Jude 1:18

1:18 Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron, with Gath and Ashdod, later made up the five main cities of the Philistines (3:3).

1:18 in the last times: The coming of Jesus as Messiah inaugurated the last stage of God’s plan, when the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies about the last days began to take place. For this reason, Jude applies the apostles’ prophecy about the last times to the immediate crisis created by the false teachers (1:19).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jud 1:18 . ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου χρόνου ἔσονται ἐμπαῖκται . The parallel in 2Pe 3:3 is ἐλεύσονται ἐπʼ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν ἐν ἐμπαιγμονῇ ἐμπαῖκται , where see note on the use of the article with ἔσχατος , etc. For ἐπί , cf. Arist. Pol. iv. 3, ἐπὶ τῶν ἀρχαίων χρόνων .

The prophecy of this mocking, as a mark of the future trials of the Church, has not come down to us. An example of it in the very beginning of the Church is given in Act 2:13 , ἕτεροι χλευάζοντες ἔλεγον ὅτι γλεύκους μεμεστωμένοι εἰσί . In the O.T. we have such examples as 2Ch 36:16 (the summing up of the attitude of the Jews towards the prophets) ἦσαν μυκτηρίζοντες τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐξουθενοῦντες τοὺς λόγους αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμπαίζοντες ἐν τοῖς προφήταις αὐτοῦ , Jer 20:8 , ἐγενήθη λόγος Κυρίου εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν ἐμοὶ καὶ εἰς χλευασμὸν πᾶσαν ἡμέραν . Cf. also the mockery at the crucifixion, and the declaration in Mat 10:25 f., εἰ τὸν οἰκοδεσπότην Βεεζέβοὺλ ἐπεκάλεσαν , πόσῳ μᾶλλον κ . τ . λ . In 2 Peter the purport of this mockery is explained to be the unfulfilled promise of the Parusia. Here we must gather its meaning from the account already given of the libertines. If they turned the grace of God into licentiousness, they would naturally mock at the narrowness and want of enlightenment of those who took a strict and literal view of the divine commandments: if they made light of authority and treated spiritual things with irreverence, if they foamed out their own shame and uttered proud and impious words, if they denied God and Christ, they would naturally laugh at the idea of a judgment to come. On the form ἐμπαίκτης and its cognates, see note on 2 Peter.

τῶν ἀσεβειῶν . I am rather disposed to take τῶν ἀσεβειῶν here as a subjective genitive, “lusts belonging to, or arising from their impieties,” cf. Rom 1:28 , καθὼς οὐκ ἐδοκίμασαν τὸν Θεὸν ἔχειν ἐν ἐπιγνώσει , παρέδωκεν αὐτοὺς ὁ Θεὸς εἰς ἀδόκιμον νοῦν . The position of the genitive is peculiar, and probably intended to give additional stress. We may compare it with Jas 2:1 , μὴ ἐν προσωπολημψίαις ἔχετε τὴν πίστιν τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ , τῆς δόξης , where some connect τῆς δόξης with κυρίου in a qualitative sense.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

mockers--In the parallel, Pe2 3:3, the same Greek is translated, "scoffers." The word is found nowhere else in the New Testament. How ALFORD can deny that Pe2 3:2-3 is referred to (at least in part), I cannot imagine, seeing that Jude quotes the very words of Peter as the words which the apostles used to speak to his (Jude's) readers.

walk after their own ungodly lusts--literally, "after (according to) their own lusts of ungodliness."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. Mockers in the last time] See the notes on 1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:1, c. and particularly 2Pe 3:2-3, &c., to which Jude seems to refer.

The last time. - The conclusion of the Jewish polity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

By the last time he means that in which the renewed condition of the Church received a fixed form till the end of the world; and it began at the first coming of Christ.

