YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THE LIBRARY OF THE DIVINITY SCHOOL THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE THE LAST OP THE EPISTLES; COMMENTARY THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE DESIGNED FOR THE GENERAL READER AS WELL AS FOR THE EXEGETICAL STUDENT. BY FREDERIC GARDINER, M. A., RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH, LEWISTON, ME. *Io{i8as eypwf/ey itrurroK^v, oKtySffriKov fxhy, weirXT}pofi4v7}V 8e rStv ttjs obpaviov %6.piTos ^pafxivuv \6yav. — Origen. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN P. JEWETT AND COMPANY. CLEVELAND, OHIO : JEWETT, PROCTOR AND WORTHLNQTON. NEW YORK : SHELDEN, BLAKEMAN AND COMPANY. 1856. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by JOHN P. JEWETT & CO., In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED BY W. F . DRAPER, AN DOVER. TO THE REV. SAMUEL H. TURNER, D. D., PEOFESSOE OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE AND THE INTERPRETATION OF SCEIPTUEE IN THE GENERAL THEOLOGICAL SEMINAET OF THE PEOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, v WHOSE EARNEST PIETY, UNTIRIKG INDUSTRY, PROFOUND SCHOLARSHIP, AND EXEGETICAL SKILL HATE BEEN FOR A WHOLE GENERATION DEVOTED TO THE ELUCIDATION OF THE SCRIPTURES, 2Tj)fs EJirorJt IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS FRIEND AND FORMER PUPIL. CONTENTS. PAGE. I. Gleanings concerning the life of St. Jude, ... 9 II. Ancient notices of this Epistle 18 III. The period when this Epistle was written, ... 25 IV. The persons to whom it was addressed, ... 29 V. The style of this Epistle, 33 VI. Its contents, 39 Vll. A new translation of the Epistle 42 VIII. The Salutation (verses 1,2), 45 IX The Apostle's Purpose and Reason for writing (verses 3, 4), . 51 X The certain Punishment of the Ungodly shown by exam ples, . • 65 The First Example (verse 5), .... 66 The Second Example (verse 6) 71 The Third Example (verse 7), .... 82 The Application of the foregoing Examples (verse 8), 95 The Fourth Example (of godly conduct), the ap plication thereof (verses 9, 10), .... 101 XI. The Denunciation of the Ungodly 127 1. By Examples (verse 11), 128 The Example of Cain, 129 The Example of Balaam, 130 The Example of Korah, 132 Vlll CONTENTS. PA8E. 2. By Comparisons (verses 12, 13) 134 The First Comparison 134 The Second Comparison, 138 The Third Comparison 139 The Fourth Comparison, 142 The Fifth Comparison, 143 XII. The Certain Punishment of the Ungodly shown by Pro phecy, 145 The Prophecy of Enoch, and its Application (ver ses 14—16), 146 The Prophecy of the Apostles, and its Application (verses 17 — 19) 154 XIII. The Exhortation to the Faithful, 161 1. In regard to their own Spiritual Welfare (verses |20, 21), 161 2. In regard to those corrupted by the Ungodly (ver ses 22,23), 165 XIV. The Conclusion 170 1. The Benediction (verse 24), 170 2. The Doxology (verse 25), 173 Excursus I. On the Agapse, mentioned verse 12, 175 Excursus II. On the " Book of Enoch,'1 195 Appendix. On the Similarity between this Epistle and the Second of St. Peter, .... .245 EPISTLE OF JUDE. I. GLEANINGS CONCERNING THE LIFE OF ST. JUDE. The name, variously written Jude, Judas, and Judah, and meaning ' Praise,' was originally given by Leah to the fourth son of the patriarch Qeil. xxix. Jacob, in token of her thankfulness at the 35- birth of another son. The tribe of Judah, descended from this son, was afterwards chosen to supply the royal family of Israel, and received the promise that the sceptre should not depart therefrom until the long- expected Messiah should be born of its royal line. A name thus significant and thus honored was not infrequently given by the Hebrews to their children ; and by a combination of circumstances it has become the popular name for the whole nation. "When the division arose among the tribes, Benjamin and Judah together were commonly called by the name of the latter ; and since the dispersion of the ten tribes, the whole remnant of the Irsaelites has continued to be known by the name of ' Jews.' As the patronymic fell into evil odor in the world f9J 10 GLEANINGS CONCERNING when the race who bore it filled up the measure of their iniquity in the crucifixion of the Lord of Life ; so also the individual name, since the treachery of Judas Iscariot, is burdened with unpleasant associa tions in the Christian mind* There was no place, however, for such associations when the name was given to the author of this epistle ; and if he was one of the twelve apostles, he was known also by the Mark m. is. name of Lebbeus, and by the surname Thad- Matt. x. 3; . . . „ Luke ti. 14, deus. The latter only is mentioned in St. Acts i! 13. Mark's catalogue of the apostles, while both are given by St. Matthew. A comparison of these catalogues with those given by St. Luke shows that Judas is the same person with Lebbeus Thaddeus. The names are both of Hebrew origin, and the latter has the same meaning as Judas. It has been much questioned, however, whether Jude the Apostle and Jude ' the brother of James' and author of this epistle were the same person. According to the received version Jude the Apostle is designated as 'the brother of James' in both the catalogues of St. Luke, and if this translation be * Thus Glassius (Philol. Sacr. Append. Gram. Tract. III. 12, p. 742, ed. DatheJ, quotes Chemnitius as follows : Post traditionem Iscariotis nomen Judse adeo fuit invisum ut ob detestationem flagitii Matthseus et Marcus fratrem Jacobi noluit appellare Judam, ne si appelletur Judas, appellatio cogitationem de proditore ingcrat, maxime, quia juxta Lucaa descriptionem, in prima legatione socii fuerant Judas Jacobi et Judas Iscariotes. Sumserunt igitur aliud vocabulum ab eadem radice, et ejus- dem significationis, sicut nomen Judse : sed quod sono parumper variaret, et pro Juda vocarunt Thaddseum ; sicut in Hcbraica origine cognatio ilia manifestior est., etc. THE LIFE OF ST. JUDE. 11 accurate it would go, far to decide the point in con troversy. But it has been suggested that 'son of James' would in these passages be a more correct translation of the original. So they were rendered in ancient times by the Syriac,* and in more modern days by Luther ; and this rendering is supported by the general, — and in the New Testament invariable — Greek usage. If this translation be correct, it will still remain possible that the son of James may have had also a brother James, and thus the Jude who is numbered among the twelve disciples be the same with the author of this epistle. He does not indeed claim for himself the title of Apostle, and his silence on this point, although by no means proof in itself, yet countenances, the opinion of those who think on other * The Peschito Syriac, both in Luke vi. 16 and Acts i. 13, translates koI 'loiSas 'laK<&$ov by tUQai>j }3 IjOCTjO son of James. So Luther in Lu. vi. 16 Judam, Jacobi Sohn, and in Acts i. 13 simply Ju das Jacobi. A learned and able argument in favor of this view may be found in Jessien "de 'Av&evTltf epistolse Judse," cap. I. pp. 18 — 32. He has not however succeeded in wholly doing away with the force of the examples cited from Alciphron and Isocrates in favor of the rendering brother. Winer, both in his realworterbuch (art. Judas), and in his Grammatik des Neutestam, sprachidioms (pp. 218, 667), argues in favor of the rendering ' brother of James.' Following in the steps of Glassius (Phil. Sacr. Can. 39 — 5, Tom. I, p. 120, ed. Dathe), he shows that the ellipsis, although more usually to be supplied by son or daughter, yet often requires various other terms of family relationship, as mother (Lu. xxiv. 10 ; Mark xvi. 1 ; xv. 47. Cf. Matt, xxvii. 56 ; Ma. xv. 40) ; Father (Acts vii. 16, Cf. Gen. xxxiii. 19.) : and wife (Matt. i. 6.) ; but he gives no in stance of brother except in the passages in dispute. His argument cer tainly removes the impossibility of this translation ; every one can judge for himself how far it establishes its probability. 12 GLEANINGS CONCERNING grounds that he was not of the number of the twelve. Perhaps the strongest argument against his disciple- ship is to be found in the statement in the Gospel that the ' brethren' of our Lord did not believe on Him, Jno. th. 5. and persisted in their unbelief, even after the 4M9?Ma. choice of his twelve disciples. The same Lu.14i.359; 'brethren' are, moreover, elsewhere expressly distinguished from the ' disciples.' A recur rence of the same names therefore in the lists both of the 'disciples' and of the 'brethren,' serves rather to show that there were different persons of the same name, than that the same persons belonged to both classes. Hence it is argued that the James and Si mon and Judas of the apostolic catalogue were dif ferent persons from the three bearing the same name Matt. xiii. in the list of our Lord's four cousins, called 65, etc. according to Jewish usage His brethren ; that is, different persons from " James and Joses and Si mon and Judas,'' 'brethren' to one another and all to our Lord. Thus we have on the one hand, the facts that a certain Jude was a disciple and was the son of a certain James, while it does not appear that he was a kinsman of our Lord ; on the other, the fact that a certain Jude, being one of the ' brethren' (who are said generally not to have believed on the Lord), was probably not a disciple, and was the brother of a certain James. It is unlikely that the two persons thus distinguished were really the same, especially as the name was a common one. Now the author of this epistle by his own statement, was the brother of James ; and according to all tradition was the kins- THE LIFE OF ST. JUDE. 13 man of the Lord ; while it does not appear who his father was, nor does he claim to have been a disciple. Hence it is argued that he was one of those ' brethren' of Jesus who were not among His twelve disciples. Without entering further into the intricacies of this vexed question which would require a volume for its full discussion and which, from the want of sufficient data, must end in no certain conclusion, the title of Apostle will in the following pages be. freely given to St. Jude. This is but following the practice of the ancient Christian writers, and does not necessarily involve the supposition that he was one of the twelve disciples. The relationship of the author of this epistle to the Saviour rests upon more certain grounds. The fact that among the sons of Mary (the wife of Cleopas and sister of the Virgin Mary), was Jude and his brother James may be thought sufficient ^at^™- proof in itself; for it is improbable that there ^%3^ were two Judes, each having a brother James. M ^^;f To this must be added the unanimous voice of all antiquity, constantly and distinctly bearing tes timony to his relationship to our blessed Lord. St. Jude was married and left children. Eusebius says when Domitian ordered that all the posterity of David should be slain, " some of the heretics ac cused the descendants of Judas as the brother of our Saviour, according to the flesh, because they Eusebiu3 were of the family of David, and as such ^'•nHisct: were also related to Christ." He then quotes 19'20- from Hegesippus an interesting account of the good 2 14 GLEANINGS CONCERNING confession witnessed by the grandchildren of Jude before their persecutor. From the fact that they were husbandmen, it has been supposed that their grand father may have been also. This perhaps was the tradition at the time of the compilation of the ' Apos tolic Constitutions,' where the apostles, are const" ub. represented as saying, " Some of us are fisher men, others tentmakers, others husbandmen." The inference, however, whether drawn from the occupation of the grandchildren, or from the language of the ' Constitution,' rests upon a slender foundation. The numerous illustrations of the epistle indicate a mind familiar with the beauty and richness of nature : but if they harmonize with one occupation rather than another, it is with that of a sailor or a fisher man. According to the maxim, — Navita de ventis, de tauris narrat arator, in him who speaks of the sea, of winds, sunken rocks, and waves, of sea-weed, clouds, stars, and darkness, we are disposed to recognize one whose business was upon the waters before he was called to be a fisher of men. St. Jude, as the kinsman of our Saviour, must have known of Him at an early day. He may have been of the number of those kinsfolk returning from the Lu Ti 13 feast a* Jerusalem, among whom Joseph and 16, Mary sought the holy child Jesus while he tarried behind them in the temple. Of his subsequent life it is impossible to know anything with certainty. The doubt concerning his having been one of the THE LIFE OF ST. JUDE. 15 twelve disciples has aheady been mentioned, and this ¦makes doubtful the application to the author of this epistle of the scanty traditions in relation to Jude the disciple; and if these traditions do not relate to the author of this epistle, then nothing whatever is known of his life. In this uncertainty, such facts . as can be gathered concerning the life of Jude the disciple, are here given. From the silence of the Gospels concern ing him, it may be inferred that he was of a retiring disposition. The single question recorded of Jno.xiT.22. him by St. John, " Lord, how is it that Thou wilt mani fest Thyself unto us and not unto the world ? " while it was doubtless founded upon the misconception of the nature of Christ's kingdom so long shared by all the apostles, yet indicates a certain feeling of surprise at the promise of a blessing so peculiar to them, and perhaps a modesty that shrank from the idea of stand ing out in any way upon a higher vantage ground than others. The scene of the labors of Jude the disciple was probably to the Eastward of Jerusalem. Tradition speaks of his preaching in Syria, Home's in- Mesopotamia, Armenia, and Persia. It is ^sao^pt! said that the Syrians to this day, attribute to sect. '3. $ 3! his labors the ancient version of the Old Tes tament, called from its close adherence to the original, the Peschito, or simple Syriac. The city of Edessa, not far from the ancient ' Ur of the Chaldees,' is par ticularly mentioned as having been visited by him. Eusebius relates that Abgarus, the king of that coun try and the surrounding district of Osrhoene — in the time of Christ, being sick and having heard of the 16 GLEANINGS CONCERNING wonderful works of the Saviour, wrote asking Him to come and heal him. The Saviour replied that He would send one of His disciples after He should have Himself returned to His Father. These letters are given at length by Eusebius, who says that he found them in the archives of Edessa, written in Syriac, and translated them himself literally. He gives also a translation of the Syriac note subjoined to them, as follows : " After the ascension of Jesus, Judas who is also called Thomas, sent him Thaddeus, the Apostle, one of the seventy." Then follows a particular ac count of his interview with the king* These letters are pronounced spurious by critics, and in the ap pended note there is evidently some confusion of names. Nevertheless, the tradition may have had some foundation in fact, and if so, the ' Judas' who sent was probably the same with the ' Thaddeus' who is reported to have gone. Such was the opinion of St. Jerome, who says expressly : " Ecclesiastical his tory relates that there was sent to Edessa, to Abgarus, king of Osrhbene, Thaddeus the Apostle, who is called by the Evangelist Luke, Judas the brother [or son] of James, and who is elsewhere called Lebbeus"! Certainly, it is not improbable that this apostle should have visited Edessa in the course of * Eusebius Eccl. Hist. Bk. I. ch. 13. t Thaddajum Apostolum, Ecclesiastica tradit historia missum Edes- san, ad Abgarum regem Osroense, qui ab Evangelista Luca, Judas Jacobi dicitur : et alibi appellator Lebbosus, quod interpretatur corculus. Credendumque est cum fuisse trinomium. Sicut Simon, Petrus, etc. Hieron. Comm. in Matt. x. lib. I. Tom. iv. fol. 35. ed. Boned. THE LIFE OF JUDE. 17 his missionary travels, — a city lying on his route to Armenia, — nor that when there, he should have preached the Gospel and healed the sick. St. Jude is supposed to have lived to a considerable age. There is an uncertain tradition that he at last suffered martyrdom at Berytus in Persia. The silence of the ancients on this point however, leaves room for the opinion of those who think he died a natural death after a long and laborious life of faithful service to his Master. 2* II. ANCIENT NOTICES OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. The canon of the New Testament having been gradually settled as its several books, written one after another, were spread abroad among believers, and the proofs of their inspiration made known, it happened that the catholic epistles were not univer sally acknowledged as early as the Gospels, the Acts, and the epistles of St. Paul. This may have been owing in part to the brevity of most of them, and in part to the fact that not being addressed to any par ticular church, none felt themselves especially called upon to set forth the proofs of their authority. It was not until the early part of the fourth century that the opinions of the widely separated parts of the church having been exchanged and mutually ex amined, the canon, as we now have it, obtained definitely the unanimous and unqualified approbation of the whole body of Christendom. Hence the delay in the settlement of the canon, so far from rendering doubtful the authority of any of its books, serves rather to show how cautiously the early church pro ceeded, and to give the greater weight to its judgment when finally pronounced. The epistle of St. Jude was quoted as a part of the CIS) THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. 19 Christian Scriptures in very early times by the Gnos tics, who attempted to pervert a sentence of the Apos tle to the support of their own evil system of morals* It is also mentioned as an admitted Biblical book in the most ancient catalogue of the Scriptures in the Latin language supposed to belong to the close of the second century.f The references to this epistle, how ever, which the ingenuity of critics has detected in the writings of Hermas, of Clement of Rome, Polycarp, and Irenseus offer no sure footing to him who seeks only for what is clear and reliable. We learn from Eusebius that Clement of Alexan dria (who flourished about A. D. 190—200), " In his ' institutions' has given us abridged accounts of all the canonical Scriptures, not even omitting those that are disputed ; I mean Jude and the other general epis tles."^ The original of this work of Clement is un fortunately lost ; but in a small Latin treatise called ' Adumbrations,' supposed to be a translation of it — * BoiKoi/rca yap TJV k^t' abriiov fiaprvpiav ttiv cmto T77S £irir)ffiv S 'lobSas, froi\Ofuu, 0V1 6 ®ebs airef K. t. A. Psedag. Lib. III. c. viii. Ed. Oxon. p. 280 [Ed. Sylburg, p. 239.] § 'EttI toIitccv, oL/mll, Ka\ tuv Sfiolav alpeffiav irpotjniTiKcos 'lovSav iv Trj imffToKy elp7]Kevaf 'Ofiotws fievroi Kal outoi iwnvia£6[ievoi eats, icaX to o-Tci/ict abriiv \a\et {mepoyaa. Stromata Lib. IH, 2. Ed. Oxon. p. 515. THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. 