Glossary

Abba: An Aramaic word used as an affectionate term of address to someone’s father. Yeshua used it to refer to God as His Father, and believers in Jesus also use it today to address God as Father. In modern Hebrew, this common name means Dad, Daddy, or Papa (also see Mark 14:36 and Romans 8:15).

Adar: the twelfth month of the Jewish biblical calendar.

Adonai: literally, my Lord, a word the TaNaKh uses to refer to God.

ADONAI: The Tetragrammaton, meaning the four-letter name of YHVH (Yud Hay Vav Hay). Since its pronunciation is not known, and also out of respect for God’s name, Jews traditionally substitute the words ADONAI and Ha’Shem. ADONAI, however, is more of an affectionate name like daddy (also see Exodus 3:15; Jeremiah 1:9; Psalm 1:2, Matthew 1:22; Mark 5:19; Luke 1:5; John 1:23).

ADONAI Elohei-Tzva’ot: the LORD God of heaven’s angelic armies. God does not have many names, as seen here and below, He has only one name – YHVH (Yud Hay Vav Hay). All the other names in the Bible describe His characteristics and His attributes.

ADONAI Elohim: This is the Hebrew word for LORD God. This title links Isra’el’s God, the God of the Covenant, with God as Creator of the universe (also see Genesis 2:4; Isaiah 48:16; Psalm 72:18; Luke 1:32; Revelation 1:8).

ADONAI Nissi: the LORD my Banner (see Exodus 17:15; Psalm 20:1).

ADONAI Shalom: the LORD of Peace.

ADONAI Tzidkenu: the LORD our Righteousness.

ADONAI-Tzva’ot: The LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (see Joshua 5:13-15; Second Kings 19:31; Psalm 24:10; Second Corinthians 6:18).

Adversary: Satan, the devil, the prince of the power of the air, and the old dragon.

Afikomen: Literally, “That which comes after.” Piece of matzah that is hidden during the Seder, to be found and eaten after the third cup of redemption.

Amen: At the end of a prayer, this word means, “It is true,” or “Let it be so,” or “May it become true,” indicating that the readers or listeners agree with what has just been said. Although everything Yeshua said was true, “amen” adds special emphasis (also see Deuteronomy 27:25; Jeremiah 28:6; Psalm 41:14; Nehemiah 8:6; Matthew 5:26; Mark 10:15; Luke 23:43; John 10:1).

Anti-missionaries: Today they are Orthodox Jews who champion Jews for Judaism. They do not limit their mischief to harassing missionaries; any Jewish believer is a target. It is unfortunate that so many of these anti-missionaries feel their ends justify certain unethical means. In order to “protect” Judaism, they do or encourage others to do what Judaism condemns. In Paul’s day, they were the Judaizers who wanted Gentile believers to add obedience to the 613 commandments of Moshe, circumcision, and eating kosher to Paul’s salvation equals faith-plus-nothing gospel.

Antinomian: A person who maintains that believers, by virtue of Divine grace, are freed not only from biblical mitzvot and biblical behavior, but also from all moral law.

Ariel: lion of God, fireplace on God’s altar.

Aviv: the first month of the biblical year, corresponding to the modern Jewish month of Nisan.

Avraham: Abraham

Azazel: a scapegoat or goat demon sent out in the wilderness on Yom Kippur.

Ba’al: the chief male god of the Phoenicians and Canaanites. The word means lord or master.

Bar Mitzvah: Hebrew for “Son of the Commandment.” Although not specifically mentioned in the Bible, it is a Jewish coming of age ritual in which a young man, or Bat Mitzvah for a young woman, chooses to follow the commandments of their forefathers and takes responsibility for their own relationship with the God of Isra’el. This ceremony normally takes place at age 13 for boys or age 12 for girls. Afterwards, he/she is theoretically considered to be an adult, but in modern Judaism this is mostly symbolic, and a twelve-year-old is not treated like an adult.

Beit-Lechem: Bethlehem, the birthplace of David and Yeshua, meaning house of bread.

Bnei-Yisrael: The children of Isra’el.

B’rit Chadashah: Hebrew for the New Covenant. Christians commonly call it the New Testament.

Challah: Challah is a special bread of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, usually braided and typically eaten on ceremonial occasions such as Shabbat and major Jewish holidays. Ritually acceptable challah is made of dough from which a small portion has been set aside as an offering.

Chesed: “mercy,” “lovingkindness,” and/or “covenant-loyalty.” It is a complex word that summarizes God’s complex and overwhelming love for His people, going beyond the concepts of love, mercy or kindness all together (also see Isaiah 63:7; Zechariah 7:1; Psalm 13:1; Psalm 86:1; Psalm 107:1; Psalm 118:1; Psalm 136:1).

Clear oil: In the oil pressing process this would have been oil from the first of three or pressings. The first pressing, most likely done by adding one stone weight to a wooden bean which then put pressure onto a bag of olives by being forced downward by the weight, was the one which produced the purest oil. This was traditionally the oil used in the Temple.

Cohen of Ha’Elyon: Priest of the God Most High.

Cohen Rosh Gadol: The Great High Priest who served as the head religious official, the only one to enter the Most Holy Place. Aaron, the brother of Moses, was the first man appointed as the Cohen Gadol. In later times, the Cohen Gadol was in charge of the Temple and its administration. The Cohen Gadol Caiaphas, played a key role in questioning Yeshua at His trial. The writer of Hebrews describes Messiah as our great Cohen Gadol, who gives us access to God’s throne in the heavenly sanctuary (also see Leviticus 21:10; Haggai 1:14; Nehemiah 3:1; Matthew 26:57ff; Mark 14:61ff; John 18:19ff; Hebrews 4:14ff and 10:19-22).

Cohen: A priest, a man who offered sacrifices and performed other religious rituals at the Temple in Jerusalem.

Cohanim: The Cohanim were descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses. The Sadducees were from the priestly sect of Judaism.

Covenant: Theologically, it speaks of the contractual relationship between God and His people. The Hebrew term is b’rit. Also see B’rit Chadashah, Hebrew for New Covenant (see Genesis 6:18 and 17:2; Jeremiah 31:30; Nehemiah 9:32; Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 1:72).

Defile, or tam’ei in Hebrew: This is not a sinful condition, but a condition of life. From this we can see that being tam’ei is merely a state of being unable to participate in the Temple service until cleansed because the person has come into contact with the realm of sin and/or death, not necessarily because the person has sinned himself.

Diaspora, the Dispersion: the scattering of the Jewish people in exile throughout the world. Today almost 7 million Jews live in Isra’el, and over 8 million more Jews live in the Diaspora (also see Isaiah 11:10; John 7:35).

Drash: A drash is a long d’var.

D’var: Is a short talk on topics relating to a parashah, the weekly Torah portion.

Echad: The Hebrew word for “one” or “unity.” Echad is used in the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4).

Elyon: A title for God, meaning the Most High God (see Luke 1:35 and 76; Acts 7:48). A longer form is El Elyon, God Most High (also see Deuteronomy 32:8; Isaiah 14:14; Psalm 91:1; Acts 16:17).

Elohim: “God” in general terms, or as Creator. Compared with ADONAI, God’s “covenant name” used especially in His relationship to the Jewish people. Elohim is the plural form of El, also found in the Bible occasionally with the same meaning. Yeshua is sometimes called Ben-Elohim, the Son of God (also see Genesis 2:19; Isaiah 61:11; Matthew 4:3; Mark 1:1; Luke 1:35; John 11:4).

El Shaddai: God Almighty

Emissaries: Apostles

God-fearers: These were Gentiles who became convinced that ADONAI was the only true God, they abandoned their paganism and idolatry, but they did not choose to become a proselyte in any form, and hence there was no adoption of Jewish customs or practices (see the commentary on Acts, to see link click Bh – An Ethiopian Asks about Isaiah).

Goyim: Nations, non-Jews, Gentiles

Gehenna: The word for “hell,” the place of perpetual misery and suffering after this life. It comes from the Greek word Genna and the Hebrew word Gei-Hinnom, which means the valley of Hinnom. There was actually such a valley by that name south of the Temple in Jerusalem. It was used as a garbage dump, and fires were always burning there, making it a suitable picture of life in hell. In Jewish sources, the term is used as the opposite of Gan-Eden, or the Garden of Eden or Paradise (Matthew 23:33; Mark 9:43).

Gentiles: A term for individuals or groups who are not Jewish. In Hebrew a common word for Gentile is goy or goyim is the plural form (see Isaiah 8:23; Matthew 10:18; Mark 10:33).

Go’el: Literally, a redeemer, used both for God and of people. In the book of Ruth, go’el means the kinsman-redeemer, a close relative obligated to defend and protect his kin. The go’el could buy back (redeem) land or someone who sold himself into slavery, and could marry a widow in the family in order to protect her future. The human go’el is a picture of God the greater Go’el who protects and redeems us, the members of His family (see Ruth 3:9-12).

Hag: means pilgrimage.

Hag ha’Matzah: The Feast of Unleavened Bread

Halakhah: are mitzvot governing Jewish life and comes from the Hebrew root to walk. The rabbis used the term to refer to the legal way to walk out the commandments of the Torah. It can also refer to the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law). A (one) halakhah is a specific ruling given regarding a particular issue, “the halakhah” being the ruling accepted and observed by the Jewish community.

Hametz or Chametz: The Hebrew word for leaven, or yeast, which makes bread rise. God commanded Isra’el not to eat hametz during Passover, Yeshua teaches that both good and evil spread, the same way hametz leavens the whole batch of dough (Also see 16:6-12; Mark 8:15; Luke 12:1 Exodus 12:20; Leviticus 7:13; Amos 4:5; Matthew 13:33 and 13:21).

Hanukkah: Meaning dedication, the feast commemorating the victory of the Maccabees over the armies of Antiochus Epiphanes in 165 BC and the rebuilding and dedication of the Temple after its desecration by Syrian invaders.

Ha’Shem: The Tetragrammaton, meaning the four-letter name of YHVH. Since its pronunciation is not known, and also out of respect for God’s name, Jews traditionally substitute the words ADONAI and Ha’Shem. While ADONAI is more of an affectionate name like daddy, Ha’Shem is a more formal name like sir (also see Exodus 3:15; Jeremiah 1:9; Psalm 1:2, Matthew 1:22; Mark 5:19; Luke 1:5; John 1:23).

Hellenist: In the B’rit Chadashah, it refers to Jews who lived in the Diaspora, or had moved to Isra’el from the Diaspora, spoke Greek, and were more Greek in their culture, than traditional Jewish people brought up in Isra’el (Acts 6:1, 9:29, 11:20). For example, Luke was a Hellenistic Jew.

Immerse: To dip the whole body under water as an act of dedication to the LORD, or as a profession of faith in Yeshua. The word is often seen in other translations as “baptize.” The ceremony of dipping is called “immersion” or “baptism.” Yeshua’s cousin was known as John the Immerser (Matthew 3:1; Mark 6:14; Luke 7:20).

Imputation: To reckon or charge to one’s account. When the Spirit gives life (John 6:63a), that means that all the righteousness of Christ is transferred to your spiritual account at the moment of faith. What is true of Messiah is true of you, minus His deity.

Incarnation: The divine revelation (Hebrews 1:1-2) of YHVH becoming one with humanity as an ordinary human being in the person of Yeshua Messiah. He was one-hundred percent man and one-hundred present God. The Triune God knew that the Second Person would come to earth to be subject to numerous evils: hunger, ridicule, rejection, and death. He did this in order to negate sin, and therefore, its evil effects.

Judaizers: Jewish false teachers, who taught that obedience to the 613 commandments of the Torah were necessary to have a relationship with God, and opposed Paul at every turn. Everywhere Paul went, the Judaizers were sure to follow. Once Paul established a church in Galatia, as soon as he left, they would come in and distort the gospel of Messiah (1:7).

Justification: The act of God whereby, negatively, He forgives the sins of believers and, positively, He declares them righteous by imputing the obedience and righteousness of Messiah to them through faith (Luke 18:9-14). It is not a reward for anything good we have done. It is not something we cooperate with God in (in other words, it is not sanctification). It is an utterly undeserved free gift of the mercy of ADONAI (Romans 3:24; Titus 3:7). It is entirely accomplished by God, once and for all, at the moment of salvation. It results in good deeds (James 2:14-26) and sanctification over our lifetime.

Kadosh: The Hebrew word for ‘holy.” This term describes the people set apart for God. ADONAI Himself is kodosh (Leviticus 19:1-2). Many letters to Christ’s newly formed communities (churches) address Yeshua’s followers as the Kedoshim (also see Jeremiah 2:3; Nehemiah 8:10; First Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2).

Kedoshim: The holy ones

Kippahs: Known as a yarmulke or skullcap, a kippah is a head covering for Jews. The tradition to wear a kippah does not come from any biblical passage. Rather, it is a custom which evolved as a sign of recognition that there is Someone “above” who watches our every act.

Korban: The root of the word korban, can be translated to bring near. A korban, then, should be defined as something brought near. The reason it is so named is that the person bringing an offering did so in order to be brought near to God. It was a sacrifice or offering dedicated to God, especially to fulfill a vow. If something was to be dedicated to God, it generally could not be used for other purposes. Some Pharisees and teachers of the Torah wrongly used this as an excuse not to provide for their parents in their old age, even though Jewish teaching insisted that the commandment to honor one’s father and mother extended to providing for their physical needs (see Mark 7:11).

Kosher: Kosher foods are those that conform to the Jewish dietary regulations of kashrut, primarily derived from Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Food that may be consumed according to halakha is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér, meaning “fit”.

Levite: Descendants of the tribe of Levi, who served in the Tabernacle and Temple as gatekeepers, musicians, teachers, and assistants to the priests. The scribes, or Torah-teachers, originally came only from among the Levites and were the forerunners of the Pharisees. They later expanded to include members who were from all tribes, with no affiliation with Levi required. (Also see Exodus 4:14; Ezeki’el 48:12; Ezra 1:5; John 1:19).

LORD: When the translators of the King James Bible in the 1600’s came to the Hebrew word YHVH, they needed to distinguish it from the word Lord, meaning master. So, they capitalized it. Therefore, LORD is actually the Tetragrammaton, meaning the four-letter name of YHVH.

LXX (Septuagint): The “official” Greek translation of the TaNaKh, dating from the third century BC through the fourth century AD. The original translation was of the Torah (the five books of Moshe), which the Letter of Aristeas records was allegedly made by seventy Jewish scholars in Alexandria (Egypt) from which it gained its name (Septuaginta). It is commonly referred to by the abbreviation, LXX (70).

Malki-Tzedek: Melchizedek.

Mashiach (Hebrew): Messiah, the Anointed One (Matthew 26:63; Mark 1:1; John 20:31).

Matzah (singular) or Matzot (plural): Unleavened bread, which is made without yeast, eaten especially during the feast of Passover. Also see hametz (also see Exodus 13:6; Leviticus 2:5; Ezeki’el 45:21; Matthew 26:17; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; John 13:26).

Masoretic Text: The official text of the TaNaKh edited by the Massoretes, or Jewish grammarians, during the sixth to tenth centuries AD. This text is “pointed” with various vowel signs and accents which were lacking in the previous texts.

M’chitzah, the: The middle wall of separation (see the commentary on Acts Cn – Paul’s Advice from Jacob and the Elders at Jerusalem).

Megillah (singular) or Megillot (plural): The five books in the Writings used for special readings during the holidays: Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther.

Menorah (singular) or Menorot (plural): The seven branched lampstand(s) designed and commanded by God for service in the Tabernacle/Temple (Exodus 25:32; First Kings 7:49; Zechariah 4:2).

Messiah (Greek): Christ, the Anointed One, often used in speaking of a Redeemer sent from God to free His people from exile and oppression (also see Matthew 1:16; Mark 8:29; Luke 2:11 and John 1:41).

Midrash (singular) or Midrashim (plural): allegorical interpretation or application of a text. The listener is expected to understand that the writer of the midrash is not expounding the plain meaning of the text, but introducing his own ideas.

Mikveh: a bath or pool with a flow of fresh water; used in Orthodox Judaism to this day for ritual purification or ceremonial cleansing, performed at various times in a person’s life (see Matthew 3:13 and Titus 3:5).

Mishnah, The: is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions that are known as the Oral Law (see below). 

Mishkan: the Tabernacle, comes from the Hebrew root to dwell.

Mitzvah (singular) or mitzvot (plural): Primarily a commandment from God in the Torah (Deuteronomy 11:22; Second Kings 17:37; Proverbs 6:20; Matthew 26:10; Mark 14:6). Today, more modern meaning would be “a good deed,” more broadly, a general principle for living.

Moshe: Moses.

Olam haba: “The age to come,” or “the world to come.” It describes a time after the world is perfected under the rulership of Messiah. This term also refers to the afterlife, where the soul passes after death. It can be contrasted with olam ha-zeh, “this world” (Matthew 12:32; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30 and 20:35; Ephesians 1:21; Hebrews 6:5; Revelation 20-21).

Omer: Meaning “sheaf,” the bundle of barley used in the Firstfruits offering. After the Temple period it came to be identified with Sefirat ha’Omer, or the counting of the omer, the counting of the days from Firstfruits to Shavu’ot.

Oracle: What are the oracles of God? There are several places in the Bible that mention the oracles of God, which refer to the words of God.

Oral Law: The Oral Law refers to the Talmud, which is a compilation of rabbinic commentaries on the first five books of Moses, called the Torah. The Talmud, completed around 500 AD, consists of the Mishnah and well as commentary on the Mishnah called Gemara (Mishnah + Gemara = Talmud). The tradition grew to include a further compendium called Midrash until about the 12^th century. The rabbis taught that when the Messiah came, He would not only believe in the Oral Law, but He would participate in the making of new Oral Laws (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law).

Pesach: Passover. The Jewish festival commemorating deliverance from Egyptian bondage. In Biblical times Jews used to journey to the Temple, sacrifice lambs there, and eat a special meal commemorating the departure of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. It was one of the three “pilgrimage festivals” that all able-bodied Jews were expected to celebrate before YHVH in Yerushalayim. Today, Passover is celebrated at home with a special meal called a seder. Yeshua celebrated Passover with His apostles (Matthew 26:18; Mark 14:12; Luke 22:7; John 13:1).

Pharisees: One of the sects of Judaism in the first century. The Pharisees had their own views of how exactly to keep Torah. They were especially concerned with ritual impurity and (unlike the Sadducees) they believed in the resurrection of the dead. While the Sadducees were more involved with the Temple, the Pharisees were concerned more with home and synagogue life.

Propitiation: The averting of God’s wrath by means of the substitutionary and efficacious (producing the desired effect) sacrifice (death) of Yeshua Messiah (the atonement). It is the work of Messiah that satisfies every claim of God’s holiness and justice so that Ha’Shem is free to act on behalf of sinners.

Proselytes at the Gate: There were three levels of Gentile relationship to Judaism. After God-fearers and proselytes of the Gate were the second level. The Gate was the middle wall of separation (Ephesians 2:14) in the Temple compound that Gentiles were not allowed to go beyond under penalty of death (see the commentary on Acts Bb – An Ethiopian Asks about Isaiah 53). These were Gentiles who adopted many Jewish practices like celebrating Shabbat and the feast of Isra’el, but did not become a full proselyte. Most of these were men because it didn’t require circumcision.

Proselytes of the Covenant: In the third level of Gentile relationship to Judaism (see above), there were proselytes of the Covenant. They entered into the Covenant of Sinai as a full Jew, so to speak. Most of these were women because this level required circumcision.

Purim: Meaning “lots,” is the holiday based on the story of Esther.

Qumran: A site overlooking the Dead Sea where Jewish sects lived in religious communities from 135 BC to 70 AD and from which we have numerous documents which are frequently referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These texts include partial copies and fragments of most of the biblical books (the only whole copy is Isaiah), apocryphal writings such as Enoch, and texts produced by the community itself (the manual of Discipline and the Thanksgiving Hymns). The texts are referred to according to the number of the cave in which they were discovered (for example, 1Qs [Community Rule], 11Q Temp [Temple Scroll]).

Rasheet: One of several names for the Festival of First Fruits.

Redeemed: Setting free from slavery, buying back something lost, for a price.