After the usual manner of Scripture, he calls them scoffers who, being inebriated with a profane and impious contempt of God, rush headlong into a brutal contempt of the Divine Being, so that no fear nor reverence keeps them any longer within the limits of duty: as no dread of a future judgment exists in their hearts, so no hope of eternal life. So at this day the world is full of Epicurean despisers of God, who having cast off every fear, madly scoff at the whole doctrine of true religion, regarding it as fabulous.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

18. there should be mockers in the last time …] The word for “mockers” is found in 2Pe_3:3, but the general character of those described agrees with the picture drawn in 1Ti_4:1; 2Ti_3:1. St Jude, it will be noted, does not dwell on the specific form of mockery, the taunts as to the delay in the second coming of the Lord, on which St Peter lays stress.

walk after their own ungodly lusts] Literally, after the lusts of their own impieties. The last word adds a special feature to the description already given, in nearly the same words, in Jud_1:16.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

How that they told you that there should be mockers in the last time,.... See Gill on Pe2 3:3.

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Jude 1:19

jde 1:19

jde 1:19

jde 1:19These be they who separate themselves,.... Not from sinners openly profane; such a separation is commendable, being according to the will and word of God, to the mind and practice of Christ, and which tends to the good of men, and to the glory of God; but from the saints and people of God; it is possible that a child of God may for a time leave the fellowship of the saints, but an entire and total forsaking of them, and of assembling with them, looks with an ill aspect; nor did they separate themselves from superstition and will worship, and every false way of worship, which would have been right, but from the pure worship, ordinances, and discipline of God's house, by a perversion of them, and as being above them, or unwilling to be under any notice and government; not from errors and heresies, and persons that held them, with these they herded; but from the pure doctrines of the Gospel, and ministers of the word, and made divisions and separations among the churches, for worldly ends, and through pride and affectation of vain glory, as if they were more knowing, more holy, and more spiritual than other men: when they were

sensual; such as gave themselves up to sensual lusts and pleasures; and at best were but natural men, who had only natural and rational abilities, but without spiritual and experimental knowledge: hence it follows,

having not the Spirit; though they might have some external gifts of the Spirit; or he himself dwelling in them as a spirit of conviction and illumination, as a spirit of regeneration and sanctification, as a spirit of faith and comfort, as a spirit of adoption, and as the earnest and pledge of the heavenly glory; they were not under his influence, nor did they feel the operations of his grace, nor had they communion with him: hence they appeared to be none of Christ's, nor could they claim interest in him, and were without life, and so could not persevere.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Told you; whether in their preaching or writing.

Ungodly lusts; Greek, lusts of ungodliness; a Hebraism; the vilest lusts.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. Mockers… walk after their own… lusts—Same Greek words as in 2Pe_3:3; where see note: yet speaking here of a different set of mockers or scoffers.

In the last time—Using nearly the same words of the same verse in Peter, yet referring to a different time.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. How that they told you there would be mockers. See 2 Pet. 3:3; 1 Tim. 4:1; 2 Tim. 3:1. Last time. In the last dispensation.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

