
Jude
Jude
MSB Book Introduction. The book is barely over a full page in TCR. The introduction is about the same length!
Jude is named after its author. MSB says that, contextually, this could be called "The Acts of the Apostates".
The doctrinal and moral apostasy that Jude addresses closely parallels that in 2 Pet 2:1-3:4. It is believed that 2 Peter predates Jude. Several reasons are given. One reason is that the book of Jude quotes from 2 Peter, and acknowledges that 2 Peter is from an apostle - which Jude is not. AD 70's events are not mentioned in Jude, so it is believed to have been written before that day. Coming after 2 Peter and before 70 AD really narrows down the writing date. This book was included in the Muratorian Canon (70 AD) as Scripture because of Jude's relation to Christ, his eye-witness knowledge of the resurrected Christ, and the content of the epistle.
Jude lived at a time when Christianity was under extreme persecution, and was being infiltrated with the false doctrine of unbelieving - but professing - teachers. Except for the apostle John - who will write his epistles and the Revelation about 25 years after Jerusalem falls(?)) - all the apostles have been martyred by this time. The church was therefore considered to be highly vulnerable, and Jude urges believers to fight back against the raging spiritual warfare.
Jude 1
Starts with a customary salutation.
2022 - Well...not entirely customary. He links himself to James, saying he is James' brother. So he writes to those who will know who James is. This sort of "cross-corroborates" both these men as Jesus' brothers. If you know and accept one as being who he claims to be, then you accept them both. This means you accept a pretty big span of time also, for the writing of the Bible, as James was the first book, and Jude is very near the end. James was written somewhere between 44-49 AD. Jude is believed to be from 67-68 AD. There is also this phrasing, which I recall only from Jude 1: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:" [Jde 1:1 ESV]. A footnote in TCR says this could also be translated "kept BY Jesus Christ". There really isn't a word there in the Greek. I will write out the English, but in the same order as presented in the Greek mGNT:
"To those in God the Father beloved and for Jesus Christ kept who are the called". Note that "for" does not have a corresponding Greek word. The nearest preposition is back there where it says "in" God, where "in" is the translation of "en", a VERY common word in Greek, appearing 2752 times. In the majority of cases (1902) it is translated "in". Second most is "by", but that only 163 times. "With", "among", and "at" all come in at over 100 times also. I wish I knew Greek...I suspect that the cases unravel much of the word order here. The reason I took a side trip down this little road is because the wording is, in my memory, unique to Jude. Without comparisons the translation is less "fixed" let's say. So it is possible that a different word order might yield other nuances of meaning that this translation does not. For instance, as in the TCR, look at the implications of translating the supplied word for as by. Kept for Jesus or kept by Jesus? Are called for Christ, or by Christ....? Like poetry, many interpretations of the actual translated words are possible. In this sense, much more is being said than the mere word count of the phrase might imply.
Jude opens then with a sort of apology for not writing what he really wants to write, because of the urgency of the need to fight against the false teachers. vs 4 uses the phrase "crept in unnoticed", compared to 2 Peter's use of .... I can't find it. I tried re-reading but I'm just used up this morning...They both use similar phrases of the false teachers. Their arrival is unremarkable, but their presence and potential must be recognized and challenged.
2022 - Vss 3, 4 have a number of notable points:
"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." [Jde 1:3 ESV]
"For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ." [Jde 1:4 ESV]
I think the use of "once for all" here speaks to the idea of "holding to the orthodox" that we saw in 1, 2 Peter. And really, in 1,2,3 John also. They all stress the idea that the earliest gospel, the earliest doctrines taught by the apostles themselves is both necessary and sufficient "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness". Teachings introduced, and not directly traceable to canonized scripture are to be avoided, rejected, and contentiously opposed by the faithful. Why would we not think this applies in the present day?
Possible FB post, using vs 3 and maybe that same thought from verses in Peter and John. This would be a good one.
Then in vs 4, the immediate threats are identified. There are false teachers introducing sensuality as part of approved worship (meaning these false teachers did NOT come from the Jewish faith, which did not use such things in worshiping God, but are more likely Gentile teachers coming out of idol worship like that of Diana, or Athena, or who knows how many Roman goddesses), and who must necessarily "redefine" or "re-characterize" Christ in order to make this kind of worship "acceptable".
2022 - Hmm...is it always the case that false doctrine depends on false Christology? In order to preach "name it claim it", must you change the nature of Christ? To preach "baptism is required", don't you have to revoke the all-sufficiency of Christ? To preach salvation without need for lifestyle change don't you have to undo the Lordship of Christ? My goodness, the possibilities that come with recognizing this! The discernment that derives from recognizing that false doctrine ALWAYS requires a re-characterization of Jesus. The Book of Mormon! The JW's! Islam! They all redefine who and what the Bible teaches us about Christ. So ANY TIME we are suspicious of a teaching, what we should do first is determine if the Christ of the Bible - unfiltered and unmodified in any way - fits with that teaching. I have heard people say homosexuality is ok because Christ never spoke against it. Ok. But doesn't Christ have to take a different stand on the subject than God the Father in order to be ok with it? Doesn't this cause a rift in the Trinity? Can the orthodox Christ of scripture "split" from the Trinity and still be Christ? Of course not, therefore, this is a false teaching! How much further shall we go? Look at what Jude says - and what Peter and John have said - about those who redefine Christ. They do NOT say these are confused, but well-meaning people who just need to be corrected. None of them say that. Jude says they are designated long ago for condemnation. They are ungodly. The are perverters of God's grace. John called them deceivers and antichrists (2Jn 7). I did not find specifics in 1,2 Peter in a cursory look but I know I commented on it when I read those books. If I have this right, this is supremely important, not only as a test of doctrine, but as a clear understanding of the spiritual condition of those who teach it. They should not be allowed to continue, and learn as they go. They must be stopped. We should not be sympathetic because they pervert the gospel, showing not only that they are unsaved, but preventing others from being saved because only the TRUE gospel can save. They are far more insidious than we wish to label them in today's civilized and ecumenically minded churches.
