the original, and Lillie on the passage. Without fruit — as fruit trees are in late autumn. Twice dead — thoroughly dead; not, as Stier says, "dead first by the fall, and a second time because they have been regenerated"; not, as Wordsworth, "dead first by nature, and then raised to life in baptism, relapsed"; not, as Alford, "dead like a tree in the apparent death of winter, and like some trees, really dead"; not, as Huther, "fruitless, but, also, really dead." The men give no evidence of having ever been regenerated. The relapse of regenerated men continued through the earthly life is not taught by Christ, or his apostles. Plucked up by the roots— because thoroughly dead. They are beyond the possibility of coming into spiritual life. A tree drawn out from the fat soil, and lying stretched upon the earth, with its roots in the sun, awaiting the axe, and the fire of the hearth, is a fearful emblem. The last stage (the burning) —concerning that, Jude is silent. But a hint of it, under another metaphor, is given in the next verse.

13. Raging (wild) waves of the sea. They are as restless in their passions as the wild waves of the sea, pouring forth their own shames like foam. "But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters castup mire and dirt." (Isa.57:2o.) Shame (or, shames, Rev. Ver.), like most of the nouns in 1 Peter 4:3, expresses the different forms of shame. It is not the feeling of shame, not the outward reproach, which is meant, but shameful deeds, as in 2 Cor. 4:2 ("the hidden things of dishonesty," of shame); Phil. 8:19 ("whose glory is in their shame "). Wandering stars — perhaps comets, possibly meteors. Though the orbits of comets can be calculated, and though these bodies are as regular in their motion as the planets, yet, compared with the latter, whose orbits are more nearly circular and apparently more regular, they might properly be called 'wandering.' Whatever the bodies, the metaphor is well adapted to express the irregularity of these men's lives, compared with the regularity of the Christian's life. Fixed stars in the moral heavens are in striking contrast with 'wandering stars.' To whom— for whom, etc. Precisely the same in the Greek as in 2 Peter 2:17, though there the English is less forcible by the use of "mist." The blackness of darkness— though the nouns are not alike in the original, they are equivalent to the darkness of darkness — that is, the intensest darkness. This is the end to which these wandering stars, these base men, are destined. As they themselves are darkness, and will be darkness forever, the darkness which is reserved for them must be eternal, and is therefore a positive infliction.

14, 15. Here Jude is independent of all the New Testament writers. Also — connect with these. Of (to) these 'also'; concerning them. According to ver. 4, these men were objects of ancient prophecy. Enoch — the man who walked with God. (Gen. 5:22.) He was father of Methusaleh. The English spelling in 1 Chron. 1:1 is Henoch (Ἐνωχ). The seventh from Adam — seventh in the series, Adam being reckoned as the first. There were five between Adam and Enoch. (Gen. 5:1-18.) The prophecy is not to be found in the Old Testament. In 1773 A. D. much interest was awakened among Christian scholars by the discovery of manuscripts containing an Ethiopic translation of the book of Henoch. It was known before that such a book had been in circulation, for it is mentioned by several of the Fathers. The translation was made, probably, from the Greek "toward the middle or close of the fourth century." It is believed by some to have been written first in Hebrew. Its preparation is put between 144 b. C. and 120 B. C, in the interval between the close of the Old Testament period and the beginning of the New Testament period. There is no reason to believe that it was written by Enoch, the father of Methusaleh, but, as it bore his name, it would, of course, be referred to, when reference was necessary, as the book of Henoch. That is the sense in which Jude speaks of the prophesying as Henoch's, and inasmuch as the name Henoch is the title of the book, it was natural for Jude to remind his readers that the Henoch whose name the book bore was the seventh from Adam. Another view may be better: The book itself uses the designation, 'the seventh from Adam,' and the tradition also may have included the phrase, and therefore Jude need not be supposed to make this as his own original assertion. It is not certain, though it is probable, that Jude quotes from the book itself. He may have attained a knowledge of the saying, "Behold the Lord cometh," etc., from tradition. The book professes to be a series of revelations from God to Enoch and Noah relative to the Messiah and his kingdom, and though not a part of the Bible, yet it said by Brooke Foss Westcott ("Introd. to the Study of the Gospels," p. 117): "No apocryphal book is more remarkable for eloquence and poetic vigor, and the range of subjects which it includes is as noble as its style." This cannot be an all-pervading characteristic, for Fronmüller speaks of its "absurd fancies and its coarse notions of the heavenly world," and of its "clumsy fabrications" in contrast with "the chasteness and truth of our canonical writings." To show more clearly the great superiority of the Sacred Scriptures — of this Epistle of Jude — over the book of Henoch, it may not be amiss to quote from Fronmüller yet further, in illustration of what he says concerning the character of the book: "In the book we read, for example, of the giants, or tyrants, mentioned in Gen. 6, that 'the women with whom the angels had intercourse conceived and brought forth great giants, six thousand feet in height. These ate up all the produce of men, until men were unable to sustain them any longer.' "