21 A few years later, Tertullian* endeavored to use the established authority of this epistle to do a. d. 200. away with the just doubts of his contemporaries con cerning a certain apochryphal book, claiming to have been written by the patriarch Enoch. An extended examination of this singular work will be found at the close of this volume in Excursus II. Tertullian's opinion concerning it must lessen our confidence in his judgment and critical acumen ; but the manner in which he refers to the " Apostle Jude" as a decisive authority, shows that this epistle was then widely acknowledged in the church. In the voluminous writings of Origen are numerous references to this epistle. Sometimes he a.d. 230. simply quotes it as he would any other part of Scrip ture, without remark ; at others he alludes to the doubts which some still entertained of its authority. But he was himself too deeply learned and too well versed in the Scriptures to feel any such misgiving, and he thus clearly records his own belief: -Jude also wrote an epistle, very brief indeed, but full of words of heavenly grace. In the beginning he says, ' Jude the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.' " f He also in several other passages expressly mentions St. Jude as one of the New Testament writers4 * Enoch apud Judam Apostolum testimonium possidit. Tertul. De Hab. Mul. cap. 3. t Kal 'loiSas eypatyev imVToXrjv, oXiyiaTixw M^"i '"eirK'npoji.evnv Se tuv t9js ovpaviov x<£piTos 4flbw(j.evwv \6yoiv, HffTts iv Tip irpoolp.itp etprjKev • 'Iou- Sas 'Irjcou Xpio-Tod SovKos, it. t. X. Orig. Comment, in Matt. xiii. 56, 57. Tom. III. p. 463. D. } Seo Horn, in Gen. xiii. Tom. II. p. 9^5. A. ; and Horn, in libr. Jos. 22 ANCIENT NOTICES OF It is perhaps unnecessary to follow this chain of evidence further ; but there are two names, those of Eusebius and St. Athanasius, which have occupied so prominent a place, the former in the literature, and the latter in the history of the church, that the mention of their opinions may not be irrelevant. Eusebius in his a. d. 315. Ecclesiastical history has given a complete list of the various books of Scripture, and noticed the degree of authority which, in his time, was atta~ched to each of them. He reckons the epistles H.Eoci.Bk. of St. James and St. Jude " among the books III. ch. 25. ... iiiii ibid.Bk.ii. that are disputed, although they are well known and approved by many." Again, in another passage, speaking of the epistle of St. James, he says : " Not many of the ancients have mentioned it, and not even that called the epistle of Jude, which is also one of the seven catholic epistles. Never theless we know that these, with the rest, are publicly used in most of the churches." Athanasius, who was born A. D. 298, but who a. d. 350. wrote most of his works half a century later, while enjoying among the hermits of Egypt a refuge from the bitter storms of persecution, mentions the epistle of St. Jude as one of the seven catholic epis tles, included among " the settled and canonical books vii. Ibid. p. 412. A. B. Origen also quotes v. 8 and 9, in an epistle, " ad quosdam amicos Alexandrinos." Tom. I. p. 5. A. B. He also cites v. 6, with this introduction : " The Apostle Jude, in a Catholic epistle, says" — Com. in ep. ad Rom. v. 13. Tom. IV. p. 549. A. See also irepl &pX">v Lib. III. c. 2. Tom. I. p. 158 j and Com. in Matt. xxii. 23. Tom. III. p. 814— Ed. de La Hue. THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. 23 of the New Testament."* He elsewhere gives a detailed account of the contents of the epistle.f After this time there was never any more doubt until modern times, of the canonical and inspired authority of the epistle of St. Jude. St. Jerome a. d. 380. says " it hath obtained authority through antiquity and use, and is reckoned among the sacred Scriptures." He accounts for the tardiness of many in receiving it, by their unwillingness to sanction the apocryphal book of Enoch, from which St. Jude was supposed to have quoted.^ This supposition, as will appear in the proper place, is quite gratuitous ; but it was nevertheless so strongly fixed in the minds of many of the early Christian writers that only the most satisfactory evidence of the authority of the epistle was able to prevail against the prejudice thereby created. Thus cautiously did the church admit this brief epistle into the number of her sacred books. It was * Athan. de Synops. Script, under the heading toi Be tijs KaiPTJs Sia- ^rjicrjs, irdkiv wpifffj.eva Te, kcu KeKavoviffpeva {ii/iKta ToJuTa, mentions Ka- froAucdl eTnffToXdi Sta^Spcov ctaroo-roAwj', at iraffai eiTTa, els ev api&fivfJ.evai $ifi\iov, and under these, 'lovSa fila, -fis t\ apxh' 'lovSas 'It\oov Xpivjov Sov\os, k. t. A. Athan. de Syn. Script. Ed. Colonial p. 59. B. C. and p. 60. B. If this work be not genuine, it must yet be of very nearly the same age. t Ibid. p. 139. D. and p. 140. A. } Judas frater Jacobi parvam quidem (qua? de septem Catholicis est) epistolam reliquit, et quia de libro Enoch, qui apochryphus est, in ea [sc. epistola] assumit testimonium, a plerisque rejicitur; tamen auctori- tatem vetustate jam et usu meruit ; et inter S. Scripturas computari, et sacrosanctam auctoritatem habere. Hieron. catal. Script. Eccles. in art. Jud. Vol. I. fol. 349. B. ed. Paris. 1602. 24 THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. among the later, but not the last, of those acknowl edged to have been given by inspiration of God. "We have cause for thankfulness that the church in early days, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, exercised such care and such maturity of judgment that neither violence of controversy nor pride of criticism have since been able to unsettle her decision. HI. THE PERIOD "WHEN THIS EPISTLE WAS WRITTEN. That the gracious doctrines of the Gospel may be perverted by evil men to their own evil purposes is made abundantly evident by the history of the church in the first, as well as in all following ages. To guard against this mischief, the later books of the New Testament insist much upon the necessity of ho liness of life, and utter warnings, startling in their severity, against all manner of wickedness ; and par ticularly against such as sought to clothe itself in the garb of piety. The epistle of St. Jude, partaking of the character of these books, and written for a like purpose with them, was undoubtedly put forth at a late period, when ungodly men had carried their un godliness to a daring height of presumption. Its exact date it is more difficult to determine, and there is a variation of no less than twenty-five years (from A. D. 65 to 90), between the extremes of opinion among the learned. If the epistle be taken up merely as an ancient work, without regard to its inspired character, it may still be traced back to the Apostolic age. It has been already observed that, before the close of the second century, Clement of Alexandria quotes it, and de- 3 (25) 26 THE PERIOD WHEN THIS scribes its author as a kinsman and contemporary of the Saviour. This proves, at the least, that the epistle must have been written sometime before Clem ent spoke thus positively of its authorship. There is so much testimony to the same effect in the writings of Tertullian and Origen, who flourished but little later, that the date of the epistle must be carried back con siderably to allow time for such an opinion not merely to have been expressed by a single writer, but, to have gained currency among learned men. Again, the author describes himself as ' the brother of James.' This evidently supposes James to have been a well- known and distinguished person, — so distinguished that the author thought to make himself the better known by means of his relationship. History presents to us, within the period in which this epistle could possibly have been written, the name of but one person who filled such a station — James, surnamed the Just, the first Bishop of Jerusalem. These gen eral considerations may serve to fix its date approxi mately within the limits of the first century. From the absence of any allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem when the course of argument and the train of illustration would naturally have led to it, it may be thought probable that the epistle was written before A. D. 70. Other landmarks guide us to the same conclusion. The fact that the descendants of St. Jude were brought before the Emperor Domitian in A. D. 95, as related by Eusebius (see p. 13), makes it probable that St. Jude himself had ere then gone to his rest. Had EPISTLE WAS WRITTEN. 27 he been then living, the historian could hardly have avoided some allusion to him in that connection. Still further, a comparison of this epistle with the second of St. Peter must decide the priority of one or the other. The date of the latter may be fixed with con siderable accuracy to a period shortly before St. Peter's death, in A. D. 68. The question of the comparative priority of the two epistles is discussed in the appen dix, and the conclusion there arrived at is, that this epistle is the earlier. On the other hand, St. Jude in the third and seven teenth verses evidently speaks as if some time had elapsed since the body of apostolic doctrine had been completed, and the apostolic warnings of evil to come been spread abroad ; and the tone throughout plainly classes this among the later epistles. A date but little before that of the second epistle of St. Peter seems therefore to be required. If a number must be fixed upon, none other appears more probable than that as signed by Dr. Lardner and Mr. Home — about A. D. 65.* At this time the Apostle must have almost reached, if he had not already passed, the appointed term of human life. He had toiled long in his Master's vine yard, and it is not easy to picture to ourselves the emotions with which he must have looked upon the festering corruption in some of the branches of the vine. He remembered when he had stood at his * At the close of this Epistle, in the Armenian edition, 1698, we aro told : " Scriptam esse hanc epistolam A. D. 64 ab apostolo Juda Jacobi, qui et Lebbaaus et Thaddeus vocetur, et Armenis, Persisque prasdi- caverit. 28 PERIOD WHEN THIS EPISTLE WAS WRITTEN. heavenly kinsman's side, and listened to the holy doc trine that fell from His Ups. Though for a time not believing in Christ, yet after the resurrection, he was doubtless among the five hundred brethren who saw the pierced side, and the wounded hands which had been stretched upon the cross " to redeem to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Awe struck and astonished, when the Saviour's form was received up into the clouds of heaven, he may have heard with his o-wn ears the angelic message, that He should so come again in like manner as He had gone. He had experienced His power in the wonderful gifts shed abroad on the day of Pentecost. Endued with an unction from on high, he had gone forth to warn men to repent, and turn from their sins to serve the living God, the Lord working with him and confirm ing the word with signs following. Multitudes had professed their obedience to the truth. But now, when his head was white with age, and his labors were well nigh over, as he stood ever waiting to be called once more into the visible presence of his Almighty Judge, and to receive the glorious crown of his well-fought warfare, he beheld on every side false teachers who had crept into the fold, leading captive souls which Jesus died to redeem ; while the mystery of iniquity was at work around, and many who bore the holy name of Christ, ran greedily after all ungodliness. His soul was stirred within him, and he lifted up his voice, to warn the church of her danger, in tones of such solemn earnestness that the soul of the believer still thrills at the sound. IV. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS EPISTLE WAS ADDRESSED. The Epistle of St. Jude is commonly called Catho lic, because it was addressed to Christians at large. As, however, several of the other epistles, equally gen eral in their opening, were written with some particular country or class of Christians more immediately in view, a similar primary object has been sought for this epistle. The style of the argument and illustrations has given rise to the suggestion that the epistle may have been addressed particularly to Jewish believers. It was plainly intended for persons familiar with the narra tives of the Old Testament as were, doubtless, all well-instructed Christians ; it is an over-nice criti cism which finds in this fact evidence that it was addressed to Christians of Jewish descent. As well might it be argued from its peculiarly classical style and phraseology that it was intended primarily for Gentile, and especially Grecian, converts. In either case we should still be without a clue to its geo graphical destination. Some negative inferences may however be drawn from the few facts in our possession. In the first place, it seems unlikely that it should have been sent es- 3* (2») 30 THE PERSONS TO WHOM pecially to the Syrian church, inasmuch as in the oldest MSS. of the Peschito Syriac version this, with several other of the epistles, appears to have been omitted. Subsequently, however, it was incorporated into that version, and it is expressly quoted by Ephrem Syrus* The inference, so far as any can be drawn from these facts is that, while the Syrian Christians were, in due time, satisfied of the authen ticity of this epistle, they were not at first in advance of other parts of the church in their knowledge con cerning it. Another negative inference may be drawn from the similarity between this epistle and the second of St. Peter. In view of the remarkable likeness between these two epistles, which could not have been sep arated from one another by any long interval of time, and the later of which must have been written with a knowledge of the contents of the earher, yet with no direct allusion thereto ; it seems highly improbable that they should have been both addressed to the same persons. We know that the Epistle of St. Peter was Compare addressed primarily to the Christians of Asia Ic'.^wHh^ Minor, and we may therefore conclude that Pet. m. 1. -j-jjjg wag noj. fae eSpeeial destination of the epistle of St. Jude. If any positive inference can be drawn from ob serving the region in which we first find it quoted, and * Ephrem, Syr. Opp. Grose. Tom. III. p. 62 and 63. Ed. Asseman Rom. 1746. Reference has also been made to his Opp. Syr. Tom. I. p. 136, but it does not appear that any quotation is thoro intended, or if there be, that it is from St. Jude. THIS EPISTLE WAS ADDRESSED. 31 in which its authority was most unhesitatingly ac knowledged, it would be decidedly in favor of Egypt. Hence Tertullian might have gained ground for his confidence in its authority ; there it was that Clement and Origen found indubitable evidence in its favor. The brevity of the epistle may account for its not being mentioned in the surviving works of the writers of any other country before the time of Eusebius ; yet it is worthy of note that while Eusebius, writing in Pales tine, was forced to reckon it among the disputed books, he, nevertheless, having spent some years in Egypt, felt no doubt of its authority in his own mind, and the Athanasian Synopsis Scriptures, also in Egypt, includes it, without hesitation, among " the settled and canonical books of the New Testament." If it could be shown that St. Jude had any particu lar sect of heretics in view in the denunciations of his epistle, it might throw some fight upon its immediate geographical destination. The fact, however, is quite otherwise. The evil men, of whom he speaks, still mingled with the faithful as one with them. Their errors and sins were such as have always been found here and there among unworthy members of the church, who have yet carefully avoided banding them selves together in any outward organization. There were doubtless many points of resemblance between them and the sect of the Nicolaitanes ; but there is no intimation in the epistle which can make it necessary to assume that the apostle had either them, or any other distinct sect in his mind. In the absence, therefore, of all more certain evi- 32 THE PERSONS TO WHOM ADDRESSED. dence, and of all probable tradition of any local destination, it is perhaps the safest and wisest course to assume that the epistle was, from the first, de signed for general circulation throughout the Chris tian church. V. THE STYLE OF THE EPISTLE. It was a striking remark made by a Scotch divine to a friend * when he said : " In reading in my Greek Testament this morning, I was curiously impressed by a thought which, simple as it may seem, never oc curred to me before. The portion which I perused was in the First Epistle of St. Peter ; " — the remark is quite as applicable to the Epistle of St. Jude — " and as I passed from thinking of the passage to the lan guage in which it is expressed, ' this Greek of the untaught Galilean fisherman,' I said, ' so admired by scholars and critics for its unaffected dignity and force, was not acquired as that of Paul may have been, in the ordinary way, but formed a portion of the Pente costal gift ! Here then, immediately under my eye, on these pages, are there embodied not, as in many other parts of the Scriptures, the mere details of a miracle, but 'the direct results of a miracle. How strange! Had the old tables of stone been placed before me, with what an awe-struck feehng should I have looked on the characters traced upon them by * Rev. Mr. Stewart, of Cromarty, to Hugh Miller. Eootprints of the Creator, p. 300. (33) 34 THE STYLE God's own finger ! How is it that I have failed to remember that, in the language of these epistles miraculously impressed by the Divine power upon the mind, I possessed as significant and suggestive a relic as that which the inscription miraculously im pressed by the Divine power upon the stone could possibly have furnished ? ' " Yet as the unseen winds of heaven, the peculiar emblem of the Spirit's power, when they sweep over the broad ocean, gather up the odor of the sea, or breathing gently over flowery meadows, gain sweetness and softness from the touch, and thus come at last to us with all the bracing sternness of the wild path through which they have marched, or with the mild and winning loveliness of the lands in whose pleasant valleys they have fing ered; so the Spirit's gifts of tongues, always essen tially the same, yet appears to us impressed with the peculiar tone of each writer to whose thoughts — al beit inspired thoughts — it has given utterance. The language of St. John, St. James, and St. Jude, though all may be alike the fruit of the Pentecostal gift, is in each case distinct in its style, and stamped with those peculiarities which mark it for the writer's own. The gift of tongues, we must suppose, placed its recipients in the same relation to any language then communi cated as they would have been after acquiring it thoroughly in the ordinary way. Diversities of natu ral skill, and diversities, as in the command of lan guage generally, so in that of each tongue particularly, doubtless remained even among the apostles,. It is not impossible that the apostles may have OF THE EPISTLE. 35 learned Greek, which was much used in their time in Judea, as they learned Hebrew, from infancy. But supposing their knowledge of it to have been miracu lous, still, as the gift of the Spirit did not descend to the regulation of minute details, it is both allowable and proper in treating of the style even of an apostle, to speak as one would have done had there been cer tainly no miracle in the case. The style of St. Jude is eminently nervous, and his diction terse. He writes as one who had well weighed what he was about to say, and expresses himself with the clearness of one who is thoroughly master of his subject. Sorrowful facts are spoken of in plain terms, and there is nothing like hesitation in the utterance of his fearful warnings. The argument is forcible, and every illustration tells like the blow of a giant. His indignation at what he saw in the church seems to have been pent up and restrained to the utmost bound of endurance, and when it burst forth for a moment, it was with an overwhelming torrent of re buke, bearing away all opposition. It would be diffi cult to point to language of greater power than may be found in this brief epistle, and there are passages in it of true prophetic sublimity. The Greek of this epistle partakes of the character of that found in other parts of the Scriptures. As none of the other New Testament writers have ex pressed themselves in pure and classic Greek, but have rather accommodated themselves to that Hebraistic style which they read in the Greek version of the Old Testament, and found prevailing among their contem- 36 THE STYLE poraries in their native land ; so in the Epistle of St. Jude frequent traces of the Hebrew idiom may be found, indicating either that what is here written in Greek had been previously thought out in Hebrew, or else that the Greek itself, to which he was accustomed, had become modified in its use by a Semitic people. The Hebraisms of this epistle are too apparent to require being pointed out* Its Greek, however, on the whole, is of a decidedly more classic character than that of most other books of the New Testament. St. Peter has, indeed, made use of several of its clas sical expressions, but has amplified them with phrases partaking more of the Hebraistic style. There are in this epistle fourteen or fifteen words used by no other writer of the New Testament; a number which can hardly be considered large in com parison with the fifty-three similar "words in the second, and the fifty-nine in the first epistle of St. Peter. Of these fourteen or fifteen words one only is found frequently, and three or four others rarely in the Septuagint.f Nearly all of them may be found * A few instances may as well be noted by way of illustration. In v. 10, the construction iv tovtois fSrelpovrai ; in ver. 11, the metaphorical expression, tj 6Sa [tivos] iropeiWS-ai. in ver. 16, the phrase, to OTo\m avTaiv \a\ei virepoyKa, instead of Ka\dvv(TiKws (v. 10). Of these iieiropveia, OF THE EPISTLE. 