Vvs 5-7 quote almost exactly from 2 Peter, but add that those in Sodom and Gomorrah "pursued unnatural desire" and so earned a punishment of eternal fire.
2022 - I also note this phrase in vs 5: "...who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." If this is a reference to that whole generation that balked at the door of the promised land, then this says they did not believe, and they are today in hell. It is hard to justify narrowing this definition for any reason other than sympathy toward those people.
2023 - Look at these verses:
8 Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9 But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." [Jde 1:8-9 ESV]. So this is already the second time that angels have been mentioned. The first time they were chained in gloomy darkness. This time, the false teachers are blaspheming "the glorious ones". I wonder if Jude is saying that these false teachers claim to be "communicating" with angels, getting their new revelations about how things work from those who are actually there, and it is revealed to them in dreams. And since these are obviously Satan's angels, they are telling lies to these teachers, and causing them to claim that "good angels" revealed it, and so blaspheming them? Yeah...sort of, but that doesn't quite get there. It does seem pretty certain that the false teachers were somehow invoking angels. Oh my...Mohamed says he got the Quran from Gabriel. Joseph Smith had an angel to interpret didn't he? There was an angel in there someplace. Maybe what Jude means is that claiming additional revelation from "angels" is to blaspheme all angels, because loyal, faithful angels would never ever ever contradict the Scripture. That's what it means. And that's what these false teachers were doing! Even Michael would never do that, but these false teachers think it is ok.
2022 - What does this one imply???"
"And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day--" [Jde 1:6 ESV]
Rebellious angels in chains! Until the great day! Perhaps, at the GWT, even angels will be re-located in hell, out of darkness and into the fire along with the dragon. Perhaps when he is released at the end of the 1000, they too will join him one last time in opposition of God. Remember also that 2Pt 2:4 also talks about God not sparing angels, so why would he spare false teachers? Chains of gloomy darkness until judgment are also in that verse. The point being made is that God will not spare these false teachers. If he will not, why would we tolerate them, co-exist with them, be silent concerning them?
Vs 8 says the false teachers are like Sodom and Gomorrah? It says they "rely on their dreams", probably preaching that their dreams are new revelations from God and setting themselves up as "oracles" to be followed, paid, worshiped.
Another compelling verse:
10 But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. [Jde 1:10 ESV]
Both Peter and Jude point out that the false teachers are ignorant of the truth. Understanding the truth seems beyond them...or they are unwilling to put in the time to understand it...or they lack the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, since they are unbelievers, to help them understand it.
2022 - They blaspheme what they cannot understand, and are destroyed by what they instinctively believe. Without the Holy Spirit, they cannot understand. These false teachers are unsaved. Their downfall is that their teaching is based on concepts arising from corrupt, unredeemed flesh. As we saw with the perversion of the concept that like must be sacrificed to save like into babies must be sacrificed to Molech. They could not grasp that perfect sacrifice was not only required but provided by God, and instead, instinctively, offered up their own children.
Unreasoning animals - another quote from 2 Peter.
The language used in condemning the false teachers closely parallels 2 Peter, but there are some new analogies included also.
"Wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever". Star must mean angels here. Or messengers? Is Jude saying that demons are creeping in and teaching directly from the lying deception of Satan? MSB does not think so, at all...
2023 - Many "pictures" of these false teachers are used. Images are planted. hidden reefs, shepherds feeding themselves instead of their sheep, waterless clouds, fruitless trees, wild waves, and wandering stars. Make no mistake. Peter, Jude, and John had no soft spot at all for those teaching a false gospel, who in each case claimed some new revelation or some new understanding to which they would initiate you...almost certainly for a fee...and who would as quickly curse you in public if you opposed them. The lesson of all these little books is to examine closely, precisely, specifically the Christology of those who are teaching, and REJECT OUT OF HAND any who are departing from the scripture.
2022 - These verses:
"It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones," [Jde 1:14 ESV]
"to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him."" [Jde 1:15 ESV]
What judgment is this about? Almost has to mean GWT doesn't it? Where is this quote from Enoch, I didn't think we had any of his words? Book of Enoch is not canonized....so...what then? MSB says the comment about Enoch is inspired by the Holy Spirit, but its inclusion does not canonize the Book of Enoch, where there is apparently such a prophesy. MSB also discusses what might be meant by Holy Ones. MSB does NOT comment on what judgement is in view here.