Jude speaks of Henoch as prophesying because it is that which the author of the book, and, by supposition, tradition also, ascribes to him. Though seven was deemed in ancient times as a very significant number, yet no special importance should be attached to it here. Behold calls special attention. The entire passage, with a little variation, is found in the Ethiopic translation. (Fronmüller.) The Lord cometh (came). The see. conceives the event as already accomplished. It is the style prophetic. The reference is to the Day of Judgment. How the Lord will come is to be learned from the Lord himself, speaking through Luke in his report of what the angels said to the apostles, as they stood gazing into heaven at the time of the ascension:" This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven." (Acts 1:11, Revised Version.) He Went visibly and through the air; and that is the way in which he will come. The only other possible interpretation is that which makes the angels declare that he will as certainly come as he went. Such a view excludes reference to the manner of coming. But in several other passages the same words, here translated in like manner, convey more than the idea of certainty of occurrence. (Acts 1:11.) So . . . in like manner (Οὔτως . . . ὄν τροπον). Compare In the manner like to these (τὸν ὄμοιον τούτοις), ver. 7. Bengel: "He shall come in a visible manner, in a cloud with a trumpet, with a retinue, and perhaps in the same place." Meyer: "In a cloud. Compare Matt. 24:30." Lechler (Lange): "Visibly and in glory." Hackett: "Visibly and in the air. The expression is never employed to affirm merely the certainty of one event as compared with another. The assertion that the meaning is pimply that, as Christ had departed, so also he would return, is contradicted by every passage in which the phrase occurs. See Acts 7:28; Matt 23:37; Luke 13:34; 2 Tim. 3:8."

Saints — holy ones; literally, as in the margin of the Revised Version, "his holy myriads," angels, and the elect. Compare Deut. 33:2; Zech. 14:5; Heb. 12:22; Rev. 5:11. To execute judgment— either to sentence, or to apply the sentence by punishment. All— all the wicked. To convince — to convict; in John 16:8, " to reprove." A word having a stronger meaning (to rebuke sharply) stands as the commonly accepted reading; the milder word is more strongly attested. Ungodly — remarkable repetition, the word being used four times. In the last instance but one, it is a verb (committed in an ungodly manner). Ungodly deeds — literally, deeds of ungodliness. Hard speeches. The latter word is properly supplied, or, better, as in the Revised Version, things. Compare John 6:60.

And 'tis a kind of good deed to say well:
And yet words are no deeds.

These men had none of Cardinal Wolsey'a "well saying." Their ungodly deeds and their hard words had a terrible consistencj-. Satan in Eden and Judas in Gethsemane clothed ungodly deeds in soft words. Against him — against the Lord, probably Christ. The Judge is one "that no king can corrupt." How crushing, in the next life, must be the weight of one word uttered, without repentance, against such a One as Christ!

16. Jude's description is not ended. These, the false teachers, and, as in ver. 10, 12, standing first. It is as if Jude's finger were still pointing them out. Murmurers — against every good thing. Silent respecting the objects of their murmuring, Jude seems to give us the right to lay upon them an indefinite load. Compare 1 Peter 4:9 ("grudging," murmuring), and see comments. Complainers — against every good thing; against all who do not side with them in error and vice, against every providence which conflicts with their selfish ends. Habitual complaining is a very egotistic vice, for the habitual complainer is a habitual proclaimer of his own wisdom. Christ opened not his mouth in complaint

against the most cruel treatment; and, in illustration of Paul's freedom from the vice of these men, see Phil. 4:11, 12. These men would have yoked well with modern pessimists.

            My crown is called content;
A crown it is that seldom kings enjoy.

Walking after their own lusts — their egotism the spirit, their lusts the rule. Compare 1 Peter 4:3 with comments, and 2 Peter 3:3. Great swelling words. Compare 2 Peter 2:18, and see comments. The representation is the same. They indulge in flattering admiration of the rich and of any others of whom they think it possible to reap some gain.

                                     Oh, how wretched
Is that poor man that hangs on princes' favors!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have.

As God looks down from his infinite height on men, both princes and subjects, both rich and poor, look alike in stature, as trees look alike in height when seen by men from a mountain's top.

17-23. Concluding Exhortations.

