Jude 5-7, 15 | Barnes | STEP | Verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance . "To show you what must be the doom of such men, I will call certain facts to your recollection, with which you are familiar, respecting the Divine treatment of the wicked in times past." Though ye once knew this . That is, you were formerly made acquainted with these things, though they may not be now fresh in your recollection. On the different significations affixed to the word once in this place, see Bloomfield, Crit. Digest, in loc . The thing which seems to have been in the mind of the apostle was an intention to call to their recollection, as bearing on the case before him, facts with which they had formerly been familiar, and about which there was no doubt. It was the thing which we often endeavour to do in argument--to remind a person of some fact which he once knew very well, and which bears directly on the case. How that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt . . The bearing of this fact on the case, before the mind of Jude, seems to have been this--that, as those who had been delivered from Egypt were afterward destroyed for their unbelief, or as the mere fact of their being rescued did not prevent destruction from coming on them, so the fact that these persons seemed to be delivered from sin, and had become professed followers of God, would not prevent their being destroyed if they led wicked lives. It might rather be inferred from the example of the Israelites that they would be. Afterward . τοδευτερον the second ; that is, the second thing in order, or again. The expression is unusual in this sense, but the apostle seems to have fixed his mind on this event as a second great and important fact in regard to them. The first was that they were delivered; the second , that they were destroyed. Destroyed them that believed not . That is, on account of their unbelief. They were not permitted to enter the promised land, but were cut off in the wilderness. . (a) "Lord" (b) "destroyed"

Jude 5-7

Verse 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance. "To show you what must be the doom of such men, I will call certain facts to your recollection, with which you are familiar, respecting the Divine treatment of the wicked in times past."

Though ye once knew this. That is, you were formerly made acquainted with these things, though they may not be now fresh in your recollection. On the different significations affixed to the word once in this place, see Bloomfield, Crit. Digest, in loc. The thing which seems to have been in the mind of the apostle was an intention to call to their recollection, as bearing on the case before him, facts with which they had formerly been familiar, and about which there was no doubt. It was the thing which we often endeavour to do in argument--to remind a person of some fact which he once knew very well, and which bears directly on the case.

How that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt. 1Cor 10:6-12. The bearing of this fact on the case, before the mind of Jude, seems to have been this--that, as those who had been delivered from Egypt were afterward destroyed for their unbelief, or as the mere fact of their being rescued did not prevent destruction from coming on them, so the fact that these persons seemed to be delivered from sin, and had become professed followers of God, would not prevent their being destroyed if they led wicked lives. It might rather be inferred from the example of the Israelites that they would be.

Afterward. τοδευτερον the second; that is, the second thing in order, or again. The expression is unusual in this sense, but the apostle seems to have fixed his mind on this event as a second great and important fact in regard to them. The first was that they were delivered; the second, that they were destroyed.

Destroyed them that believed not. That is, on account of their unbelief. They were not permitted to enter the promised land, but were cut off in the wilderness. Heb 3:16-19.

(a) "Lord" 1Cor 10:5-12 (b) "destroyed" Nu 14:29,37, Heb 3:16-19 Verse 6. And the angels which kept not their first estate. A second case denoting that the wicked would be punished. 2Pet 2:4. The word rendered estate (αρχην) is, in the margin, principality. The word properly means, beginning, commencement; and then that which surpasses others, which is first, etc., in point of rank and honour; or pre-eminence, priority, precedence, princedom. Here it refers to the rank and dignity which the angels had in heaven. That rank or pre-eminence they did not keep, but fell from it. On the word used here, comp. Eph 1:2, 3:10, Col 2:10, as applied to angels; 1Cor 15:24 Eph 6:12, Col 2:15, as applied to demons.

But left their own habitation. To wit, according to the common interpretation, in heaven. The word rendered habitation (οικητηριον) occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means here that heaven was their native abode or dwelling-place. They left it by sin; but the expression here would seem possibly to mean that they became dissatisfied with their abode, and voluntarily preferred to change it for another. If they did become thus dissatisfied, the cause is wholly unknown, and conjecture is useless. Some of the later Jews supposed that they relinquished heaven out of love for the daughters of men.--Robinson.

He hath reserved in everlasting chains. 2Pet 2:4. Peter says, "chains of darkness;" that is, the darkness encompasses them as chains. Jude says that those chains are "everlasting," (δεσμοιςαιδιοις) Compare Rom 1:20, "his eternal power and Godhead." The word does not elsewhere occur. It is an appropriate word to denote that which is eternal; and no one can doubt that if a Greek wished to express that idea, this would be a proper word to use. The sense is, that that deep darkness always endures; there is no intermission; no light; it will exist for ever. This passage in itself does not prove that the punishment of the rebel angels will be eternal, but merely that they are kept in a dark prison in which there is no light, and which is to exist for ever, with reference to the final trial. The punishment of the rebel angels after the judgment is represented as an everlasting fire, which has been prepared for them and their followers, Mt 25:41.

(c) "angels" Jn 8:44 (1) "habitation" "principality" (d) "everlasting chains" 2Pet 2:4 (e) "judgment" Rev 20:10 Verse 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha. 2Pet 2:6.

And the cities about them. Admah and Zeboim, Gen 14:2, De 29:23; Hoss 11:8. There may have been other towns, also, that perished at the same time, but these are particularly mentioned. They seem to have partaken of the same general characteristics, as neighbouring towns and cities generally do.