Righteous of the TaNaKh: Old Testament believers.

Rosh Ha’Shanah: Hebrew for “Head of the Year.” Known as the Jewish New Year, or the Feast of Trumpets.

Ruach: The Hebrew word for “spirit,” “breath,” or “wind.” Yeshua explains wind and Spirit to Nicodemus in John 3:5-8. Scripture frequently refers to the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, the Holy Spirit (Exodus 35:31; Numbers 11:25; Malachi 2:15; Acts 2:2 and 10:44; Romans 8:4-17).

Ruach Ha’Kodesh: The Hebrew name for the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 63:11; Psalm 51:13; Matthew 1:20; Mark 1:8; Luke 1:16; John 14:26).

Sadducees: One of the sects of Judaism in the first century. From the Sadducees came the leading priests who managed the affairs of the Temple. In contrast to the Pharisees, they did not believe in the resurrection of the dead (Matthew 16:12; Mark 12:18; Luke 20:27).

Sanhedrin: Literally, the gathering of the seated, like being a judge seated on a bench – a legal term for an officiating judge. This was the Supreme Court of ancient Isra’el. It exercised legislative and judicial authority (Matthew 26:59; Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66; John 11:47).

Sanctification: To be set apart, specifically, to the holy use and purposes of God. It is a process that takes a whole lifetime. It is the work of God in which you cooperate (Romans 12:1-2; First Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 12:3-4; First Peter 5:8-9); and is a process Ephesians 4:11-16), trusting in God, apart from whom we can do nothing (John 15:5; Ephesians 3:16; Colossians 1:11; Hebrews 2:18 and 4:14). He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:6).

Septuagint: The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and was presumable made for the Jewish community in Egypt when Greek was the common language throughout the region. It is also called the translation of the Seventy because tradition states that the Septuagint was translated by seventy rabbis. In academia, the Septuagint is often abbreviated as LXX (the Roman numeral for seventy) in honor os this translation.

Shabbat: The Sabbath Day, the seventh day of the week, when work ceases. On this day God’s people are beckoned to rest and renew our relationship with our Creator, who also rested on the seventh day. Shabbat begins on Friday evening at sundown and ends Saturday evening after three stars appear (Exodus 20:10; Nehemiah 9:14; Matthew 12:10; Mark 1:21; Luke 23:56; John 9:14).

Shaddai: A common name for God in the TaNaKh, usually translated as Almighty. The name is often used in a combination such as El Shaddai, or God Almighty (Genesis 17:1; Ezeki’el 1:24; Job 11:7).

Shall be cut off: This phrase may mean that the person is stoned to death, or that he is barred from returning to the Tabernacle or Temple to offer sacrifices. This person would be cherem, literally set apart for destruction, either physically or culturally.

Shaliach: A legal representative, meaning one who is sent.

Shalom: The Hebrew word for peace, wholeness, wellness and true happiness; it is a greeting used when meeting or departing (Genesis 26:31; First Samuel 16:4; Second Chronicles 18:16; Matthew 10:13; Mark 9:50; Luke 1:28; John 14:27).

Sh’khinah: The visual manifestation of the glory of God.

Shavu’ot: the festival of Weeks (Hebrew) or Pentecost (Greek), since it comes seven weeks after Pesach; also called Pentecost, from the Greek word for fifty because one counts fifty days after Passover. It is one of the three “pilgrimage festivals” that all able-bodied Jews were expected to celebrate before YHVH in Yerushalayim. It originally celebrated the harvest, but later commemorated the day God gave the Torah to Isra’el. After Yeshua’s resurrection, the disciples waited for God’s gift of the Ruach Ha’Kodesh, which also came on Shavu’ot (Exodus 34:22; Second Chronicles 8:13; Acts 2:1 and 20:16; First Corinthians 16:8).

Sh’ol: The Hebrew equivalent of the Greek “Hades,” the place where the dead exist.

Shofar: A ram’s horn, used in the Bible for summoning armies, calling to repentance, and in other situations. Blasts of various lengths and numbers signified different instructions. Metal trumpets were also used for similar purposes, but exclusively by the cohanim. Today, the shofar is used on Rosh ha-Shanah of Yom Kippur, the Jewish High Holy Days. The shofar also ushers in the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:9-10; Zechariah 9:14; Matthew 24:31; First Corinthians 15:52; First Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Sinai: the mountain in the desert between Egypt and the land of Isra’el.

Shuwb: turn, turning, and the big idea of Jeremiah.

Son of Man: A name that Yeshua commonly used to refer to Himself. It comes from Dani’el 7:13-14, in which the Son of Man is given all authority. This name sometimes emphasizes Yeshua’s humanity and sometimes His deity (Matthew 9:6; Mark 9:31; Luke 21:36; John 6:27).

Sukkot: the festival of Booths or Tabernacles, celebrating the forty years when the people of Isra’el lived in booths, tents, shacks, in the desert between Egypt and the land of Isra’el. The Hebrew word sukkah means booth and sukkot is the plural and means booths. Sukkot is one of the three “pilgrimage festivals” that all able-bodied Jews were expected to celebrate before YHVH in Yerushalayim (Leviticus 23:34; Zechariah 14:16; Second Chronicles 8:13; Matthew 17:4; Mark 9:5; Luke 9:33).

Synagogue: A place of assembly for Jews for hearing the Torah, praying and worshipping God. There were many synagogues throughout Isra’el and the Greco-Roman world (Matthew 4:23; Mark 5:22; Luke 4:16; John 9:22).

Syncretism: Perversion of the Gospel occurs when aspects of the world are blended with it. Syncretism believes that there are many paths to God, like the hub of a wheel with many spokes protruding out from it. So you have a Mormon spoke, a Hindu spoke, a Buddist spoke, an Islam spoke, and a Jehovah Witness spoke, each leading to God. But Yeshua contradicted this saying: No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6).

Tabernacle: A temporary dwelling, such as the booths constructed during Sukkot. It is also used in the TaNaKh of the tent in which God dwelt among the Jewish people, both in the wilderness and in the land of Isra’el. When the word is used as a verb, it refers to Yeshua coming to dwell among His people (John 1:14), reminding us of the wilderness Tabernacle and also of the Feast of Tabernacles (Exodus 25:9; First Chronicles 6:17; John 1:14 and 7:2).

Talmid (singular) or Talmudim (plural): Student or students.

Talmud: The codified body of Jewish Oral Law; includes literary creations, legends, scriptural interpretations, comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara.

Tamid, the (Hebrew: continual) offering was a regular daily feature in the Temple service. Each morning a one-year-old male lamb without defect was sacrificed as a regular burnt offering. One lamb was offered at in the morning to make atonement for the sins of the night and the other lamb was offered in the afternoon to make atonement for the sins of the day.

TaNaKh: The Hebrew word TaNaKh is an acronym, based on the letters T for “Torah”, N for “Nevi’im” (Prophets), and K for “Ketuv’im” (Sacred Writings). It is a collection of the teachings of God to human beings in document form. This term is used instead of the phrase, “the Old Testament,” which sounds “old” and outdated.

Terumah: The gifts offered by the Israelites for the inauguration of the Tabernacle (Mishkan). Portion of gift offerings, of slaughter offerings, which were allocated to the priests.

Torah: Literally, this Hebrew word means teaching or instruction (Exodus 13:9; Isaiah 2:3; Psalm 1:2; Matthew 5:17; Mark 1:22; Luke 24:44; John 7:19; Romans 7:1ff; First Corinthians 9:20-21; Galatians 3:21). It can be used for the five books of Moshe, or more generally to God’s commandments, or the whole TaNaKh (John 10:34). Uncapitalized, torah can be understood generally as a law or principle (Romans 7:21-8:2).

Torah-Teacher: A Torah scribe engaged in interpreting and transmitting the Torah. They wrote Torah scrolls, bills of divorce, and other legal documents. The Hebrew term is sofer.

Tree of Life: The tree at the center of the garden of Eden (Genesis 2:9, 3:24), the source of eternal life. Scripture points to a future in the B’rit Chadashah, with access to the Tree of Life. In the meantime, the Torah is like the Tree of Life to those who embrace her, and blessed will be all who hold firmly to her (Proverbs 3:18 also see Revelation 2:7, 22:2 and 14).

Tzedakah: Is a Hebrew word meaning righteousness, but commonly used to signify an ethical obligation to do what is right, and is commonly used to signify charity.

Tzitzit: A fringe that was put on a garment in accordance with Numbers 15:37-41.

Tziyon: Zion, Mount Zion, was originally the City of David, south of the modern Old City of Yerushalayim. Later the name Tziyon came to refer metaphorically to the Temple Mount, Jerusalem, or the people of Isra’el. The hill now called Mount Tziyon was given its name in the fourth century AD (Isaiah 1:27; Psalm 65:2; Matthew 21:5; John 12:15).

Yarmelkes: see Kippah.

Yeshivah: The Hebrew word yeshivah comes from the word that means sit and it signifies a place for learning Torah. The Greek word schole, which gives us the English word school means lecture hall. No English word really comes close to the real meaning of yeshivah, but the Yiddish word shul, or school, comes the closest.

Yeshua: The Hebrew name for our Messiah, known in English as Jesus, and is a masculine form, and a word play on yeshu’ah (salvation) (Matthew 1:21; Mark 6:14; Luke 2:21; John 19:19).

Yerushalayim: Jerusalem.

Y’hudah: Judah.

YHVH: The Tetragrammaton, meaning the Name, the four-letter name of God. Therefore, God does not have many names, He has only one name – YHVH (Yud Hay Vav Hay). All the other names in the Bible describe His characteristics and His attributes.

Yisra’el: Isra’el.

Yochanan: John.

Yom ha’Bikkurim: One of several names for The Feast of Firstfruits.

Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement, the close of the High Holy Days, and considered the holiest day of the year in traditional Judaism.

End Notes

The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective

1. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 1967, pg 3.

2. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, page 428.

3. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, pages 141-142.

4. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament, by John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1983, page 918.

5. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, pages 144-145.

6. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, pages 183-190 and 229-230.

7. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament, by John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1983, page 918.

The Similarities Between Jude and Second Peter

8. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, pages 428-429.

Jude 1-2

9. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, page 231.

10. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 200.

11. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 9.

12. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 151.

13. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 226.

The Danger of Apostates

14. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 139.

Jude 3 and Second Peter 1:5-7

15. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 43.

16. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 17.

17. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, page 235.

18. The Jewish New Testament Commentary, by David Stern, Jewish New Testament Publications, Clarksville, Maryland, page 757.

19. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 300.

20.2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, pages 41-42.

21. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 301.

22. Sermon Central: From a sermon by Jeff Strite, Restoration, 5/9/2011.

Jude 4 and Second Peter 2:1 and 3b

23.2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, pages 157-158.

24. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, page 236.

25. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 23.

26. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 205.

27. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 162.

28. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, pages 205-206.

The Doom of Apostates

29. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 26-27.

30. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 239.

Jude 5 and First Corinthians 10:5-11

31. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 442.

32. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 207.

33. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 240.

34. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 221.

35. Ibid, page 222.

36. Answers to Tough Questions, by Carl Laney, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1997, page 264.

37. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 225.

38. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 240.

39. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 208.

40. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 38.

Jude 6 and Second Peter 2:4

41. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 56.

42. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, pages 239-240.

43. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 110.

44.The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 241.

45. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 63.

46. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 86.

Jude 7 and Second Peter 2:6

47. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, pages 211-212.

48. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, page 434.

49. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 180.

50.The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, pages 251-255.

The Description of Apostates

51. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 74.

52. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, pages 183-190.

Jude 8 and Second Peter 2:10

53. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 171.

54. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 75.

55. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody Press, Chicago, IL, 2005, page 97.

Jude 9 and Second Peter 2:11

56. The Jewish New Testament Commentary, by David Stern, Jewish New Testament Publications, Clarksville, Maryland, 1992, Page 782.

57. Answers to Tough Questions, by Carl Laney, Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1997, page 330.

58. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, pages 245-247.

59. Christian Theology, by Millard Erickson, Baker, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1985, page 207.

60. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, pages 435-436.

61. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, pages 458-459.

62. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 175.

Jude 10 and Second Peter 2:12

63. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, page 436.

64. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 175.

65. Ibid, page 44.

Jude 11

66. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 68-69.

67. Ibid, page 70.

68. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 216.

69. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 186.

70. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 70-72.

71. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, pages 178-179.

Jude 12a-c and Second Peter 2:13 and 17a

72. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 189.

73. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, pages 267-270.

74. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament, by John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1983, page 921.

75.The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 259.

76. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 180.

77. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 77-78.

Jude 12d-e and 13; Second Peter 2:17b

78.The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 260.

79. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 181.

80. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 80-81.

81. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 223.

82. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 95.

83. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, pages 409 and 438.

84. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 264.

85. Ibid, pages 265-267.

Jude 14-15

86. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 468.

87. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 268.

88. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 84-85.

89. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 224.

90. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 471.

91. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, page 251.

92. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 472.

93. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 103.

94. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, pages 274-275.

Jude 16 and Second Peter 2:18

95. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 107.

96. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 226.

97. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 357.

98. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 105.

99. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament, by John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1983, page 922.

The Defense Against Apostates

100. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, pages 279-280.

Jude 17-18 and Second Peter 3:2-3

101. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, page 441.

102. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 477.

103. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids:

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 196.

104. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 104.

105. The NIV Application Commentary: 2 Peter and Jude, by Douglas Moo, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1996, page 282.

Jude 19 and First Corinthians 2:14

106. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 479.

107. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, pages 268-269.

108. Ibid, page 199.

109. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1967, pages 106-107.

110. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 230.

111. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 199.

112. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 107.

Jude 20-21

113. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 482.

114. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 200.

115. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, page 255.

116. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 484.

117. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates, by Maxwell Coder, Moody, Chicago, IL, 1967, page 112.

Jude 22-23

118. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 233.

119. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 144.

120. In These Last Days, by Kenneth Wuest, Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1954, pages 114-115.

121. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 202.

122. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament, by John Walvoord and Roy Zuck, Victor Books, Wheaton, Illinois, 1983, page 1554.

123. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, pages 202-203.

124. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 234.

125. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 204.

The Concluding Blessing

126. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 136.

Jude 24

127. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 236.

128. 2 Peter and Jude, by John MacArthur, Moody, Chicago, Illinois, 2005, page 208.

129. Ibid, pages 211-212.

130. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Commentary, by Michael Green, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1968, page 206.

Jude 25

131. First and Second Peter, by Thomas Schreiner, The New American Commentary, B & H Publishing Group, Nashville, Tennessee, 2003, page 491.

132. The Messianic Jewish Epistles, Hebrews, James, I and II Peter, and Jude, by Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Ariel Ministries, San Antonio, Texas, 2005, page 448.

133. The Epistle of Jude, by George Lawrence Lawlor, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1976, page 140.

134. The Letters of John and Jude, by William Barclay, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1958, page 236.

Bibliography

Barclay, William. The Letters of John and Jude. Neptune: Loizeaux Brothers, 1958.

Coder, S. Maxwell. Jude: The Acts of the Apostates. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1967.

Coleman, Lyman. The Serendipity Bible for Groups, New International Version. Littleton: Serendipity House, 1988.

Millard Erickson, Christian Theology. Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 1985.

Freeman, James. Manners and Customs of the Bible. Plainfield, Logos International, 1972.

Fruchtenbaum, Arnold. Hebrews, James, First and Second Peter. San Antonio, Ariel Ministries, 2005.

Green, Michael. Second Peter and Jude Tyndale NT Com. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1968.

Laney, Carl, Answers to Tough Questions. Grand Rapids, Kregel Publications, 1997.

Lawlor, George Lawrence. The Epistle of Jude. Phillipsburg, The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1972.

MacArthur, John. First Corinthians. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1984

MacArthur, John. Hebrews. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1983.

MacArthur, John. Second Peter and Jude. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2005.

MacArthur, John. Twelve Unlikely Heroes. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012.

Metzger, Bruce editor. The Greek New Testament. Stuttgart, United Bible Societies, 1971.

Metzger, Bruce. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, Stuttgart, United Bible Societies, 1971.

Moo, Douglas. Second Peter and Jude. The NIV Application Commentary, Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 1996.

Rienecker, Fritz and Rogers, Cleon. Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976.

Schreiner, Thomas. 1, 2 Peter and Jude NAC. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2003.

Stern, David. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, 1992.

Walvoord, John and Zuck, Roy. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the Old Testament. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985.

Walvoord, John and Zuck, Roy. The Bible Knowledge Commentary of the New Testament. Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983.

Wallace, Daniel. Jude: Introduction, Argument and Outline. Biblical Studies Press. wwwbible.org. 2000.

Wuest, Kenneth. Hebrews in the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1947.

Wuest, Kenneth. Second Peter, First, Second and Third John, and Jude in the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1954.

To the Only God our Savior are Glory,
Majesty, Power and Authority
Jude 25

To the only God our Savior are glory, majesty, power and authority DIG: In what sense was Jesus Christ before all ages? Who is our Savior? Through whom? How is God majesty? What does God’s power emphasize? How does He have the authority to carry out what He decrees?

REFLECT: When the world (1 Jn 2:15-17) crowds in around you, and Satan’s schemes seem overwhelming in your life at times, how does God’s Word in general, and Jude’s message in particular, give you hope? What does the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever mean to you personally?

To the only God our Savior are glory, majesty, power, and authority, through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Why does Jude speak of the only God our Savior through Yeshua the Messiah our Lord? Here, he emphasizes for the last time the great truth denied by the apostasy – the fact that God is the Savior only for those who come to Him through Jesus Christ. No one comes to the Father but through [the Son] (John 14:6b). Anyone who thinks that believing in God means that they are eternally saved apart from the cross of Messiah is sadly mistaken. The LORD is Savior only through Christ. Untold millions may express belief in one God, and they may seem very sincere. But they are sincerely wrong. They cannot claim Him as Savior because they deny His Son. For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Jesus Christ (First Timothy 2:5). Jude makes this point perfectly clear in the fifteenth triad.

First, to the only God our Savior (Jude 25a). This is a statement against the polytheism of that day; there are not many gods there is only one God – the God of the Bible (see my commentary on Exodus, to see link click Dk – You Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me). He is the only Savior, so there is no salvation apart from Him. From the perspective of the TaNaKh, God is the only Savior. Truly you are a God who has been hiding Himself, the God and Savior of Isra’el (Isaiah 45:15). In the B’rit Chadashah, the word is used eight times of God the Father and sixteen times of the Son, indicating that Jesus is God since only God can save: the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared . . . through Jesus Christ our Savior (Titus 3:4a and 6b).

In saying that ADONAI is the only God, Jude did not counteract any form of Gnosticism. He merely shared the common Jewish worldview that there is only one God, over the polytheism of the Gentile world.¹³¹ The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which ADONAI will bring about in His own time – God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords (First Timothy 6:15-16). To the false teachers’ denial of the doctrine of total depravity, and their rejection of the substitutionary sacrifice of Messiah on the cross, Jude says: To the only God our Savior. He saves us from our sins only through the blood of His Son. “Giving thanks to the Father who has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of His Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14).

Second, all glory, majesty, power, and authority are His (Jude 25b). God is glory, which is a reference to the Sh’khinah glory, the unique glory that belongs to ADONAI alone. It emphasizes the LORD in all His fullness and brightness. This is the same Sh’khinah glory that filled the Tabernacle in the wilderness (Exodus 40:34), and the Temple of Solomon (Second Chronicles 5:14). When the Lord Jesus had tabernacled among us, the glory of God was visible in a different sense, and we have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). During the Eternal State (see my commentary on Revelation Fs – The Eternal State) the Tabernacle of God, Yeshua the Messiah, will finally be dwelling with His people (21:3), and His Sh’khinah glory will illuminate the New Jerusalem forever more (see my commentary on Revelation Fu – The New Jerusalem had a Great, High Wall with Twelve Gates).

God is majesty, which points to His greatness and how worthy He is of honor given His exalted position. Moses tells us: I will proclaim the name of ADONAI. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! (Deuteronomy 32:3; also see First Chronicles 29:11; Psalm 144:3 and 6 150:2; Daniel 2:20). This emphasizes the greatness of ADONAI and states that He is the royal God. When Christ returns He will wear a banner on His long robe and hanging down across His thigh, and on it He will have this name written: Melekh Ham’lakhim, KING of kings and LORD of lords (Revelation 19:16).

