--- title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible" author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown" languages: [en] shelf: "Commentaries" section: 893 of 927 url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/893/ cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 893. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/893/" --- # Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible *Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown* The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation. ## 893. Jude · 2 of 3 Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/893/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/893/#p-N [¶0] Sodom, &c.--([2Pe 2:6]). [¶1] giving themselves over to fornication--following fornication extraordinarily, that is, out of the order of nature. On "in like manner to them" (Greek), compare Note, see on Jude 6. Compare on spiritual fornication, "go a whoring from thee," [Psa 73:27]. [¶2] going after strange flesh--departing from the course of nature, and going after that which is unnatural. In later times the most enlightened heathen nations indulged in the sin of Sodom without compunction or shame. [¶3] are set forth--before our eyes. [¶4] suffering--undergoing to this present time; alluding to the marks of volcanic fire about the Dead Sea. [¶5] the vengeance--Greek, "righteous retribution." [¶6] eternal fire--The lasting marks of the fire that consumed the cities irreparably, is a type of the eternal fire to which the inhabitants have been consigned. Bengel translates as the Greek will admit, "Suffering (the) punishment (which they endure) as an example or sample of eternal fire (namely, that which shall consume the wicked)." [Eze 16:53-55] shows that Sodom's punishment, as a nation, is not eternal. Compare also [2Pe 2:6]. [¶7] 8. also--rather, "In like manner nevertheless" (notwithstanding these warning examples) [Alford]. [¶8] these ... dreamers--The Greek has not "filthy" of English Version. The clause, "these men dreaming" (that is, in their dreams), belongs to all the verbs, "defile," "despise," and "speak evil." All sinners are spiritually asleep, and their carnal activity is as it were a dream ([1Th 5:6], ). Their speaking evil of dignities is because they are dreaming, and know not what they are speaking evil of (Jude 10). "As a man dreaming seems to himself to be seeing and nearing many things, so the natural man's lusts are agitated by joy, distress, fear, and the other passions. But he is a stranger to self-command. Hence, though he bring into play all the powers of reason, he cannot conceive the true liberty which the sons of light, who are awake and in the daylight; enjoy" [Bengel]. [¶9] defile the flesh--(Jude 7). [¶10] dominion--"lordship." [¶11] dignities--literally, "glories." Earthly and heavenly dignities. [¶12] 9. Michael, the archangel--Nowhere in Scripture is the plural used, "archangels"; but only ONE, "archangel." The only other passage in the New Testament where it occurs, is [1Th 4:16], where Christ is distinguished from the archangel, with whose voice He shall descend to raise the dead; they therefore err who confound Christ with Michael. The name means, Who is like God? In [Da 10:13] he is called "One ('the first,' Margin) of the chief princes." He is the champion angel of Israel. In [Re 12:7] the conflict between Michael and Satan is again alluded to. [¶13] about the body of Moses--his literal body. Satan, as having the power of death, opposed the raising of it again, on the ground of Moses' sin at Meribah, and his murder of the Egyptian. That Moses' body was raised, appears from his presence with Elijah and Jesus (who were in the body) at the Transfiguration: the sample and earnest of the coming resurrection kingdom, to be ushered in by Michael's standing up for God's people. Thus in each dispensation a sample and pledge of the future resurrection was given: Enoch in the patriarchal dispensation, Moses in the Levitical, Elijah in the prophetical. It is noteworthy that the same rebuke is recorded here as was used by the Angel of the Lord, or Jehovah the Second Person, in pleading for Joshua, the representative of the Jewish Church, against Satan, in [Zec 3:2]; whence some have thought that also here "the body of Moses" means the Jewish Church accused by Satan, before God, for its filthiness, on which ground he demands that divine justice should take its course against Israel, but is rebuked by the Lord who has "chosen Jerusalem": thus, as "the body of Christ" is the Christian Church, so "the body of Moses" is the Jewish Church. But the literal body is evidently here meant (though, secondarily, the Jewish Church is typified by Moses' body, as it was there represented by Joshua the high priest); and Michael, whose connection seems to be so close with Jehovah-Messiah on the one hand, and with Israel on the other, naturally uses the same language as his Lord. As Satan (adversary in court) or the devil (accuser) accuses alike the Church collectively and "the brethren" individually, so Christ pleads for us as our Advocate. Israel's, and all believers' full justification, and the accuser's being rebuked finally, is yet future. Josephus [Antiquities,4.8], states that God hid Moses' body, lest, if it had been exposed to view, it would have been made an idol of. Jude, in this account, either adopts it from the apocryphal "assumption of Moses" (as Origen [Concerning Principalities, 3.2] thinks), or else from the ancient tradition on which that work was founded. Jude, as inspired, could distinguish how much of the tradition was true, how much false. We have no such means of distinguishing, and therefore can be sure of no tradition, save that which is in the written word. [¶14] durst not--from reverence for Satan's former dignity (Jude 8). [¶15] railing accusation--Greek, "judgment of blasphemy," or evil-speaking. Peter said, Angels do not, in order to avenge themselves, rail at dignities, though ungodly, when they have to contend with them: Jude says that the archangel Michael himself did not rail even at the time when he fought with the devil, the prince of evil spirits--not from fear of him, but from reverence of God, whose delegated power in this world Satan once had, and even in some degree still has. From the word "disputed," or debated in controversy, it is plain it was a judicial contest. [¶16] 10. ([2Pe 2:12].) [¶17] those things which--Greek, "all things