Jude  

A Commentary of Jude 1:1-5:

Jude 1:1

The book of Jude starts out with a short greeting, noting both the author and the intended receipt. "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ," (Jude 1:1 ESV). 

The term "servant" or "δοῦλος" (i.e. doulos), has a large variety of meanings, most notably, it means a "servant" or "slave". The term can also be used metaphorically, such as in the Gospel of John: "Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin," (John 8:34 ESV). It can also be used in the example we see in Jude 1: "the sole commitment of one person to another" (Mounce).

Jude 1:2

"May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you," (Jude 1:2 ESV). 

"You" or "ὑμῖν" or "hymin", here is plural, referring to a group.

Jude 1:3-4

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ," (Jude 1:3-4 ESV). 

Jude, as Paul is known to do, comes to write to this group about a worrying trend he sees. He does not specify the name of the group but there are several guesses. 

One scholar writes: "The ungodly teachers here described seem to have been the Nicolaitans, mentioned Revelation 2:6, whose doctrine Christ himself declared to be hateful to him. Perhaps the Gnostics and Carpocratians, the successors of the Nicolaitans, were also meant," (Benson).

The Nicolaitians are explicitly condemned twice in the Bible, firstly in Revelation 2:6, and secondly, in Revelation 2:15. We are not told of anything explicitly in the Bible about their beliefs other than they need to repent (Revelation 2:16). 

Irenaeus, an early church father, wrote: "The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles. They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character of these men is very plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse of John, [when they are represented] as teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practice adultery, and to eat things sacrificed to idols," (Irenaeus, Book 1, Ch. 26).

He again writes: "By those termed Nicolaitans, who are an offset of that “knowledge” falsely so called, that he might confound them, and persuade them that there is but one God, who made all things by His Word; and not, as they allege, that the Creator was one, but the Father of the Lord another; and that the Son of the Creator was, forsooth, one, but the Christ from above another, who also continued impassible, descending upon Jesus, the Son of the Creator, and flew back again into His Pleroma; and that Monogenes was the beginning, but Logos was the true son of Monogenes; and that this creation to which we belong was not made by the primary God, but by some power lying far below Him, and shut off from communion with the things invisible and ineffable. The disciple of the Lord therefore desiring to put an end to all such doctrines, and to establish the rule of truth in the Church, that there is one Almighty God, who made all things by His Word, both visible and invisible; showing at the same time, that by the Word, through whom God made the creation," (Irenaeus, Book 3, Ch.11). 

The Nicolaitans seem to be an early Gnostic group with a sort of dualistic view, believing in a sort of polytheism. They differentiate between a primary God who lives in a spiritual realm and a lower power that created creation. We also know that the founder, Nicolas, was ordained as a Deacon, but it would seem that he lost his way, practicing indulgence.

The Carpocratians, who succeded the Nicolaitans, were followers of Carpocrtates. They began sometime in the 2nd century and were more formulated. They were also dualists who believed all matter was evil and only spirit was good. They also believed that salvation could only be attained through esoteric knowledge or "gnosis". The Carpocratians believed Jesus was merely an ordinary man who was unique for he remembered things before Earth. This is not to say he came down as God, but before being created as a man, he remembered the spiritual realm. They would speak to demons and practice potion-making and magic (Irenaeus). They also created icons of important figures like Aristotle, Plato, and Jesus (Rushdoony). As Irenaeus said: "They also possess images, some of them painted, and others formed from different kinds of material; while they maintain that a likeness of Christ was made by Pilate at that time when Jesus lived among them. They crown these images, and set them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world that is to say, with the images of Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, and the rest. They have also other modes of honouring these images, after the same manner of the Gentiles," (Irenaeus, Book 1, Ch. 25).

Irenaeus also said that they also believed that the world was: "created by angels greatly inferior to the unbegotten Father. They also hold that Jesus was the son of Joseph, and was just like other men, with the exception that he differed from them in this respect, that since his soul was steadfast and pure, he perfectly remembered those things which he had witnessed within the sphere of the unbegotten God. On this account, a power descended upon him from the Father, that by means of it he might escape from the creators of the world; and they say that it, after passing through them all, and remaining in all points free, ascended again to him, and to the powers, which in the same way embraced like things to itself. They further declare, that the soul of Jesus, although educated in the practices of the Jews, regarded these with contempt," (Irenaeus, Book 1, Ch. 25).

It is hard to say which group is being mentioned here but those are some of our best guesses. 

Jude 1:5

"Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe," (Jude 1:5 ESV). 

This is a clear reference to the book of Exodus, and it seemingly may even be Jude noting that Jesus is God; however, it is to be noted that there are textual variants of this verse: "The MSS. present a curious variation of reading, some giving “the Lord,” some “Jesus,” and some “God," (Cambridge). If the correct variations are "the Lord" or "God", this is more ambiguous, but: "The oldest manuscripts and versions read, "Jesus." So "Christ" is said to have accompanied the Israelites in the wilderness; so perfectly is Jesus one with the God of the Israelite theocracy," (Jamieson).

Jude 1:6

"And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day," (Jude 1:6 ESV).

The angels who did not abide by the Lord are rightfully punished. Some scholars believe this refers to angels being punished for their crime in Genesis 6 (i.e. the creation of the Nephilim, c.f. Unseen Realm by Dr. Heiser; Keener 721) while others attribute this to some prior fall of angels (Crossway 2450).

"Until the judgment of the great day" of course is in reference to the 2nd coming (Keener 721).

References:

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Carpocratian". Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Dec. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Carpocratians. Accessed 1 July 2024. 

“Carpocratian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Carpocratian. Accessed 1 Jul. 2024. 

ESV Study Bible: English Standard Version. United States, Crossway Bibles, 2008.

 Jamieson, Robert, et al. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary. United States, Hendrickson Publishers, 1996.

Keener, Craig S.. The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, 2nd Edition. United Kingdom, InterVarsity Press, 2014.

Mounce, William D.. Mounce's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. United States, Zondervan, 2009.

Rushdoony, R. J. "The Carpocratians." Chalcedon Foundation, July 01, 1997, https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/the-carpocratians.

Schaff, Philip. Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume I. Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. N.p., CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges. United Kingdom, The University Press, 1905.

Translated by Alexander Roberts and William Rambaut. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1885.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103125.htm>.