God is power, which emphasizes His rule. The term majesty emphasizes the LORD as the KING of kings, but the word power emphasizes God as LORD of lords. He rules over His entire creation and everything under His control. Nothing happens outside His control. Many things that occur do so because of His directive will. Many other things happen merely because of His permissive will. However, whatever happens, whether it is by His directive will or His permissive will, is part of His control. He is never out of control.¹³² He sustains all things by His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3b).

The apostates turned the grace of God into lust, and denied the only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, the very One whose absolute sovereignty is expressed in His power.

God is authority. He has the authority (exousia) to speak reality into existence and to carry out what He decrees. It points to His omnipotence. Our Lord Jesus said to His disciples just prior to His ascension: All authority (exousia) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-19). The Scriptures make it clear that as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And He has given Him authority (exousia) to judge because He is the Son of Man (John 5:26-27). The Lord will have the absolute authority (exousia) to rule and reign during the messianic Kingdom: Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of God, and the authority (exousia) of His Messiah. For the Accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down” (Rev 12:10).

The imposters did not fear Him and continued to mock and reject the truth. They refused correction, and made their faces harder than rock,
refusing to repent (Jer 5:3). However, their scoffing denials of Messiah will eventually bring them face to face with Him: When the Son of Man comes in His glory, accompanied by all the angels, He will sit on His glorious throne and judge all the Gentile nations (Matthew 25:31-32a).

Third, through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord (Jude 25c). He is the means of salvation; it is only through Him that we are saved. This emphasizes that Christ is the only means of salvation, and condemns the false teachers who were denying this. The apostates were denying the Master who bought them; they were denying both His person and His work on the cross, and this statement refutes their lies. The force of the words through Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord are directed against those who reject the sovereign lordship of Christ with their denials of His pre-existence, deity and bodily resurrection. One day every knee shall bow . . . and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10b-11a).¹³³

Before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen (Jude 25d). He is the God of eternity. Concerning the past, ADONAI is before all time. He has always existed. Concerning the present, He still exists now. He still exercises control, concerning the future, and forevermore! He will always exist for all eternity future. The writer to the Hebrews put it this way: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever (Heb 13:8).

So, we end with the great and comforting certainty that when all is said and done, there is a God whose name is Savior. We have the joyous certainty that in this world we live in the love of the LORD, and in the next world we go to that love.¹³⁴ Amen. Which means in Hebrew, let it be so. Amen!

To Him Who is Able to Keep You from Stumbling
Jude 24

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling DIG: What role does the LORD play in the believer’s security and sense of joy? How does He guard and keep us safe from apostasy? How do you explain this picture of ADONAI keeping us safe, with the contrasting one in Jude 5-7? How are believers to be presented to God the Father? What is the Sh’khinah glory?

REFLECT: In light of the warnings in Jude, what hope do you find in this verse? How do you feel, knowing that you are in Christ (Ephesians 1:1-14)? How do you feel, knowing that the Savior is the One who is able to keep you from stumbling? How does that help as you struggle with evil in the world?

To the One who is able to keep you from stumbling and set you blameless, without defect, and full of joy in the presence of His Sh’khinah glory (24 CJB).

Jude ends his letter the way it began, with words of assurance for ADONAI’s people living in dark days. Will you be able to keep yourself in the love of God? Can you avoid contamination in your contacts with the ungodly? Is it possible for you to continue to be one of the called, loved and kept (Jude 1)? The answer is made crystal clear in the Fourteenth triad. You can do so, because the One who loves you and gave Himself for you is also able to keep you from stumbling.

First, to the One who is able to keep you from stumbling (24a CJB). Not only is He willing to keep us, He is able (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:20; John 17:20-23). It is true that Jude told his original audience to keep themselves in the love of God (Jude 21), but he uses a different word for keep here. There, tereo is used, which simply means to watch out for. Here, plulasso is a military word and means to be kept under guard for safe custody. There is a difference. We must watch that we stay close to the Lord, but only He can guard us so that we do not stumble. God is at His post, standing guard over us to ensure our safety (Psalm 12:7; Proverbs 3:26; First Corinthians 1:8-9) during any assault from the enemy (First John 5:18). He is the One who keeps us from stumbling into apostasy. As Yeshua, the Good Shepherd told His listeners: My sheep hear My voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one (John 10:27-29).

From stumbling is aptaiseos, from the root ptaio, meaning to stand firm, not stumbling. This word is used both to describe a horse that is sure footed, and a person who does not fall into error. He will not let your foot slip – He who watches over you will not slumber (Psalm 121:3). To walk with ADONAI is to walk in safety even on the most dangerous and the most slippery path. In mountaineering, climbers are roped together so that, even if the inexperienced climber should slip, the skilled mountaineer can take the weight and save the other person. In the same way, when we bind ourselves to the LORD, He keeps us safe.¹²⁷ Despite all the dangers and pitfalls, against apostate teachers and all the deceptions that the devil has for us. He holds us in the palm of His hand, safe and secure, never failing to guard us from stumbling.

Humanly speaking, the path to heaven has always been dangerous (Acts 14:22; Second Corinthians 6:4-10, 11:23-30; Hebrews 11:32-40; Revelation 12:10-11), full of dangers from the Adversary and his apostate servants (Luke 22:31; Ephesians 6:11-17; First Thessalonians 2:18, 3:5; First Peter 5:8-9). But from the LORD’s perspective, the path to heaven is absolutely safe, not because we are able to preserve ourselves, but because ADONAI is able to keep us.¹²⁸ Victory over apostasy is found in Jesus Christ! Our faithfulness until the end will not be due to our own nobility or inner strength. It is the grace of God that keeps us from stumbling. He grants us the ability to stand before Him blameless and joyful on the last day.

Second, And to present you blameless, without defect, and full of joy (24b CJB). The Greek word to present you translates the verb histemi, which can mean, to stand, to confirm or to establish. At this time we stand in grace (Romans 5:1-4), but in the future we will also stand in our new glorified bodies (Colossians 3:4 and First Peter 5:10). However, for people in their natural bodies to stand in the presence of the LORD produces sheer terror. Isaiah pronounced a curse on himself (Isaiah 6:5), Ezeki’el fell over like he was dead (Ezeki’el 1:28). Peter, James and John experienced overwhelming fear on the Mountain of Transfiguration. The apostle John fainted as if he were dead when he saw the vision of the risen and glorious Messiah (Revelation 1:17). Having come face-to-face with ADONAI, each of these men instantly felt the full weight of their own sinfulness. When Simon Peter saw [the large number of fish in their nets], he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the number of fish they had taken (Luke 5:8-9). Each fell to the ground, overwhelmed by the sense of unworthiness.¹²⁹

To be presented to God the Father, we must be without defect (amomos). This word is used of sacrificial animals that bore no spot or blemish and were therefore fit to be offered to ADONAI (Exodus 29:1, 38; Leviticus 1:3, 10, 3:1, 6, 4:3; Numbers 6:14; Ezekiel 43:22-23, 25). The word is frequently used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the TaNaKh), and is often found in the writings of the Church Fathers with relation to God. Peter uses amomou to indicate the absolute sinlessness of Christ, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or (amomou) defect” (First Peter 1:18-19).

A characteristic of genuine saving faith is that itYeshua Messiah will present you to His Father without defect and full of joy – both for Himself and for you (Hebrews 12:2 and First Peter 1:8). When the blemish of sin is gone we will rejoice in our sinless state before ADONAI with great joy (agalliasei). This is the word used by an angel who announced to Zacharias: Your wife will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a delight (agalliasis) to you (Luke 1:13b-14a). The word occurs again in Acts 2:46 to describe how believers broke bread and ate together in their homes with great joy (agalliasei). We see the verb form in First Peter 1:8, where Kefa describes our reaction when the Lord returns. We will be filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy. Therefore, God the Son will be able to present you to God the Father without defect and full of joy at the Rapture when we are taken up to heaven (see my commentary on Revelation, to see link click By – The Rapture of the Church).

Because the apostates deny Jesus Christ our only Master and Lord (Jude 4), and scoff at His return (Jude Aw – Remember What Our Lord Jesus Christ Foretold: There Will Be Scoffers Who Follow Ungodly Desires), they shut themselves out from all joy and unwittingly seal their ultimate doom as they appear before Him at the Great White Throne Judgment. While believers are safely in heaven in His presence, the Tribulation apostates will call out to the mountains and the rocks: Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of our wrath has come (see my commentary on Revelation Cq – The Sixth Seal: The Sun Turned Black Like Sackcloth).

Third, In the presence of His Sh’khinah glory (24c CJB). And we shall rejoice because no fault will be found in us. We are in Christ (Ephesians 1:1-14), and therefore found to be without defect (amomos). We are a part of the Blameless One, a Lamb without blemish or defect (First Peter 1:19). What an amazing thing that in Messiah we can be amomos, and be a perfectly acceptable offering to ADONAI. God is able to make us stand in the presence of His Sh’khinah glory (see Isaiah Ju – The Glory of the LORD Rises Upon You), though in ourselves we should shrink away from His presence. He has no charge against those who are accepted in His spotless Son, and if God is for us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31b)? This is indeed great cause for great joy (agalliasei).¹³⁰

Jude probably had his faithful readers in mind when he wrote this blessing. After all the pressure of contending for the faith in the wicked age to come, they can be seen standing before ADONAI like perfect sacrifices in His heavenly Temple. As if with one voice, they sing in the presence of His Sh’khinah glory: Then John confirmed: I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like the sound of peals of thunder, shouting:

Hallelujah! For ADONAI, God of heaven’s armies (CJB), has begun His reign!
Let us rejoice and be glad (agalliomen)
     and give Him glory;
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
     and His bride has made herself ready (Revelation 19:6-7).

The Concluding Blessing
Jude 24-25

Jude’s closing words form an appropriate conclusion of his letter to believers, for it ends very much like it began, with comforting words of assurance for God’s people living in days of mounting apostasy. Having called us to duty against the inevitable falling away (Second Thessalonians 2:3 NKJV), Jude commends us to the God of all grace who is able to keep us, as he has already pointed in Jude 1e. From his stern and somber warnings, to his charge of caring for the lost, Jude now turns in closing to say that only the indwelling of the Holy Spirit can make all this possible. Having set before us the facts of apostasy, and having encouraged us to be aware of it and not to be repulsed by it any less while mercifully rescuing others from it, Jude offers the highest praise to ADONAI who will not fail to keep and bless us as we sincerely and steadfastly contend for the faith that was once for all passed on to God’s people (Jude 3).¹²⁶

Be Merciful to Those Who Doubt,
Snatch Others from the Fire,
to Others Show Mercy, Mixed with Fear
Jude 22-23

Be merciful to those who doubt, snatch others from the fire, to others show mercy, mixed with fear DIG: What is the duty of a believer to the doubter who is just flirting with false teaching? To one already singed with evil? How does the rescuer avoid succumbing to the same danger as those who play with fire?

REFLECT: What goes on in your personal or extended family, at work, in your community, or even in your own church or messianic synagogue, which would fall in the range of Jude’s indicting sermon? How do you feel about witnessing to such as these? Is it an option, or is it a responsibility?

Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh (Jude 22-23).

Even the worst apostates, even to those most far gone in error and to those whose beliefs are the most dangerous, those who love the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have a binding duty not to destroy, but to save. Our aim must not be to banish them from the congregations of God, but to win them back into fellowship with us. In a real sense, when the power of reclaiming the lost dies out of the Church, it stops being the Church.¹¹⁸ Jude uses the thirteenth triad to categorize ministry to three categories of unbelieving people who, from the believer’s perspective, are both a menace and a mission field. They are the confused, the convinced and the committed.

First, to the confused, Jude says: Be merciful to those who doubt (Jude 22). There are those who are flirting with falsehood. They are obviously confused and attracted to the doctrinal error of the false teachers, but are hesitating. They have not lost their basic teachability, but they must be shown their error while there is still time. Because it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened (Hebrews 6:4a). The word translated once is literally once for all, meaning it never needed to be repeated. As those Hebrews listened to the gospel, the Holy Spirit enlightened their minds so they clearly understood it. They had tasted the heavenly gift (Hebrews 6:4b) of the Messiah (Second Corinthians 9:15) and the salvation He brought (Ephesians 2:8). This great gift, however, was not received. Tasting is not eating. The Ruach ha-Kodesh will give us a taste, but He won’t make us eat.

These unbelievers shared in the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 6:4c). The Greek word for shared is metochos and has to do with association, not possession. These Jews had never possessed the Holy Spirit, they were simply around when He was around. This word is used of fellow fishermen in Luke 5:7, and of Christ in relation to the angels in Hebrews 1:9. It has to do with sharing in common activity. In the context of Hebrews 6:4, it refers to anyone who has been where the Spirit has been ministering.¹¹⁹ They shared ministry with the Ruach ha-Kodesh insofar as an unsaved person can do, namely, they willingly received the truth of the gospel, which should have led them to faith. But they were confused and in danger of turning their backs upon the Holy Spirit and returning to the useless sacrifices of the Temple. The Spirit had led them into the edge of repentance. They realized and acknowledged their sin. They were intellectually convinced, but they needed to step over the line from knowledge to faith.¹²⁰

Like wolves in sheep’s clothing, these apostates prey on the weak (Second Timothy 3:6), who are indecisive, unsure and drowning in doubt (James 1:6-8; Psalms 73:13-16, 77:7-9). In fact, that was exactly what happened at both Corinth (Second Corinthians 11:3) and Galatia (Galatians 3:1-5). And it still happens today. Caught in the web of deception, some find themselves thoroughly confused – unsure of what is true and what isn’t. Those who are strong must show mercy to those who are torn between truth and error (Ephesians 4:14), commitment and noncommitment (Hebrews 3:7 to 4:13, 6:1-12). In reaching out to them, Jude calls us to be merciful, showing kindness, compassion, and sympathy to those who doubt. But showing mercy does not mean ignoring the seriousness of their sin. We are to love the sinner and hate the sin.

Those Hebrews had allowed the Holy Spirit to carry them along to the place of repentance. Now if they were to fall away and refuse the faith by which they could lay hold of their Savior, and return to the useless sacrifices of the TaNaKh, it would be impossible to bring them back to repentance again (Hebrews 6:6a). Therefore, today, we should show mercy, speaking plainly in meekness and patience, being diligent to present the truth of the Good News to the confused so that they will not be lost.¹²¹

Second, to the convinced, Jude declares: Snatch others from the fire and save them (Jude 23a). This second group of unbelievers have progressed beyond doubting, confusing and raising questions. It is no longer simply a matter of showing mercy; it takes a more direct approach and becomes the difficult task of rescuing those who are already convinced of false doctrines.

Snatch translates the Greek word harpazo, and is the same word used to picture believers being snatched out of this world at the rapture (see my commentary on Revelation, to see link click By – The Rapture of the Church). For the Lord Himself will come down from heaven, with a rousing cry, with the voice of the archangel, and with God’s shofar, those who died united with the Messiah will be the first to rise; then we who are left still alive will be caught up (from the Latin Vulgate: rapturo, or the Greek: harpazo) with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and thus we will always be with the Lord (First Thes 4:16-17). Harpazo can be translated, to carry off by force, to snatch out of the way of danger, or to seize and carry off speedily.

Jude undoubtedly was thinking of the imagery from the prophets. “I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah;
you were like a burning stick snatched from the fire;
still you haven’t returned to Me,” says Adonai (Amos 4:11). Because of those wicked cities’ refusal to repent, ADONAI finally overthrew some of their cities with the same burning devastation He had wreaked on Sodom and Gomorrah. So thorough had been the destruction from a military siege that certain cities had ceased to exist. The whole northern kingdom of Isra’el had come perilously close to obliteration, barely escaping like a burning stick snatched from the fire.

In his fourth vision, Zechariah saw the cleansing and crowning of Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest of the restoration who returned with Zerubbabel from Babylon. Then God the Father showed the prophet Joshua standing before the Angel of the LORD (the preincarnate Christ), with Satan standing at his right side to accuse him and the nation he represented. Adonai said to the Accuser, “May ADONAI rebuke you, Accuser! Indeed, may ADONAI, who has made Yerushalayim His choice, rebuke you” (Zechariah 3:1-2a CJB)! The Angel of the LORD proceeded to acquit Joshua, not because Satan’s accusations were false, but because of His gracious love and choice of His people Isra’el. God’s choice of Jerusalem, not specifically Joshua, was the basis of the rebuke.¹²² And then He said to the Accuser, “Isn’t this man a burning stick snatched from the fire” (Zechariah 3:2b CJB)? He said this because the Jews were snatched from the fire of the Babylonian Captivity to carry out God’s future purpose for them.

Even as Jude wrote his letter, he seemed to know of some who had already been drawn into the flame of the apostates. He pictured them as being singed by the very fire of hell, a foreboding picture of the eternal agony that would one day overcome them if they continued to embrace false teaching. As in the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds (Matthew 13:42 CJB), and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where people will wail and grind their teeth.

The only way to rescue such people is to completely destroy their false ideologies before it is too late. Only the power of ADONAI can do this (Second Corinthians 10:3-5). Yeshua modeled this principle during His earthly ministry. To those who were confused, unsure and filled with doubts, He patiently presented the gospel (John 4:10-26, 6:26-59). But, to those who had convinced themselves that error was truth, such as the scribes, Pharisees and their followers, He bluntly reminded them of the reality of their true spiritual condition (Matthew 12:1-37, 15:1-14; Luke 11:37-54; John 8:12-59). Therefore, just as believers are to be snatched from the wrath of the Great Tribulation by the rapture of the Church (First Thessalonians 5:9), unbelievers are to be snatched from the fire of hell.¹²³

In humility and faith we must be willing to be used of God to save them from the fire. ADONAI remains the ultimate source of salvation (Psalm 3:8; Jonah 2:9; Jn 1:12-13, 3:6-8; Eph 2:8), but He uses us to reach sinners (Acts 2:37-41, 4:1-4, 8:26-38, 13:46-48). James wrote: My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins (James 5:19).

Third, to the committed, Jude pronounces: To others show mercy, mixed with fear – hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh (Jude 23b). There are those who we must pray for and fear at the same time. These are the hard-core devotees of false teaching. Here, Jude is thinking of something that is always true. There is danger for the sinner, but there is also danger for the rescuer. Anyone who wants to cure an infectious disease runs the risk of infection. Jude tells us that we must hate the clothing stained by corrupted flesh. Almost certainly, he was thinking of the regulations of Leviticus 13:47-52, where we are told that clothing worn by a person with leprosy needed to be burned.¹²⁴

Before we can rescue others, our own faith must be strong. Our feet must be firm on the dry land before we can throw a lifeline to someone who is likely to be swept away. If we exhibit true godly fear in dealing with people whose sin could contaminate us, we should avoid their form of sin like the plague. We should avoid it, not travel on it; and turn from it (Proverbs 4:15) for fear that we would find ourselves infected. Yet we should be as merciful and compassionate as we can be, in view of what the Bible commands, and the Ruach ha-Kodesh enables us to do.

However, when the congregations of God do not deal properly with the spiritual contamination that false teachers can spread, the results can be devastating. For example, the Lord told the church in Sardis, I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead (Revelation 3:1a-b). The spiritual illness in this body was not obvious to the outside observer. In fact, it was known for its good deeds. They had a reputation of being alive, but, they were spiritually dead. Scattered like a few flowers in the desert, there were a few people in Sardis who had remained loyal to Christ (Revelation 4:1). The rest were committed to the apostasy, which separated them from God and killed the church.

The spiritual survival and prosperity of those who love Jesus, especially in growing times of apostasy, requires the utmost perseverance and care. We must be defensive – remembering what the Scriptures teach about the presence of false teachers. And we must also be proactive – diligently practicing the disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and obedience as we await the Messiah’s return. We must remember the Sha’ul’s warning: I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people (Romans 16:17-18).¹²⁵

Build Yourselves Up in Your Most Holy Faith
Jude 20-21

Build yourselves up in your most holy faith DIG: What characteristics of righteousness do you see here? Where else in the Bible is the Trinity taught? Why is this such an important doctrine? Why do you think that cults start with the denial of the trinity?