17, 18. The description of the false teachers being ended, the readers are exhorted to remember that the coming of such men was announced by the apostles. But, beloved, remember ye. 'Ye' stands first in the Greek, making a strong contrast between the readers and the wicked men just described. Beloved. See the same form of address in ver. 3. To say that Jude here shows the tender side of his nature might be an unjust implication, for the severity of the language just used is not certain evidence of natural severity of spirit. Different characters require different treatment. The apostles— not decisive proof that Jude himself was not an apostle, but if he was not one, a natural manner of expression. Spoken before of (by) — referring to time, but also expressing the idea of prophetic speaking. Preachers will, in this respect, be most like apostles, if they speak, instead of being silent, concerning errorists. How, used in the Revised Version, as well as in the Common Version, is superfluous. Should be — will be. Mockers — scoffers, as in 2 Peter 3:3. Last time. See on 1 Peter 1:5. Who should walk— walking. Ungodly lusts — literally, according to their own lusts of ungodliness. From ungodliness as bad soil grew lusts which were a legitimate product of such soil.

19. Once more, as in ver. 10, 12, 16, Jude uses the significant these. The description is again opened. With one more touch of the divine pencil the terrible portrait will be finished — to be hung up in the gallery of false and immoral teachers as a warning in all the coming ages of the Church. Nothing, therefore, must be left undone which may be necessary to give a true likeness. Separate themselves. The pronoun has feeble support in manuscripts, and is omitted by the critics. They separate from the church in their inner life, and the inference may be made that they will separate by-and-by in their outward life. See 1 John 2:19. Or it may mean that they produce separation — that is, make schisms in the church. Schism produced by false doctrines, unscriptural rites, and immoral practices has been the bane of Christendom. The seceding body has not by any means in all cases been the schismatic body. The body from which the secession was made has in some very important instances been the heretical body, and therefore schism could not be justly c^harged upon the seceders. A church history impartially illustrative of this is yet in the future. Re-union in support of what the Scriptures teach, and in the manifestation of the divine life, is an object for which unremitting prayer should be offered by the Lord's people of every name. Sensual. The English scarcely has an equivalent for the Greek. 'Sensual' is not exact. Natural is used in 1 Cor. 15:44, 46; 1 Cor. 2:14. In James 3:15 'sensual' is used. Psychical (Greek in English spelling) has been used, but to most persons it conveys the meaning no more clearly than the Greek word itself, and animal is not exact. 'Sensual' perhaps comes most nearly to the sense of the original. The false teachers surrendered their spirit life to animal life. Having not the Spirit. The Greek has no article. Some are very positive that the Holy Spirit is meant, while others think that contrast between two characteristics, the sensual and the spiritual, is intended; they have abandoned themselves so thoroughly to their lower nature that they can scarcely be said to have any spirit at all. Which is the correct view it is difficult to say. Both the Common Version and the Revised Version begin the word with a capital, indicating reference to the Holy Spirit.

20, 21. But contrasts the errorists with others. Faith — that which is external to them, as in ver. 3 — namely, the entire Christian scheme, distinguished by its leading characteristic. Most holy — "than which," says Bengel, "none can be holier." Holy — sensual; echoes from opposite worlds. Building up . . . on. Faith, then, is their foundation. Building implies growth (2 Peter 3:18), and building on the faith implies stability. (Heb. 12:28.) 'Building up yourselves' implies activity (Phil. 2:12), but not independent and self-righteous activity. (Phil. 2:13.) They are "God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9); they are "built up" in Christ (Col. 2:7); they are a ' "spiritual house." (1 Peter 1:5.) Praying in the Holy Ghost— in the Holy Spirit as the personal sphere in which they pray. Compare Rom.  8:26, 27. The Spirit is the awakening and directing power. (Huther.) Keep yourselves, etc. The main direction, and both the participial clauses of ver. 20, are subordinate to 'keep' — that is, they express conditions. To keep themselves in the love of God they must (1) build themselves on their most holy faith, and (2) pray in the Holy Spirit. Keeping themselves is another illustration of human activity, but, as in building up themselves, not an independent activity. (John 17:11; 1 Peter 1:5.) Conscious weakness appropriates divine strength, and the appropriation impels to activity. In the love of God — in love to God, supposed to be awakened in their hearts by God himself. The reasonableness of this command one need not stop to prove; its reasonableness is felt by the loving spirit. Love "hath a syllogistic power." Keep yourselves in love to God. Love, then, is not an evanescent power; it is not a periodical power. Jude is here John like. (1 John 4:7-12.) Love must have truth for fuel. Hence the Johannean saying: "Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected." (1 John 2:5.) Keeping the word — keeping ourselves in love, a beautiful connection. Looking for implies waiting for. They are to wait for that mercy which Christ will show at his second coming. (Titus 2:13.) See 1 John 2:28. This is given as a continually flowing result of keeping themselves in the love of God. Unto eternal life is not to be connected, as by Fronmüller, with 'mercy,' but possibly with 'keep yourselves'; more probably with the nearest participle, ' looking for.' They are to look for (await) ' unto eternal life.' ' Mercy,' so often elsewhere ascribed to God, is here ascribed to Jesus Christ. The writers of the epistles were entirely free from scruples relative to identifying the attributes of the Father and the attributes of Christ. ' Eternal life ' — life which will have no end (ζωὴν αἰώνιον). These words in the Greek are the same as are found in Matt. 26:46. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." They are also used by Paul in Rom. 2:7:"To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life" (i. e., God will render eternal life). The effort to divest the adjective (as is done by Farrar, "Early Days of Christianity," note on the word in ver. 7) of the idea of endlessness of duration has proved a failure. Had the effort proved successful, the endlessness of future bliss would have been equally disproved.

