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Jude 5-7
New Catholic Bible
Jude 5-7
New Catholic Bible
Character and Doom of the False Teachers.[a] 5 Although you already know all this, allow me to remind you that the Lord, who once delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who refused to believe.[b] 6 Remember also that the angels, who were dissatisfied with the dominion that had been assigned to them and abandoned their proper dwelling place, have been kept bound by him in darkness with eternal chains until the judgment of the great Day.[c] 7 And do not fail to remember Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring cities, which in a similar way indulged in sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who undergo the punishment of eternal fire.[d]
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- Jude 1:5 The fate of those who pervert faith in Christ and the Christian life is sketched out, in the eyes of the author, in that which overtook the most infamous evildoers of the Bible and which the Jewish literature of the period readily recounts. Thus, a few Biblical scenes are strung together: the people rebelling in the wilderness (Num 14:26-35; see 1 Cor 10:5); the fall of the mysterious heavenly beings that are likened to angels (Gen 6:1-3); the chastisement of the wicked cities (Gen 19:1-29); the punishment of Cain (Gen 4:1-24); the error of Balaam (Num 22:2—24:25; 31:16); the revolt of Korah (Num 16:1-35). Upon those whom he regards as liars, the author calls down the prophecy of judgment that is placed on the lips of Enoch, that ancestor whose mysterious destiny is scrutinized in Jewish literature (see Gen 5:18-24; Wis 4:10f; Lk 3:32-38; Heb 11:5).
Who, then, are these men who pervert the Gospel? They are people who delight in bizarre speculations, who go so far as to deny the lordship of Christ and forget his Person, his role, and his unique work. They insult celestial beings; they doubtless misunderstand the angels or want to judge their merits and their respective roles. Even the archangel Michael—according to the apocryphal book entitled The Assumption of Moses—left to God alone the task of condemning the devil (see Zec 3:2). They are spiritual in discourse but lax in morals and corruptors. - Jude 1:5 The first of three examples of divine punishment formerly meted out is that which befell those who had been saved but failed to keep the faith (see Num 14:28f).
- Jude 1:6 The second example is taken from Gen 6:1-4 as elaborated in the apocryphal Book of Enoch (see Jude 14). Enoch says that the celestial beings let themselves be seduced by the “daughters of men.” But in Jude as in 2 Pet 2:4, the statement that the angels sinned is not accompanied by any details.
- Jude 1:7 The third example is taken from Gen 19:1-24. The townsmen of Sodom lusted not after human beings but after the strangers who were angels. The apocryphal Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, like Jude 6-7, also compares the sin of the angels with that of the Sodomites.