37 however in frequent use among the best Greek writers. So far as the evidence of these words is concerned, they would indicate — what is remarkable in a writer of the New Testament — a freer use of the classic than of the Septuagint vocabulary. Other words and expressions bearing the same indication are not want ing, and some of the phrases have been particularly noted for their classic elegance.* Although, therefore, only, occurs commonly in the LXX ; the 4£e\4yxw and fore%a> are found thrice, 7rAaj^Tj;s once (Hos.ix.20),and (pvffucws only in 2 Mac.iv.37 and xiv. 24. yoyyvaT^s is not found, as far as I know, in the classics, nor is it in the LXX, but occurs in Prov. xxvi. 21 or 22, according to Theodotion and Symmachus. * The following instances may be mentioned. In ver. 3, Koivn pl£ovTa, of verse 13, are all worthy of careful attention. 4 38 THE STYLE OF THE EPISTLE. there are many words and phrases in the epistle which betray the Hebrew associations of the author ; yet no one can carefully examine its language without feeling satisfied that he was also a master of Greek. It was no part of his object to set forth a model of a pure classical style; but rather in the briefest and most fitting words to express his earnest, glowing thoughts. This has been so perfectly accomplished that, regard ing the language as merely that of a human compo sition, it would be difficult oftentimes to alter so much as a word without weakening the sense ; and looking upon it as an inspired writing, we have here fresh proof that religion does not altogether spurn the graces of composition, nor set aside as useless the assistance of rhetorical skill. Moreover, if St. Jude's knowledge of the language in which he wrote was in fact the fruit of the Pentecostal gift, it appears from hence how complete was that gift, and perfectly adapted to its end. VI. THE CONTENTS OE THE EPISTLE OP ST. JUDE. The Epistle of St. Jude, in its plan, and the arrangement of its several parts is simple, clear, and methodical. After the salutation in the first two verses, follows a brief statement of the end the Apostle had in view in writing, and of the circum stances which made his epistle necessary. He then, in the fifth verse, proceeds at once to the discussion of the matter in hand. The exhortation at the con clusion, beginning with the twentieth verse, is in perfect harmony with what has gone before, and even the doxology which occupies the last two verses, is moulded by the single thought which pervades the whole epistle. The unity of its plan, the happy arrangement and proportion of its several parts, the power of the argu ment, and the richness and pertinency of its illustra tions have deservedly obtained for this epistle a high rank, when viewed in the light of a rhetorical com position. We learn from verse 3, that St. Jude's object in writing was to exhort his readers " earnestly to con tend for the faith once delivered to the saints." He thought this necessary because certain " ungodly men" (39) 40 THE CONTENTS OF had " crept in unawares," perverting the truth of the Gospel, and making its doctrines of grace a cloak for their licentiousness. In pursuance of this design the Apostle shows, in the first place, that such ungodliness will surely meet with just punishment from on high. This he does both by adducing examples, and by quoting prophetic denunciations. He reminds those whom he ad dressed of the examples of the unbelieving Israelites, of the rebellious angels, and of the wicked cities of the plain. He likens the evil men of his own day to those who suffered such judgments ; and taking up a particular instance of their evil doings, he shows by the example of the archangel, how utterly such a course is opposed to the ways of righteousness. Having mentioned other of their evil deeds, he de clares, in the eleventh and following verses that, like Cain, Balaam, and Koran, they are rushing on to then own destruction. These examples are followed by a fearfully vivid description of the character and condemnation of these ungodly men. The Apostle then, in the fourteenth verse, shows how the wrath of God against such ungodliness, was revealed of old by the mouth of His Prophet, and by a further description of those of whom he spoke, shows that they fall under this prophetic denun ciation. Having thus cited a very ancient prophecy, that the unchangeableness of the Divine purpose may the better appear, St. Jude now reminds his readers of the more recent predictions of the Apostles of our Lord, THE EPISTLE OF ST. JUDE. 41 thereby showing that the fact of these evil men having secretly crept into the midst of Christ's flock need occasion no dismay, as if some strange thing had happened ; for it had been distinctly foreseen and foretold. Finally, against those, also, "who cause divisions," the Apostle lifts his voice of solemn warning. In view of these things, St. Jude concludes with an earnest exhortation, by clinging to the faith and grow ing therein, and by prayer, to continue in God's favor, encouraged by the glorious hope held out to the faith ful at the end. Having added some directions in "regard to the treatment of those tainted with the prevailing corruption, he closes with a doxology, in which is brought prominently forward the power of God to preserve us in the faith, and to reward our perseverance with exceeding precious promises. vn. A NEW TRANSLATION OE THE EPISTLE. The text followed here, as throughout, is that of Lachmann. The more important various readings will be noted in their proper places. In a few in stances the language of the received version has been altered for no other reason than to bring, out more fully by means of different translations the true mean ing of the original. Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to the beloved in God the Father, and pre- served_ki_Jesu^_Christ7 and called r 2 Mercy and peace, and lovebe multiplied unto you. 3 Beloved, using all earnestness to write unto you, I thought it needful to write to you of our common salvation, exhorting to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ; 4 for there are certain men crept in unawares who were of old prophetically denounced to this punishment, ungodly men, pervert ing the grace of our God unto licentiousness, and denying the only Lord, even our Lord Jesus Christ. 6 1 will therefore remind you, who know all these things perfectly, that Jesus having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who belieyed not. 6 And the angels who kept not (42) A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE EPISTLE. 43 their principality, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in chains that cannot be broken under infernal darkness unto the judgment of the great day. 7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner with them giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example of eternal fire, suffering pun ishment. 8 Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, set aside dominion, and revile dignities. 9 Now, Michael, the archangel, when, contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him reviling accusation ; but said, ' The Lord rebuke thee ! ' 10 Yet these revile whatsoever they know not ; and whatsoever they naturally, as the irrational animals, understand, in those things they corrupt themselves. u Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for reward, and have perished in the gainsay ing of Korah. 12 These are rocks in your love-feasts, feasting with you fearlessly, caring only for themselves : water less clouds, borne along by winds : fruitless autumnal trees, doubly dead, to be plucked up by the roots : 13 wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame : wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of infernal darkness forever. 14 But even the seventh from Adam, Enoch, pro phesied of these, saying, Behold! the Lord cometh with His holy myriads, 15to pass sentence upon all, and to rebuke all the ungodly for all their works of ungodliness which they have ungodly wrought, and of all their harsh speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. M These are murmurers, fault finders, following their own desires ; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, honoring persons for the sake of advantage. 44 A NEW TRANSLATION OF THE EPISTLE. 17 And, beloved, remember ye the words propheti cally spoken by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 18 how they told you that in the last time there should be scoffers, following their own ungodly desires. 19 These are they who cause divisions, sensual, not having the Spirit. 20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, akeep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal fife. 22 And some indeed who are contentious, rebuke ; 23 and some save, plucking them from the fire ; and on some have compassion in fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 24 Now unto Him who is able to keep you un- fallen, and to cause you to stand spotless in the pre sence of His glory with exceeding joy ; M unto the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, strength, and power, both now, and for all ages ! Amen. vm. THE SALUTATION. All the epistles of the New Testament, except the first of St. John and the epistle to the Hebrews, open with a salutation. This custom of ancient corres pondence seems to have been followed by the apostles, not merely as a matter of form, but rather as giving occasion for the solemn invocation of blessings upon those whom they addressed. The formal salutation required by usage — A. B. to C. D. greeting — is ad hered to only in the epistle of St. James ; while in all the others, except the last short epistle of St. John, " grace and peace" are made the object of apostolic prayer. It is said that the ancient Greek Fathers when they wrote to a carnal man simply wished him grace, and not peace ; but when they addressed a godly man, they wished him grace, and peace too ; thus dis tinguishing between an ordinary and a Christian salu tation. However this may be, the peculiar character of most of the apostolic salutations, differing from that common in their times, must have 23; xxxiu. ' 26, etc. been adopted designedly, to express the fer vent wish and prayer of the writers. With these general points of agreement, the apos tolic salutations differ considerably from one another. (45) 46 THE SALUTATION. That of St. Jude is brief, simple, and full of meaning. Like St. Paul in his epistles to the Phihppians, to the Thessalonians, and to Philemon, and like St. James in his epistle, he omits the title of Apostle. If any reason be required for this beyond the mere choice of the writer ; it may perhaps be found in the fact that brother of James was a more distinctive title than that of apostle merely. For the fame of none of the apos tles was more widely spread than that of James, sur- named ' the Just,' and by claiming relationship to him, the writer at once made known who he was. It can hardly be supposed that the title of apostle was omit ted to avoid being confounded with the traitor Judas ; for not only were no apostolic writings put forth be fore the death of the traitor, but up to that time the title was rarely applied to the twelve,* and Judas Iscariot was never commonly known in the Christian Church as ' Judas the Apostle.' St. Jude describes himself as the servant of Jesus Christ. He speaks not of his relationship to the Saviour, according to the flesh ; for high and enviable as that distinction may seem, it had no weight in spiritual matters. In the church of God earthly con nections avail not, but the token of the lineage required is the service of the heart, resulting from a new birth of the Spirit. To the woman who extolled the bless- # Apostle is used but six times in St. Luke, and once in each of the other Gospels. In two of these places certainly (Lu. xi. 49 and Jno. xiii. 16), it is not applied to the twelve as a title of office. Disciples is their common name in the Gospels j in the book of Acts both titles are used ; but afterwards, that of disciples was dropped altogether. VERSE 1, 2. 47 edness even of His earthly mother, Jesus replied, ' Rather blessed are they that hear the word of lu. xi. 28. God, and keep it.' The word servant is often applied in Scripture to distinguished officers of the Church. Moses and Joshua in olden time were known as^Mjhe, servants of the Lord ; ' and in theNew Testament this is often the peculiar title of an apostle. St. Jude further describes himself as the brother of James. A reason for this has already been suggested. It is not quite impossible, moreover, that his connec tion with the Saviour may have been only through the medium of James. For although he is ex pressly called by the Evangelists the ' brother' k? Ma.Uyi. of Jesus, yet it is well known that this expres sion was used with great latitude in the phraseology of the Jews; and it is noticeable that when James, along with Joses and Salome, is mentioned as the son of Mary, the sister of the Virgin, the name of t-,. . -,-r. ¦ .,ii Ma. xv. 40; Jude is omitted. It is not impossible there- xvi. i com- ,. «- pared with fore that he may have been the son of Mary s Jm>. xix. husband, Cleophas (or Alpheus), by a former wife, and thus instead of being cousin-german to Jesus, have been connected with Him only by being half-brother to James. The evidence of this, however, is slight, and of a merely negative character. The Apostle addresses his epistle to the beloved* in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called. These high and holy terms, in strictness be- * TiyairriiJ.evois is edited by Lachmann and Tischendorf, and placed by Griesbach in his inner margin. The weight of authority both of MSS. and versions is strongly in its favor. 48 THE SALUTATION. longing only to the truly faithful, are frequently ap plied by the apostles to the whole body of the church, albeit containing, as their epistles abundantly prove, many unworthy members. In the same way also the Israelites of old are continually spoken of as ' a holy people.' These terms show what Christians are by their calling and profession, and what they ought to be in life and conversation. They describe the church of Christ, the body of which He is the head, the spouse whom He hath chosen for His own, without especial regard to the fact that men may become out wardly associated with its members, who have no inward union with its Head. Such expressions have, therefore, a double sense : the one objective, or official, belonging to all alike who have been enrolled under the banners of Christ; the other subjective, of high and deep spiritual significance, applicable only to such as with heart-sejyJLce^fight manfully in His cause. Thus the wordfbeloyeS has obviously both a federal and an individuajrapplication; As the Jewish church of old was beloved, however sinful may have been many of its members ; so also theCDihn^ian church^ indeed beloved of God collectively, while those among its members who would individually enjoy His love must love Him, and seek to do His will. # A corresponding double sense will remain if the old reading 177100-- ftevots be retained. Its primary meaning is sanctified, ' consecrated to holy uses,' ' set apart for God's service ; ' but by association, it often in cludes also the idea of the internal purity and holiness required in those who are thus set apart. Comp. Jno. x. 36 ; Heb. x. 39, etc. with Acts xx. 32 ; xxvi. 18 ; 1 Thess. v. 23, etc, VERSE 1, 2. 49 Preserveje, in like manner, may mean only TeTi)prin4- the peculiar care and guardianship of *""J Jesus Christ.' In this sense it can be applied not only to the whole body of the church, but even to Jude 6. such as are expressly reserved for punishment. Or it may in a more peculiar sense, refer to those who are kept by the grace of Christ from sin and apostasy, shielded from the power of their spiritual adversaries, and preserved through the period of their probation unto the day of their eternal reward^ The correspond ing double sense of the word called\s familiar. It is capable of being used both in the declara tion " Many be called, but few chosen ;" and as a synonym for those who love God in the Matt, ^ promise, " all things work together for good Rom.™. to them that love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose." The former sense, however, is by far the more common. The phraseology of this salutation is worthy of attention. * " gglaKed— in God the Father, and pre served ih Jesus Christ, and called" — if the agent in the calling were expressed, it might be — " called by the Holy Ghost." It is remarked by Manton in his note upon this place, " The whole Trinity, one way or other, concurreth to the work of holiness. Those works ad extra are indivisa, common to all the per- * Beza found so much difficulty in it as to be constrained at last to say : " Est autem (fateor) huic cpistolse peculiaris h«e salutatio." His difficulty perhaps arose from attempting to reconcile the Apostle's broad use of language with the narrowness of technical theology — a difficulty not peculiar to Beza. 5 50 THE SALUTATION. sons ; tfie Father sanctifieth, the Son sanctifieth, the Holy Ghost sanctifieth. Yet though all work Manton on J jude.Lond. jointly, there are distinct personal operations, by which they make way for the glory of each jno.Hi.i6. other>» God the Father so loved the world as to give His only begotten Son for its salvation ; Jesus Christ is the Son through whose sacrifice this love is made effectual to all that believe on Him ; and the Holy Ghost, whether speaking ' by the mouth of the prophets,' or uniting with the voice of the Bride — the Church of Christ — or silently whispering to the conscience, is He who especially implanteth in the heart the love of the Father and the Son. The Apostle closes his salutation with the words Mercy unto you, and peace, and love be multiplied; — " mercy, releasing your sins ; and peace, quieting the conscience; and love, joining to God." * The boundary between prayer an3 benediction is not easily defined, and the prayer of an Apostle for blessings upon the faithful necessarily partakes of the nature of benedic tion. The use of the word multiplied, peculiar to this and the two epistles of St. Peter, gives an especial richness and power to the salutation. It is as if he had said ' May ye increase and grow in these bless ings, and go on from grace to grace until your hearts are filled full and to overflowing with mercy, peace and love.' * Nicholas de Lyra as given in the Biblioth. Max. "Vers, of De La Haye. Compare QScumenius in loco. IX. THE APOSTLE'S PURPOSE AND REASON EOR "WRITING. Beloved, using all earnestness to write unto you, I thought it needful to write to you of our common salvation, exhorting to con tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were of old prophetically denounced to this punishment, ungodly men, perverting the grace of our God unto licentiousness, and denying the only Lord, even our Lord Jesus Christ, ver. 3, 4. It is curious that among the many ingenious theories proposed to account for the writing of this epistle, so little stress should have been laid upon the reason given by St. Jude himself. He says plainly enough that he thought this exhortation, to contend earnestly for the faith, necessary on account of the corruptions privily brought into the church by ungodly men. The word belpimdr- is a frequent form of *Jj ^™- apostolic address. The following clause has ^'^'lel been sometimes translated ' making all haste,' ly.'ii; ?'' supposing the idea to be that the Apostle, eto°'etc. ' seeing the activity of the false teachers, and McKnight the rapid spread of their errors, thought it necessary to write without delay. The sense given in the translation above, using all earnestness, is better, "(iij 52 the apostle's purpose and and answers more exactly to the original.