22, 23. Here the writer turns the readers from the duty of attending to their own spiritual state to the course which they should pursue toward other members of the church, who are more or less in danger of being influenced by the false teachers. What is the correct reading is uncertain, and there is no probability that it will ever be known, so different are the manuscripts from one another. According to the best judgment that can be formed, it consists of three clauses, and these are rendered by the American Committee of Revisers: And on some have mercy, who are in doubt; and some save, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear; hating, etc. According to a different reading adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Tregelles, but not taken into the text by Westcott and Hort, the rendering might be: Convict them while they dispute or contend with you. Three classes of persons are specifled, and different modes of treating them are enjoined. (Huther.) Doubting; who are in doubt; not, as the Common Version, making a difference. See Acts 10:20; 11:12; Rom. 14:23; James 1:6. Doubting is the offspring of unbelief, and unbelief may be the child of doubt. Those belonging to this class are to be convicted (by rebuking them). Exhortation will not suffice. They are not immoral like the false teachers; do not hold positive errors; they doubt, and are therefore given to disputing. Rebuking may restore; it may not. The duty must be done, even though with the possibility of no good result. And others save — put in contrast with the preceding. Whether Jude considers them in a worse condition is not clear. At any rate, an effort must be made to 'save' them. If 'save' is emphatic, it seems to leave the first named persons in a critical state — that is, as if their recovery, to say the least, were uncertain. Pulling (snatching), etc., shows how it is to be done, with intensity of effort. Out of the fire— whether the fire of hell (ver. 7; 2 Peter 3:7) or their present state of ruin, is uncertain. The latter, as leading to the former, may be meant. The third class ('and on some,' see above) appears to be the worst of all, which may be inferable from the clause, 'haling even the garment,' etc., though the clause is not decisive. Yet they are not to be neglected. Have compassion — mercy; engage in merciful efforts, even on their behalf. With fear. They are to aim to do them good in the spirit of fear — that is, in fear lest they themselves be harmed by the contact necessary in the pitying effort to do them good. Garment spotted by the flesh — used figuratively for the corruption in which the men of this class have clothed themselves. That corruption as seen in their habits of life, might communicate itself to the very best of men. Hate it, therefore. Let it not work your harm. The garment alluded to was worn by the Jew next the skin. That such moral impurity may work out, and as it were clothe a man's very body, making it almost dangerous to attempt to do him good, is one of the most humiliating facts in the moral history of mankind.

24, 25. The Doxology.