REFLECT: Someone has said, “All it takes for evil to prevail is for a few good men and women to do nothing.” What is one thing you could do this week to help keep this truism from becoming a reality where you live and work? What kind of spiritual “body building” plan could help you keep strong in God’s love?

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith, and pray in union with the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life (Jude 20-21).

Jude 20-23 are arguably the most important verses in the entire book. It is here that Jude spells out exactly how he wants us to pursue the purpose for which he has written this letter: that we contend for the faith that was once for all passed on to God’s people (Jude 3). So in addition to remembering what the prophets and apostles had to say about the apostates, Jude’s readers were to pay attention to themselves. Instead of wickedness, division, worldly thinking, we read of faith, love and mercy. Jude then presents the twelfth triad, based upon the Trinity.

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith (Jude 20a). Judah contrasts his dear friends, the righteous of the TaNaKh, with the ungodly apostates of Jude 4-19. Building up is epoikodomeo, which means to build upon, to finish the structure of which the foundation has already been laid. Jude’s readers are encouraged to build up their holy faith on the foundation of what God has done for them in salvation.

Faith here means, “What we believe,” the doctrinal and ethical core of our identity as believers. This was exactly what the false teachers were threatening. Therefore, we must remain doctrinally strong so we can recognize error and effectively fight the battle for truth. The present, active participle translated build yourselves up has a sense of urgency associated with it, meaning it is not optional.

The metaphor of building on the foundation is used elsewhere in the New Covenant. Sha’ul said that the only foundation of the Church is Yeshua Messiah, and people must build on that foundation rightly to receive a reward (First Corinthians 3:10-15). The foundation upon which the Church is built in Ephesians 2:20 is the apostles and prophets, with Christ being the chief cornerstone. Peter described believers as living stones that are being built into a spiritual house (First Peter 2:5). What Jude said here does not contradict Paul but represents a fresh use of the metaphor. The most holy faith upon which the Church is built is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this faith has Yeshua Messiah at its center.¹¹³

Practically speaking, this centers on studying the Word of God and learning to apply it. In Acts 20:32, Sha’ul tells the Ephesian elders: Now I commit you to God and to the Word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ADONAI gave the Church apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastor/teachers to proclaim His Word, that builds up the body of Messiah (Ephesians 4:11-12). Peter wrote that believers should desire the Word for spiritual growth, just as babies desire milk for their physical nourishment. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (First Peter 2:2). Along those same lines, John wrote: I write to you fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God lives in you and you have overcome the evil one (First John 2:14).¹¹⁴

First, and pray in union with God the Holy Spirit (Jude 20b). This expression does not refer to speaking in tongues (see my commentary on Isaiah, to see link click Fm – With Foreign Lips and Strange Tongues God Will Speak to This People), but to praying for what is consistent to the Spirit’s will, His desires, directives and decrees. The phrase with the Holy Spirit is locative of sphere. That is, all true prayer is exercised in the sphere of the Holy Spirit, motivated and empowered by Him. That means if we expect to really pray, we must be Spirit-filled, or Spirit-controlled.¹¹⁵

The essence of our faith is our total dependence on ADONAI. Pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people (Ephesians 6:18 CJB). Believers must be men and women of prayer for two reasons. First, we know that we must test everything by the will of the LORD, and, as a result, we must take everything to God for His approval. Second, we know that in ourselves we can do nothing, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26) and, therefore, we must always be taking our weaknesses to God’s strength.

Second, keep (teresate from the root tereo) yourselves in the love of God the Father (Jude 21a). This is also in the locative sphere; meaning, keep themselves in the sphere of God’s love. In other words, they are to watch out that they live their lives within the circle of God’s blessing (Romans 5:5, 8:39; First John 4:16). We are not to read this caution as though it reads, “Keep on loving God,” although we obviously need to do that. It is not our love for Him that is in view here, but His love for us. This passage is similar to John 15:9 where we read: As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. We bear the responsibility to keep ourselves in the sphere of God’s love so He can bless us. The prodigal son (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Hu – The Parable of the Lost Son and His Jealous Brother) was still loved by his father even when he went far away to another country. But the son had removed himself from the place where he could enjoy the benefits of his father’s love to the fullest. He did not keep himself in his father’s love.

How then do we follow this command? The answer is given to us by John: If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love (John 15:10). To remain, is to keep ourselves in the sunshine of His love. We remain when we obey the Word of God.

Third, as you wait (prosdechomenoi, or looking expectantly) for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 21b). Referring to Messiah’s mercy is unusual in the New Covenant. Why did Jude speak of it here? Probably because he thought of believers as needing mercy, and not justice, on the last day when we meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). It is true that grace is the basis upon which we receive eternal life. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9). He did not believe, however, that we will ever be perfect in this world, and therefore we will need Yeshua’s mercy on the last day.¹¹⁶ When He returns there will be judgment on the rebels, but mercy for us.

As you wait for the mercy of our Lord to bring you to eternal life (Jude 21c). This is the role of God the Son. The focus is on the return of the Lord, which is the blessed hope for all believers: the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ (Titus 2:13). This event is called the Rapture (see my commentary on Revelation By – The Rapture of the Church), through which Messiah will remove the believers from the coming days of the Great Tribulation. Then we will enjoy eternal life in the presence of God (1 Peter 1:5-13).

The question of eternal life, commonly called the security of the believer, is an important one. Once saved, Satan’s goal is to have you become an ineffective believer by having you question your walk or your salvation itself (see the Screwtape Letters, by C. S. Lewis). The Adversary will come against you and say things like, “Believers don’t talk like that,” or “Believers don’t look at those things,” or “Believers wouldn’t be caught dead doing that.” That’s when you need to be rock solid in the fact of your salvation, or the devil will rob your joy (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer).

This section began with an inward look at the character of the believer: we are to be building. It continued with an outward look at everything and everyone for whom we should intercede: we should by praying. Then we took an upward look at the one who loves us and who has made us His children: we are to keep ourselves in God’s love. Lastly, we look forward to the return of our Savior and the beginning of eternal life with Him: we are looking for the final display of His mercy.¹¹⁷

These Are the People Who Divide You,
Worldly-Minded, Who Do Not Have the Spirit
Jude 19 and First Corinthians 2:14

These are the people who divide you, worldly-minded, who do not have the Spirit DIG: What characteristics of wickedness do you see here? How did the apostates divide the flock? How did they compare with the Pharisees of Jesus’ day? How were they like the Gnostics? What example do we have of this in the Bible? In what way were they worldly-minded or lacking? What is the old nature? 

REFLECT: Can people with whom you associate with or work with see a difference in you? Or do you talk and act like everybody else? If you were arrested for being a believer – would there be enough evidence to convict? Just what is that evidence?

These are the people who divide you, worldly-minded, who do not have the Spirit (Jude 19).

The person without the Spirit [the natural man] does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit (First Corinthians 2:14).

Jude now connects the prophecy of the prophets and the apostles to his own readers with the term these (houtoi). The wolves in sheep’s clothing in their midst were predicted by the prophets and the apostles. Jude was not suggesting that the prophets and apostles were thinking of one specific congregation. They prophesied that the Church in general would experience the onslaught of the apostates.¹⁰⁶ In another threefold cord of divine truth, Jude describes future mockers in his eleventh triad. These people make separations, are sensual and lack the Holy Spirit.

First, these are the people who divide you (Jude 19a). Once again we are faced with a Greek word found nowhere else in the New Testament. The word for divide, apodiorizo, means to make a distinction. This distinction points to the limits that ADONAI has communicated in His Word for the control of human conduct. People sin when they overstep these divine limits. An apostate scoffs at the limits of the Bible, denies the authority of the Word of God, and lives outside the boundaries that true believers respect. As a result, they cause divisions within the universal Church.

The other side of this truth was given by Paul when he wrote to the church at Corinth: I hear that when you gather together as a congregation you divide up into cliques, and to a degree I believe it. No doubt there have to be (dei) differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval (First Corinthians 11:19 CJB and NIV). The English phrase: there have to be translates the single Greek word dei, which means it is necessary or it must be, and indicates necessity or pressure of any kind. When Peter and the other apostles were told by the Sanhedrin (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Lg – The Great Sanhedrin), to stop preaching the gospel, they replied: We must obey (dei) God rather than men (Acts 5:29)! The word is often used in the B’rit Chadashah to represent divine necessity. Yeshua used it many times in relation to certain divinely appointed events including His crucifixion and resurrection (Matthew 24:6, 26:54; John 3:14). The Lord Himself even said: Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come (dei), but woe to the person through whom they come (Matthew 18:7)! That is the sense in which Paul uses the term above.

The worldliness and fleshly disobedience of those who cause the divisions would expose and highlight the love, harmony, and spirituality of those who have God’s approval. Approved (dokimos) refers to that which has passed a test. The term was used of precious metals tried in fire and proved to be pure. Divisions within the congregations of God, sinful as it is, nonetheless is used by ADONAI to prove the worth of His holy ones (Deuteronomy 33:2-3; Job 5:1; Psalm 16:3 and 34:9 and Jude 1). In the midst of the bickering and divisiveness true believers are separated out as pure gold is from the dross. Evil helps to reveal good. Divisions in the local congregation caused by unbelievers, creates an opportunity for true spiritual strength, wisdom, and leadership to be displayed (First Thessalonians 2:3-4).¹⁰⁷

These people portrayed themselves as superior to everyone else. Like the Pharisees, they were arrogant (Luke 16:15, 18:9 and 11), condescending (Matthew 23:4-5), sticking to their self-styled set of rules (Mark 7:5-8), and their own understanding of the “truth” (Matthew 16:6, 11-12). Instead of putting others before themselves, which is the true key to spiritual unity (Philippians 2:1-4), they exalted themselves and their own agendas. Naturally, the end result was division and strife in the congregations of God.¹⁰⁸

The Gnostics (see Ac – Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose) divided people into two categories: those who were tied to this life and could not rise above it, and those who could come into possession of true “knowledge” and were truly spiritual. Some people are ready to listen to anything new and different, who are ready to be swept away by whatever new wind of teaching might be blowing. Others, however, better established in the faith, resisted. So it is as if Jude was saying, “Very well then. You want a distinction to be made . . . you shall have it. You will be set apart for destruction.”

We need only turn back one book in our Bibles to find a picture of Jude 19. Diotrephes is mentioned as a man who caused a division in one of the churches in the province of Asia by refusing to receive the apostle John. The reason was that Diotrephes loved to be first (Third John 9a), in which he overstepped the biblical principle: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves (Philippians 2:3). He also exhibited other characteristics of apostasy. As John wrote: Diotrephes doesn’t recognize our authority . . . and if that weren’t enough for him, he refuses to recognize the brothers’ authority either; moreover, he stops those who want to do so and tries to drive them out of the congregation (Third John 9b-10 CJB). It is noteworthy that John wrote in the very next verse: Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God (Third John 11c). There was Diotrephes doing evil within the church. He had not seen God, nor beheld the Lamb of God – he was apostate, a false teacher.

Second, these people are psuchikos or worldly-minded (Jude 19b). Psuchikos can also be translated as sensual. But the word does not mean debauchery, as in Jude 4d, nor the lustful desires of sinful human nature (Jude 16d and Second Peter 2:18); but rather, limited to the realm of the senses, or dominated by the soul. Humans consist of spirit, soul and body (First Thessalonians 5:23). The spirit is the higher part of us, giving us God-consciousness. The soul is the self, the personality, the seat of emotions and the will. The Greek word used here is the same word Paul used in First Corinthians 2:14 in describing the natural man (or natural woman), which means they are not saved. Believers are normally spiritual if they are obedient to the Word of God, although they may be carnal, or infants in Christ (First Corinthians 3:1). They are never said to be sensual. Unsaved people, on the other hand, are natural, dominated by their emotions. The [natural] man without the [Holy] Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. This points out that the future mockers will not simply be believers who go astray. But rather, they are religious terrorists.

But you, you do not identify with your old nature but with the Spirit — provided the Spirit of God is living inside you, for anyone who doesn’t have the Spirit of the Messiah doesn’t belong to Him (Romans 8:9 also see John 3:5). The imposters had never become part of the family of ADONAI. There is no passage of Scripture that could be made the basis for the concept that the [natural] man was ever anything but an unsaved man. Apostates are people who never became children of the LORD no matter how deeply they may have been moved by the Good News, no matter how public their profession of faith may have been, no matter how prominent the positions they may have held in the congregation of God. These are sensual, worldly-minded people who are not, and never were saved.¹⁰⁹

We can now see how cleverly Jude deals with these people, who say the rest of the world is psuchikoi, while they are the pneumatikoi. But Jude turns the words around and charges them. “It is you,” he thunders at them, “who are the psuchikoi, the flesh-dominated; it is you who possess no pneuma, no real knowledge and no experience of God.” Jude is saying to these people that although they think of themselves as the spiritual elite, they are in the spiritual gutter. Those whom they despise are actually much better off than they are themselves. The truth about these so-called intellectual and spiritual giants was that all they really wanted to do was sin, so they twisted their supposed faith into an excuse to do it.¹¹⁰

There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them (Second Timothy 3:1-5).

Third, and as if to drive the point home, Jude adds that they do not have the Spirit of God (Jude 19c), and so are dead in their sins (Ephesians 2:1). Even though the false teachers claimed to be the spiritual ones, they were dreamers (Jude 8), and did not know Him at all – they did not have the Spirit of God (also see Romans 8:9). The truth is that they were physically alive (psuchikoi), but because the Holy Spirit had never regenerated them, they were spiritually dead. They were religious frauds who paid lip service to faith and spiritual life but denied such claims by their actions. As Paul told Titus, “They claim to know God, but with their actions they deny Him. They are detestable and disobedient; they have proved themselves unfit to do anything good” (Titus 1:16).¹¹¹

A true believer is baptized in/by/with (en pneumati, all three words can be translated interchangeably in Greek) the Spirit into the body of Christ, indwelt by the Spirit, taught by the Spirit, and led by the Spirit. An apostate knows nothing of any of these things. But you can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father” (Galatians 4:6 The Message)! Jude’s words are some of the most solemn in the entire Bible. One who does not pay attention to the limits established in the Word of God to live by is worldly-minded and doesn’t have the Spirit of the Messiah. Short of turning to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, such a one is lost forever.¹¹²

Rabbi Sha’ul was correct when he wrote: For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of [false] teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (Second Timothy 4:3-4). As a result, the words of the prophets and apostles are confirmed by the words of Jude (see Aw – Remember What Our Lord Jesus Christ Foretold: There Will Be Scoffers Who Follow Ungodly Desires).

Remember What Our Lord Jesus Christ Foretold:
There Will Be Scoffers Who Follow Ungodly Desires
Jude 17-18 and Second Peter 3:2-3

Remember what our Lord Jesus Christ foretold, there will be scoffers who follow ungodly desires DIG: What turning point in the book of Jude takes place here? What two groups does he say have warned us in the past about the coming apostasy? In what way should we remember their words? Why shouldn’t the actions and words of the false teachers surprise us today? When did the last days begin? What do they particularly scoff at? What do they follow?

REFLECT: How does Jude point out that what was going on in the congregations of the LORD should be expected today? How do you remember the words of the prophets and apostles? What can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones against the sexual tsunami that is so prevalent in the world today?

But as for you, God’s beloved ones, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you: In the acharit-hayamim, or last days there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires (Jude 17-18).

I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires (Second Peter 3:2-3).

Jude follows the same structure as that found in Second Peter, Chapters 2 and 3. In Chapter 2, Peter dealt with the issue of false teachers who would appear in the immediate future; and in Chapter 3, he dealt with the issue of scoffers who would appear in the distant future. In the preceding verses, Jude 4-16, he wrote about counterfeit teachers who had already arrived. Now, in Jude 17-19, he writes about the distant future when mockers will appear, and he issues warnings against them.¹⁰¹

But as for you (in contradiction to the apostates), God’s beloved ones (Jude 17a). The noun shifts from these (houtoi) to you (hymeis). The pronoun you is emphatic, placed first in the sentence, thus indicating that Jude is turning toward the encouragement of his readers. The word beloved does not refer to Jude’s love for those to whom he was writing, but to the fact that all believers are beloved of ADONAI. The word is agapao, the distinctive word for love used in John 3:16, for instance. This signals a major transition, as did the same phrase at the beginning of his brief letter. In Jude 3 he began the body of the letter after a brief introduction in Jude 1-2. Here, he shifts from the denunciation of the rebels in Jude 5-16, to the encouragement of the faithful in Jude 17-23.

I want you (believers in Jude’s own day) to remember the words spoken in the past by the prophets. With the word remember, Jude uses the first of several imperatives. In Jude 5 he wanted to remind his readers of the judgment God brought on apostates in the past. In other words, while contrasted in their content, Jude 5-16 and Jude 17-19 are parallel in form. Both bring a reminder to Jude’s readers about the false teachers. The Greek word for: spoken in the past is a perfect passive participle, indicating that the words and the message are still valid today.

What the readers must do is remember the words that the Bible previously spoke to them. Remembering in Scriptures does not involve mere mental recollection, like when we remember someone’s name that we had temporarily forgotten. Remembering in the biblical sense means that we take to heart the words spoken, so that they are imprinted on our lives and we can actually live them out.¹⁰² Not being perfect, but sanctified, we are conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29).

I also want you to remember the words spoken by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and what He foretold through your apostles (Jude 17b; 2 Peter 3:2). Peter wanted to emphasize that the commands of the apostles actually represented the words of Yeshua. Those commands were the moral norms that believers were expected to follow. In other words, the moral standard for believers was summed up in the teaching of Messiah Himself. The apostate teachers, on the other hand, were notorious for their immoral lifestyle.

New Covenant revelation came through your apostles. Jude obviously takes for granted that the apostolic warning to which he refers was well known to his readers (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Cy – These are the Names of the Twelve Apostles). Paul also gave similar warnings. In Acts 20:28-30 CJB, he warned: Watch out for yourselves, and for all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as leaders, to shepherd God’s Messianic community, which He won for Himself at the cost of His own Son’s blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you; and they won’t spare the flock. Even from among your own number, men will arise and teach perversions of the truth, in order to drag away disciples after themselves.

The apostle Paul continued his warning in First Timothy 4:1: The Holy Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons, and in Second Timothy 3:1-3 he said: There will be terrible times in the last days when men and women will give terrible evidence of their apostasy. In addition, John also speaks of such people (1 John 2:19, 4:1; and 2 John 7-11).

Peter said: First of all, the appearance of people like this is no surprise. They (the apostles) said to you, “You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires” (Jude 18; Second Peter 3:3). The imperfect tense of “They said to you,” points to the repeated nature of the apostolic warnings. And the Greek word empaiktes, translated mockers in Jude and scoffers in Peter are found nowhere else in the Bible. A scoffer ridicules the Word of God, especially the promise that the Messiah will return to reclaim the earth. They will say: Where is the promise of His coming? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation (Second Peter 3:4).

It seems clear that the rebels laughed at those who refused to go with them down the path of their own lusts; people who still had a sense of morality and “old fashioned” standards, unlike the supposedly superior Gnostics like themselves, who were exploiting their so-called freedom in Christ (see Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). The apostate teachers were claiming to be so Spirit-filled that there was no room for the kind of morality that Yeshua talked about. They claimed that grace was so abundant that their “sin” would result in even more grace (see Ah – Godless People Have Secretly Slipped In Among You). They claimed that the salvation of the soul was all that mattered, and what a person does with their body doesn’t matter because it will turn to dust anyway. Those who fussed about sexual purity seemed to them to be astonishingly naïve.¹⁰³

In the acharit-hayamim, or last times (Jude 18a) does not contradict the fact that the prophecies were directed to Jude’s readers. The righteous of the TaNaKh believed that the last days had started with the coming of Yeshua, His death, and resurrection. The writer to the Hebrews could say, therefore, that in these last days ADONAI has spoken to us by His Son (He 1:2; Acts 2:17; 1 Peter 1:20), indicating that the last days had arrived. Similarly, in both First Timothy 4:1 and Second Timothy 3:1 the coming of the apostates are said to be in later times and in the last days respectively. Paul fully expected this prophecy to be fulfilled in the false teaching that was undermining the church at Ephesus. This reminds us of Jude 4a, where he wrote: For certain people whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.

