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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
5-16 Immoral Character and Consequent Judgment of the False Teachers. Jude employs biblical and traditional analogies to document the certainty of judgment for the false teachers. He also describes the debased morality that characterizes this group, for which they have already been eternally condemned (see v. 13).
5-7 Judgment Reserved for the False Teachers. Jude applies examples of judgment from the whole of biblical history in his polemic against the heretics.
5 The Analogy of Egypt. Jude reminds his readers that they once fully knew about God's judgment, but apparently their sense of its certainty has waned. He refers them to the Exodus account as a reminder. Jesus . . . saved a people out of the land of Egypt (cf. Exodus 1-15). This may seem puzzling, because the name "Jesus" is not applied to the Son of God in the OT. It is a prime example of the apostolic understanding of the OT, according to which the Son of God, in his eternal divine nature, was active in the world from the beginning of creation, long before his incarnation (cf. Luke 24:27; John 1:3; 8:56-58; 12:41; 1 Cor. 10:4, 9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:8-12; 11:26). Jesus, then, judged and destroyed those in Israel who escaped from Egypt but failed to keep trusting in God, and therefore they did not reach the Promised Land (cf. 1 Cor. 10:5; Heb. 3:16-19). Instead of the name "Jesus," some Greek manuscripts have ho Kyrios, "the Lord," and some English translations follow that reading. Most of the oldest and most reliable manuscripts have Iēsous ("Jesus").
6 The Analogy of the Rebellious Angels. The heart of Jude's next comparison is the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority but apparently rebelled against God's authority and sought to be equal to him. God has kept these beings in eternal chains ever since. Some scholars think this refers to the original fall of angels from heaven. Others think Jude is referring to the sin of angels in Gen. 6:1-4 (see note on 1 Pet. 3:19). This view is strengthened by Jude's citation of 1 Enoch 1.9 (Jude 14-15), which contains much discussion on the fall of these angels.
7 The Analogy of Sodom and Gomorrah. As with the unfaithful Israelites and the rebellious angels (vv. 5-6), so also the people of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19) received the judgment of eternal fire. Smoke was still rising from the site of Sodom and Gomorrah in the (see Philo, On Abraham 141; Philo, Life of Moses 2.56; Wisdom of Solomon 10:7), and this was taken as a physical symbol of eternal divine judgment. Pursued unnatural desire refers to the homosexual activity of Sodom (Gen. 19:5; cf. Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.200-201; Philo, On Abraham 134-136; Testament of Naphtali 3.4). The Greek is literally "went after other flesh," meaning "other" or "different" than the sexual immorality with women that Jude had just mentioned (cf. Rom. 1:26-27). The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah in history functions as a "type" (a foreshadowing planned by God, cf. Rom. 5:14) of eternal judgment to come.