* It so reads both in the Syriac and in the Vulgate.f The Apostle felt that the evils of which, he wrote were not to be trifled with ; he was thoroughly in earnest in what he was about. In the following clause, I thought it need ful to write to you of our common salvation, the punc tuation is that given by Lachmann and Griesbach in the Greek text, \ and by Gutbir and others in the Syriac. \ St. Jude speaks of our || common salvation, showing that it was shared alike by himself and those * waffav o"ttovS^v irotov/xevos (Cf. 2 Pet. i. 5, o-irovSkv iraffav trapetffe- veyKavjes). The primary idea of ottouS^, from o-ireiSa, obs. th. airea — to strain every nerve, to press, seems to be that of earnestness. Cf. Wolfii curas philolog. in loco, and his quotations from Polybius and Herodotus. Such is its invariable use in the epistles : see Rom. xii. 8, 11 ; 2 Cor. vii. 11, 12 ; viii. 7, 8, 16 ; Heb. vii. 11 ; 2 Pet. i. 5. In the Gospels it is used twice in the sense of haste ; Ma. vi. 25 ; Lu. i. 39. These, with the text, are all the places in which it occurs. t The Syriac see in note below. It is accurately translated by the Vulgate, omnem solicitudinem faciens ; although this be, as Beza re marks, but barbarous Latin. Walton in the Polyglott has omnem curam faciens. The sense is well given in the Erench version, Jai fort a cceur. X — ypdipetv vfjtiv, irepl ttjs Kotvfjs Ttfiav fftorriplas avdyKTjv etrxov ypaxf/at k. t. a. It is to be regretted that Tischendorf has returned to the old pointing. f> ^ • T, •_•¦• O ¦¦ This pointing is . i^Aniabi. _V» &,] ^nj.jf . ]q*.i J±Zj defended by Laurmann, and others. || fipav is edited by Lachmann though not by Tischendorf. Griesbach does not even place it in his inner margin, although it is not without considerable MS. authority. It completes the sense of the clause, and must have been read by the Syriac translator, as appears in the previous note. reason for writing VERSES 3 AND 4. 53 whom he addressed, and formed a bond between him and his readers, in that they were joint par- Compare takers of the same glorious hope* The idea 2 Pet- L L conveyed by the expressive word earnestly contend is not only ' hold fast the faith yourselves,' but also 'use all godly earnestness in advancing and preserving it from corruption.' Almost in the same words St. Paul exhorted the Phihppians, " Stand fast in Pnu. i- 27. one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the Gospel." The word itself is a „ r Scapula compound f meaning literally ' to contend Lox.inYer- after another.' Etymologically, therefore, it contains a beautiful allusion to the faithfulness of the saints who had gone before.^ The expression the faith once delivered to the saints is plainly based upon the fact that a certain definite and tangible body of truth has been, once for all, given from on high ; to be received, maintained, and contended for as it is, to which no man may add, and from which no man may take away. Beza says ' Great is the emphasis of this adverb : he Beza calls that doctrine once delivered which can majores in never afterward be changed, and which being * So Calvin in his excellent note ; communem illis secum salutem facit. Compare with this expression Tit. i. 4, koto Kotvijv ivlffTtv ; also 2 Mac. ix. 21, avayicdiov TfYi\adpnv tppovTlcrai Trjs Kotvrjs trdvraiv a&ipaXeias. See also Xenophon Cyroped. L. iii. 2, 32, n-oWes yap koivtjs aarnplas Se6- peSa. Other references to the classics may be found in Laurmann in loco. t iirayovt£eaS>at, a word air. Ae7. as KaTayav. is In Heb. xi. 33, and o-vvayav. Rom. xv. 30. It is found, however, in use in the classics. X This may be the sense of the barbarous word in the Vulgate — supercertari. 54 the apostle's purpose and once lost, there will remain no other hope of salva tion.' In the truthful words of Vincent of Lerins it is " something entrusted to thee, not invented by thee ; something thou hast received, not thought out." * It were much to be desired that this truth might receive a more general acknowledgment. There are certain Divinely appointed land-marks which can never be removed, let the waves and tides of human opinion boil and surge about them as they may. The utter opposition of this precept to the maxim ' that it is of little matter what one believes, if only he be diligent to frame his life according to that belief is obvious. Nor is it less at variance with the too prevailing in difference to the various forms of error which abound. The principle of religious freedom may be pushed to such an unwarrantable extent as to become mere licentiousness of opinion, utterly inconsistent with a due reverence for the truths of revelation as the teach ings of the Almighty. It not infrequently happens that a false opinion in matters of merely earthly interest, in politics or science, is esteemed of more importance, or at least draws forth more ' earnest con tention' for the truth than an error in religion. Such differences as do not directly and immediately affect the very foundations of the faith have come to be widely regarded as matters of individual taste or opinion ; and Christian sensibility has become sorely blunted even in regard to those errors which are plainly * Quod tibi creditum, non a te inventum; quod accepisti, non ex. cogitasti. Vine. Lyren. Mensis. quoted by Manton. p. 146. reason, for writing verses 3, 4. 55 of the most serious character. The opinion, that con- - troversy on such points had better be let alone, is not seldom avowed ; and there is a certain mawkish liber ality which affects to regard with indifference all dif ferences of religious befief. Such liberality is not in accordance with the will of Him who once delivered the faith to the saints, and who warns them to 2Pet.rn.i7. 'beware lest they fall from their own steadfastness.' St. Paul foresaw the time when there should be such a perplexity of varying teachings as even now gee espe. exists, and his epistles to Timothy plainly de- f^lffi scribe the course to be pursued in view there- m' T1" of. " Keep that^ wMch_Js_committedJp_Jliy-tost'' is tteJhuxden^olF'MrexlToTEallons^ "STTPeter's counsels in regard to the same state of things are one with St. Paul's. And St. Jude, who wrote expressly because error in doctrine, as well as viciousness of life, had crept into the church, exhorts us not only to take heed to the integrity of our own belief, but also, " earnestly to contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." The term faith here, as often elsewhere, in cludes both the ^g-(^ine^LJh»4-H4w--precepts ,cL,nH? i°iim. tfi^Gospel^sjthe whole body of truth thereirt/T' revealed. That some time had elapsed since thisHsritfi had been made known may reasonably be inferred from the expression once delivered. The faith was from the first delivered to the saints. St. Paul answered the question ' What advantage hath the Jew over the Gentile' by saying, " Much every way : chiefly, because unto them were Kom. m. committed the oracles of God." So, also, it ' 56 the apostle's purpose and is the high privilege of the Christian church to " be a witness and keeper of Holy Writ ; " and therefore she 1 Tim. m. is called by the same apostle " the pillar and ground of the truth,"' since her Lord hath been pleased to make her the depositary and guardian of the ' faith once delivered to the saints.' The sacred- ness of this deposite she has always recognized, and' in all ages has been wont to speak of it as the holy Polycarp spoke when he wrote to the faithful at Phi lippi, — as he was hastening to receive the crown t>{ martyrdom, — teaching them how they might be come " able to build themselves up in the faith that had been delivered" to them;* the same faith which he presently afterwards calls " The word delivered to you from the beginning." f This faith has been de livered to the saints, not merely to a branch of the church, or to a particular class of its members ; but to the whole body collectively. To this trust the spouse of Christ, notwithstanding the times of ignorance and controversy and error that have passed over her, has been ever faithful. There has been a body of doc trine embracing all the great features of the plan of salvation, — the fall and sinfulness of man, the atone ment wrought out for us by the Saviour, the neces sity of repentance, faith, and holiness of life, the benefit and the obligation of the sacraments, the resurrection and the judgment to come — which has * els Its iitv iyKiirTtiTe, Svvri&{\ffea&e olKo8op.e?o#at els ti)j/ So&eto-cw bfiiv ¦n'tSTtv. Polyc. ad Phil. Sect. 3. t o i( apxhs T\iiiv trapaSoSre'is \6yos. Sect. 7. REASON FOR WRITING VERSES 3, 4. 57 been always held by the mass of Christians in all ages, and which still forms the sure foundation of their hopes. Although the Scriptures, as the Divine rule of faith may have been, at times, overlaid by superstition, at times undermined by the subtle spirit of rationalism ; yet amid all, the mass of true be lievers in Christ, — the body of ' the saints,' — have clung steadfastly to the faith once delivered to them, and if inquiry be made concerning the befief of earn est Christians in all countries, in any age, the answer will be invariably the same. This faith it is the duty of the church to transmit in its integrity, unsullied, to the future. To her is given in charge that ' Glorious Gospel' 'which was committed to the trust' of " ITim.i.ll. her founders, the apostles. A solemn curse rests upon the substitution of ' any other gos- Gal' 1- 8' 9' pel,' even though, were it possible, it should be J Tta. m. proclaimed by an angel from heaven. " Con- • tinue in the things which thou hast learned," " con tend for the faith once delivered to the saints" is the apostolic counsel and charge. The times of error when such contention is called for, are necessarily times of trial. Then all men must cling to this sacred deposite ; and especially he that is set in au thority in the church, whatever of obloquy he may thereby incur, must "hold fast the faithful Ti|. . 9_ word as he hath been taught," remembering 1 ^ ^ that " there must also be heresies that they 19- which are approved may be made manifest." The phrase certain men is broad enough to include all propagators of error, whether formally claiming the 58 office oi teachers or diffusing the poison of their errors in less conspicuous ways. The fact, however, that their influence was so great as to render this epistle necessary, and the description of them as faithless shepherds in the eleventh verse, seem to mark them as men possessed of some authority in the fold of Christ. They had crept in unawares* even as all his tory, alike ancient and modern, bears witness to the stealthiness and secresy which marks the entrance of error into the church. It was " while men slept" that Matt.xiii.25. «the enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." It may be because evil minded men find it impolitic to attack the faith at first openly and boldly ; or it may be because honest though weak-minded men fall into error little by little, and for a time un consciously, still dragging others with them, until they dare not acknowledge the length to which they have gone ; or it may be because in view of the strength and power of the true faith, corruptions are not ob served until they have made considerable progress ; but whatever be the cause, certain it is that errors in the church, like habits of wrong thinking or wrong doing in the individual, enter and grow up silently and stealthily, often showing themselves when and * irapeureSvauv, a word oir. \ey. but occurring in the classics, vapeur- d£ovfftv in the parallel passage 2 Pet. ii. 1, is also air. Key. although its derivative adjective is found in Gal. ii. 4. This double preposition has always the same force when used in composition (bye the bye, indirectly, Rom. v. 20) not excepting 2 Pet. i. 5, where it has a beauty of applica tion not noticeable in the English translation — "Besides this irapeur- eveyKtanes, using all earnestness as a collateral aid, add etc." REASON FOR WRITING VERSES 3, 4. 59 where they were least to have been expected. There fore, as the individual Christian is often admonished to maintain an active warfare with evil, ever pressing forward in the path of holiness, so also does St. Jude exhort the whole body of the faithful to contend earnestly for the faith as their only safeguard against the insidious approach of errors so fatal that St. Peter has not hesitated to call them " dam nable heresies." The existence in the church Gal- u- 4- of " false brethren unawares brought in" had been before pointed out by St. Paul. It is an evil from which the church has never been free ; and one which, having begun in Apostolic days, must continue as long as the wheat and the tares are suffered to grow together. St. Jude describes these evil men as of old pro phetically denounced to this punishment. His meaning is thus set forth in the judicious paraphrase of Dr. Doddridge : men " who were of old, as it were, de- . scribed and registered to this condemnation, by God's righteous sentence denounced against crimes like theirs, long before they appeared in the world." The original word here translated by the plvrase, prophetic ally denounced, occurs but a few times in the New Testament, and in none of them does it bear at all the technical sense of predestined, foreordained* In # irpoyeypa/iiievot. npoypa t] ypafii, so what is written in the more ancient Scriptures is irpoyeypa/ip-eva, or (as in v. 17) ¦irpoeipniJ.eiia. * Kp'ipa. Comp. Mark xii. 40 ; Rom. xiii. 2, etc. REASON FOE WRITING VERSES 3, 4. 61 ment mentioned in the fifth and following verses. It is a curious fact that the word ungodly, so common both in the earlier and the later Scriptures, means ety- mologically, irreverent; as if reverence were so essential an element of piety that to say one is without it, is a sufficient expression of his ungodliness.* The word perverting f signifies, says Dr. Bloomfield, 'to alter anything from its original purpose.' The peculiar appositeness of this sense to the scope of the Apostle needs not to be dwelt upon. Grace is a word bearing in the Scriptures various shades of meaning according to the connection in which it stands ; but having in all, as its primary idea, the mercy, kindness, goodness of our God ; and this is its sense here. That the doctrines of grace may be perverted by evil men to their own destruction we have abundant evidence, both in the Scriptural notices of the church in apostolic days, and in the history of all later ages. Such a disposition is indignantly rebuked by St. Paul. " Shall we continue in Rom. vi. 1,2. sin," he asks, " that grace may abound ? God forbid : how shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? " There is a limit even to the mercy of God, and there is a time when the Saviour will reject the plea of those who turn to Him only after the Bride groom has entered into His feast and the door is shut. The language of the Apostle admits of another * ao-ePets. aaefieta differs from aStxla as ungodliness from injustice. t Cf. (Ecumenius in loco ; he thus explains : jieTaTt^ivres; avrl tov, lierairotovvres, trapairoiovvTes. 6 62 the apostle's purpose and construction by which it may be made to refer, not so much to the act itself of perverting the gracious doc trines of the Gospel, as to the effect of that act in bringing the Gospel into discredit among those that are without, by representing it as a system of li centiousness under the mask of holiness and purity. Whichever construction be preferred, the connection between cause and effect remains ; the act precedes the consequence and the consequence follows the act. The primary meaning of licentiousness * is lawless ness, unrestrained self-indulgence. The derived, and perhaps usual, sense shows how closely impatience of government is connected with the lower and more degrading vices — a connection plainly intimated by both St. Peter arid St. Jude throughout their epistles. The Vulgate, curiously enough, has suggested a still further connection, not unfounded in fact, by the trans lation in luxuriam. The denial, with which these perverters of Divine grace are charged, is spoken of as an additional sin, and therefore consisted not merely in the practical denial of an evil hfe ; but also included a rejection of the true doctrine concerning our blessed Lord. Ac cording to the recognized usage f of the Greek article, the clause must read " Denying the only Lord, J even * oureXyeta. t See Glassius, Phil. Sacr. ed. Dathe, Lib. I. Tract. II. p. 135. "Winer, Gram, des neutest. sprachidioms III. cap. 1 § 18, 5. p. 149. ed. 1844, etc. X Bebv is of very doubtful authority, and is rejected alike by Gries bach, Lachmann, and Tischendorf. reason for writing verses 3, 4. 63 our Lord Jesus Christ."* The word for Lord, here employed by St. Jude, as well as by St. Peter in the parallel passage f is commonly used, both in 2 Pet. a. 1. the New Testament and in the Greek version of the Old, of a human master ; but when applied to a higher Being, belongs exclusively to the Supreme God, as in the prayer of Simeon, in the prayer of the disciples after Peter and John had been Acts iv. 24-, threatened by the Jewish council, and in the cry of the souls of the martyred dead mentioned in * There are several probable reasons for supposing both these titles to refer to the Saviour, independently of any argument to be drawn from the use of the article. I. It can hardly be supposed that false teachers would be tolerated, even in the most corrupt state of the church, who went to the length of denying God altogether. The passage 1 John ii. 22, sometimes referred to in this connection, relates to a different subject — the denial of the relation between the Eather and the Son. What has been alleged concerning certain heretics who are said to have denied God altogether is also inapplicable, inasmuch as it is not pretended that such heretics remained in the communion of the church — like those (see ver. 12) of whom St. Jude speaks. Nor is there any evidence that the Apostle meant persons who, " to avoid persecution, denied the only Lord and God of the universe, by acknowledging and worshipping the heathen deities ; " on the contrary, the persecution of the Christians did not aim so much at the denial of the God of Israel, as at the rejection of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. Some weight should be allowed to a sense which is incorporated into the Syriac translation, and into those MSS. upon which the Complutensian editors based the reading Tbv ft.6vov ®ebv Kctl Zeair&rnv, Tbv Kvptov ft/iav 'lvtrovy Xptmbv apvoi/xevot. 3. He who is here described as Tbv p.6vov B«nrdTj)j> is called in the parallel passage 2 Pet. ii. 1, Tbv kyopdaavTo. abrobs Seairorrpi, an evident description of Him who " purchased the church with hi3 own blood." * SeBir6ri)s, whence our word despot. In Greek as well as in English, it conveys the idea of supreme, irresponsible, authority — the authority highest in its kind. 64 reason for writing verses 3, 4. the book of Revelation, where it seems to be appfied to the Lamb who was alone found worthy to open the seals of the book.