There will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires (Jude 18b). The same people who are compared to brute beasts in Jude 10 are said to be led by lust, as an animal is led around with a ring in its nose. The animal walks obediently after its master; these walk after ungodly desires. Neither the captive animals nor the apostates enslaved by sin have a choice. They will go wherever they are led. In other words the false teachers are slaves. They may talk about the freedom to do whatever they please, and despise believers who live lives of holiness in the fear of God as best they can, but the plain truth is that the these rebels have enslaved themselves to corruption.¹⁰⁴

Jude portrays the counterfeit teachers as generally mocking the LORD and His moral standards. They are so intent on satisfying their ungodly desires that they have no room left for God. They will give free reign to their passions and debauchery because they have no capacity for holiness. Since their hearts are not transformed, all they can do is pursue their ungodly desires like brute beasts. By labeling their desires as ungodly, Jude reminds us of his main accusation against them (Jude 18:b and 15).¹⁰⁵

There is a sexual tsunami in today’s world. Sex education in kindergarten (more like indoctrination), communal bathrooms, and distribution of birth control pills without respect to age are common now. Abortions, adultery and pornography at an all time high (see my commentary on Exodus Dq – You Shall Not A Commit Adultery). But, more than that, the sexual content in the visual media is unbelievable. You can’t have a situation “comedy” that will be a success unless people are in bed together and sex is talked about constantly. The acceptance of homosexuality has to be in almost every show that wants to get ratings. Even the cars are sexy these days. All social barriers have been abandoned. Pornography is so available on the Internet that pretty soon the only thing left to see will be internal organs.

What used to be obscene is now commonplace. If you speak up at school, especially at college, about a personal relationship with the Lord, a belief in the Second Coming, in the authority of the Word of God and in the judgment of sin, you will be mocked. If you believe in “old fashioned” ideas like being against abortion, or believing in abstinence before marriage, or marriage between a man and a woman, you will be scoffed at by the pneumatikoi, the “enlightened” Gnostics of today, just as surely as believers were in Jude’s day.

The Defense Against Apostates
Jude 17-23

Jude is known for his condemnation of apostate teachers. As a result, many people instantly think of his letter as basically having a negative message – and one not very applicable to believers who are not involved in any false teaching. That is very understandable because Jude 5-16 does nothing but criticize and condemn people who are wolves in sheep’s clothing, teaching false doctrine and leading ungodly lives. But Jude does much more than this. We should not forget that his letter was not written to apostate teachers – it was written to faithful believers. They were faced with a tsunami of false teaching in the congregations of God, and needed reassurance and instruction. This is exactly what Jude provided for them. Thus, the long central, negative section of the letter, must be seen as serving the bigger picture of Jude 3-4 and 17-23.

The two passages above have much in common. Both begin with the words: God’s Beloved ones. Both talk about godless people (Jude 4 and 18-19). Both appeal to past teaching to make their points: The condemnation of the apostates was written about long ago (Jude 4), and the coming of the false teachers was foretold by the apostles (Jude 17). And, just as Jude urged believers to contend for the faith that was once for all passed on to God’s people (Jude 3), he now encourages them to build yourselves up in your most holy faith (Jude 20a). By these means, Jude demonstrates that he is now returning to the topic that he had started at the beginning: the way we should respond to false teaching.

Specifically, Jude tells his original readers to do three things: (1) They are to remember that the apostles themselves had predicted the kind of false teaching they were experiencing (Jude 17-19). From a strictly human viewpoint, those false teachers had secretly slipped in (Jude 4). But, ADONAI knew all along that they were coming. It was no surprise to Him. He was still in control. Therefore, this reminder would reassure Jude’s readers that the LORD knew what was happening in their midst. (2) Jude’s original readers were to devote themselves to their own spiritual growth (Jude 20-21). They must not allow the apostates to sidetrack them from their own development in the faith. (3) Jude’s original readers were to reach out to those infected by the false teaching (Jude 22-23). Withdrawal into their own spiritual cave was not enough, his readers needed to do what they could to reclaim those people before it was too late.¹⁰⁰

These People are Grumblers and Faultfinders
Who Follow Their Own Evil Desires
Jude 16 and Second Peter 2:18

These people are grumblers and faultfinders who follow their own evil desires DIG: How does this image condemn these men? What is their grumbling like? How do they show their discontentment? How do they speak? What drives their behavior? Who do they go after? Why is Jude describing them to us in such detail?

REFLECT: We are not supposed to judge others, that’s left up to Messiah. The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son (John 5:22)? But, we are to be fruit inspectors. We must be able to recognize these apostates by their lack of fruit. What do their negative traits say to you about how you want to live your life? What do you need to change? How can you be their polar opposite?

These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage (Jude 16).

For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error (Second Peter 2:18).

The congregations of God will be without excuse if they fail to recognize these apostates when they appear. Over and over again Jude uses very plain language to describe them. What are they like? These . . . pollute their own bodies; these . . . speak abusively against whatever they do not understand; these . . . are hidden rocks; these . . . are ungodly; these . . . are grumblers; these . . . are faultfinders. Jude draws portrait after portrait. He boldly writes of these and their characteristics so that we will know them for what they are, whenever we find that they have slipped in among believers like wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Every generation since the days of the apostles has seen false teachers among their number and wondered if they were living in the days leading up to the Rapture (see my commentary on Revelation, to see link click Bg – The Sequence of Pretribulational Events). And each generation, aware of the darkness that seems to be gaining momentum, wonders if things could get any worse. Here, Jude describes the last three characteristics of the imposters in the tenth triad. Here, he uses two words that were very familiar to his Jewish readers.

The first word is goggustes, and it occurs only here in the New Covenant. These are people who are discontented and complain. Enoch prophesied about ungodly people, and these are the ones he was talking about. They are grumblers (16a). They are always cursing their bad luck. Satisfied about nothing they complain about everything. What they don’t want they’ve got, what they long for they don’t have. Like a constant drip of water on your forehead, it seems like their complaining will never end. Goggustes doesn’t refer to people with a loud, outspoken dissatisfaction, but to an undertone of resentful discontent. This is the same term the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the TaNaKh), uses to describe Isra’el’s complaining against the LORD (Exodus 16:7-9; Numbers 11:1, 14:27-29, 16:41, 17:5 and 10). Whenever someone gets out of touch with ADONAI they are likely to begin complaining about something.

The also verb occurs in Matthew 20:11, of the grumbling of the laborers who saw others receiving a day’s wages for an hour’s worth of work: When they received [their pay] they began to grumble against the landowner (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Il – The Rich Young Ruler). Rabbi Sha’ul uses the verb to describe the discontented grumbling of the Israelites in the wilderness: And do not grumble, as some of them did (Numbers 16:41) and were killed by the destroying Angel (First Corinthians 10:10). But, a still more interesting use of the verb is found in John 6:41, where it is stated that the Jews began to grumble about [Christ] because He said: I AM the bread that came down from heaven. They grumbled at Him because He told them the truth (John 8:45). Ironically, they grumbled at the offer of eternal life, at the declarations of His deity, at the Holy one of Israel whom they said: Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know (John 6:42)? The apostates of Jude’s day were the equivalent of the grumbling children of Isra’el and unbelieving Sanhedrin (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Lg – The Great Sanhedrin) of Messiah’s own day, people full of stubborn discontent and sullen disobedience.⁹⁵

They are still with us today.

The second word is memspimoios. These people are faultfinders against God’s holy purposes and plans (Jude 16b), a fact that Jude illustrated earlier when he compared them with the unbelieving Israelites (Aj), the fallen angels (Ak), the degenerates of Sodom and Gomorrah (Al), and Cain, Korah and Balaam (Aq). The Greek word is memspimoios, from memphomai, to find fault with, and moria, a part or lot. The compound word means blamers of their lot, complaining about one’s lot in life, or discontented. A faultfinder is someone who can always find something to be discontented about in any situation. They can find some fault in the best of bargains, the kindest of deeds, the most complete success, and the richest of good fortune. Godliness with contentment is great gain (First Timothy 6:6), but these counterfeit rebels are chronically discontented with life and with the place in life that ADONAI has placed them. There are few people more unpopular than chronic faultfinders; and anyone who has that tendency might do well to remember that such an attitude is, in its own way, an insult to the LORD.⁹⁶

Third, they speak with pride and arrogance, yet at the same time they are ready to pander to others if they think they can get anything out of it. For they mouth empty, boastful words, about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage financially (Jude 16c). They are smooth talkers. It is common for them to talk themselves up in front of people they want to impress, but also butter up those whom they think are important (as the occasion demands). They seek the favor of men and reject the grace of God.

Jude reiterates a point about these counterfeit teachers that he has made again and again. Their conduct is governed by their sinful nature. To them, self-discipline and self-control are nothing; to them, morality is only a burden and a nuisance; honor and duty are not even in their vocabulary; they have no desire to serve others and no sense of responsibility. Their only value is pleasure, and their only motivating force are their evil desires. They live their lives by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature (Jude 16d and Second Peter 2:18). The present participle appealing describes their lustful desires as being insatiable. The sinful human nature is what they catch hold of to lead their hearers into sin and away from God. In this regard Yeshua said: The prince of this world is coming, [but] He has no hold on Me (John 14:30b).

But these apostates do not go after just anybody. Like a sexual predator, they have a sixth sense for vulnerable people. Cleverly picking their targets, they entice people who are just barely escaping from those in the world who live in error (Second Peter 2:18). The present participle of escaping indicates an ongoing process. The word entice (deleazousin) repeats the same term as in Second Peter 2:14, but there it is interpreted as seduce. The word entice is associated with bait for hunting and fishing. So the false teachers are as misleading and seductive like a hunter who attempts to catch his prey.⁹⁷

Their victims are men and women who, through their own human efforts, are trying to better themselves. They include people who struggle with broken relationships, wrestle with emotional “felt needs” and spiritual problems. Having a deep desire for relief from guilt, anxiety and stress they are seeking answers in life. But that does not mean they are truly saved. In fact, in their dissatisfaction, loneliness, and self-help attempts, they are even more vulnerable to the seductive exploitations of these rebels.⁹⁸

These Gnostic teachers (see Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose) are clouds without rain and autumn trees without fruit because they do not lead people to the truth, but into error. Instead of providing people with the water of life, they only give broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jer 2:13). Thus, in unflinching terms, Jude clearly identified these apostates, while at the same time exposing their character in order to warn believers of their true nature and final destiny. Jude was laying the groundwork to call his readers to action against these ungodly people and their practices.⁹⁹

Instead of grumbling and complaining, the Word of God urges us to do everything without complaining or arguing (Philippians 2:14); not to live to satisfy our own lustful desires, but rather live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16); to cling to sound teaching (Second Timothy 1:13), in the place of empty, boastful words; not flattering others for our own advantage, but preaching the Word (Second Timothy 4:2a); committing the Scriptures to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others (Second Timothy 2:2); and contend for the faith that was once for all passed on to God’s people (Jude 3).

Enoch, the Seventh Generation from Adam,
also Prophesied about These People
Jude 14-15

Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, also prophesied about these people DIG: What categories of prophets were there in the TaNaKh? What kind was Enoch? Why is his prophecy important to us? What was the topic of his prophecy (Revelation 19:20)? What extra biblical book does Jude quote from? Why did he quote it? How do you feel about that? Was Jude endorsing the whole book? How can we be sure what Jude quotes comes from God and not of man? Why does Jude put the Lord’s coming in the past tense? What does Jude say Yeshua is coming to do?

REFLECT: What do you think of when you read about the Second Coming? People need the Lord, but do we believe it enough to do something about it? Do you give sacrificially to those who are on the front lines of spreading the gospel? Do you believe it enough to share the Good News to a “good” coworker or a “moral” neighbor? We should never again read about God’s future judgment in the end times without being moved by these questions.

Enoch, the seventh [generation] from Adam, prophesied about these people. See, the Lord is coming with thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him (Jude 14-15 NLT).

If it were not for Jude, we would not know practically anything about Enoch’s prophecy spoken before the Flood. Early in the first book of the Bible we read about the great antediluvian civilization (Genesis 4:17-22). We also know something about the wickedness of those days (Genesis 6:1-5), but ADONAI did not give us a written revelation of antediluvian prophecy until His Word was almost completed.

Jude returns to a theme introduced earlier, namely, that God determined the judgment of the apostates in the distant past (to see link click Ah – Godless People Have Secretly Slipped in Among You). The prophecy of Enoch demonstrates that the false teachers were destined for judgment from the very beginning. They had no hope of ultimately triumphing. Enoch prophesied that long ago the LORD would come and judge all who lived ungodly lives. Their ungodliness reveals itself in both their works and their words.⁸⁶

For three hundred years Enoch preached a message of judgment for the ungodly. Without question, his personal walk with God would have been obvious in the power of his zealous preaching. He faithfully warned the world about the coming wrath of ADONAI. Even though he would never see that judgment himself, he faithfully declared it nonetheless. Three generations later, his great-grandson Noah took up the same cause: And God did not spare the ancient world; on the contrary, He preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, and brought the Flood upon a world of ungodly people (Second Peter 2:5 CJB).

Jude caps his denunciation of the false teachers with a prophecy. This in itself is not unusual, the writers of the B’rit Chadashah often applied ancient prophecies to their own situations. But what is unusual about this prophecy is its source. Enoch, the seventh [generation] from Adam (see my commentary on Genesis Bv – Enoch was the Father of Methuselah and Walked with God for 300 Years), prophesied about these people (Jude 14a). Jude begins to conclude his third main division, the Description of Apostates – Jude 8-16 (Am), by dealing with the judgment of the imposters as prophesied by Enoch. Jude referred to Enoch as the seventh from Adam because he was the seventh [generation] following Adam: (1) Adam, (2) Seth, (3) Enosh, (4) Kenan, (5) Mahalalel, (6) Jared and then (7) Enoch. Seven is the perfect number, it emphasizes the stature of Enoch (see my commentary on Genesis Ae – The Number Seven).⁸⁷

There were written prophets like Isaiah, but there were also oral prophets like Enoch. He is the only prophet from the centuries before the Flood whose words have been preserved for us. This puts Enoch in good company. Moses, Paul, and Peter spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit (Second Peter 1:21). Moses went even further back into the past when he wrote about the story of creation. Sha’ul named the magicians of Egypt of whom Moses left no written record (2 Timothy 3:8), and quoted a statement by Christ not found in the gospels (Acts 20:35). Peter informs us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness (Second Peter 2:5), a fact of which we would otherwise be ignorant about.⁸⁸

When Jude deals with the purpose of the Second Coming, he presents the ninth triad. See, the Lord (kurios) Jesus is coming with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones (Jude 14b). This prophecy does not appear in Scripture apart from Jude. It is found, however, in the book of First Enoch 1:9 and 5:4, which is one of the Pseudepigrapha and falsely attributed to the biblical Enoch. It is a Jewish book attributed to famous biblical figures like Enoch (Genesis 5:18-24) during the last three centuries before the coming of the Messiah. Again, Jude is not authenticating the entire book, but only verifying that one statement in First Enoch is true. But all of Jude is included in the canon of Scripture, so we can be sure it is inspired by God the Holy Spirit. The fact is that Jude, a pious Jew, knew and loved First Enoch and had grown up in a community where it was regarded with respect and even reverence; took his quotation from it quite naturally, knowing that his readers would recognize and respect it. He did not verify the whole book, he was simply doing what all the New Covenant writers did, speaking to people in a language that they recognized and understood.⁸⁹

It had to be widely known that the historical Enoch did not write the book itself. Perhaps the inspired author wanted everyone to know that he was talking about the Enoch from the book of Genesis by calling Enoch, the seventh from Adam. The historical Enoch was very interesting to the Jews during the second Temple period, since he did not die but was taken into the presence of ADONAI (Genesis 5:23-24). The book of Hebrews confirms it: By faith, Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God (Hebrews 11:5). Jewish writers concluded from this that heavenly secrets were given to Enoch. Therefore, it is not surprising that he was an agent of revelation in Jewish literature like the book of Enoch.⁹⁰

When Jesus Christ returns at the Second Coming, He will come with His holy ones (Deuteronomy 33:2-3; Job 5:1; Psalms 16:3 and 34:9; Zechariah 14:5 and Jude 1) who were taken up into heaven in the Rapture. The term thousands upon thousands, or myriads (which is the English spelling of the Greek word), means in the singular ten thousand, and in the plural as it is here, an innumerable multitude, or an unlimited number.⁹¹

Zechariah looked forward to the day when: ADONAI my God will come to you with all the holy ones (Zechariah 14:5b CJB). It is clearly taught in the B’rit Chadashah that angels will accompany Yeshua when He returns (Matthew 16:27, 25:31; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; First Thessalonians 3:13; Second Thessalonians 1:7). The inclusion of angels at His Second Coming tells us that it will be both stunning and majestic.⁹²

The Lord’s coming is a sure thing. Enoch looked at what was unveiled before his eyes, and said, as if in astonishment: See, the Lord came. The first prophecy ever given through a man, like the last (Revelation 22:20), has nothing to do with Messiah’s First Coming in grace to bring salvation, but with His Second Coming to bring judgment. When Jude reveals this (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) he actually uses the past tense – came. This is the historic tense of prophecy. The aorist tense of the verb came was used because Enoch spoke in a vision in which the future appears to him as the present (really a prophetic past) as in Isaiah 9:6 and 53:4. Nothing can change the facts of history after they have already happened. Nor can anyone, or anything, prevent an event that ADONAI has determined. Enoch looked at what God unveiled before his eyes and said with confidence: See, the Lord came! So we can be sure that Jesus will come and that He will do exactly as Enoch prophesied.⁹³ It is such a sure thing that the Messiah views it as if it has already happened.

First, He is coming to execute judgment on the people of the world (Jude 15a NLT). The Lord came once to bring salvation; He will come again to bring judgment (Hebrews 9:26-28). Jude’s word for judgment is krisei. Christ used the same word when He spoke of the judgment of two towns in Galilee that did not believe in Him even after witnessing His miracles: Woe to you, Korazin! Woe to you Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting on sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you (Luke 10:13-14). It is the word found in Hebrews 10:27: A certain fearful looking for judgment; and in Second Peter 3:7, the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly people.

Our Lord declared plainly that no believer will ever come into judgment. Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent Me has eternal life – that is, they will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life (John 5:24 CJB)! We will appear before Yeshua Messiah (see my commentary on Revelation Cc – For We Must All Appear Before the Judgment Seat of Christ) to render an account for our service and to receive rewards. Prior to the judgment, believers will have been raptured from the earth to meet Jesus Christ in the air. The dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (see First Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Second, He is coming to convict all the ungodly of all the ungodly acts they have done in the ungodly way (Jude 15b). There will be no excuses. No evil action is exempted. Nothing is erased from God’s database. The ungodly will be presented with unanswerable evidence that their actions and words have been ungodly (see my commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment). Those who have rejected the Lord demonstrate that fact by the way they live.

Third, He is coming to convict the ungodly of all the harsh words ungodly sinners have spoken against Him (Jude 15c). The fact that the word ungodly is used so many times in Jude 15 is a remarkable repetition. The term describes the real attitude of these apostates toward God. Despite their religious formality and their godly false front, they are lacking any reverence, awe, and honest faithfulness toward Him. The rebels are so devoted to their sin that they are content with their present condition. They are in it for profit, adoration and lust. They will worry about the penalty later! As a result, they will be convicted by both what they have said and what they have done. Rather than being true spiritual leaders, they had spoken with harsh words against Christ whom they denied. We must remember that ADONAI Himself labels the imposters as being ungodly.

As believers, we eagerly look forward to the day of Messiah’s return. It is the blessed hope that comforts us in our present trials and encourages us to lead a life of holiness. While we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for Himself a people that are His very own, eager to do what is good. These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you (Titus 2:13-15). But as Jude reminds us, He is coming to execute judgment on the people of the world (Jude 15a NLT). How should this lead us to regard the overwhelming number of people around us every day – people who do not know Christ?