whatsoever they understand not," namely, the things of the spiritual world. [¶18] but what ... naturally--Connect thus, "Whatever (so the Greek) things naturally (by natural, blind instinct), as the unreasoning (so the Greek) animals, they know," &c. The Greek for the former "know" implies deeper knowledge; the latter "know," the mere perception of the "animal senses and faculties." [¶19] 11. Woe--See on [2Pe 2:14], "cursed children." [¶20] Cain--the murderer: the root of whose sin was hatred and envy of the godly, as it is the sin of these seducers. [¶21] ran greedily--literally, "have been poured forth" like a torrent that has burst its banks. Reckless of what it costs, the loss of God's favor and heaven, on they rush after gain like Balaam. [¶22] perished in the gainsaying of Core--(compare Note, see on Jude 12). When we read of Korah perishing by gainsaying, we read virtually also of these perishing in like manner through the same: for the same seed bears the same harvest. [¶23] 12. spots--So [2Pe 2:13], Greek, "spiloi"; but here the Greek is spilades, which elsewhere, in secular writers, means rocks, namely, on which the Christian love-feasts were in danger of being shipwrecked. The oldest manuscript prefixes the article emphatically, "THE rocks." The reference to "clouds ... winds ... waves of the sea," accords with this image of rocks. Vulgate seems to have been misled by the similar sounding word to translate, as English Version, "spots"; compare however, Jude 23, which favors English Version, if the Greek will bear it. Two oldest manuscripts, by the transcriber's effort to make Jude say the same as Peter, read here "deceivings" for "love-feasts," but the weightiest manuscript and authorities support English Version reading. The love-feast accompanied the Lord's Supper ([1Co 11:17-34], end). Korah the Levite, not satisfied with his ministry, aspired to the sacrificing priesthood also: so ministers in the Lord's Supper have sought to make it a sacrifice, and themselves the sacrificing priests, usurping the function of our only Christian sacerdotal Priest, Christ Jesus. Let them beware of Korah's doom! [¶24] feeding themselves--Greek, "pasturing (tending) themselves." What they look to is the pampering of themselves, not the feeding of the flock. [¶25] without fear--Join these words not as English Version, but with "feast." Sacred feasts especially ought to be celebrated with fear. Feasting is not faulty in itself [Bengel], but it needs to be accompanied with fear of forgetting God, as Job in the case of his sons' feasts. [¶26] clouds--from which one would expect refreshing rains. [2Pe 2:17], "wells without water." Professors without practice. [¶27] carried about--The oldest manuscripts have "carried aside," that is, out of the right course (compare [Ep 4:14]). [¶28] trees whose fruit withereth--rather, "trees of the late (or waning) autumn," namely, when there are no longer leaves or fruits on the trees [Bengel]. [¶29] without fruit--having no good fruit of knowledge and practice; sometimes used of what is positively bad. [¶30] twice dead--First when they cast their leaves in autumn, and seem during winter dead, but revive again in spring; secondly, when they are "plucked up by the roots." So these apostates, once dead in unbelief, and then by profession and baptism raised from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, but now having become dead again by apostasy, and so hopelessly dead. There is a climax. Not only without leaves, like trees in late autumn, but without fruit: not only so, but dead twice; and to crown all, "plucked up by the roots." [¶31] 13. Raging--wild. Jude has in mind [Is 57:20]. [¶32] shame--plural in Greek, "shames" (compare [Php 3:19]). [¶33] wandering stars--instead of moving on in a regular orbit, as lights to the world, bursting forth on the world like erratic comets, or rather, meteors of fire, with a strange glare, and then doomed to fall back again into the blackness of gloom. [¶34] 14. See Introduction on the source whence Jude derived this prophecy of Enoch. The Holy Spirit, by Jude, has sealed the truth of this much of the matter contained in the book of Enoch, though probably that book, as well as Jude, derived it from tradition (compare Note, see on Jude 9). There are reasons given by some for thinking the book of Enoch copied from Jude rather than vice versa. It is striking how, from the first, prophecy hastened towards its consummation. The earliest prophecies of the Redeemer dwell on His second coming in glory, rather than His first coming in lowliness (compare [Ge 3:15] with [Ro 16:20]). Enoch, in his translation without death, illustrated that truth which he all his life preached to the unbelieving world, the certainty of the Lord's coming, and the resurrection of the dead, as the only effectual antidote to their skepticism and self-wise confidence in nature's permanence. [¶35] And Enoch--Greek, "Moreover, also Enoch," &c. [¶36] seventh from Adam--Seven is the sacred number. In Enoch, freedom from death and the sacred number are combined: for every seventh object is most highly valued. Jude thus shows the antiquity of the prophecies. Compare Note, see on Jude 4, "of old." There were only five fathers between Enoch and Adam. The seventh from Adam prophesied the things which shall close the seventh age of the world [Bengel]. [¶37] of these--in relation to these. The reference of his prophecies was not to the antediluvians alone, but to all the ungodly (Jude 15). His prophecy applied primarily indeed to the flood, but ultimately to the final judgment. [¶38] cometh--literally, "came." Prophecy regards the future as certain as if it were past. [¶39] saints--Holy angels (compare [De 33:2]; [Da 7:10]; [Zec 14:5]; [Mt 25:31]; [He 12:22]). [¶40] 15. This verse and the beginning of Enoch's prophecy is composed in Hebrew poetic parallelism, the oldest specimen extant. Some think Lamech's speech, which is also in poetic parallelism, was composed in mockery of Enoch's prophecy: as Enoch foretold Jehovah's coming to judgment, so Lamech presumes on impunity in polygamy and murder (just as Cain the murderer seemed to escape with impunity). [¶41] convince--convict. [¶42] hard speeches--such as are noticed in Jude 8, 10, 16; Mal 3:13, 14; contrast [Ro 16:17]. [¶43] ungodly sinners--not merely sinners, but proud despisers of God: impious. [¶44] against him--They who speak against God's children are regarded by God as speaking against Himself.