Page 548 - Demo

The Jude referred to here is not the apostle Jude, but the brother of that James who led the Church in Jerusalem and authored the Letter of James, the same Jude who is mentioned in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3. Jude addresses this letter not to a speci c community or individual, but to all believers.
1 The author’s fellow Christians are addressed with great respect as “those who are called, beloved in God... kept safe for Jesus Christ.” Do you feel called, beloved, protected by God?
5 Jude reminds the readers of the power of God, who saves the just but who also punishes the wicked. Drawing on many examples from the Old Testament, the author shows the destiny of those who go astray.
The Passage Through the Red Sea by Bartoldo di Fredi (1330-1410)
a. [1] Mt 13:55; Mk 6:3; Acts 12:17; Rom 1:7.
b. [2] Gal 6:16; 1 Tm 1:2; 2 Pt 1:2.
c. [3] 17, 20; 1 Tm 6:12.
d. [4] Gal 2:4; 2 Tm 3:6; 2 Pt 2:1.
e. [5] Nm 14:35; 1 Cor 10:5;
Heb 3:16, 17.
f. [6] 2 Pt 2:4, 9.
g. [7] Dt 29:22–24; Mt 25:41;
2 Thes 1:8–9; 2 Pt 2:6; 3:7.
h. [9] Dn 10:21; 12:1.
JUDE
Address and Greeting. 1* Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ:a 2may mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.b
Occasion for Writing. 3Beloved, although I was making every e ort to write to you about our common salvation,* I now feel a need to write to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones.c 4For there have been some intruders, who long ago were designated for this condemnation, godless persons, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.d
The False Teachers. 5e I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that [the] Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe.* 6f The angels too, who did not keep to their own domain but deserted their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains, in gloom, for the judgment of the great day.* 7Likewise, Sodom, Gomorrah, and the surrounding towns, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual promiscuity and practiced unnatural vice,* serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal re.g
8Similarly, these dreamers* nevertheless also de le the esh, scorn lordship, and revile glorious beings. 9Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment* upon him but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!”h 10But these people revile what they do
* [1] Jude. . .brother of James: for the identity of the author of this letter, see Introduction. To those who are called: the vocation to the Christian faith is God’s free gift to those whom he loves and whom he safely protects in Christ until the Lord’s second coming.
* [3–4] Our common salvation: the teachings of the Christian faith derived from the apostolic preaching and to be kept by the Christian community.
* [5] For this rst example of divine punishment on those who had been saved but did not then keep faith, see Nm 14:28–29 and the note there. Some manuscripts have the word “once” (hapax as at Jude 3) after “you know”; some commentators have suggested that it means “knowing one thing” or “you know all things once for all.” Instead of “[the] Lord” manuscripts vary, having “Jesus,” “God,” or no subject stated.
* [6] This second example draws on Gn 6:1–4 as elaborated in the apocryphal Book of Enoch (cf. Jude 14): heavenly beings came to earth and had sexual intercourse with women. God punished them by casting them out of heaven into darkness and bondage.
* [7] Practiced unnatural vice: literally, “went after alien esh.” This example derives from Gn 19:1–25, especially 4–11, when the townsmen of Sodom violated both hospitality and morality by demanding that Lot’s two visitors (really messengers of Yahweh)
be handed over to them so that they could abuse them sexually. Unnatural vice: this refers to the desire for intimacies by human beings with angels (the reverse of the example in Jude 6). Sodom (whence “sodomy”) and Gomorrah became proverbial as object lessons for God’s punishment on sin (Is 1:9; Jer 50:40; Am 4:11; Mt 10:15; 2 Pt 2:6).
* [8] Dreamers: the writer returns to the false teachers of Jude 4, applying charges from the three examples in Jude 5, 6, 7. This may apply to claims they make for revelations they have received by night (to the author, hallucinations). De le the esh: this may mean bodily pollutions from the erotic dreams of sexual license (Jude 7). Lordship. . .glorious beings: these may re ect the Lord (Jude 5; Jesus, Jude 4) whom they spurn and the angels (Jude 6; cf. note on 2 Pt 2:10, here, as there, literally, “glories”).
* [9] The archangel Michael...judgment: a reference to an incident in the apocryphal Assumption of Moses. Dt 34:6 had said of Moses, literally in Greek, “they buried him” or “he (God?) buried him” (taken to mean “he was buried”). The later account tells how Michael, who was sent to bury him, was challenged by the devil’s interest in the body. Our author draws out the point that if an archangel refrained from reviling even the devil, how wrong it is for mere human beings to revile glorious beings (angels).
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