18.] Exhortation to remember how the Apostles forewarned them of these men. But ye, beloved (see again below, ver. 20), remember the words which were before spoken (not “prophesied:” see reff.) by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ (this can hardly be cited as evidence on one side or the other on the question whether St. Jude himself was an Apostle. He might use the expression, being himself an Apostle: be is certainly more likely to have used it, not being one. According to the critical text, St. Peter uses the same expression, without the ἡμῶν, 2Pe 3:2: and whichever view is taken as to the genuineness or otherwise of 2 Peter, there could be no intention by such an expression to exclude either the real or the pretended St. Peter from the number of the Apostles), that they told you (whether by writing, or by word of mouth, does not appear: so that we cannot say, with Bengel, “ergo hi, ad quos Judas scribit, cæteros quoque Apostolos audierant.” It is worthy of remark that he does not say ἔλεγον ἡμῖν, but ὑμῖν; hereby again not indeed making it certain that he included himself among the Apostles, but making it very uncertain, whether he intends to exclude himself) that at the last of the time (see notes on 2Pe 3:3: Heb 1:1: 1Pe 1:20; = at the end of the world, in the last age of the Church) there shall be scoffers (men who sport with what is holy and good; the λοιμοί of Psa 1:1. The prophecy is contained in 2Ti 3:1, 1Ti 4:1, Act 20:29, and doubtless formed a constant subject of viva voce warning. 2Pe 3:1, 2Pe 3:2, can hardly be supposed to be referred to, for that place is, as this, a reminiscence of things before said by the Apostles, and nearly in the same words), walking according to their own lusts of impieties (ἀσεβειῶν, gen. after ἐπιθυμίας, indicating the direction, or perhaps the character, of those desires. Cf. the same words above, ver. 16).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. ἐπʼ ἑσχάτου χρόνου … ἀσεβειῶν. “In the last time there shall be mockers walking after their own lusts of ungodlinesses.” There is considerable authority for the insertion of ὅτι before ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου: it makes no difference in the sense, ὅτι in such a case being merely equivalent to our inverted commas; see Blass, pp. 233, 286. K L P have ἐν ἐσχάτῳ (τῷ) χρόνῳ. Τῶν ἀσεβειῶν is best taken as objective genitive after ἐπιθυμίας, cf. 2Pe 2:10. The R.V. (text) translates “ungodly lusts,” finding here the same Hebraism as in αἱρέσεις ἀπωλείας, 2Pe 2:1; but St. Jude does not use this idiom (κρίσιν βλασφημίας, ver. 9, is certainly not an instance), and it is needless to force it upon him here.

St. Jude’s text differs from that of 2 Peter in the following points:—(1) He has ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου χρόνου for ἐπʼ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν. Cf. ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου τῶν χρόνων, 1Pe 1:20. Jude’s phrase is less Hebraistic than that of 2 Peter, and better Greek than that of 1 Peter. (2) He has ἐμπαῖκται alone; here again he corrects the rugged Hebraism, ἐν ἐμπαιγμονῇ ενμπαῖκται, as he had already corrected ἐν φθορᾷ φθαρήσονται, 2Pe 2:12; Jud 1:10. (3) In κατὰ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἐπιθυμίας πορευόμενοι he corrects another vulgarism; 2 Peter has ἰδίας. (4) The genitive τῶν ἀσεβειῶν is redundant, and appears to be suggested by the ἀσεβής, ἀσέβεια, ἀσεβεῖν of the passage from Enoch. If we regard 2 Peter as the later, we must suppose that he first struck out the quotation from Enoch, though it suited his purpose admirably well, and then dropped the ἀσεβειῶν, because without the Enoch passage it was no longer easily intelligible. But this mode of procedure is too artificial to be probable. (5) St. Jude has left ἐμπαῖκται without any explanation. In 2 Peter the “mock” is defined quite easily and naturally by the following words, ποῦ ἐστιν ἡ ἐπαγγελία τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ; If 2 Peter is here following Jude, it must be allowed that he has displayed great skill in his adaptation. All through this important verse it clearly seems far easier to explain Jude by 2 Peter than to reverse the process.

Among modern commentators there is a growing tendency to adopt this view; the reader may consult the arguments of Spitta, Kühl, Zahn. But the question is crucial as to the relation between the two Epistles, and it cannot be denied that a heavy weight of authority lies in the other scale. Jülicher settles the question in a very off-hand way. “It appears to speak in favour of the priority of 2 Peter, that Jude, ver. 18, quotes something as an apostolical prophecy which might be derived from 2Pe 3:3, yet at bottom it is given there also as a generally known prophecy” (Einleitung, p. 186). But 2 Peter certainly gives the warning as his own, and, if we make him the later, we must suppose that he has here made a very serious alteration in St. Jude’s text.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Mockers. See on 2Pe 3:3.

Ungodly lusts [επιθυμιας των ασεβειων] . Lit., lusts of ungodlinesses.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.