In like manner. "In a manner like to these," (τονομοιοντουτοιςτροπον) The Greek word these is in the plural number. There has been much diversity in interpreting this clause. Some refer it to the angels, as if it meant that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah committed sin in a way similar to the angels; some suppose that it refers to the wicked teachers about whom Jude was discoursing, meaning that Sodom and Gomorrah committed the same kind of sins which they did; some that the meaning is, that "the cities round about Sodom and Gomorrah" sinned in the same way as those cities; and some that they were punished in the same manner, and were set forth like them as an example. I see no evidence that it refers to the angels; and if it did, it would not prove, as some have supposed, that their sin was of the same kind as that of Sodom, since there might have been a resemblance in some respects, though not in all. I see no reason to believe, as Macknight holds, that it refers to false teachers, since that would be to suppose that the inhabitants of Sodom copied their example long before the example was set. It seems to me, therefore, that the reference is to the cities round about Sodom; and that the sense is, that they committed iniquity in the same manner as the inhabitants of Sodom did, and were set forth in the same way as an example.

Going after strange flesh, Marg., other. The reference seems to be to the peculiar sin which, from the name Sodom, has been called sodomy. Comp. Rom 1:27. The meaning of the phrase going after is, that they were greatly addicted to this vice. The word strange, or other, refers to that which is contrary to nature. Doddridge, however, explains it, "going after strange and detestable gratifications of their pampered and indulged flesh."

Are set forth for an example. They furnish a warning against all such conduct, and a demonstration that punishment shall come upon the ungodly. The condemnation of any sinner, or of any class of sinners, always furnishes such a warning. 2Pet 2:6.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The word rendered suffering (υπεχουσαι) means, properly, holding under--as, for example, the hand; then to hold towards any one, as the ear--to give attention; then it is used as denoting to hold a discourse towards or with any one, or to hold satisfaction to any one, to make atonement; and then as undergoing, paying, or suffering punishment, when united, as it is here, with the word δικην, (punishment, or vengeance.) See Rob. Lex. Here it expresses the idea of undergoing punishment. The word properly agrees in the construction with cities, (πολεις,) referring to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them; but the things affirmed relate to the inhabitants of those cities. The word vengeance means punishment; that is, such vengeance as the Lord takes on the guilty; not vengeance for the gratification of private and personal feeling, but like that which a magistrate appoints for the maintenance of the laws; such as justice demands. The phrase "eternal fire" is one that is often used to denote future punishment--as expressing the severity and intensity of the suffering. Mt 25:41. As here used, it cannot mean that the fires which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah were literally eternal, or were kept always burning, for that was not true. The expression seems to denote, in this connexion, two things:

(1.) That the destruction of the cities of the plain, with their inhabitants, was as entire and perpetual as if the fires had been always burning --the consumption was absolute and enduring--the sinners were wholly cut off, and the cities for ever rendered desolate; and

(2.) that, in its nature and duration, this was a striking emblem of the destruction which will come upon the ungodly. I do not see that the apostle here means to affirm that those particular sinners who dwelt in Sodom would be punished for ever, for his expressions do not directly affirm that, and his argument does not demand it; but still the image in his mind, in the destruction of those cities, was clearly that of the utter desolation and ruin of which this was the emblem; of the perpetual destruction of the wicked, like that of the cities of the plain. If this had not been the case, there was no reason why he should have used the word eternal--meaning here perpetual--since, if in his mind there was no image of future punishment, all that the argument would have demanded was the simple statement that they were cut off by fire. The passage, then, cannot be used to prove that the particular dwellers in Sodom will be punished for ever--whatever may be the truth on that point; but that there is a place of eternal punishment, of which that was a striking emblem. The meaning is, that the case was one which furnished a demonstration of the fact that God will punish sin; that this was an example of the punishment which God sometimes inflicts on sinners in this world, and a type of that eternal punishment which will be inflicted in the next.

Jude 15

Verse 15. To execute judgment upon all. That is, he shall come to judge all the dwellers upon the earth, good and bad.

And to convince all. The word convince we now use commonly in a somewhat limited sense, as meaning to satisfy a man's own mind either of the truth of some proposition, or of the fact that he has done wrong, as being in this latter sense synonymous with the word convict. This conviction is commonly produced by argument or truth, and is not necessarily followed by any sentence of disapprobation, or by any judicial condemnation. But this is clearly not the sense in which the word is used here. The purpose of the coming of the Lord will not be to convince men in that sense, though it is undoubtedly true that the wicked will see that their lives have been wrong; but it will be to pronounce a sentence on them as the result of the evidence of their guilt. The Greek word which is here used occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.

All that are ungodly among them. All that are not pious; all that have no religion.

Of all their ungodly deeds, etc. Of their wicked actions and words. This is the common doctrine of the Bible, that all the wicked actions and words of men will be called into judgment. In regard to this passage, thus quoted from an ancient prophecy, we may remark,

(1.) that the style bears the marks of its being a quotation, or of its being preserved by Jude in the language in which it had been handed down by tradition. It is not the style of Jude. It is not so terse, pointed, energetic.

(2.) It has every probable mark of its having been actually delivered by Enoch. The age in which he lived was corrupt. The world was ripening for the deluge. He was himself a good man, and, as would seem perhaps, almost the only good man of his generation. Nothing would be more natural than that he should be reproached by hard words and speeches, and nothing more natural than that he should have pointed the men of his own age to the future judgment.

(3.) The doctrine of the final judgment, if this was uttered by Enoch, was an early doctrine in the world. It was held even in the first generations of the race. It was one of those great truths early communicated to man to restrain him from sin, and to lead him to prepare for the great events which are to occur on the earth. The same doctrine has been transmitted from age to age, and is now one of the most important and the most affecting that refers to the final destiny of men.

(a) "judgment upon all" Rev 20:13 (*) "convince" "convict" (b) "speeches" Ps 73:9