The answer is obvious, yet all too difficult to live by. We have a tendency to push judgment far into the future; or worse yet, believe that ADONAI will not really judge people who are living generally “good” lives. However, the Bible is clear: the Messiah will come to judge all the ungodly, and there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one (Romans 3:9b-12). Apart from a personal relationship with Jesus, all those “good” people that we know are, in the Lord’s sight, ungodly and as a result, doomed to suffer the consequences when Messiah returns as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5). Their future plight should motivate us to action.⁹⁴

They are Autumn Trees Without Fruit,
Wild Waves of the Sea Foaming Up Their Shame,
Wandering Stars
Jude 12d-e and 13; Second Peter 2:17b

They are autumn trees without fruit, wild waves of the sea foaming up their shame, wandering stars DIG: How are the false teachers twice dead? What is the second death (see my commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fp – The Lake of Fire is the Second Death)? How are believers different? What do the apostates produce? What is their sure future? How long will it last? What should our attitude be regarding them?

REFLECT: How can you recognize these apostates? Where do see them? On the internet? On television? On the radio? In your community? In your neighborhood? Where you worship? How should you react to them? Do you have a “Ten Most Wanted” list of lost people you are praying for? When could you start?

They are like autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted, twice dead (Jude 12d-e). They are like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame (Jude 13a). They are like wandering stars. God has reserved a place for them in the deepest, blackest darkness forever (Jude 13b NIV and Second Peter 2:17b GNT)!

In many of His parables, Yeshua used natural phenomena as object lessons to illustrate spiritual truth (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Et – The Parable of the Soils; Ev – The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds; Fa – The Parable of the Weeds Explained; the Kingdom parables Ex – The Parable of the Leaven; Fb – The Parable of the Hidden Treasure; Fc – The Parable of the Pearl; and Hs – The Parable of the Lost Sheep). This eighth triad is made up of three similes. These false teachers are like autumn trees, wild waves of the sea, and wandering stars.

First, they are like autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted, twice dead (12d-e). Autumn is the season when farmers and gardeners expect to harvest the final crops of the year. If nothing comes, they must endure disappointment and hardship through the winter. The next spring they can begin the painstaking process of fertilizing, planting, watering and waiting for the crop to mature. With this in mind, the phrase autumn trees without fruit pictures the disappointing reality of a barren harvest. These apostates had barren lives, when they should have been fruitful. They were like the barren fig tree in Luke 13:6-9, they had forgotten Jesus’ words: By their fruit you will recognize them (Matthew 7:20).

He called them twice dead. The equivalent terms for uprooted and twice dead in the Greek occur in the reverse order, with the phrase twice dead coming first. It may be best to preserve this order if we are to understand Jude’s point.⁷⁸ First, they are fruitless because there is no visible fruit of the Spirit present in their lives; second, they are uprooted, dead to the very core. The uprooting of trees is a favorite metaphor of judgment in the TaNaKh (Psalm 52:5; Proverbs 2:22). They are like trees that have been cut down and the stump pulled out of the ground, disconnected from the life-giving source of water and nutrients in the soil. As Jesus said of the Pharisees: Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted (Matthew 15:13). The apostates produce no life-changing fruit, neither in themselves nor in others.⁷⁹

Believers, on the other hand, are fruitful in every good work because they are rooted and grounded in Yeshua Messiah. Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in Him. They will be like a tree planted by the water 
that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; 
its leaves are always green. 
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:7-8).

He is the tree of life (see my commentary on Revelation Fw – Then The Angel Showed Me the River of the Water of Life, Clear as Crystal); however, the false teachers are trees of death.

Second, they are like wild waves of the sea, foaming up their shame (Jude 13a). The Bible often uses the sea as a symbol for those who do not know God. They are never at peace, and are always characterized by restlessness. The word shame in the Greek is plural; Jude was thinking of the “shameful deeds” committed by the false teachers. Once again the TaNaKh was probably in Jude’s mind: But the wicked are like the restless sea – unable to be still, it’s waters toss up mud and dirt. There is no shalom for the wicked (Isaiah 57:20-21 CJB).

This is a snapshot of what the apostates produce. They make great claims, but are essentially useless (see Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). With all their empty words and self-serving busywork, they are like wild waves. Jude wrote of the uncontrolled wildness of the waves of people who have abandoned the truth, revealing their own shamefulness and helplessness as they vainly foam against those who stand firmly on the Rock. The Church will continue to stand until all the wild waves of apostasy have battered their souls against the Truth for the last time, then the Scriptures will be fulfilled, and there will no longer be any sea (Revelation 21:1).⁸⁰

ADONAI leads believers beside quiet waters (Psalm 23:2b); but the imposters are like the restless and troubled sea (Isaiah 57:20).

Third, they are like wandering stars. God has reserved a place for them in the deepest, blackest darkness forever (Jude 13b NIV and Second Peter 2:17b GNT)! Jude points to shooting stars that fall out of the sky and then are engulfed in darkness. For this simile Jude once again goes to a pseudepigraphal book, as he had done earlier with the Assumption of Moses (see Ao – Michael Disputed with the Devil about the Body of Moses). In First Enoch (xviii. 14ff), the stars are sometimes identified with the angels, and there is a picture of the fate of the stars, which, being disobedient to God, left their appointed orbit and were destroyed. In his journey through the earth, Enoch came to a place where he saw “neither the high heavens, nor the firmly founded earth, but a desert place, prepared and terrible.” He goes on, “And there I saw seven stars of heaven bound on it together, like great mountains and burning like fire.” Then Enoch said, “For what sin have they been bound, and why have they been thrown here?” And Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me and led me, spoke to me and said, “Enoch, about who do you ask? About whom do you inquire and ask and care? These are some of the stars that transgressed the command of ADONAI ‘Elyon, and they have been bound here until ten thousand ages are completed, (literally into ages or forever) the number of the days of their sin” (xxi. 2, 6, 10).⁸¹ Jude’s use of First Enoch verifies only that this one example of the fallen angels is a true statement. However, he is not verifying the truth of First Enoch as a whole.

There will never be anything but this awful darkness, the very blackest of darkness, for these apostates. As eternity for the saved will be continuous joy and contentment in the Sh’khinah glory of ADONAI, eternity for the lost will be continuous despair and doom in the blackest darkness.⁸² This suggests that Jude was thinking of the doom of the fallen angels (see Ak – The Angels Did Not Keep Their Positions of Authority), when he wrote of the doom reserved for these wandering stars. This conclusion is strengthened by the fact that Jude goes on to quote Enoch in the very next verse (see At – Enoch, the Seventh Generation from Adam, also Prophesied about These People).

This is one of several descriptions of the Lake of Fire – the place of utter darkness. This is somewhat paradoxical because, normally, fire provides light, but in the case of the Lake of Fire, the fire is there only for torment. It will not produce light of any kind. Those in the Lake of Fire will be tortured in a state of perpetual darkness. Therefore, these stars cannot be literal stars because they end up in the Lake of Fire. The word star, when used symbolically, usually represents an angel. So these false teachers are like fallen angels destined for the Lake of Fire. There can be no doubt that for both the apostate teachers and the apostate angels, God has reserved a place for them in the deepest, blackest darkness forever.⁸³

Jesus Christ is the bright Morning Star proclaiming the coming day (see my commentary on Revelation Gb – I AM the Root of the Offspring of David, and the Bright Morning Star); but the rebels are wandering stars foreshadowing a night of eternal darkness.

The Bible tells us that this punishment will last forever. You would think people would take that at face value and believe that forever means forever (everlasting chains in Jude 6; also see Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:43; Luke 16:22-24; Revelation 14:9-11). However, there are unbelievers and believers alike that have tried to get around that language by arguing for annihilationism. According to this interpretation, the wicked will simply be annihilated at death or shortly after undergoing a brief period of punishment after death. The strongest argument for this view actually appears in Jude: the use of the word destroy when referring to the destiny of the wicked (Jude 5 and 10; First Corinthians 3:17; Philippians 3:19; 1 Thessalonians 5:3; Second Thessalonians 1:9; Second Peter 2:1, 3 and 3:7; Hebrews 10:39). Defenders of this view argue that it is more compatible with the love and justice of ADONAI. Once again repeating the age-old mistake of seeing a mean and vindictive God of the TaNaKh, and a loving and compassionate God of the B’rit Chadashah.

People can believe anything they want, but the problem with annihilationism is that it contradicts the teaching of the Bible. Catholics can say that Mary was sinless, a virgin her whole life and ascended to heaven just like Jesus did – but how does that measure up against the Bible? The Seventh-Day Adventist can say, with their doctrine of Investigative Judgment, that Yeshua can forgive sin, but only Satan can blot out sin – but how does that square with Scripture? Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Hebrew Roots Movement can say that the Holy Spirit is nothing more than electricity – but what does the Bible have to say about that? It is best to be like the Bereans who received the Message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true (Acts 17:11).

The strongest argument in favor of the traditional view is the language of eternity that is compared to hell. Context is crucial in the interpretation of any particular verse of Scripture. And it is true that forever can sometimes mean for a long time, or for a dispensation. But convincing evidence that eternal punishment means punishment forever comes from verses like Matthew 25:41, where eternal fire is in the same context as eternal life in Matthew 25:46.⁸⁴ If the one (eternal life) is unending, then the other (eternal fire) must be also (see the commentary on Proverbs Ad – Sh’ol, or Hell).

Hell is a real place. Yeshua Himself said: I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him (Luke 12:4-5; also see Matthew 10:28). But the problem today is that many people want to avoid the subject altogether. It doesn’t seem to fit well into the culture of “modern life” with its focus on the love of God and the preoccupation with helping people to “feel good” about themselves. Yet faithfulness to the biblical message and a balanced view of ADONAI as both loving and holy requires that we maintain and proclaim the reality of hell.

Jude, as we have seen, minces no words when he talks about the fate of apostate teachers. They will be destroyed (Jude 10-11), they will suffer the punishment of eternal fire (Jude 7), and the blackest darkness has been reserved for them (Jude 13). It has often been said that Yeshua referred to hell more than any other person in the Bible. This is literally true – Messiah uses the word hell (Greek gehenna) more times than any biblical author. But many times the human authors of the Scriptures speak of hell without actually using the word, so I question whether we really have more teaching from Jesus on hell than from any other New Covenant writers.

Be that as it may, Yeshua certainly is not shy about using the reality of hell to motivate His listeners to obedience. Messiah not only refers to hell, He paints a gruesome picture. In Mark 9:43, for example, He encourages His followers to turn from sin, warning them about hell, where the fire never goes out. Just a few verses later, He presents hell as the place where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (Mark 9:48).

Paul could also be quite blunt about the fate awaiting those who reject the Savior and persecute His people: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with His powerful angels. He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Yeshua. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of His power on the day He comes to be glorified in His holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed (Second Thessalonians 1:6-10).

All this suggests that we should not avoid teaching the full counsel of God (Acts 20:27 KJV). Not only does acceptance of the good news of Yeshua Messiah mean, positively, peace with ADONAI and the promise of eternal life; rejection of that message, we must warn, means eternal punishment. Fire, darkness, and eternal separation from all love are difficult to imagine. But as we must, we need to ask God to protect us from vindictiveness or any enjoyment of the torments of the wicked. We need to talk about hell, yes, but we should always do it with tears in our eyes.⁸⁵

In the final analysis, we need to remember that as believers, far from being dead trees, we are called trees of righteousness, a planting of ADONAI (Isaiah 61:3); in contrast with the wild waves, our peace is like a river and our righteousness is like the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18); whereas wandering stars have reserved for them the blackness of darkness forever, true believers will shine like the stars for ever and ever (Dani’el 12:3).

These People are Hidden Rocks at Your Love Feasts,
Shepherds only Feeding Themselves, Clouds Without Rain
Jude 12a-c and Second Peter 2:13 and 17a

These people are hidden rocks at your love feasts, shepherds only feeding themselves, clouds without rain DIG: How are these apostates like hidden rocks? What were the love feasts supposed to be like? What did they turn into? What happened in the Corinthian church? Why were these false teachers counterfeit shepherds? How were they like clouds without rain? What is their source? What will be their end?

REFLECT: Do you see any of these negative qualities in yourself? What can you do to change? Do you belong to a small group where you worship? How much is it like the original love feast? How do you contribute to it? How is Jesus the Rock of your salvation? The good Shepherd who lays down His life for you? Coming with the clouds?

These people are hidden rocks at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm. They are shepherds who only feed themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind (Jude 12a-c).

And they will be paid with suffering for the suffering they have caused. Pleasure for them is to do anything in broad daylight that will satisfy their bodily appetites; they are a shame and a disgrace as they join you in your love feasts, all the while enjoying their deceitful ways . . . These people are like dried-up springs, like clouds blown along by a storm; God has reserved a place for them in the deepest darkness (Second Peter 2:13 and 17a GNT)!

These apostates brag about their supposed superior knowledge and formed little cliques; in addition, they have no feeling of responsibility for anyone except themselves (to see link click Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). Both of these negative attributes go together because they both stress their basic selfishness. The seventh triad is made up of three similes. As a result, these false teachers are like spiritual terrorists and are portrayed as hidden rocks, counterfeit shepherds, and clouds without rain.

First, these people are like hidden rocks (spilades) lying just below the surface of the water and since they cannot be seen, they cause shipwrecks; these false teachers were guilty of shipwrecking the faith of many. Indeed, it was upon reefs like this that the agape feasts did in fact sink in the second century. There is some doubt as to what spilades means, since it is a rare word, occurring only here in the New Covenant. In secular Greek it was a submerged rock on which a ship could be easily wrecked. But words can change their meaning over time and by the fourth century it had come to mean blemishes as the NIV translates it. But the older meaning is preferable in this passage.⁷²

Furthermore, they were intruding at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm (Jude 12a). They were shameless and brazen in their participating in such meals, because their lives were not characterized by love. Lacking any sense of decency, and being adept hypocrites, these wolves in sheep’s clothing were able to eat with believers without the slightest qualm. As Rabbi Sha’ul wrote to Timothy, such imposters are liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron (Second Timothy 4:2). The fact that their actions did terrible damage to others was no concern to them.

The agape feasts in the early congregations of the Church were fellowship meals eaten by believers when they came together for worship on the Lord’s Day. They greeted each other with a holy kiss, and brought whatever they could to be shared in the meal. No doubt, there were some who could bring more than others. For many of the slaves it was perhaps the only decent meal they would eat that week. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to breaking bread and to prayer. In the first century this always took place at a person’s home, since there were no official buildings until much later (Acts 2:42-47). But after awhile the love feasts began to go wrong.

The custom of holding such feasts had gone on for decades. But the apostates were like hidden rocks waiting to shipwreck the unwary. Paul wrote part of his letter to the church at Corinth about the abuses of the love feast found there. These meals were usually closed with the observance of Communion. Those were supposed to be congregational meals stressing fellowship, affection, and mutual caring among believers. The emphasis on oneness should have led into a celebration of the unifying accomplishment of the Savior on the cross. But the arrogant false teachers made a mockery of the entire gathering.

When Sha’ul introduced the discussion of head coverings, he praised the Corinthians for holding firmly to the doctrines that he had taught them (First Corinthians 11:2). Now, however, he had no praise. But in giving you this next instruction I do not praise you, because when you gather together it does more harm than good (First Corinthians 11:17)! It would have been much better for those Corinthians to never have had a love feast, and even never to have observed the Lord’s Communion, than to have so abused them. Instead of celebrations being times of loving fellowship and spiritual growth, they involved selfish immorality, shaming the poor among them, mocking Yeshua’s sacrificial death, and scandalizing the church at Corinth before the unbelieving nations around them.

For in the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you. The Corinthians apparently could not agree on anything, nor did they seek to serve each other. Instead of sharing fellowship and worship together, they spent their time in selfish indulgence, arguing and disputing. Perhaps because he suspected that some of the reports had been exaggerated, Paul wanted to give them the benefit of a doubt. So he added: and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.

The focal point of this evil was Communion. When you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for as you eat, each of you goes ahead without waiting for anybody else. They had the ceremony but not the reality, the form but not the substance. In the early Church the love feast and Communion were usually held together, but abuses such as those in Corinth eventually forced the two to be separated in order to protect the Communion. The love feast soon disappeared forever. One remains hungry [while] another gets drunk. They mocked the very purpose of the occasion, which was to bring harmony and unity among those who belonged to Christ. In seeming frustration, as if trying to find a rational explanation, Rabbi Sha’ul asked: Don’t you have homes to eat and drink in? If they needed to selfishly indulge themselves, could they not do it in their own homes? Or do you despise the Church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? Again Sha’ul tells them that he can say nothing in their defense. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? Certainly not (First Corinthians 11:18-22)!⁷³

In contrast to the hidden rocks that shipwreck the faith of many, Jesus is the Rock of our salvation. David wrote: My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is My Rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will never be shaken (Psalm 62:1-2).

Second, they are like counterfeit shepherds who, instead of feeding the flock of God, selfishly feed only themselves (Jude 12b). The Greek literally means shepherding themselves. This reference to shepherds points to the fact that they were leaders, claiming that they had the ability to guide and protect ADONAI’s people. The shepherd is the epitome of a person who unselfishly watches over others. It is therefore a natural term to apply to the Lord (Psalm 23; John 10:1-18), to the leaders of the people of God in the TaNaKh (2 Samuel 5:2) and the New Covenant (Acts 20:28; First Peter 5:2). But these imposters had no concern for anyone but themselves. They did not care for the flock, but instead used their positions of leadership to carve out a comfortable life for themselves. They had no fear of the righteous indignation or punishment of YHVH Instead of losing their lives, and thus gaining them, they tried to save their lives – and so lost them (Mk 8:35).

The false teachers abandoned their flock. How unthinkable for a shepherd not to feed his sheep – which was his primary responsibility! Their leadership was phony, for it was deceptive, hardened and selfish.⁷⁴ Jude was likely thinking of what Ezeki’el said to the counterfeit shepherds of his day: Son of Man, prophesy against the shepherds of Isra’el, prophesy and say to them, “This is what Adonai ELOHIM says, ‘Woe to the shepherds of Isra’el who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock’ (Ezeki’el 34:2)?”⁷⁵ The same point is made by Yeshua in John 10:1: I tell you the truth, the person who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. Jesus declared: I AM the good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep (John 10:11); but the false prophets felt no responsibility for the welfare of anyone except themselves.

Third, they are like clouds without rain, the apostate teachers had no water for thirsty souls; they only pretended that they did. And they were soon gone, unstable as wind-driven clouds, similar to those mentioned by Solomon in Proverbs 25:14, “Like clouds and wind without rain is one who boasts of gifts never given.”

The term without rain (anudros) also occurs in Matthew 12:43 in reference to the wanderings of evil spirits through dry and barren places (also see my commentary on Revelation Em – Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She Has Become a Home for Demons): When an evil spirit (pneuma) comes out of a person, it goes through arid (anudros) places seeking rest and does not find it. Luke 11:24 uses the same word, arid (anudros), that Matthew does. Thus, by describing the imposters in the same way that Matthew and Luke describe demons, Jude restated the connection between the apostates and their satanic sources.⁷⁶

This position is strengthened by what follows. These clouds without rain were blown along by the wind (Jude 12c). The word for wind and the word for spirit are exactly the same in the TaNaKh (ruach), and the New Covenant word for spirit (pneuma) is also used of the wind by John. The wind (pneuma) blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the (pneumatos) Spirit (John 3:8).⁷⁷

So we can see from John that the word spirit (pneuma) can be used for either the Spirit of God or an evil spirit: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit (pneumati), but test the spirits (ta pneumata) to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit (to pneuma) of God: Every spirit (pneuma) that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit (pneuma) that does not acknowledge Yeshua is not from God. This is the spirit (to pneuma) of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world (First John 4:1-3). And because the word for wind and spirit are the same, it can mean either the Spirit of God or an evil spirit. Therefore, we can conclude that the false teachers (anudros) that Jude wrote about were blown along by the wind (pneuma) of satanic forces.