24. Now (δὲ) is not a " mere particle of transition." It puts in some contrast with the classes just named those who have remained steadfast. Unto him that is able (Rom. 16:25). This points to the ground of all true hope. Jude makes no weakening addition, such as echoes back from the walls of many a prayer room. God's ability to keep us from falling is not conditioned upon our perseverance. Our perseverance, in other words, is conditioned, not upon our tremulous will, but upon God's ability. Oh, that we might be so conscious of our weakness as to be also conscious of resting only upon God's omnipotence! To keep — to guard. Falling — stumbling. The original word was applied to the stumbling of a horse. (Robinson.) Here it expresses moral fault. God is able to keep us from striking against anything which will cause us to fall — that is, to lose our faith, our loyalty to him. our soundness in the truth, our spirituality, and consequently eternal life. To present — to set, to cause to stand. (Acts 6:6.) Faultless — literally, without blemish, as a lamb. See 1 Peter 1:19, and comments. Thus God is able to make us at length like that spotless Lamb who suffered for us. Infinite ability secures a glorious end. His glory — God's essential gloriousness. How it is manifested to those who are in heaven, only those who are in heaven can fully know! It is possible that the invisible God will be represented by some remarkable luminousness answering to the "glory" (the bright cloud) which appeared to the Israel of former times; but it is probable that the glorified Saviour, as the centre of the heavenly society, will answer to the luminous cloud. Very rich and confirmatory of our faith is that closing petition of the high-priestly prayer: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am: that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John 17:24.) It is possible to see so much of the glory of Christ, even here in the vastness and orderliness and unity of the material universe, in human history, in his own sinlessness and wisdom, and in the moral uplifting of man by the efficacy of his death as sometimes at once to prostrate the soul in unwonted humility, and fill it with unwonted praise. With (in) exceeding joy (exultation). There is but one word in the original, and that is a word of exceeding strength. Compare Luke 1:14; Acts 2:46. God is able to set us perfect before the presence of his glory in exultant joy. (1 Peter 4:13.) The joy is ours. Wise (σοφῳ) is wanting in so many manuscripts, that it cannot be deemed genuine. It is rejected by the ablest critics. It is genuine in Rom. 16:27. Only. The writer is not contrasting God with Christ considered as the Word who was in the beginning, was with God, and was God, but with the gods of the heathen, who, being false gods, had no existence. The Old Testament is pervaded with the sentiment that there is but one God, but the sentiment is in every case expressed with reference to the many gods of the heathen. See ver. 4; John 5:44. Our Saviour. God the Father is our Saviour in the general sense of having made provision for our salvation. But it is " through Jesus Christ our Lord" (as appears from the correct text as translated in the Revised Version), as the Mediator between God and man, that glory, etc., must be ascribed to the only God. ' Lord.' See 1 Peter 1:3 with comments, 2 Peter 1:8. Thus Jude is in harmony with Peter relative to the propriety of applying the term Lord to Jesus. The propriety of such application has been unequivocally denied. Be is inserted in the Common Version and in the Revision, but whether the writer is expressing a wish is uncertain. The question is briefly considered on 1 Peter 1:3. (Buttmann, § 129, p. 137, thinks 'the indicative εστιν [is], decidedly deserves the preference." Glory, etc. The doxology is full. Nowhere else in the New Testament are found combined in a doxology these four words: 'glory, majesty, dominion, and power.' The first and the third are often used. (1 Peter 4:11.) By majesty is meant greatness. The glory, greatness, dominion, and power of God! While we strive to comprehend them, and fail to do so, we should praise our Creator for making us, unlike the most sagacious of the animals, able to apprehend the fact of their existence. There is a sense in which agnosticism is a lie; there is a sense in which it is a truth. The animals are the only perfect agnostics; and this is easily explained — they know as little of themselves as of God. After 'power' should be inserted, before all time (πρὸ παντὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος), for which there is sufficient manuscript authority. Thus Jude sweeps from the eternity past, through the now of the earthly period to the eternity to come (for evermore). See on Amen in 1 Peter 4:11.

Thus sublimely ends this brief but remarkable Epistle. It is unique in thought and expression, yet receives little attention from the pulpit and the private Christian. Not less certainly is it needed by the Christian world of to-day than it was needed by those who lived in the time of Jude; and it will continue to be needed as long as the world stands. It should be more frequently used as a means of instruction and warning. Error Mild immorality, still greatly prevalent, should be resisted in their beginnings.

A little fire is quickly trodden out:
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.

In some parts of Christendom to-day error is more insinuating than in the times of Jude. It is more insinuating because clothed in the garb of purity and charity. "How can that be error," it is asked, "which is taught by men of acknowledged excellence?" — a question which is itself born of error, for it is the rationalistic method of inquiry. History shows that serious errors have been taught by men the genuineness of whose Christian character cannot be doubted. Though the science of Biblical interpretation was never so exact in some quarters as it is to-day, yet a principle of interpretation is seeking a recognition which leaves no common ground for Christian men — the principle that the Bible must be explained by one's spiritual consciousness. Such a standard is too variable to be safe; and, if generally adopted, error would multiply more rapidly than ever. It must be confessed, however, notwithstanding this feature of the times, that the union of error with immorality still continues in such a degree as to make the Epistle of Jude worthy of study, and the loyalty of Jude worthy of imitation.

Note 1) See the Dean of Westminister on baptism.

Note 2) "The meaning of Korah's name (baldness) has supplied a ready handle to some members of the Church of Rome to banter Calvin (Calvinus, Calvus) as being homonymous with his predecessor in schism; and it has been retorted that Korah's baldness has a more suitable antitype in the tonsure of the Romish priests." (Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," p. 1575, note.)