Jude 1 (ESV) · OmniBible

1Chapter

Greeting

¹Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:
²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

³Beloved, 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. ⁴For 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.
⁵Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And 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— ⁷just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
⁸Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. ⁹But 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.” ¹⁰But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. ¹¹Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. ¹²These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; ¹³wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
¹⁴It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, ¹⁵to 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.” ¹⁶These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

¹⁷But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸They said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” ¹⁹It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. ²⁰But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ²²And have mercy on those who doubt; ²³save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.

Doxology

²⁴Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Study

Chapter 1

CSB

CHALLENGE AND TACTICS

CHALLENGE: “Christians are intolerant of people who believe differently.”

TACTICS EMPLOYED: Google It & Walking Contradiction

First, ask what they mean by intolerant. Many people today say all views are equal. In this light, you are intolerant if you think your religious views are right and others are wrong. Thus tolerance means accepting everyone’s views. However, people who define tolerance this way often contradict themselves. After all, the belief that Christianity is the one true religion is obviously a viewpoint. If all views are equally valid, the Christian’s view is just as valid as other views and should be tolerated. And yet people who criticize Christians for being intolerant are rejecting the Christian viewpoint and are thus being intolerant by their own definition.

CSB

The sin most strongly connected with Sodom and Gomorrah is homosexuality, which Paul describes as unnatural (Rm 1:26-27, see note). Along with his mention of the punishment of angels who flouted God’s created order, Jude uses what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah as an example of the judgment that falls on those who reject God’s authority.

CSB

Jude alluded to traditions found in pseudepigraphal works (The Assumption of Moses and/or The Testament of Moses) in recounting a dispute over the burial of Moses in v. 9. And in vv. 14-15, he cited a text from the pseudepigraphal 1 Enoch. (A pseudepigraphical work is one written under the name of another—in these cases, Moses and Enoch.) The citation from 1 Enoch proves more difficult because Jude actually quoted from the book and claimed that “Enoch … prophesied” (v. 14).

Some think Jude actually quoted the historical Enoch, a man who was taken up to heaven before death (Gn 5:23-24). It is difficult to see, though, how Jude could have cited an actual oral tradition from the historical Enoch since the book of 1 Enoch was in circulation in Jude’s day and was well known in Jewish circles. Jude almost certainly derived the citation from the book of 1 Enoch, and the latter is clearly pseudepigraphical. We would be faced with having to say that Jude knew that this specific quotation from 1 Enoch derived from the historical Enoch. It is better to conclude that Jude quoted the pseudepigraphical 1 Enoch and that he also believed that the portion he quoted represents God’s truth. Jude’s wording does not demand that he thought he had an authentic oracle from the historical Enoch.

There is no reason to conclude, however, that the entire book should be part of the canon of Scripture (see Augustine, City of God 15.23). Jude probably cited a part of 1 Enoch that he considered a genuine prophecy. Perhaps he referred to Enoch because the adversaries treasured the work, and therefore he used their ammunition against them. It is possible that the false teachers rejected Christian tradition about Christ’s coming and hence Jude cited Enoch’s prophecy. Indeed, the content of the prophecy is not remarkable, assuring the readers that the Lord will truly judge the ungodly.

Importantly, citing a quotation from another source does not indicate that the entire work is inspired—even if the saying itself is true. For instance, Paul quoted Aratus (Phaenomena 5) in Ac 17:28, and he surely did not intend to teach that the entire work is inspired Scripture. Similarly, he quoted Epimenides in Ti 1:12, without any notion that he accepted the truth of the whole work.

Some might think that the citation here is different because Jude said Enoch “prophesied.” The verb prophesy is sometimes used to designate canonical Scripture (Mt 15:7; 1Pt 1:10). But the verb is also used to say that a certain utterance or saying is from God. For example, Caiaphas prophesied regarding the fate of Jesus, even though he was an unbeliever (Jn 11:51). Zechariah prophesied when the Spirit filled him at John the Baptist’s birth (Lk 1:67). Women prophesied when the believing church gathered (1Co 11:4-5; see Ac 19:6; Rv 11:3). A prophecy may derive from God and still not be a part of canonical Scripture. We cannot necessarily draw the conclusion from the words “Enoch. . . prophesied” that the work was considered to be Scripture. It would have been more telling if Jude had used the phrase “It is written” with reference to 1 Enoch. Jude simply drew from a part of the work that he considered true.

We know the Qumran community valued 1 Enoch but did not include the book in its canon. Nor do any major Christian groups today consider 1 Enoch to be inspired Scripture. Jude cited it for its truth, but he did not claim inspiration for the entire work.