In describing the apostates, Peter was inspired to choose a metaphor that represented water, the most essential natural resource in the Middle East. Because it was scarce and of vital importance, water provided the perfect illustration of spiritual existence. Without water, people would die physically; without spiritual water, meaning the Holy Spirit, people would die spiritually. In fact, Yeshua Messiah used this same metaphor years earlier when He said: Let anyone who is thirsty come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as Scripture has said (Isaiah 58:11), rivers of living water will flow from within them (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Gp – On the Last and Greatest Day of the Feast). Consequently, like mirages in the hot desert, Peter describes the counterfeit teachers as springs without water (Second Peter 2:17b), offering the spiritually thirsty nothing more than false hopes of relief.

These people are mists driven by a storm (Second Peter 2:17c). In the eastern Mediterranean region, sea breezes periodically bring in mist and fog that appear to signal rain. But sometimes the atmospheric moisture stays only briefly and produces no significant rainfall. The land is left dry and parched and the people are left disappointed. Here is a graphic example of the uselessness of teaching that is supposedly “advanced” and “enlightened” but has nothing to offer believers for their spiritual nourishment. Like those mists, the apostates offered more than they delivered.

The Messiah comes with the clouds to refresh His people forever (see my commentary on Revelation Ai – Look, He is Coming With the Clouds); the false teachers, however, are clouds that do not even bring temporary blessing.

These apostates will be caught in their own web. And they will be paid with suffering for the suffering they have caused. God will do to them what they have done to others (Galatians 6:7). Although they tried to pass themselves off as spiritual leaders possessing a special level of knowledge, they did not even try to hide their orgies under the cover of darkness. Pleasure for them is to do anything in broad daylight that will satisfy their bodily appetites (Second Peter 2:13a). They count it a pleasure to live a life of ease in the daytime, which means they do not work for a living but live off of the money they get from those whom they lead astray into false doctrine (sounds a lot like today). They flaunt God’s Word that says: Whoever doesn’t want to work shouldn’t be allowed to eat (God’s Word Translation 1995).

They are a shame and a disgrace as they join you in your love feasts, all the while enjoying their deceitful ways (Second Peter 2:13b GNT). Like a stain on a clean shirt or a scratch on a shiny new car, they marred the Lord’s Supper by their very presence.

As believers, however, instead of being lifeless, dangerous rocks, the righteous are living stones (1 Peter 2:5); in lieu of being counterfeit shepherds, ADONAI places true shepherds over His flock who will tend them (Jeremiah 23:4); and rather than being waterless clouds, the called, loved and kept (Jude 1) are sources of living water (John 7:38).

They Have Taken the Way of Cain,
Rushed into Balaam’s Error,
and have been Destroyed by Korah’s Rebellion
Jude 11

They have taken the way of Cain, rushed into Balaam’s error, and have been destroyed by Korah’s rebellion DIG: How do these three examples from history relate to the problems of unbelief, immorality, violence, and rebellion? What is the common thread in all three of them?

REFLECT: How do these three examples convey the certainty, severity and rightness of the LORD’s judgment? Has there been an issue with obedience in your life? On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 not being perfect, but real obedient, how are you doing now? What do you attribute that to?

Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed by Korah’s rebellion (Jude 11).

In this section, the Holy Spirit inspires Jude to write about turning away from the truth. Yeshua said of Himself: I AM the Way – and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6 CJB). The apostates are ones who will not tolerate having the Son of man reigning over them. They knowingly exchange the way of Cain for the way of Christ, the error of Balaam for the truth of Messiah, and the perishing of Korah for a life with the Savior.

We can look at this verse in a different light if we translate it more literally. In the way of Cain they went away, and in the wandering of Balaam for profit they rushed [headlong], and in the rebellion of Korah they were destroyed. Apostasy begins with a way other than ADONAI, it leads to wandering, and then it becomes a rebellion. Apostates enter that false way, they rush headlong in that wandering, and they are destroyed in that rebellion.₆₆

The sixth triad is found here in verse 11. Jude points out that the present false teachers are just like these sinners during the Dispensation of the Torah. The Gnostics used Cain, Balaam and Korah as positive examples . . . so Jude used them as examples of deprivation (to see link click Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). The apostates sinned in three different ways, so Jude says: Woe to them. Woe is a pronouncement of judgment. Jude followed the example of Christ (Matthew 23:13-16, 23-29) and the prophets (Isaiah 3:9-11, 5:8-23, 29:15, 30:1, 31:1; Jeremiah 13:27, 23:1; Ezeki’el 13:3, 16:23, 34:2; Hosea 7:13; Zechariah 11:17) in pronouncing God’s judgment on the apostates. The word translated woe (ouai) is an emotional cry that means something like O how horrible it will be!

First, they have taken the way, literally went away, of Cain (11a). Cain is an example of someone who seeks their own way to ADONAI rather than to choosing the way that God has ordained. Cain was the first child of Adam and Eve, having been born some time after the Fall (see my commentary on Genesis Bj – Your Brother’s Blood Cries Out to Me from the Ground). The fact that Cain’s offering was unacceptable begs for the conclusion that the LORD had told him that a blood sacrifice was the necessary path to fellowship with Him. Knowing this, Cain chose to go his own disobedient way and worship as he pleased, saying, in effect, “Not Your will, God, but my will be done! This revealed the irreverent blasphemy of his heart, as he rejected the LORD’s revelation (Genesis 3:21), and lived by his own self-styled instinct and pride in what he had produced.

The Greek word for way is hodos, meaning a road, a way. The most compelling contrast between two roads to be found in all Scripture was given by the Messiah: Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it (Matthew 7:13-14). Jesus spoke of two roads, two gates, two groups of people and two destinies that have divided humanity from the time of Cain and Abel until today. The apostates will not find the small gate, but they will have plenty of company on the broad road that leads to destruction.

The people of whom Jude wrote went away because of this broad road. The Greek word went away, means to pass from one place to another, or to depart. The same word appears in Matthew 25:41: Depart from Me, you who are accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his fallen angels. Jude is speaking of those who were enlightened about the truth of Yeshua Messiah and were convicted of it. But they intentionally, voluntarily departed from it. In another day they will be compelled to depart from Christ forever. The free choice of the present determines the unchangeable destiny of the future.⁶⁷

The rabbis taught that Cain exemplified the cynical man. The Jerusalem Targum, an Aramaic paraphrase of the Pentateuch, presents Cain as saying, “There is no judgment, no judge, no future life; no reward will be given to the righteous, and no judgment will be imposed on the wicked.” We cannot be sure Jude had this saying in mind. Nonetheless, he is charging the counterfeit believers with defying God and denying the moral order of the world. It remains true until this very day that those who choose sin still have to face Jesus (see my commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment) and learn that no one can defy the moral order of the world and escape the consequences.⁶⁸

Cain stands for the cynical, materialistic character that defies God and despises man. He is devoid of faith and love. As such, Cain is a picture of the people whom Jude is writing to us about. But Cain is also chosen for another reason. The rabbis also teach that he corrupted the human race, saying, “He became their instructor in wicked practices” (Josephus Antiquities i:61). That is exactly Jude’s argument with the false teachers.⁶⁹

In light of all the similarities, Jude could refer to the proud, self-willed apostates as those who have taken the way of Cain because they have gone their own immoral way to ADONAI. Cain was rebellious and disobedient, and when the LORD did not accept his offering, he responded in jealous anger – even murdering his brother Abel. The writer of Hebrews offered this commentary on the tragic episode: By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead (Hebrews 11:5).

John adds this and made it plain his warning was directed to believers: This is the message you believers have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. Why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous (First John 3:12). Before telling his readers exactly what love is, he first told them what love is not. The reason for the murder (see my commentary on Exodus Dp – You Shall Not Murder) was Cain’s resentment of his brother’s superior righteousness. By taking the way of Cain, these apostates also hate the superior righteousness of believers. They come into the congregations of God and pretend to be one of the sheep. But they are actually filled with resentment. They do not love other believers as brothers and sisters in the faith. They come, like a thief, to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10).

Second, they have rushed [headlong] for profit into Balaam’s error (11b). These false teachers stumbled down the same path as did Cain. Here, Jude unmasks the fundamental motive behind the religious interests of these apostates. They do it for pay (Psalm 10:3; Micah 3:11; First Timothy 6:10; Second Peter 2:3). Unlike the LORD’s true shepherds (First Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7; First Peter 5:2), these false teachers follow the error of Balaam, rushing headlong into greed and debauchery. They are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (Second Timothy 3:4).

Balaam is probably the best example in the Bible of a so-called prophet who was motivated by financial gain. Having been hired by Balak, the king of Moab, Balaam attempted to curse the people of Isra’el as they wandered in the wilderness (Numbers 22:1-6). Balak saw the Israelites as a military threat and hoped to defeat them with the help of Balaam. He already had a reputation as prophet-for-hire and came from a city along the Euphrates River that was known to have produced other such phony prophets.

At first Balaam appeared to be a faithful prophet (Numbers 22:7-21). However, even in this passage he seems to delay his decision in the hope of negotiating more money out of Balak (Numbers 22:13). Even though Balaam claimed to speak only the words of God, the LORD knew that he actually wanted to curse Israel for money. But ADONAI used an angel along with Balaam’s donkey to prevent him from carrying out his wicked plan (Numbers 22:22-35). As a prophet for hire, Balaam is a prime example of false teachers, or those who love money and reputation more than faithfulness and obedience.

They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness (Second Peter 2:15). The straight way is a metaphor in the TaNaKh indicating obedience to God’s Word (Genesis 18:19; First Samuel 12:23; Proverbs 8:20; also see Acts 13:10). They have left describes a deliberate rebellion against Scripture. Having rejected God’s Word, the false teachers of Peter’s day, and in every age, refuse to walk in obedience, choosing instead to wander away despite the eternal consequences (Jude 13). In doing so, they follow the way of Balaam.

Though Balaam had been unsuccessful in cursing the people of Isra’el, he evidently managed to play a role in their seduction by the Ba’al cult at Peor (Numbers 31:16). He recommended that the women of Moab and Midian entice the Jewish men sexually. Part of the enticement included the worship of their gods. The plot worked, Isra’el was cursed, and many died in a plague. The teaching of Balaam was encouragement of corruption by intermarriage, resulting in sexual immorality and idolatry. No doubt in the city of Pergamum, intermarriage with the pagan world was a real problem (see my commentary on Revelation Bb – The Church at Pergamum). Because civil and religious life were so intertwined, for believers to accept social engagements probably meant some involvement with paganism. Like Balaam, these false teachers use their phony gifts of prophecy to become wealthy and make a name for themselves.

The Bible tells us what Jude means when he says: They have rushed [headlong] for profit into Balaam’s error. It is the error of all apostates, the sacrificing of eternal riches for temporal reward. It is running riot on the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13). It is lust for the pleasures of sin for a short time and greed for the treasures of Egypt (Hebrews 11:25-26). It is a reckless desire to gain some part of the world even at the loss of the soul. What good is it (Mark 8:36)? These false prophets of every age follow the example of Demas who deserted God’s people because he loved this world (Second Timothy 4:10).⁷⁰

One last time the Ruach introduces a character from the TaNaKh through Jude, to complete this brief description of apostasy found in three men who fell away from God. It should be noted that all three statements in Jude 11 are in the past tense. It is sobering to realize that in the sight of ADONAI those who have taken the way of Cain have already been destroyed. But not only that, the security of the believer is also in the past tense: And those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified (Rom 8:30). In other words, the doom of the apostates is just as sure as the glorification of the righteous.

Thirdly, they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion (11c). Numbers 16 presents the story of Korah, a cousin of Moses. As a Levite and a Kohathite, Korah had important duties in the Tabernacle (Numbers 1:50-51, 3:6-8, 18:3; Deuteronomy 10:8, First Chronicles 15:2). But when he was not chosen to be a priest, he became furious. To show his contempt, Korah recruited Dathan, Abiram, and 250 other men to join him in a rebellion against the leadership of Moshe. Such an aspiration was a challenge to neither Moses nor Aaron, but rather an assault on the sovereign pleasure of God Himself. YHVH had plainly delegated the office of high priest to the family of Aaron and that family only.

In Korah’s deceitful accusation of Moses, the rebel said: You have gone too far! The whole community is holy, every one of them, and ADONAI is with them. Why then do you set yourself above the LORD’s assembly (Numbers 16:3)? In his pride, Korah disputed the idea that the people needed a leader and mediator, someone who could speak for YHVH and teach them God’s truth (Exodus 4:10-17). He openly rebelled against the authority that ADONAI had given Moses, and he actively rallied others to support his spiritual mutiny.

The LORD, however, responded by ending the rebellion of Korah in an abrupt and decisive fashion: As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah’s men and all their possessions. They went down to the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community. At their cries, all the Israelites around them fled, shouting, “The earth is going to swallow us too!” And fire came out of from ADONAI and consumed the 250 men who were offering the incense with their censers (Numbers 16:31-35). Many of today’s false teachers have significant followings, composed of people who will share their judgment (First Timothy 1:1-4). Yet, like Korah and his supporters, all apostate rebels will eventually experience God’s wrath (Mark 3:29; John 15:6; Hebrews 10:26-31; Rev 20:10-15).⁷¹

Like Cain, these wolves in sheep’s clothing lack the love of other believers and have secretly slipped in among us; like Balaam they are motivated by greed and are guilty of debauchery; and like Korah, they are guilty of false teaching and rebellion.

These People Speak Abusively
Against Whatever They Do Not Understand
Jude 10 and Second Peter 2:1

These people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand DIG: What two things does Jude say about the apostate teachers? What are the two different uses for the Greek words for understand in Jude 10. To whom is this message written about? Righteous believers? Backslidden believers? The intellectually convinced? What actually destroys them in the end? How does Jude destroy their claim to superior knowledge? What does “progressive” thinking lead to?

REFLECT: How can you spot a wolf in sheep’s clothing where you worship? What are the clues? How were you saved from the foolishness of this world?

Yet these people speak abusively against whatever they do not understand. And what they do understand naturally, without thinking, like animals – by these things they are brought to ruin (Jude 10 NIV and CJB).

But these people blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish (Second Peter 2:12).

Whereas Michael did not dare accuse the devil, these apostates, by contrast, spoke abusively against God’s holy angels (Jude 8). They are totally without any kind of spiritual understanding. Things of the Spirit are beyond their natural intelligence. So when spiritual matters are brought to their attention, they treat it with scorn and mocking. Jude says two things about the apostate teachers.

First, they criticize everything that they don’t understand. Yet these people speak abusively, blasphemeo, against whatever they do not understand in a worldly way (Jude 10a and Second Peter 2:12a). With the word these at the beginning of verse 10, Jude returns to his characterization of the false teachers. He uses two different Greek words for understand in verse 10. The first is oida meaning mental comprehension and knowledge. Anything out of their experience they disregard as worthless and irrelevant (First Corinthians 2:14). Having no spiritual discernment, they are blind to, and contemptuous of, all spiritual realities. All this points to the fact that they are not believers who went astray. Jude is writing about people who never were believers to begin with. They simply began associating with the messianic synagogue in their area and pretended to be believers for satisfying their sexual appetite’s and spreading their own false teaching.⁶³

We must not forget that Jude 10 is not written primarily about atheists, who despise our faith in total blindness to the truth: So if indeed our Good News is veiled, it is veiled only to those in the process of being lost. They do not come to trust because the god of [this age] has blinded their minds, in order to prevent them from seeing the light shining from the Good News about the glory of the Messiah, who is the image of God (Second Corinthians 4:3-4 CJB). Neither is it written about the righteous of the TaNaKh, but rather about the intellectually convinced (Hebrews 3:7-19). Those unbelievers who once had knowledge of the truth, but did not cross the line from knowledge to faith, and afterward fell away. It is not surprising that an atheist or an apostate would speak abusively against the Lord’s people. In reality, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, and this is why Jude wrote his letter – to warn us of their coming.

Second, they allow themselves to be corrupted by the things they do understand. And what they do understand naturally by instinct, without thinking, are the sensual instincts that they share with the animals (Jude 10b CJB). The second interpretation of the Greek word for understand in verse 10 is epistamai, meaning sensual enjoyment. Even though they may be looked upon as having a form of godliness, their animal nature dominates them. They love the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life (First John 1:16).

They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, and like unreasoning animals they are born only to be caught and destroyed (Jude 10b NIV and Second Peter 2:12b). Here Jude refers to the false teachers as unreasoning beasts. They could not speak reasonably because they cannot reason. No matter how educated the apostates are, no matter how profoundly philosophical they think their teaching is, or how many mystical visions and insights they claim to have had, they still are like brute beasts. Like the rest of sinful humanity: Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22; First Corinthians 3:18; Second Corinthians 10:5 and 12; Galatians 6:3; Ephesians 4:17; Second Timothy 3:2 and 4).⁶⁴

Rather than comprehending the angels above, they really only understood the animals below. Therefore, Jude demolished their Gnostic claim to superior knowledge (to see link click Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). And their understanding – polluting their own bodies in Jude 8 – was, like the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah in Jude 7. They became self-destructive. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil (Romans 1:29-30a). In the end they are destroyed by their own lying and deceiving heresies, which will bring upon them the judgment of ADONAI (Genesis 6:17, 19:24; Second Kings 22:17; Jeremiah 30:16; Matthew 7:22-23, 13:40-42, 25:41; Hebrews 10:27).

Ironically, by these things they are brought to ruin, and like brute beasts without reason they too will perish (Jude 10c and Second Peter 2:12c). They may possess a degree of animal perception, but even that perception will end up destroying them. With the three warnings of Jude 5, 6 and 7 before them, his readers are urged to beware of the spiritual corruption of the apostates. It reached every aspect of their personalities. Physically, they became immoral. Intellectually, they became arrogant. And spiritually, they denied Adonai.

“Progressive” morality and “progressive” thinking too often lead to progressive deafness and blindness to the voice of God. It is a terrible thing for people to reach a stage where they are deaf to the LORD and blind to goodness. And that is exactly where the people whom Jude attacks have reached. For the Message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate (First Corinthians 1:18-31).

Without exception, the wisdom of the world elevates itself and lowers ADONAI. In its own wisdom the world inevitably exchanges the truth of God for a lie and worships created things rather than the creator (Romans 1:25). Human wisdom cannot understand the Message of the cross. With all their supposed wisdom, mankind has never been able to know Adonai, much less have a personal relationship with Him. God chose to use that which the world views as foolishness, to save those in the world who would simply believe (pisteo, to believe, to have faith in, to trust in). For those who will exchange their wisdom for His, YHVH offers transformation, regeneration, new birth and a new life through the power of the cross of Jesus Christ, His Son. This foolishness is our only hope.⁶⁵

Michael Disputed with the Devil
about the Body of Moses
Jude 9 and Second Peter 2:11

Michael disputed with the devil about the body of Moses DIG: What is the Assumption of Moses and what does it have to do with Jude’s account here? What is the Pseudepigrapha? Does Jude’s quote verify the entire book as being inspired? How did Michael’s response anticipate that of the Angel of the LORD in Zechariah 3:2? Why was the Adversary interested in the body of Moses? What did Satan want with it? And what reason would God have to hide it?

REFLECT: Can you contend for the faith without being contentious? How so? How can you contend with the Adversary today? How can the devil be defeated?

But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses did not dare bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “May Adonai rebuke you” (Jude 9)!

Yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord (Second Peter 2:11).

The false teachers Jude spoke of had no respect for authority or God’s holy angels. The apostates slandering of them in verse 8 stands in stark contrast to the chief angelic being, Michael the archangel, who would not dare to slander Satan, the chief of the fallen angels. The word archangel is archaggelos, from arche, meaning first in rank. Michael the archangel is spoken of in Dani’el 10:13, 21, 12:1; First Thessalonians 4:16. His name means who is like God, and is regarded as the special protector of the Jewish nation.

Although modern Jewish popular ideology holds that angels are a Christian invention reflecting a departure from pure monotheism, actually the TaNaKh speaks of them often. Here Jude alludes to a story in the Assumption of Moses. Although some portions of it have survived, the relevant ones have not. However, elements of the legend can also be found elsewhere. Deuteronomy Rabbah 11:10 reports a dispute an hour before Moses’ death between  Samael – regarded in Judaism as the angel of death and often identified with the Adversary (Satan the accuser in Matthew 4:1) – and Michael, who is regarded in Jewish tradition as Isra’el’s defender and Satan’s opponent. The Targum Yonatan says that Moses’ tomb was put under Michael’s authority. The Assumption must have added that God assigned Michael to bury the corpse of Moses, but when Satan claimed it as his, Michael took issue with him.⁵⁶

The Assumption of Moses is part of the Pseudepigrapha, a collection of books falsely ascribed to eminent biblical figures from the past such as Enoch, Noah and Moses. These are Jewish writings from the second-temple period (538 BC to AD 70), resembling the Apocrypha in general character included in the TaNaKh, the fourteen books of the Apocrypha, or other rabbinic literature. It is a retelling of the events of Deuteronomy 31-34. The book records Moses’ farewell address to Joshua and foretells the history of Isra’el from the entrance into the Land to the end of the age. The only existing copy today, discovered in 1861, is a Latin translation of the Greek. This copy is incomplete, corrupt, and illegible in some places. The Church fathers were familiar with the entire book.⁵⁷ Such quotations may seem strange to us today, but the Pseudepigrapha were widely used in Jude’s day and this quote would be very effective in communicating his message.

In summarizing the different fragments from the burial of Moses: First, Michael is sent by God to bury Moses, and second, Satan opposes his burial on two grounds; (a) the devil claimed to have authority over all physical matter, so Moses’ body, of course, fell under that category. To see a short video on Michael the Archangel click here. To this Michael responded, “May Adonai rebuke you, for it was God’s Spirit which created the world and all mankind.” The word rebuke is in the optative mode in Greek, which expresses a wish or desire. The particular word for rebuke here is epitimao, which means to rebuke another but without any effect on the person rebuked, either because the person believes they are innocent, or because they are incorrigible. Satan was, and is, incorrigible. Jude knew it, and as a result, used that specific word. There is another word in Greek, elegeho, which speaks of a rebuke that brings either conviction or confession of sin, but he did not use that word in this case.⁵⁸

(b) And from the Assumption of Moses, we learn Satan’s second charge was because Moses became a murderer when he killed the Egyptian overseer (see my commentary on Exodus, to see link click Al – Moses Fled From Pharaoh and Went to Live in Midian), and therefore his body belonged, so to speak, to the devil. In other words, Satan accused Moses of being unworthy of such an honorable burial.

Jude’s inclusion of this event verifies only that this one incident found in the Assumption is a true statement. He is not verifying the truth of the Assumption of Moses as a whole. But we regard the book of Jude as being part of the canon of Scripture, and therefore inspired in such a way that the work of the Holy Spirit in directing Jude to the thoughts or concepts he should have, and allowing his own distinctive personality to come into play in the choice of words and expressions. Thus, the human author gave expression to the divinely directed thoughts in a way that was uniquely characteristic of him.⁵⁹

This verse is a new revelation, not previously inspired to be written, like the prophecy of Enoch recorded in Jude 14-15. This should not surprise us. Sha’ul quotes words of Christ not found in the gospels (Acts 20:35). He also mentions the names of two of the magicians in Egypt, although the recorded history of Moses is silent on the subject (Second Timothy 3:8). James 5:17 informs us that Elijah prayed that it might not rain for three and one-half years, and faith accepts it without question, even though First Kings 17:1 and 18:1 do not reveal that the prayers of the prophet had anything to do with the long drought during Ahab’s reign. Therefore, because Jude treats this confrontation between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses as fact, we should regard it as such.

Although Michael is the archangel, the Adversary is greater than him because Satan is a cherub (Ezekiel 28:14) and Michael is an angel. Cherubs are positionally greater than angels. Michael, although he is the archangel – the one who has authority over all other angels, knew his place in the angelic hierarchy; therefore, he did not rail against someone greater than himself even though Satan was a fallen creature. Since the Serpent, even though fallen, was the anointed cherub and he still had positional dignity that Michael respected. Instead of scolding Satan, Michael simply committed the situation to God. This demonstrates it is possible to contend for the faith (Jude 3) without being contentious.⁶⁰

But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not dare bring a slanderous accusation against the Adversary (see a video about why Satan fought for the body of Moshe click here). Michael had every right, it would seem, to criticize the Adversary since he was wicked and his motives were evil, but Michael was respectful and did not criticize him because, positionally, the devil is greater than Michael, so he did not dare bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said, “May Adonai rebuke you” (9b), echoing the LORD’s own rebuke of Satan (Zechariah 3:1-5). When Michael contended with the devil about the body of Moses, he did just what the Angel of the LORD did. And his appeal to Adonai ELOHIM apparently ended the dispute with Satan.

The context of Zechariah is significant, for the account there represents another incident in which Satan attempted to establish the guilt of one of ADONAI’s servants; Joshua, the high priest, was accused by the devil in ADONAI’s presence (Zechariah 3:1). In the prophet Zechariah’s vision, Joshua – who along with Zerubbabel led the first group of Jews back from Babylon – was standing in heaven before the Angel of the LORD. The devil was also there, at the right hand of Joshua, accusing Joshua and the nation of Isra’el whom he represented. Michael’s response anticipated the example of the Angel of the LORD in Zechariah 3:2, “May Adonai rebuke you, Satan! ADONAI, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire” of the Babylonian captivity (Zechariah 3:2)?

We might think that the old dragon was right in accusing Joshua since his filthy clothes represented his sinful nature (Zechariah 3:3-4a). But God’s Word brings forgiveness, pictured by the clean garments with which the high priest was allowed to change into. Then the Angel said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.” It is important to understand that ADONAI was not simply reprimanding Satan so that the story could end with a verbal rebuke. Instead, the LORD’s words vindicated Joshua, and at the same time, sealed Satan’s doom (Zechariah 3:4b-5).

Michael’s words in Jude do not merely indicate a desire for God to reprimand Satan verbally for bringing an accusation against Moses, as if the devil would receive only a verbal rebuke. On the contrary, the reprimand of ADONAI would function as an effective response to Satan’s accusation so Moses would be vindicated, and his vindication would guarantee his proper burial. Michael never denied that Moses had sinned or defended his behavior in killing the Egyptian overseer. But, he appealed to the Lord’s rebuke with confidence knowing that Moses would receive forgiveness and that God would remove his defilement.⁶¹

There is a tendency in Second Peter, shown here in the story of Michael and Satan, for him to put in general terms what Jude states with more detail. Yet even righteous angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against the false teachers (of Second Peter 2:10) in the presence of the Lord (Second Peter 2:11). Since there is no modifier, the term angels refers to the holy angels who are certainly stronger and more powerful than either fallen men or demons. But even though they are superior in every way, the righteous angels do not speak disrespectfully to their fallen counterparts like the arrogant false teachers do (Jude 9).

The TaNaKh provides no details about the death of Moses other than to say: And Moses the servant of the LORD died there in Moab, as ADONAI had said. He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where he is buried (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). Because God did not want anyone to preserve Moses’ body and worship it or turn his gravesite into a shrine, He gave Michael the responsibility of burying it where no one – including Satan – could find it.⁶²

So how can you contend with Satan today? Submit yourselves, then, to God (James 4:7a). Submit is a military term meaning to be subordinated or to render obedience. Submitting to ADONAI is obeying His Word about Yeshua and the fullness of the Good News, as well as being obedient to Jesus as Lord and God (Romans 10:9-10). Messiah said: Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for My sake will find it (Matthew 10:39). There is simply no such thing as trusting in Christ as Savior without, at the same time, submitting to Him as Lord. Whereas you were once under the lordship of the Adversary, through saving faith you eagerly place yourself under the lordship of Yeshua Messiah. Whereas you were once an enemy of God (James 4:4) and a slave to sin, your are now a loyal subject of your Lord and Master. Therefore, to submit to God, your new Lord, is to resist the devil, your old lord.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7b). Resist means to take a stand against. There is no middle ground. As James has made clear: Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world (Satan’s sphere of influence) becomes an enemy of God (James 4:4b; First John 2:15-17). To stand with Adonai is to stand against everything sinful and worldly that used to seem appealing (Ephesians 2:1-3; Hebrews 2:14-15). Just as the devil left Jesus after the temptations in the wilderness (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Bj – Then Jesus Was Led by the Spirit into the Desert to be Tested by the Devil), he will flee from all those who resist him. As powerful as he is, here is the pledge that the Adversary can be defeated. Messiah defeated Satan at His temptation and on the cross (John 12:31-33) and left him defenseless. He cannot hold you against your will. He cannot even lead you into sin without your consent. When confronted and resisted with the truth of the Good News, he flees with his proverbial tail between his legs. After you are saved, he comes again and again through the world and your flesh to tempt you, but he can be defeated again and again if you take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and put on the full armor of God (Eph 6:10-18).

These Dreamers Pollute Their Own Bodies,
Reject Authority and Slander Celestial Beings
Jude 8 and Second Peter 2:10

These dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings DIG: What might make the congregations of God vulnerable to false teachers: Boredom? Attraction to charismatic personalities? Lust? Poor teaching? Rebellion? In what sense were they dreamers? How are the false teachers much like the religious leaders in Jerusalem who confronted Jesus? Why do the apostates slander God’s holy angels? What will be their end?

REFLECT: How can you recognize these false teachers in your place of worship? Why do you think these apostates are wolves in sheep’s clothing? What would you do if you thought you discovered one? What is the evidence that God’s judgment is just?

In the very same way, these dreamers pollute their own bodies, reject authority and slander celestial beings (Jude 8).

This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these people are not afraid to slander celestial beings (Second Peter 2:10).

Three times Jude has taken us back into the TaNaKh to remind us of familiar examples of apostasy that resulted in the judgment of ADONAI. These case studies have been placed before us, three snapshots of wrath against a particular kind of sin, where there has been an apostasy from the truth of God. When the three are taken together, as we see here in Jude 8, they give us three characteristics of apostasy as Jude knew them in his day, and as the Church will know it in the last days before the LORD returns to execute judgment on the people of the world (Jude 15a NLT).

Apostates, when they are finally exposed for what they really believe, pollute their bodies in the very same way as the men of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jude 7); reject authority, as did the angels when they did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their home (Jude 6); and slander celestial beings because they speak abusively against whatever they do not understand (Jude 10).

Jude starts this verse with the phrase: in the very same way or likewise. This is an important transition, further unlocking the significance of the previous passage. Apostates usually display ungodly character traits, just like the apostate Israelites, apostate angels and apostate Gentiles of Sodom and Gomorrah. Although they have these fearful examples before them in Jude 5, 6 and 7, they continue to persist in their sin.

Jude introduces the apostates as these dreamers (Jude 8a). The evil behavior of these ungodly people often originates from their dreams. The Greek New Covenant normally uses the noun onar to refer to dreams (Matthew 1:20; 2:12-13, 19, 22; 27:19). But Jude chose a form of the verb enupniazo, which is only used by Peter on the Feast of Shavu’ot (Acts 2:17). Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:28-32) affirms Peter’s sermon and demonstrates that the dreams in question may refer to revelatory dreams rather than normal dreams. During the Great Tribulation, prophecies, revelations and visions that have now ceased will return, along with divine revelation. ADONAI will speak to people through dreams just as He did earlier in biblical history with Joseph in Egypt, Dani’el in Babylon and others.

False teachers often claim dreams as their divine source, their authority, for their “new truths” (Joseph Smith’s myth of Mormonism is a good example of this). Their “new truths” are really nothing more than lies and distortions. Such claims allow apostates to substitute their own counterfeit authority for God’s true scriptural authority.⁵³

The present tense of the participle shows the dreaming of these apostates are a continual, persistent thing, and the middle voice shows how much this dreaming is to their liking. The participle pertains to all three verbs in the statement: pollute, despise, and slander.⁵⁴ Deuteronomy 13:1-5 describes what is to be done with the person described as the prophet or the dreamer of dreams (RSV) who corrupts Isra’el and seduces them from their devotion to ADONAI. That false prophet or dreamer must be put to death. The people whom Jude attacks are false prophets, false dreamers and seducers of believers, and must be treated as such. Their false teaching resulted in the fifth triad. They are accused of lust, rebellion and irreverence.

First lust, they pollute their own bodies, and do not consider their actions sinful. These false teachers, as Jude previously noted in verse 7, have come into the congregations of God to satisfy their lust. They use Yeshua as a disguise to hide their sin. When Jude says: these dreamers, he is speaking of prophetic dreams. The Greek word for dreamers is used only here and in Acts 2:17. Jude indicates these false teachers claim special revelation from the Lord as a justification for their lifestyle. But in reality they are merely led by their own evil desires and not the Holy Spirit (Jude 16).

Those who scoff at the truth of the Bible in the last days are to be, according to Peter, people following their own lusts (Second Peter 3:3). Whether they try to hide it from other believers or not, their immorality inevitably surfaces. After all, they have no ability to restrain their lusts because they do not know God (First Thess 4:5). This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature (Jude 8b and 2 Peter 2:10a). The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like (Galatians 5:19-21a). Our Savior taught that sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander come out of their hearts because they do not have the Holy Spirit (Jude 19b). True faith in Christ, however, is obvious in a walk that is not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:4). Faith leads to good works. The fruit produced by the Holy Spirit includes godly self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).

Second rebellion, since apostate teachers love their immorality, it follows that they reject and despise authority (Jude 8c and Second Peter 2:10b). They refuse to subject themselves to human authority in general and to the elders of the messianic synagogues or churches in particular. Because they demand to rule their own lives, apostates deny Yeshua Messiah our only Master and Lord (Jude 4). In reality, they are much like the religious leaders in Jerusalem who confronted Jesus in Matthew 23:27-28 CJB: You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead people’s bones and all kinds of rottenness. Likewise, you appear to people from the outside to be good and honest, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and far from the Torah.

It is not surprising that people who deny the trinity (to see link click Ac – The Book of Jude from a Jewish Perspective: Purpose), the virgin birth, the miracles, the substitutionary death, the resurrection and the return of Yeshua Messiah should refuse to submit to Him as Lord. In fact, no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cori 12:3b). Consequently, these people of whom Jude writes cannot claim Jesus as Lord because if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, they do not belong to Him (Romans 8:9b).

Third irreverence, they slander celestial beings, literally slander glories or doxa (Jude 8d). Bold and arrogant, these people are not afraid to slander celestial beings (or angels) including God Himself (Second Peter 2:10). These people were not merely irreverent, they were blasphemers, especially of holy angels.

Ever since the Adversary’s initial rebellion (Ezekiel 28:17), pride has been the main characteristic of ADONAI’s enemies. False teachers, of course, are no exception to this. Both their words and their actions betray their attitudes of self-centered arrogance and self-willed disrespect that are typical of these rebels who are Satan’s children. They are brazen and foolhardy, actually daring to defy ADONAI, and promote themselves no matter the consequences (Second Chronicles 32:25; Esther 3:5; Daniel 4:40, 5:20, 22-23; Acts 12:21-23). There is nothing they won’t do to have their own way.⁵⁵

But why do the apostate teachers slander God’s holy angels? Throughout the LORD’s history of salvation, holy angels, have been devoted to His doxa (His glory). They have had a special role in establishing His moral order. For example, the LORD gave them the ministry of helping communicate His Torah. In Stephen’s speech before the Sanhedrin (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Lg – The Great Sanhedrin): You have received the Torah that was put into effect through angels (Acts 7:53). Holy angels will also assist in the ultimate judgment of the rebels who refuse to submit to the Savior. Jude informs us: See, the Lord is coming with thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world. He will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against Him (Jude 14b-15 NLT). By their lawless immorality and rebelliousness, these false teachers not only curse the holy angels – they also curse ADONAI Himself.

In keeping with the Word of God, divine judgment will ultimately come upon all His enemies (First Corinthians 15:25-26). As in the past, ADONAI will finally destroy all who oppose Him – including the apostate teachers and all who follow them. Yet, at the same time He will rescue believers from such an unspeakable end. This echoes Paul’s words to the believers at Thessalonica:

We have kept thanking God for you always, brothers and sisters (adelphoi), as is appropriate; because your trust continues to grow greater, and the love you each have for one another continues to increase. Therefore, we boast about you in the congregations of God because of your perseverance and trust in all persecutions and troubles you are going through. This is clear evidence that God’s judgment is just; and as a result, you will be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which you are suffering. For it is justice for God to pay back trouble to those who are troubling you, and to give rest along with us to you who are being troubled, when the Lord Yeshua is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in a fiery flame. Then He will punish those who don’t know God, that is, those who don’t listen to the Good News or our Lord Yeshua and obey it. They will suffer the just penalty of eternal destruction, far away from the face of the Lord and the Sh’khinah glory of His might. On that Day, when He comes to be glorified by His holy people and admired by all who have trusted, you will be among them, because you trusted in our witness to you (Second Thessalonians 1:3-10 CJB).

Dear friend, if your hands are firmly holding on to the steering wheel of your life, you need to slide over and let Jesus take control. It is an illusion that you are controlling your destiny. You need to make Yeshua the Lord of your life. Without Him you are dead in your sins. The Bible says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (First Corinthians 15:3b-4). If you believe that and have never asked Messiah to be your Lord and Savior would you pray this simple prayer today. I want to remind you that the words do not save you, its faith in Christ that saves you: God, I admit that I have sinned. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I want to trust Him to save me right now. Why should ADONAI let you into His heaven? That’s right . . . because Jesus paid for your sins. Now you need to find a good messianic synagogue or church that teaches the Word of God faithfully so you can grow in your faith and have fellowship with other believers.

The Description of Apostates
Jude 8-16

Jude now begins a detailed description of the apostates, whose deadly work he has revealed. They are the Adversary’s own personal agents within the believing body. However subtle, shrewd, cunning or clever they are, Jude reveals their true character, and gives us a complete record of their spiritual condition and their end. The righteous of the TaNaKh must be on their guard, spiritually alert, alive and awake.⁵¹ What were their beliefs and what was their way of life? From Jude we can conclude three things about these heretics.

First, they were antinomians, or people who believed that the moral law did not apply to them. Antinomians (to see link click Ac – The Book of Jude From a Jewish Perspective: Purpose) have existed in every age of the Church. They are people who prevent grace. Their position is that the Torah is dead and they are under grace. The Torah reveals the standard of righteousness demanded by God. They think it may apply to other people, but it no longer applies to them. They can do absolutely whatever they like and no repentance is necessary. Grace is supreme. It can forgive any sin. In fact, the greater the sin, the more opportunities for grace to increase (Romans 6). They believe that the body is of no importance, what matters is the inward heart. All things belong to the Messiah, and, therefore, all things are theirs. And so, for them, nothing is forbidden.

Jude’s apostates turn the grace of God into a license for immorality (Jude 4); they indulge in shameless unnatural conduct by going after strange flesh as did the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. They pollute their own bodies and do not consider it to be a sin (Jude 7-8). They allow animal instincts to rule their lives (Jude 10). With their sensual ways, they are likely to wreck the love feasts of local messianic synagogues or churches (Jude 12), and it is by their own evil desires that they direct their lives (Jude 16).

Second, they denied the deity and uniqueness of Jesus Christ. They are godless people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Yeshua Messiah our only Master and Lord (Jude 4b). As so often in the New Covenant, we again encounter what became known as Gnosticism (see Ac – The Book of Jude From a Jewish Perspective: Purpose). So, the apostates whom Jude attacks were people who denied the oneness of the LORD and split Him into an ignorant creating God and a truly spiritual God. They denied the uniqueness of Jesus Christ and saw Him as only one of the links between God and human beings, and they created class distinctions with the body of believers and limited fellowship with ADONAI to a supposedly intellectual few who were on a higher spiritual plane than everyone else.

Third, they denied and insulted ADONAI’s holy angels. It is said that they reject authority and slander celestial beings (Jude 8). The words authority and celestial beings describe the ranks in the Jewish hierarchy of angels. Regarding the death and burial of Moses, if Michael, the archangel, on such an occasion said nothing against the prince of evil angels, clearly no one can speak evil of the angels.

The Jewish belief in angels was very elaborate. Every nation had a protecting angel. Every person, every child, had an angel. All the forces of nature, the wind and the sea and fire and all the others were supposedly under the control of angels. It could even be said that every blade of grass has its angel. Clearly, the false teachers attacked the angels. It is likely that they said that the angels were the servants of the ignorant and hostile creator God and that believers should have nothing to do with them. We cannot quite be sure what lies behind this; but, to all their other errors, the apostates added the despising of angels, and to Jude this seemed an evil thing.⁵²