* It is not necessary to suppose that the apostle had any distinct body of heretics in view in this passage. He speaks of ungodly men, living within the fold of the church which they defiled by their evil fives and corrupted by their false doctrine. Had these formed themselves into a distinct sect, they would probably have been mentioned by name, or at least have been more specifically described. # See McKnight's note on 2 Pet. ii. 1 X. THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OE THE UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. I will therefore remind you, who know all these things perfectly, that Jesus having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, after ward destroyed those that believed not, etc. ver. 5 — 10. When certain consequences are observed in all past experience to have followed certain acts, we argue the existence of a general law in accordance with which the same consequences will continue to follow the same acts hereafter. The knowledge of such laws exerts a powerful sway over the human mind. In material things man readily and promptly accommo dates his plans to their operation; for the folly of resistance is palpable. The habit thus formed is an aid to him in obeying moral laws, also, when he has once become fully satisfied of their existence and of the mode of their operation. In accordance with the general character of the moral world, the usual action of its laws is less plain and tangible, at least for the present, than of those belonging to the physical world. Yet, as they never change, a small number of instances of their operation, clearly and distinctly marked, is enough to show their character and tendency. It is the object of the Apostle in this portion of his epistle, 6* ("65) 66 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE by the setting forth of such instances, to bring to bear upon men's consciences the general law that whatever is opposed to the will of God will, sooner or later, draw down his wrath upon the doer thereof. The terrible judgments with which ungodliness has from time to time been visited are but manifestations of the abhorrence in which it is at all times held by Him who changeth not, and illustrations of the punishment which He has appointed as its invariable reward. It is worthy of notice in regard to all the examples here cited, that they involved the punishment of large numbers ; that the Divine vengeance fell upon those who had previously enjoyed opportunities of learning the Divine will — a will so mightily revealed to the Israelites in the wilderness, so easily followed by the angels of heaven, and preached both by life and doc trine by righteous Lot to the men of Sodom ; and further, that in all these instances the Divine judg ments were discriminating, casting out only the apos tate angels, destroying only the Israelites that believed not, and rescuing just Lot from the overthrow of Sodom. THE FIRST EXAMPLE. I will therefore remind you, who know all these things perfectly, that Jesus having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, after ward destroyed those who believed not. Ver. 5. The destruction of the Israelites in the wil- Num. xiv. 26_2S; m derness was a distinguished instance of the xxvi. 64, 65. ° punishment of those who fall from the faith, and one peculiarly apposite to the purpose of the UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 67 Apostle. They were the chosen people of God, par takers of the covenant made with their fathers, and had themselves been saved and delivered by the mi raculous interposition of the Almighty arm. If God spared not them, none who follow their sin can hope to escape His wrath. The same example is referred to with the same design, in the first epistle to ° x 1 Cor. x. the Corinthians, and also in that to the He- Irjj ^b- m 16—19. brews. A fact so prominent in the history of the Israelites must have been quite familiar to the readers of St. Jude's epistle. He therefore introduces the illustration with the words, i" will therefore remind you who know all these things perfectly" — that is, I * inrofiVTJffat oZv i/pas fSoliXopiat, elb&Tas aira£ iraWa, . . . There is no little variety of readings here. The only one of importance however, is that which substitutes toDto for irdvTa, as in the textus receptus. The latter is edited by Lachmann and Tischendorf, and has such a prepon derance of authority of MSS. and versions that Griesbach was con strained in his note to say " Cum irdvTa sit lectis antiquior quam tovto, neque tamen genuina sed ex 1 Jno. ii. 20. hue illata esse videatur, legen- dum esse arbitramur EiSdra?, ami! '6rt S etc." There can be little doubt, however, that the reading here followed is the true one. The rhetorical skill shown in this passage is noted by Laurman in loco. For the sense here given to amtf, perfectly, see Glassii philolog. sacra, Gram. lib. I. Tract. V. can. xiv. p. 389, ed. Dathe ; Wolfii cur. phil. in loco ; Scapula lex. in verbo. Suidas says it is used avrl tov Sto'Xov, 6Xoo-xepS>s, " for entirely, completely ;" and further, remarking upon the phrase otto! ixdx-noev 5 ®ebs, he says clvtI tov airofavriKuis fy tvavTeX5>s. to aTro£ eXdX'no'ev d 0ebs ovk itr\ too apt&[/.ov, aXX' iirt tov irdvTais iffofievov. k. i. X. "for expressly or thoroughly ; to fiira£ hath God spoken, not in respect of number, but because it shall be perfectly fulfilled." See also Schleusner lex. in verbo; and see Ps. Ixxxviii. 36 (89 ; 35 Eng.) ; and Heb. vi. 4 as compared with x. 10, 12, 14. Compare, as illustrating the sense, the parallel passage 2 Pet. i. 12. This sense is given also by 68 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE wish to show you the truth of the things I affirm by examples aheady perfectly familiar to you, and the bearing of which upon the matter in hand must at once be perceived. In the following clause Lachmann has substituted the name Jesus for the title Lord, of the English ver sion.* If this criticism be correct, we have here a distinct assertion that the government and leadership of the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt is to be referred especially to the second Person in the ever adorable Trinity. This truth may, indeed, be gathered from many passages of Scripture, and even with out any change in the received text, it might have been seen that ' Lord ' was here to be explained as meaning Jesus. The express mention of the Saviour's name, however, was peculiarly appropriate to the course of the argument ; and it will be observed that the same remark applies to the next example, where the nominative continues still the same. The evil men who now corrupted the church were offered salvation through the merits of the same Jesus who had saved the people out of Egypt ; and turning the Nicholas de Lyra and the other commentators in the Bibl. Max. Ver- sionum of De La Haye. # Kiptos appears in the text of Griesbach,'l7;o-o0s in his inner margin ; the latter is edited by Lachmann, the former by Tischendorf. Which ever be the true reading, the great weight of authority in MSS. and versions for 'Iijo-oBs indicates the sense in which the clause was under stood in the earliest times, even if Kiptos be the true reading. It is of course impossible to interpret 'Irjo-oEs of Joshua, as some have done ; for he neither delivered the people out of Egypt, nor destroyed the unbe lievers, nor yet judged the angels. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 69 grace of God into licentiousness, were exposed to the wrath of the same Judge who had afterward destroyed them that believed not. The Apostle here shows that punishment fell upon those who had been honored and blessed with peculiar marks of Divine favor, even upon men who " were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink ; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed a Cor x them, and that Rock was Christ." The word 2^' people, standing without any patronymic, implies that they were peculiarly a chosen nation, the people of God. First they received blessings from above, and not till afterward* were they punished for their sins. It is very observable throughout the history of God's dealings with man that His sorest judgments have always followed upon the neglect of His greatest mercies. His wrath is proportioned to the abuse of His loving-kindness. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews bids us remember this lest we, for whom Christ died, should fall under a more terrible Heb ^ 28 punishment even than he who " died without ~~ 31" mercy" because he " despised Moses' law." On the other hand, peculiarly blessed are they who improve comparatively inferior means of grace, and Matt.xx.29. unlike the doubting Thomas, believe though they have not seen. * to Seirepov, lit. the second. Comp. Rev. xix. 3. Winer in his Gram- matik has noted the beautiful ellipsis here : the first time the Divine grace saved the people ; the second time, they put it from them and were destroyed. 70 THE certain punishment of the The Israelites sinned in many ways. The particu lars of their lusting after evil things, their idolatry, fornication, tempting of God, and murmur- —10.' Ps. ing are mentioned in other parts of Scripture cvi. 24-26. , , , . . • , as the causes of their various punishments; Heb. iii. is, but here, as in the epistle to the Hebrews, these are all summed up in one word — they believed not. This was the root and source of all their evil deeds. Faith and practice stand in the relation of foundation and superstructure. When ever, and in so far as, the former is undermined, the latter will surely fall. As in the days of St. Jude, so also now, Christian morals have much to fear from the prevailing, uncertain hold of spiritual truths upon the minds of men ; an uncertainty, as remarked by an eminent living writer, by no means entitled to the name it sometimes claims, of an enlightened liberality of sentiment, although it may not perhaps be pro nounced an absolute unbelief of heart. When men thus look at Divine truth through a haze, they gain from it no clear light upon the path of life, and can therefore have no sure and firm foothold in the way of Christian obedience. Uncertainty of belief, at first manifested only in irresolution or something like du plicity of conduct, as it gradually leads on towards an absolute denial of the faith, excites more and more impatience of restraint and restiveness under authority, until it issues at last in an open contempt of govern ment and unbridled sensuality. Unbelief is a sin against which God has declared His peculiar dis pleasure. It was the one sin which the Saviour UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 71 always waited to see removed before performing His miracles of mercy, and the one for which more than for anything else, He was wont to rebuke his disciples. Even when the Israelites had filled up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Lord of life, the Gos pel was yet again offered to them; and at Rom. xi.20. the last " because of unbelief they were broken off." His mind is still unchanged who hath ap pointed the " second death" as the final por- ReT- **¦ 8- tion of " the fearful and unbelieving." Unbe- Heb ^ 6 lief utterly cuts man off from the possibility of gaining His favor ; and this unbelief, so displeasing to our Heavenly Father is not confined to the rejection of fundamental truths, such as must have been gener ally acknowledged by the Israelites, and especially by the disciples of our Saviour; but includes also that want of confidence and trust in God which the Apostle calls " an evil heart of unbelief," and Heb. m. 12. against the indulgence of which he thought it neces sary to caution even the professed disciples of Christ. THE SECOND EXAMPLE. And the angels who kept not their principality, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in chains that cannot be broken, under infernal darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Ver. 6. The Apostle, having shown by the foregoing exam ple that membership in the church of God and the enjoyment of a covenant relation with Him will not save the wicked from punishment, now proves by another instance, that neither will any station nor 72 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE authority, how exalted soever, though it were even that of an angel, shield the despisers of His govern ment from His wrath. This example is peculiarly pertinent to the case of those ungodly men who by insinuating themselves into the offices of the church became preeminently entitled to the name of " false teachers." The genius of Milton has pictured so vividly, and in great part so truly, the history and fall of the rebel lious angels, that his representations have become incorporated with the popular belief, and we are per haps hardly conscious what part of our supposed knowledge is based upon Scripture, and what part is furnished only by the fertility and power of the poet's imagination. Particulars of their history may have been from time to time incidentally revealed which have not been mentioned in the volume of inspiration, but may nevertheless form a true basis for various traditions recorded concerning them. This seems probable from the way in which both St. Peter and St. Jude speak of them, citing certain facts of their history, not elsewhere r.evealed, as well-known truths. Without the guidance of the Spirit of in spiration, however, it is impossible to distinguish this true basis from the overlying mass of traditionary superstition and philosophical speculation. Although the traditions of the people who were for so long a period the depositaries of Divine revelation are of peculiar value in this connection; yet we must be content to receive that information only, as certain, which may be gleaned from the scattered and often UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 73 incidental notices of Holy Writ. The existence of super-human intelligences of an evil nature is so necessary to account for many of the phenomena of the moral world, and the befief therein has been so widely spread through all ages and all lands, that it might be received, as true, even apart from the positive testimony of Scripture. But the important facts of their fall from an original state of innocence, and of their subordination to the Supreme Ruler of the Uni verse, as they were beyond the reach of the philosophy of Zoroaster, and are but dimly traceable in the my thology of the Greeks and Romans ; * so they must be considered as lying without the scope of natural religion. These things are to be learned from Revela tion, where we read that the Devil abode not in the truth, of which therefore he must once have Jn0i ^ 44. been a partaker. From the expressions used seeespe- in various passages of Scripture it has been m. 6, and ' n compare commonly supposed that the sin of Satan J»s- m.is. and his followers was pride ; but its particular de velopment is marked more distinctly than elsewhere in the verse under consideration. The evil spirits are represented in the Bible as very numerous, living in a certain social relation Jev. xii. 4, ' & 7,9; Matt. called "the kingdom of Satan," and holding ™-2|;Epn- various ranks — " principalities and powers ; " i^^ . but all under the command of one leader Matux.li'- and prince known by a variety of names, buir |{£; 2i. V. * Compare the fable of the Titans who, warring against the gods and being overcome, were thrust down to Tartarus. 7 74 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE most frequently called Satan and 'Devil* This chief is supposed to have been the cause of the defection of the other evil spirits ; a supposition perhaps favored by the representations of Scripture, and philosophi cally valuable as reducing the origin of evil to a single point, and to the act of one free, intelligent being. Difficult as it may be to conceive that a being dwell ing in heaven, free alike from internal corruption and external persuasion to evil, should have voluntarily sinned, it is yet more difficult to account in any other way for the mystery of the existence of evil. Since temptation thus entered the courts of heaven, and overpowered a part of its sinless inmates, how earnestly ought sinful man, dwelling in a world of sin to " take heed lest he fall." The fall of the angels, or at least of their chief, jno.viii.24. niust have taken place before the fall of man; 1 jno.iii. 9. ^ jg described in Scripture as belonging to that indefinitely remote period which, because it is beyond the limit of human record or knowledge, can only be expressed by the phrase " from the beginning." The Jewish tradition concerning the evil spirits, recognized in its main features by St. Peter and St. Dan. x.13 Jude, as well as by the prophet Daniel, taught 20, 21 ; xu. ^na^ orjgina]jy angels were arrayed in various orders, ranks, and dignities, in accordance with the plan of subordination observed throughout the Divine government. A part of them, discontented with their * In the New Testament, as in the Old, AtafioXos is never used in the plural. Only one Devil is mentioned, and his subordinate spirits are called Salfioves or Satfidvta. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 75 lot, proudly aspired to higher posts than had been assigned to them, revolted from God, and deserted heaven. In punishment they were thrust down to an abode of wretchedness where they await God's final judgment upon themselves and those whom they lead astray. They are, however, suffered to go forth thence and exert their seductive arts upon man, and are allowed to reign among heathen nations, and in the hearts of wicked men ; even as holy angels are compare entrusted with the peculiar care of nations if^jfgi enjoying the Divine favor, and are ministering ip™'^!] spirits unto the heirs of salvation. Ac^xxiJusJ St. Jude plainly intimates that the apostate angels* were not content to remain in that post of subordi nate authority which God had assigned them.f He * The word angel, although commonly used as the name of an order of spiritual beings, is yet sometimes applied to men as a title of office. Such an application has been given to it here by several of the German commentators ; some of them supposing it to refer to the spies sent to examine the promised land ; others interpreting it more vaguely, of some transaction not recorded in history. All such explanations are forbid den by the fact that what is here said of the angels can only be applied to human messengers by giving the words a sense so low and flat as to be utterly unworthy of the nervous language of the Apostle. t See the language of St. Chrysostom (Horn, in Genesin xxii.) Tlpb ttjs tov irptoroirxdo'Tov Syfitovpylas ttjs a£las KaTTjvex^no'av 6 Atd0oXos Kal ol fieT avrov uei^ov ttjs a£(as fpovr)o'avTes. So also Theodoret, Epis. Div. Decret. cap. viii. Athanasius de virginitate, Tom. I. p. 1046, and other fathers cited by Suicer, in verbo AtdfSoXos II. y. Manton remarks upon this passage " The sin is often to be read in the punishment that follow- eth it, God's throwing them down from the dignity of their estates, was a sign that they aspired above it." The same author also argues from the temptation offered to our first parents, " ye shall be as gods," that the Tempter had himself been carried away with a similar aspiration. Manton on St. Jude, ver. 6. London 1658. p. 277. 76 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE compare savs they kept not their principality*, but left Rev.xn.7,9. ^ejy own habitation, f that is, heaven. Laur- mann considers this a metaphor derived from runaway Laurmann slaves. Like servants seeking to escape from dam. their master, these angels forsook the house hold of God in pursuit of a chimerical freedom. They exchanged that service of the heart which " is perfect freedom," for the dominion of the evil passions which, because they are not at unity among themselves, nor in harmony with the development of the universe, is the most galling slavery. St. Jude describes the apostate angels as still re- compare served to the judgment day. Their full i2^xx!'2— measure of punishment is not yet awarded. 7— 10, It seems from the question of the evil spirits * Such is the usual sense of apxh- See Luke xii. 11 ; xx. 20 ; Rom. viii. 38 ; Eph. i. 21 ; iii. 10 ; vi. 12 ; etc. So Luther, " Ihr Fiirstenthum," -PA f i and the Vulgate, suum principatum. The Syriac has jfai«.j = P .7 principatum, a rare word instead of uo)Q3j| the usual Syriac for «wrf- Such is also the LXX. usage where apxi) translates the Hebrew fit^aa, kingdom (Deut. xvii. 18, 20; Isa. x. 10). n\3»tt, dominion (Gen. i. 16; Jer. xxxiv. 1 ; Micah iv. 8), rij?wte signifying the office of cup-bearer (Gen. xl. 21.) It is the only translation of rn'oM , govern ment (Isa. ix. 6, 7), and it is indifferently used with ityvffla and Kvpela in the book of Daniel (vi. 26 (Heb. 27) ; vii. 12, 14, 26, 27) to translate the Chaldee ItaVa, dominion. Such also is frequently its evident meaning when put for the Hebrew ttisci, as in Gen. xl. 13, 20; 1 Chron. xxvi. 10, etc. etc. t oIki)tt)piov occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only 2 Cor. v. 2, where it clearly means dwelling-place, according to its classical use. So also Jer. xxv. 30 (LXX. xxxii.) if it be the true reading, and 2 Mace. xi. 2, the only places where it occurs in the LXX. The Syriac, Vulgate, and Luther's translation all give the same meaning. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 77 recorded by St. Matthew, that they themselves MltfcTffl. know this ; and it is probably this knowledge 29. jas. a. which causes them, according to St. James, ^V.^"' believing, to tremble. The Scriptures repre- BeT.rix.a). sent the full and final punishment of evil an- ?*¦ 10- gels and of wicked men as beginning at the same time, when at the last great day, both shall be cast together into the " fire prepared for the Devil and his angels."* We have little knowledge of the nature of their present condition. They are described in the Bible as wretched, cast out of God's presence, and in torment; and if we may judge of angelic natures from our own, we can easily understand that evil pas sions set free from all restraint, pride unbridled, though humiliated, and ambition that has ' o'er leapt itself constitute the spirit in which they dwell its own relentless and fearful tormentor. The Apostle further describes the apostate angels as reserved in chains that cannot be broken.^ A state of sin is not infrequently spoken of in Scrip- SeeKom.xi. , t.i.i ¦ i B2;Gal.iii. ture as a prison-house, and guilt is described 22-eto Prov r ' & v.22;Lam. under the figure of bonds. Whatever be the i- m- <*°. * As Tertullian has well said, " omnem animum apud inferos seques- tari in Diem Domini." De anima. c. 55. ad fin. So also Lactantius, " omnes [animse] in una communique custodia detinentur, donee tem- pus adveniat, quo Maximus Judex meritorum faciat examen." (Instit. Div. Lib. vii. t. 21. Vol. II. p. 147. ed. Bipont. t Betr/wls aiSiots bwb (6fov. 'AiStos is an infrequent word, found, how ever, Rom. i. 20. In both passages it expresses not so much endless duration — a limit being here assigned in the els no. ptey. he- — as dura bility, resistlessness, chains that cannot be broken. Aeffp-ots iirb (6 ^K ®eov oIkovo- flttctos ffvyxoipoifievot, &s iirl tov 'IijS Kal KCt&direp girt twv x°^Pa>v *v TV evayyeXia yiypairTat. Damascenus. Orthod. fid. Lib. II. cap. 4. p. 159. B. ed. Par. 1712. Comp. Origcn. ad Martyrium 45. Tom. I. p. 303. D. 304. A. B. C. Bened. ed. t (if os used here and in v. 17, and by St. Peter in both the parallel verses, occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, nor in the LXX. — though used by Symmachus, Ps. x. 2. It is a Homeric word for the darkness of the infernal regions. (Iliad XV. 191 ; xxi. 56, etc. Odyss. XI. 57 ; xx. 356, etc.) The cognate yvotpos is used Heb. xii. 18 ; but not with the same shade of meaning. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 79 abode of the evil spirits in comparison with the bright ness of heaven. Jewish tradition affirms that the air of this our lower world is the place of their confine ment. This view has been thought to derive support from the expression used by St. Paul, " the Eph. u. 2, prince of the power of the air." It was the vi. 11, 12. opinion both of the Jews and the ancient heathen that the air is thickly inhabited by spirits ; and this opinion the Christian fathers seem generally to have adopted, saying that "the air is full of opposing powers,"* and calling it the prison house where the fallen angels await their final sentence, f This present confinement of the fallen angels continues not forever. Still greater evils are in store for them, for which they are reserved unto the judgment of the great Matt.vii.22 • day. " The great day," or, still more briefly, 2 The'ss.2i! " that day," in the writings of the apostles, i°i82 \^, frequently stands for that final day of judg ment to which evil angels and ungodly men are alike reserved. To man it is ' the great day' of all his end less life, the era of his existence, to which all previous days are an introduction, and of which all subsequent life is a consequence. To prepare for that day are all the years of our probation granted, and all the means of grace given ; and according to our use of these is then to be determined our happiness or woe from that day onward forever. It is, moreover, ' the great day' in the world's history, the consummation of God's * St. Jerome in Eph. VI. 12. t So Theophylact and others quoted by Whitby on 2 Pet. ii. 4. 80 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE eternal purposes in regard to angels and men. For it every evil spirit is reserved ; to it every sanctified soul looks forward in joyful hope. The faithful departed await it, that they may then receive the glorious crown 2 Tim. iv-8; ^^ up in store for them ; and the saints below Rev.'vi.'io! Press towards the mark that they, with them, may then obtain the prize of their high calling 22, 23. ' in Christ Jesus. " The whole creation groan- eth and travaileth in pain together" for the coming of that day when, in the general resurrection, shall be realized its hope of "the redemption of the body." Yea, even the Lord Himself awaits that day, that He may then go forth in the fulness of His power to exe- i?ev. xiv ; cute " the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty six ; Lu. xix. 27. God," and pour out His vengeance upon His enemies, the ungodly of the earth. He awaits it also that He may then gather together His elect from the four corners of the earth, and that as many as are found worthy may then go in with Him to the mar riage supper of the Lamb. l cor. vi. 3. We learn from the first epistle to the Co rinthians that the saints are in some way to take part in the judgment upon the angels.* Theodoret says " because they, even while encumbered with the body, set their minds on the service of God; whereas the * Whether the judging here spoken of be an official act, or whether it relate merely to the condemnation of the rebellious angels by contrast with the obedience of the saints, is a question which need not here be entered upon. In favor of the latter view, see Archbp. Whateley's ' Script. Eev. concerning a future state.' Lect. VII. p. 150 — 157. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 81 angels by nature incorporeal (and therefore without equal temptation) followed after evil." * In this description of the terrible punishment with which the apostasy of the angels was visited, each word adds force. Once rejoicing in the glorious free dom belonging only to those whose wills act in har mony with the will of the Monarch of the Universe, they are now subjected to a chafing restraint, the necessary lot of all who oppose themselves to His authority. Their suffering moreover is perpetual ; Scripture wholly excludes the idea of their future repentance and adoption into the " liberty of the sons of God." The redemption in infinite mercy provided for fallen man, extends not to those spirits who sinned with higher powers, against greater light, and without the temptation from abroad furnished by Satan to our first parents in Eden. Once they not only dwelt in light and enjoyed the effulgence of the Divine glory, but shone forth also themselves in the brightness of purity and holiness derived therefrom ; now they are immured in the darkness of sin and denied with the corruption of their own wickedness. Their glory is turned to shame, and their excellency to a reproach. So fell the angels of heaven. The Apostle exhorts men to take heed to the warning of their example. For great as is the punishment they aheady suffer, it is but the imprisonment preparatory to the execution of the judgment that hath gone forth against them. * Theodoret. in I. ep. ad Cor. vi. 3. Tom. III. p. 143. ed. Paris. 1642. So also St. Chrysostom Horn. XVI. in I. ep. ad Cor. (vi. 3) p. 342. 82 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE Of their terrible doom, still kept in store, the wicked of the earth are to partake, departing from the judg ment of the great day " into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels." Yet for us, " the living of the earth," mercy still rejoiceth against judgment. What is God's love to man that after, not one, but so many offences, He should give His only Son to die for our salvation ! " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? " THE THIRD EXAMPLE. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them, in like manner with them giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example of eternal fire, suf fering punishment. Ver. 7. The Apostle now adduces a more general example, from which it appears that the whole world is under the government of God and amenable to His judg ments. The similarity of this to the previous exam ples, pointed out in the words even as, consists simply in the fact of guilt followed by punishment. To enter into the full force of this example, the original condition of this country should be kept in mind as well as its overthrow, and its subsequent state. When Lot separated from Abram he "lifted up his eyes and Gen.xiii.io. beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt." The patriarch chose this for a dwelling place because it was the most fruitful part of all the land, and the best fitted for the support of UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 83 his numerous flocks and herds. Here there are said to have once stood five cities in close proximity. Wi54om x. Four of them are mentioned by name in 6' Scripture, — Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Duetxxix! Zeboiim. The nature of their sin is thus de- xii ; uzek! xvi. 49 60. scribed by the prophet Ezekiel. " This was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her compare 3 daughters ; neither did she strengthen the hand Macc' "' 5- of the poor and needy ; and they were haughty and committed abomination before Me." Such sin result ing from the abuse of the abundant blessings of Provi dence, is not unusual in the world; and is often accompanied, as in the case of Sodom, by a Gen.xix.i4; contempt for warning and reproof and a bold Iaa' m' 9' avowal of their shame. To this the Apostle adds, from the narrative in Genesis, the mention of their horrible and unnatural licentiousness. The Scriptural account of the destruction of these cities is brief. " Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from Gen.xix.24, the Lord out of heaven ; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." Their destruction was miraculous. Yet as God often employs the agency of natural causes to work out His wonderful designs, uniting them in unusual combina tions, or giving them efficiency far beyond their ordi nary power, so it seems to have been in the present instance. It was the wind that dried up the Ex.x.i3,i9; sea before the Israelites, and brought it back 3UT' 84 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE Num. xi. again upon the Egyptians ; that brought the 81,et0' locusts upon the land of their taskmasters, and gathered the quails to satisfy and to punish the longings of the wanderers in the wilderness. So also the destruction of Sodom seems to have been effected by a like miraculous use of natural causes. This plain, Gen.xiv.io we are *0^) "the valley of Siddim," "was full Sapveerd ofslimepits." The substance which in the Eng lish translation is here called slime, is the same Gen. xi. 3; as the mortar used in the building of the tower of Babel, and was employed by the mother of Moses to coat the " ark of bulrushes" in which her infant son was placed.* This substance was a kind of bitumen, asphaltum, of the existence of which in the neighborhood abundant evidence still remains, and from which has come the name lacus asphaltites. A soil impregnated with such material must have been highly inflammable ; and if here, as in Babel, the same substance was used for mortar in the construction of the buildings, it is easy to see how devastating must have been the effect of fire. The bitumen might have been ignited either by severe lightning, or by the heated scoria of an active volcano. Either would have been described as " fire from heaven ; " tradition constantly mentions the former as the means of this destruction, and decisive marks of volanic action are still visible around. If the period of volcanic activity were con temporaneous, as may very well have been, with the * The Hebrew "i» H. is used only in these three passages, and in all of them is translated in the LXX &o-oXtos. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 85 destruction of the guilty cities, then might convulsions of the earth below have combined with the fire and ashes from above, and the burning bitumen around, to increase the horror of the overthrow. The explorations of Lieut. Lynch go to show that there has taken place at some time a depression of the plain which now forms the bed of the sea, and in the midst of which a much deeper valley — supposed by him to be the ancient bed of the Jordan — is still traced by the sounding-lead. There is therefore ground for the con jecture that, in so far as the agency of natural causes is concerned, the destruction of the cities of the plain was effected by the bursting forth of a volcano, throw ing its showers of burning sulphur over the devoted cities and kindling the bituminous pits below ; while at the same time the surface of the plain sank in, leav ing exposed upon its margin mineral substances de structive to fertility through all future ages, and by their infiltration changing the sweet stream of the Jordan into the noxious waters of the " Dead Sea." It is not to be forgotten that no volcano has since been active there, nor, evidently, for a long time before ; nor, indeed, at any other time than when an Almighty hand restrained its fury until, having saved His servant Lot, He was ready to pour out His vengeance upon the guilty land. The primary cause of the overthrow was the Divine judgment; natural causes were but the instruments of His action. It would not have taken place could ten righteous men have Gen. xviii. r ° 32 ; Matt. been found in the city; and had Sodom en- x.22. joyed the religious blessings which were afterwards 86 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE given to Capernaum, it would have remained to this day. Many of the statements which at first appear fan ciful in the descriptions of the site of these cities in ancient authors, will be brought within the bounds of credibility by remembering that a great volcanic erup tion might naturally have ceased gradually, allowing smoke, and even perhaps a lurid flame occasionally to have been emitted during many ages, although such appearances have long since passed away. The Israelites were not far from the spot where, five cen turies before, the " valley of Siddim" had smiled with r-eut. xxix. fertility, when Moses said, that " the whole 23- land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burn ing ; that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein. Eight centuries more rolled away and the prophet Zephaniah describes it as " a breeding zeph. U. 9. of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual deso lation." It was at a still later date that the author of the book of Wisdom spoke of." the five cities of whose wisdomx.7. wickedness, even to this day, the waste land that smoketh is a testimony, and plants bearing fruits that never come to ripeness." The same land is de- Esdras ii.8. scribed in the book of Esdras as " lying in clods of pitch, and heaps of ashes." Still later Philo wrote that " the memorials of that terrible destruction yet remain, and ruins are showed in Syria mixed with ashes, smoke, sulphur, and slight flames still occa sionally playing about as in the remains of a fire." * * Philo de Vita Mosis. lib. II. p. 512 d. ed. Cologne 1613. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 87 Josephus also asserts that, in his time, "the remains of a fire sent down from God were yet visible." * Not to multiply descriptions, much of the same land which abound in Jewish, Christian, and heathen authors, the following curious and particular account is selected from Tacitus : " The Jordan is not received by the sea; but having flowed through first one, and then another lake, is absorbed in the third. This lake of vast circuit, a sea in appearance, foul in taste, and baneful to the inhabitants by reason of the fetidness of its smell, is neither moved by the wind, nor does it allow fish or the common fowl to live in its waters. Whatever is thrown upon the doubtful water is borne up, as by the ground. Skilful and unskilful swimmers are alike safe. At a certain time of the year it yields bitumen, and experience, as in other matters, has shown how to gather this with profit. A liquor, black itself, and mixed with a colored acid, floats upon the surface; the people employed in the busi ness draw this by hand over the side of the ship. Then, without assistance, it flows in itself and loads the vessel, until some one cuts it off; but it cannot be cut with brass or iron ; it is stopped only by clotted blood and cloth stained with blood. ***** So the ancient authors : but those familiar with the locality say that masses of skin swelling with waves of bitu men are drawn by hand to the shore ; afterwards, when by the heat of the earth and the power of the sun these become dry, they are cut, like wood or stone, * Josephus De Bell. Jud. lib. IV. c. 8. 5 4. — ad finem. DO THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE with axes and wedges. Not far hence are the plains which, they say, once fruitful and covered with great cities, were burnt by a stroke of lightning. Indica tions of this remain ; and the land itself, of a burnt appearance, has lost its fruit-bearing power. What ever springs up of itself or is sown by hand, even small herbs or flowers, when grown to its usual form, black and useless, vanishes as it were into ashes." * This description from a heathen of such celebrity, striking in itself, may perhaps also serve to show that into whatever exaggerations Christian writers have occa sionally been led, they need not be charged with having purposely embellished the truth for contro versial ends. The present condition of this memorable spot has * Nee Jordanes pelago accipitur : sed unum,atque alteram lacum in teger perfluit, tertio retinetur. Lacus immenso ambitu, specie maris, sa- pore corruptior, gravitate odoris adcolis pestifer, neque vento impellitur, neque pisces aut suetas aquis volucres patitur. Incertse undse superjacta, ut solido, ferunt : periti imperitique nandi perinde adtolluntur. Certo anni bitumen egerit; cujus legendi usum, ut ceteras artes, experientia docuit. Ater suapte natura liquor, et sparso aceto concretus, innatat : hunc manu captum, quibus ea cura, in summa navis trahunt. inde nullo juvante, influit, oneratque, donee abscindas. Nee abscindere aere ferrove possis ; fugit cruorem vestemque infectam sanguine, quo feminse per menses exsolvuntur. Sic veteres auctores. Sed gnari locorum tradunt, undantes bitumine moles pelli, manuque trahi ad litus : mox, ubi vapore terrsevi soils, inaruerint, securibus cuneisque ut trabesaut saxa, discindi. Haud procul inde campi, quos ferunt olim uberes, magnisque urbibus habitatos, fulminum jactu arsisse ; et manere vestigia, terramque ipsam, specie torridam, vim frugiferam perdidisse. Nam cuncta sponte edita, aut manu sata, sive herbse tenues aut flores, ut solitam in speciem adolevere, atra et inania velut in cinerem vanescunt : Tacitus Hist. Lib. V cap. 6, 7. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 89 been made familiar by the graphic narratives of travel lers, and by scientific reports. All unite in represent ing the scene as one of the utmost desolation. The sentence of Divine wrath is still visibly brooding over the guilty plain. The fields which the wealthy patri arch once chose for their fertility, now scarcely support the roving Arab ; and the traveller fears to linger near the site of the once populous cities lest he also should be destroyed by the malaria from their tomb. Such has been the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah ; such the utter destruction of a land that in the enjoyment of most abundant blessings, gave itself over to licentious ness, and set at nought the vengeance of Heaven. In the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah the cities about them were likewise involved. Of these, two only, Admah and Zeboiim are mentioned Deut. xxix. by name in Scripture. There may, however, xi.'s. have been others, and tradition adds a nameless fifth to the number destroyed, giving to the whole region the common name ' Pentapolis.' The fifth may per haps have been Lasha, which seems to have gee Gen x belonged to the same cluster with the four 19- aheady named; or if Lasha be the same with Cal- lirhoe, famed for its warm sulphur springs, five or six miles to the south-east of the Dead Sea, then perhaps the remaining city was Bela or Zoar, an ally of Sodom and Gomorrah, and destined for destruction Gen.xix.22. with them, but spared at the entreaty of Lot. The phrase in like manner with them* is introduced * rbv Sptotov Toirots rp6irov. The names of the cities are neuter (See Ma. 90 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE to mark the participation of the neighboring cities in the sins of their more notorious allies. All alike are described as having abandoned themselves to licen see Gen. tiousness — giving themselves over to fornica- Kom. i. 24, tion* and going after strange flesh, f Hence the name of that unnatural sin mentioned in the epistle to the Romans, was derived from the city which furnished the earliest recorded example of its commission. In the following clause, are set forth for an example of eternal fire, suffering punishment, a difference in the punctuation of the original % gives a sense differing vi. 11.) Hence the pronoun, as Doddridge observes, may either refer to them directly ; or it may be considered as masculine and referring by a common figure to their inhabitants — its gender being determined by the thoughts of the writer, rather than by the previous words. It is an exceedingly harsh construction which refers this pronoun to the angels mentioned in ver. 6, in support of an ancient, but very doubtful inter pretation of Gen. vi. 2. * eKiropvevo-aaat, a word air. Xey. The force of ix is intensive. Glas- sius (phil. sacr. Gram. lib. I. Tract. VI. 7. p. 497 ed. Dathe) considers the preposition as here retaining its primary signification, out of, away from ; meaning that they apostatized from God t bnlo-a aapxbs eripas. The explanation of Laurmann is worthy of at tention : " Cum autem in S. Uteris mas et foemina una dicantur caro, (Gen. ii. 23, 24 ; Matt. xix. 5, p.ta o-«/Ej iv &po-ivT\v Karepya^evot, Rom. i. 27) sicuti moris erat Sodomorum incolis, impura libidine ductis, recte dicitur oir. o-. er. airepx." So also OEcumenius in loco : ffdpica Be eTepav, ttiv Hp'p'riva tjiiatv Xeryet, as p.h. irpbs trvvova-lav yeveaeas o-vvTeXovo-av, k. t. A. Cf. Estius, Menochius, and Ti- rinus in the Biblia Max. Vers, of Do La Haye. Tom. XVII. p. 688, 689. t np6icetvTai Se'typa irvpbs atavlov, Sltcnv uirexoiwrai. If this punctuation UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 91 somewhat from the English version. The idea con veyed by thus connecting the words eternal fire with example, instead of with punishment, is that the fate of the guilty cities is an image and foreshadowing of the eternal torment of the wicked, rather than the actual substance of their woe. The fiery judgment upon those cities is indeed endless, without reversal, en during through all generations, and is therefore a lively type of the final misery of the wicked ; but St. Jude does not say that the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah already endure their full and everlasting punishment. We know from many Scriptures that however great may be their present wretch edness, the sentence of their final retribution is not to be pronounced upon the ungodly until the day of judgment. Particularly in regard to Sodom and Go morrah, we have the express declaration of Matt.xi.24- their Judge and ours that their final doom, x-15' involve a slight harshness of construction, it is yet preferable to the intol erable flatness of that interpretation which, in order to avoid it, would reduce irvp. atav. to ignis coslestis i. e. divinus, i. e. fulmen ; and which, in support of this interpretation, refers to instances in the classics where lightning is called Slov nop, and the fires of iEtna and Vesuvius are de scribed as aevaov irvp, and ignis seternus. BeT-y^a and birexovaat are both &r. Xey. Instead of Setypta, St. Peter (2. ii. 6) uses vwoSeTypta, and the author of 3d Maccabees irapaSetypta in the same connection. Another compound, evSety/m, used by St. Paul (2 Thess. i. 5) is also air. Xey. The meaning of them all however is sufficiently plain. Aiiei\ is not a fre quent word in the New Testament. In Acts xxv. 15 it is translated judgment, but might perhaps be more accurately rendered there also ac cording to its uniform sense in the N. T. punishment or vengeance. Acts xxviii. 4, and 2 Thess. i. 9, are the only other places in which it occurs. In the classics it i3 commonly used in both senses, perhaps more fre quently however in that of tcpiffts than in that of Ttuapla. 92 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE more tolerable than that of Capernaum, and of those cities which rejected the Apostles, shall be proclaimed when he cometh to reward every man according as his work shall be. Meantime their irremediable destruc tion by the fire of the Lord is a significant type of eternal punishment. It was not merely to inflict just punishment upon the guilty cities of the plain that the fire of the Lord fell upon them ; but also to leave to all ages a stand ing testimony of His wrath against ungodliness. The fulfilment of this design is abundantly evident in the numerous references both in Scripture and in ancient authors, to their overthrow. The Scriptures frequently Dent. xxix. describe a judgment as very fearful by com- xiii'.i9;jer! paring it to the punishment of Sodom and xx.lG- xlix. 18; i. 40; Gomorrah. Among all the Divine judgments Zeph. ii. 9. & J » etc. comp. there have been few so eminently calculated Ps. cvii. 34. •> Heb. to fill mankind with awe through all succeed ing ages. Nineveh indeed, " the city that dwelt carelessly" "is become a desolation, a place for zeph. ii. is; beasts to lie down in;" Babylon "the E2ek?xxvil golden city" is fallen ; and the stronghold of Tyre has become " a place for the spreading of nets ; " but so entire is their destruction, so little is left to mark the place where they once stood, that men pass them by and think not of them except as from time to time the researches of some curious traveller bring to light the buried monuments of their greatness, and thus renew, as it were in our own age, the mighty judgments of the past, and the evidence of God's righteous dealings with the nations of the earth. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 93 Egypt remains "the basest of kingdoms;" but the long history of her gradual degrada- is. tion serves to break the contrast between her gorgeous temples with the pictures of her glory upon their walls and the hut of the poor fellah built amid their ruins. But where the cities of the plain once set at naught the vengeance of heaven, there the perpetual memorial of their overthrow still fills the beholder with awe. There was no interval between their sin and the mi raculous interposition of the Almighty arm for their destruction. The sun rose as usual over the Gen03_ ^ broad, fertile fields and the luxurious cities that 23' had utterly perished before his setting. Our Saviour speaks of the suddenness and completeness of their destruction as forming a lively image of the final judg ment : " As it was in the days of Lot — they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded ; but the same day that Lot went out Luke XTiUi of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from 28~30" heaven and destroyed them all : even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." In the very height of their recklessness and the midst of their daring wickedness the fire of the Lord was kindled upon them, and they perished in its flames. There fore have they been spoken of in all ages as memora ble examples of Divine judgment. In the second book of Esdras, God is represented as saying to As- 2 ^^ u sur, " Remember what I did unto Sodom and 8" Gomorrah, whose land lieth in clods of pitch and heaps of ashes." In the book of Wisdom, WiMom x. mention is made of " the fire which fell down 7- 94 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE upon the five cities of whose wickedness, even to this day, the waste land that smoketh is a testimony, and plants bearing fruit that never comes to ripeness ; and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of an unbeliev ing soul." The author of the book of Ecclesiasticus shows that the wicked shall not find impunity in their Eceies. xv. numbers, because, among other instances, God "spared not the place where Lot sojourned, but abhorred them for their pride." In the last book of Maccabees, God is said "having destroyed with 3 Mace. a. nre and brimstone the Sodomites who wrought pride, to have set them forth for an example to ages to come. Philo has been aheady quoted. Josephus repeatedly refers to them;* and even hea then writers continually speak of their destruction by fire from heaven as a known and memorable fact.f Many of the passages in ancient authors concerning this extraordinary judgment may bear the marks of local ignorance or superstitious exaggeration ; but they nevertheless attest the wide and deep impres sion produced upon men's minds by the overthrow of Matt. x. is; these cities. Our Saviour Himself alludes to • them; and the early Christian writers fre quently point a moral by a reference to their destruc tion.:}: * Josephus Antiq. Lib. I. c. xi. § 4. Tom. I. p. 35 ; Bell. Jud. Lib. IV. c. 8. § 4. Tom. II. p. 299, 300. Ed. Havercampius. t Besides Tacitus above cited, (see p. 88,) see e. g. Strabo Lib. XXI. p. 542. Ed. Amstel. 1652. Solinus Polyhist. c. 35. X Thus Clemens Bomanus (ad Cornith. § 11.) speaks of Sodom and all the country round about, " punished with fire and brimstone j '¦ and UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 95 THE APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING EXAMPLES. Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, set aside domin ion, and revile dignities. Ver. 8. St. Jude now applies the foregoing examples to the case of those ungodly men who had crept into the church unawares. Like the Sodomites, they gave free rein to their sensual passions ; like the Israelites in the wilderness, they set aside the dominion of the Most High ; and like the apostate angels, they opposed themselves to the authority set over them. The word likewise refers generally to all the preced ing examples, and is not intended to correspond to the even as of the seventh verse. The term dreamers does not necessarily convey any idea of impurity, as may be seen from the only other passage in which it occurs in the New Testament, the quotation of the prophecy concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Aeis iL " Your old men shall dream dreams." * The 17' of Lot's wife, " turned to * pillar of salt as a sign to all generations." See also, Tertul. Apol. cap. 40. Chrysostom. in 1 ep. ad Thess. Tom. VIII. etc. etc. * The same word ivmvtacSriiaovTaj. is used in the LXX. of Joel ii. 28, whence the prophecy is quoted. The word filthy inserted in the English version may have been suggested by the prevalence at the time of some such interpretation as that given by Calvin: " Dicit eos velut somniando polluere carnem suam. Quibus verbis stupidam impuden- tiam notat : ac si dixerit, Projectos esse ad omnem fceditatem, a qua ne- quissimi etiam abhorrent, nisi somnus pudorem adeoque sensum tollat. est igitur metaphorica locutio, quae significat ipsos tam esse hebetes, ut sine ulla verecundia ad omnem turpitudinem se prostituant." For a su- 96 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE word is here descriptive of the phantasies and unreal views which these self-willed men took of the relations of things. Like those in every age who imitate their contempt of authority, they were visionary and theo retical, dreaming of what according to their notions ought to be, rather than looking upon things as they are. Thus dreaming, they hesitated not to defile the flesh. Not only the wicked works by which the flesh is defiled, but the defilement itself is sinful ; for the body as well as the spirit, is God's, and is to be kept holy for His service. This argument is urged both Bom. xii. 1. positively and negatively by St. Paul in his 1cor.v1.20. exhortations to holiness. And it is a fact never to be forgotten, that our bodies as well as our souls partake of the redemption wrought out for us, and have hope through Christ of a future resurrection to glory. The word dominion* meaning literally lord ship, may stand for authority, law, dominion, consid ered abstractly ; while dignities in the following clause, refers rather to the persons invested with authority, the administrators of the law. The conduct becoming a Christian towards those in authority is clearly marked 1 Peter ii. out m the exhortation of St. Peter, " Submit 13' 14, yourselves to every ordinance of man for the perabuudance of similar, and frequently disgustingly particular interpre tations and fancies, see the writings of the earlier commentators. * Kvpt6rr\Ta Be ci&eToSo-i — SiSteTeiv hardly bears so strong a sense as the English despise. It occurs with that translation in Lu. x. 1 6 ; 1 Thess. iv. 8 ; Heb. x. 28 ; and* in all these places the force of the original would be better given by the use of a milder word. The other passages where it is found are Ma. vi. 26 ; vii. 9 ; Lu. vii. 30 ; Jno. xii. 48 ; 1 Cor. i. 19 ; Gal. ii. 21; iii. 15:1 Tim. v. 12. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 97 Lord's sake." Utterly at variance with this precept was the conduct of those whom St. Peter and St. Jude alike describe as "them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government : 2 peter u. presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are 10' not afraid to speak evil of dignities." The connection of self-will with licentiousness, the union of sensuality with contempt of authority, here spoken of by both apostles, has proved in the expe rience of the world to be always an easy and natural combination. The indulgence of self-will is the very essence of opposition to God. It was this which led Adam astray in Paradise, and has since in every age brought ruin upon his sons. " It was by rea- Caaworth son of this self-will," as Cudworth has beauti- f^™^ fully said " that those glorious angels, those 4- morning stars, kept not their first station, but dropped down from heaven like falling stars, and sunk into this condition of bitterness, anxiety, and wretchedness in which they are. They all entangled themselves with the length of their own wings, they would needs will more and otherwise than God would will in them ; and going about to make their wills wider, and to enlarge them into greater amplitude, the more they struggled, they found themselves the faster pinioned and crowded up into narrowness and servility ; inso much, that now they are not able to use any wings at all, but inheriting the serpent's curse, can only creep with their bellies upon the earth." Men who are un willing to submit to the restraints of authority, seldom care to bridle their own passions. They who pay no 9 98 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE deference to outward law, are not often " a law unto themselves." The sensual appetites of man are an over-match for the higher dispositions of his soul, and are sure to gain' the mastery unless held in check by some restraining power. Restraint may indeed be unnecessary to those whose wills have been brought into entire conformity to the Divine will ; and perfect freedom may be found in perfect obedience. But while the Gospel thus becomes " a perfect law of lib erty" to such as give themselves wholly up to its guid ance, it must be remembered, that "the law was added because of offences," and needs to be enforced as long as offences continue. When there is no real submission of the heart to the Divine will, other prin ciples may lead men to yield a certain obedience either directly to the Divine commands, or at least to human laws, opinions, and customs, derived from them. All ages bear witness that the tendency of casting off the authority of these laws is to licentious ness. Three hundred years have passed away since Calvin, commenting upon these same words, wrote caivin in " these two things are always joined together, Jud'8- so that they who abandon themselves to in iquity, at the same time seek the abolition of all or der." More than a thousand years before St. Augus tine had written, " Chastity is impossible to the soul that is unfaithful to God."* And it is an oft-repeated observation, ascribed to St. Jerome, that the principal heresies which ever disgraced religion and plagued the * Anima qua: fornicata est Deo, casta esse non potest. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 99 world were begun, carried on, and ended, by the sup port of women or for the sake of women.* Human nature has not changed since the days of Calvin or of Augustine, nor has the unholy alliance of self-will and sensuality ceased. Self-will seeks its gratification in setting aside the will of God ; and whether it does this by falling at once below the Divine standard of right eousness, or by attempting to rise above it, it is sure to be found in the same partnership at the last. Gross sensuality is the natural issue of an effort after higher spirituality than God, who knows the capacities of man's nature, has required at his hands. The monas tic system, set on foot by earnest minded men, in its results is a sad but memorable proof of this connec tion. So, also, that false and overstrained philanthro- phy which seeks to accomplish more than is aimed at in Scripture, leads by a direct road to immorality. These perhaps may be instances of Satan's transform ing himself into ' an angel of light.' Men who have been trained in Christian truth, whatever may be their own conduct, will not readily exchange the Gospel for any lower theoretical standard of virtue ; but unsta ble minds are easily led to seek after what seems to their imaginations a higher virtue and a holier state than Scripture has really required, and vainly to de vise better and more effectual means for the regenera tion of mankind than God has provided. The princi ple of submission to authority is thus undermined : # See Serle's Horaa Solitaries, Vol. II. conclusion (p. 495 note, ed. Lond. 1815), where this is enlarged upon and illustrated. 100 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE the individual will is exalted above law : then domin ion is despised, and ' dignities are evil spoken of.' Thence the steps are few and easy to ' the defiling of the flesh ;' for the standard of truth once lost, the helm of law once abandoned, the inind has no certain aim. Driven and tossed upon the waves, it is sure to be overpowered at last by the gales of passion. It is not impossible that the evil men spoken of by St. Peter and St. Jude fell into their ungodliness through such a course ; it is certain that at a very early period consider able bodies of heretics ran into gross sensuality while aiming after a subtle and excessive spirituality. God forbid that in our own day the same result should follow from a contempt of the outward helps and means of grace He has provided for man, and from an endeavor to rise above these by a closer inward connection with the Saviour. God forbid that the substitution of mo tives to religious conduct which appeal to the selfish interests of men, instead of those which the Gospel sets forth, and the effort to advance Christ's kingdom by more rapid and effectual means than those of relig ious principle, — God forbid that these things should result in the advancement of the kingdom of Satan. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 101 THE FOURTH EXAMPLE (of GODLY CONDUCT) AND THE APPLICATION THEREOF. Now Michael, the Archangel, when, contending with the Devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him reviling accusation ; but said, The Lord rebuke tl^e ! Yet these revile whatsoever they know not ; and whatsoever they naturally, as the irrational animals, understand, in those things they corrupt themselves. Ver. 9, 10. The Apostle now brings forward another instance of an opposite kind, to show that one who enjoyed the favor of God would not, under any circumstances, pursue the course he. condemns. This illustration, though not an example of the punishment of the un godly, is yet in perfect unity with the general design of the epistle. It teaches by contrast the same truth which has already been more directly illustrated ; and the mind, after dwelling upon several instances of guilt, is relieved by turning to this bright example of holy conduct. Whatever may be the true interpretation of the par ticulars of this much vexed passage, the main fact stands out for our example, clear as if written in let ters of living light. An archangel, a being of exalted rank even among the heavenly host, would not revile the prince of darkness, the chief of the apostate angels, although opposed and contradicted by him. He shrank from such an act. He knew the will of God, and under no provocation would he transgress the law of his Creator. The archangel unquestion- 9* 102 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE ably knew of the pride of his adversary, and of its hu miliating end. He who had once been a partaker of his own glory, stood before him in the wretched and degrading character of a tempter. He who had once been resplendent with the beauty of holiness, was now deformed with sin, covered with the filth of deceit and guile, and revolting in the ugliness of his iniquity. He who had once breathed the free air of heaven, and was a leader of the bright ranks of angelic hosts, now confronted his unfallen peer, bound with ihe chains of darkness wherein he was reserved unto the judgment of the great day ; and he, this miserable outcast, undertook to thwart the archangel going forth in the execution of the commands of the Almighty. What an opportunity was here for biting taunt and wither ing sarcasm ! What heavenly forbearance in the sim ple words, ' The Lord rebuke thee.' If the same arch angel ever look down from his dazzling height of glory upon us poor worms of the dust, and becomes a wit ness of the violence of partisan or polemical strife, what must be his emotions as he hears the reproaches men hesitate not to utter against " the powers that be," even the same that " are ordained of God ? " And what account can he who " durst not bring a railing accusation" against even the Devil, render unto his and our Creator of men's scorning of those set in authority over them, or even, it may be, of their reviling their fellow-soldiers in the service of Christ ? Surely the re membrance of these things should set a seal upon our lips, though the bitter taunt have risen unbidden in our thoughts. It should chasten and subdue our language UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 103 and restrain it within the bounds of godliness, though such language sound tame and spiritless amid the rail ing accusations echoing around — and this preemi nently when religion itself becomes the theme of our discourse. Nevertheless, though such an example be set before us, yet so are we encompassed with temptation, that it is " the perfect man " alone Jas m 2 " who offends not in word ; " and we may well 1Peter u, rejoice that One "who when He was reviled, 23' reviled not again," has been set forth to be a Propitia tion for our sins. It has been sometimes gratuitously supposed that St. Jude obtained the facts mentioned in this passage from an apocryphal book called " the Assumption of Moses," occasionally quoted in ancient times, but long since lost* Various facts of which we have no record * Origen has been quoted in favor of this opinion. According to Bu- finus he says (De princip. lib. III. c. 2 init.) Et primo quidem in genesi serpens Evam seduxisse describitur, de quo in Ascensione Mosis cujus libelli meminit in Epistola sua Apostolus Judas : Michael archangelus, cum diabolo disputans de corpore Moysi, ait, a diabolo inspiratum serpentem causam extitisse pr^varicationis Adse et Evse. It may be questioned however (the original of this work being unfortunately lost), whether the important clause cujus libelli memimit, etc., is the language of Origen, or merely a parenthesis of his translator. Certain it is that the book itself, according to this passage, gives a different account of the matter from St. Jude. Eor while it is here related that Michael reproached the Devil with being the cause of man's fall, (and hence of Moses' death,) St. Jude says he " durst not bring against him a reviling accusation ; but said, The Lord rebuke thee." CEcumenius has also been commonly referred to as expressing the same opinion (Tom. II. p. 629. B.) ; but it does not appear that he even intended to refer to the book in question himself, much less that he supposed St. Jude to have done so. There certainly once existed, however, a book called ' 'AvaXijif/ts or 104 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE in the more ancient Scriptures, are mentioned incident ally by the inspired writers of the New Testament ; not as if then first revealed, but rather as things already generally known and believed. Although " Holy Scripture containeth all things neces- j™^ sary to salvation," it is not to be supposed that Art. vi. it contains the record of all the heavenly communica tions which have ever been made to mankind, nor even all the particulars and circumstances of those. which are mentioned. Such detail would have been as cumbrous as it is unnecessary, If St. John could say in reference to the Saviour's life only, " There are also many other things which Jesus did, the Jno. xxi. which, if they should be written every one, I xx'. 30. suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written," how palpably ab surd must it be to expect a minute record of every Divine communication since the world began. Doubt less, however, many of the particulars of those com munications were remembered and repeated by those who knew of them, and one at least of the Saviour's sayings thus traditionally preserved, has been incorpo rated into the inspired account of St. Paul's farewell avdf3oLX3B " the death of Moses,'' which is not to be confounded with the much earlier and lost work in Greek. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 105 to the elders of Ephesus.* In like manner under the Old Dispensation : additional facts in regard to God's dealings with man may — nay, in all probability must — have been preserved for a considerable period by tradition. It is by tradition chiefly that we account for such measure of the knowledge of the truth as has remained among heathen nations. , And although the chosen people, after the time of Moses, were blessed with a written revelation, yet a multitude of facts not mentioned there may have actually taken place ; and why should not some of these have been preserved in the same way that the memory of still more impor tant events was continued among other nations ? Many entire books are now lost which once formed a part of the sacred literature of the Israelites. Among them were "the book of the wars of the Lord," n.™- ,xxi- ' _ 14. Josh. x. mentioned by Moses; the "book of Jasher," *91'8?Sa,m" spoken of in Joshua ; the books of Nathan, xxix.h2™' Gad, Shemaiah, Iddo, Ahijah, and Jehu, the 1^™;'$. son of Hanani, referred to in the books of 34"' ' xx Chronicles, and many others. Some of these lost books, whether wholly inspired or not, certainly contained pas sages uttered " by the word of the Lord ; " and it is hardly possible that they should not have mentioned some facts additional to those recorded in our present inspired volume. How long they survived we know not ; but when they perished, their contents, like many other facts not mentioned perhaps even in them, were * " It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts xx. 35. It is to be observed that neither St. Paul nor perhaps St. Luke were personal companions of Christ. 106 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE committed to the uncertain keeping of tradition. In the course of time such facts would necessarily be come so overlaid with a mass of fable that the truth itself, no longer distinguishable from error, would be irrevocably lost. From this fate inspired writers have from time to time rescued one and another particular, and stamping it with the seal of truth, have transmit ted it for our instruction. Thus the Psalmist tells us that Joseph's " feet were hurt with fetters;" St. Ps_ CT 18. Stephen records the motive with which Moses 4°f "L slew the Egyptian ; St. Paul mentions, the s ¦, ™" uu 2 Pet ii 7 names of the magicians who withstood Moses; 8. ' ' ' St. Peter, the fact that Lot was vexed with the filthy conversation and continual wickedness Jn0- ^ of the Sodomites ; and although our Saviour's 56" declaration that Abraham rejoiced to see His day, and was glad, may be accounted for on a higher prin ciple ; yet this seems the most natural explanation of such passages as speak of Noah's preaching 2Pet.ii.B; righteousness to the antediluvians, and the i°pet!reiii. 19 20 part which angels took in the delivery of the Acts yk 53; law, though nothing more than their presence Heb.u.-2;' is mentioned, and that but incidentally in the xxxm. 2. Old Testament.* So also in regard to the emblemat- * Bishop Heber in his Bampton lectures (Lect. IV. Note e.) under takes to deny the presence and cooperation of the angels in the delivery of the law ; but independently of the singularity of this opinion, its criti cal support seems quite insufficient. Bishop Horsley's explanation of the passage, "Erom the midst of the myriads came forth the Holy One," is more just. See Horsley's Bib. Criticism on Deut. xxxiii. 2. Vol. II. p. 417, and Note B. p. 463, ed. London, 1844. The noted passage, Ps. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 107 ical meaning of the tabernacle and of the vari- ^b;^¦ ous parts of the Jewish ritual given in the epistle to the Hebrews ; and a little afterwards, 21! ' *"' the exclamation of Moses when terrified at what he saw in the Mount. In the same way St. Jude records the prophecy of Enoch, and the sin of the evil ^*-6 14 angels. St. Peter also either alludes to the ^et-a- same fact as St. Jude, or else declares, what would be a still broader disclosure, a general principle of the conduct of angels. Several of these facts are to this day preserved among the traditions of the Jews, and some of them may be found incorporated into the Chaldee Targums and the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. Such of them indeed as involve merely historic events might have been received on the sole authority of sufficiently attested tradition, but others, and the present instance is one of them, could only have been known originally by revelation, and therefore needed to be established by the authority of inspiration. Individual names of angels do not appear in the Scriptures until the time of the captivity. By that great affliction the Jewish people were much purified and fitted to receive revelations in many respects sur passing the spiritual wants or capacities of their fathers. It has been suggested that then certain of the angels began to be so well known personally, that lxviii. 1 7, is not referred to above, because in the original no mention is made of angels. On this passage also see Horsley on the Fsalms, p. 306, 307, ed. London, 1845. 108 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE names were applied to them for the sake of distinc tion. It is more likely that' they were then Divinely communicated. The name of Michael is three times Dan. x, 13, mentioned by the prophet Daniel, and is to be Rev. xii. 7' found also in the book of Revelation. In all these places he is spoken of as an exalted and pow erful being, and in the last " his angels," that is, the angels under his command, are expressly mentioned. The title of archangel, however, is not elsewhere joined to his name, and indeed occurs at all in only one other place : " the Lord Himself shall descend from 1 Thess. iv. r 16- heaven with the voice of the [or, an] archangel." From this circumstance it has been ingeniously ar gued that the office is peculiar to Michael alone, and that in truth he is none other than our blessed Lord Him self. Some of the acts ascribed to Michael certainly would not be unworthy of the Lord ; but there are others of a different character. The language in this very verse — "durst not" — although it be explained of the archangel's standing in awe of God's commands, could yet hardly be applied with reverence to Christ — cer tainly not to Him in his preexistent state. The word may bear, it is true, any one of several other transla tions which have been given to it ; but any possible modification of its sense in this passage would still be inconsistent with the character of Him who " thought it not robbery to be equal with God." pui. si. 6. Again, the prophet Daniel speaks of " the Prince of Persia," and the " Prince of Grecia" in con- Dan x 18i nection with Michael, the Prince of the Jews, i°'21i *"• in a way quite inconsistent with the supposition that UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 109 they were infinitely his inferiors in nature. The same prophet evidently describes Michael as a finite being of limited power, and expressly tells us that another angel " stood to confirm and to strengthen Dan. xi. 1. him." But independently of these considerations, Michael is one of a class. He stands not by himself; but others, although the title of archangel be not dis tinctly applied to them, are yet evidently partakers of the office and dignity expressed by this name. A dis tinction among the classes of angels seems to be recognized in many passages of Scripture, some of them speaking of "principalities and powers Eph.sii.io, in heavenly places," others describing certain of viii.2,6, ek i-i-i 1 Matt- XTUi- the angels as endowed with peculiar privileges 10, etc. etc. and glory. Such a distinction has always been maintained as well by the Jewish as by the Christian Church. The opinion of the former is shown in that passage in the book of Tobit where Raphael describes himself as " one of the seven holy angels which ToMtxa.15. present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One." The belief of the Christian Church has been embodied in one of her most solemn acts of worship, where we unite in our praise " with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven." Such distinc- insagion. tions imply all that is necessarily implied in the office of archangel. Satan, moreover, once an angel Matt.xii.24, & ' ' ° 26 ; Ma. iii. of fight, is represented in Scripture as the chief 22, jm^lu. of a kingdom, and the subordinate evil spirits Maw. are expressly, and more than once, called " his *"• 7> angels." His superiority appears to be something 10 XXV. Rev. 110 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE more than mere preeminence in sin, and it is not to be supposed that he was made a prince of an gels, or archangel, only after his fall. The relation of Satan to the other fallen spirits may therefore be taken as another indication of the existence of the office of archangel among the heavenly ranks. But whatever uncertainty might otherwise rest upon this question is removed by the language of the prophet Daniel. He speaks of Michael as the "prince" of the Jews in the same way that he calls other spiritual beings the princes of other countries, and in one pas sage he describes him expressly as " one of the chief Dan. x. 13. princes;"* a phrase which must be regarded * The margin of our Bible suggests the translation, the first instead of one ; and so translated, the phrase may be thought consistent with the highest superiority of Michael over other spiritual existences. This sense, however, can hardly be considered as a translation of the original tns'BKin Ciltori "TfiiS- The cardinal trs is not unfrequently used as an ordinal (chiefly for the first day of the month), and in a few instances, such as 1 Chron. xxix. 1 ; Cant. vi. 9 ; Isa. Ii. 2, used absolutely it ex presses unity or individuality in an emphatic way = unicus. Such a signification, however, is excluded here, where it is in construction with Bil/orj,. The word occurs more than 900 times, and never in any in stance implies superiority in the person or thing to which it is applied over those with which it is in construction. The English version making Michael but "one of the chief princes" is therefore strictly accurate. The LXX reads MtxaiiX ets — not irpSnos — tuv apxAwuv, and it may be remarked that in the LXX irpSros occurs but nine times as the translation of "Tfii! and then only in connection with the words day, month, or year. In the LXX vp&Tos usually answers to the Hebrew •jisxi which would unquestionably have been used had the sacred writer intended to express Michael's superiority over the other ' chief princes.' The Vulgate reads " unus — not primus — de principibus - P 7 - •* P..-* 7 * 7 - 7 . 9 primis." So also the Syriac Jj-iOrO |.X3?0? _iO ,_» Vnf^UiO |cO . UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. Ill as conclusive. The establishment of this point will be of service in the interpretation of this difficult verse. If any further proof were required that the Michael of whom St. Jude speaks, is indeed a created being, an angel, it might be found in the parallel passage in the second epistle of St. Peter, (ii. 11), " angels which are greater in power and might," etc. Various mythical expositions, inasmuch as they are supported by no evidence, and depend for their plausi bility solely upon the fancy of their authors, may be wholly passed by. That the argument of St. Jude should have weight, it is necessary that his examples be taken from actual facts ; any myth whatsoever would be out of place and without an object. Nor is it sufficient to adopt the theory advocated by Lightfoot* and others, that St. Jude does not vouch for the truth of the transaction to which he refers ; but merely quotes from Jewish traditions what may serve for an argumentum ad hominem. The Apostle does not appear to have been engaged in any controversy strictly so called ; but makes use of illustrations rather to enforce than to prove what he said. No instance can be found in the New Testament, in which any of the sacred writers adduce in support of what they say a fact or an illustration which we know to have been false. Even when St. Paul quotes a heathen poet, it is but his testimony to a fundamental truth. In the present instance, it would be hard to show why St. Jude should have referred to this transaction if in * Horse Hebr. in Lucam. III. 36. p. Vol. II. p. 507. ed. 1699. 112 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE reality it never occurred, when there were so many historical illustrations ready to his hand ; nor is the assumption that it is not an actual fact otherwise than wholly gratuitous. "We are bound to receive the illus tration of St. Jude as true, at least until some reasona ble presumption can be alleged against it. It is as a truth which on the one hand, allows us a glimpse into the angelic world, and, on the other teaches an im portant lesson, that we now proceed to enquire into its meaning. Other interpretations, although differing in detail, may yet be arranged in two general classes ; one of them explaining the phrase the body of Moses in a figurative way, the other taking it in its literal sense. The figurative interpretation has the support of many eminent names, and is said to be as ancient as Ephraim the Syrian. It is not, however, altogether uniform. By some of its supporters the body of Moses is thought to stand for the ancient church in the same way that the Christian church is called ' the body of Christ.' It is urged in favor of this view that Michael is represented by Daniel as contending for the Jews against some spiritual enemy, and is described in the book of Revelation as making war upon Satan, the great foe of the Church in all ages. But these things may be true, without at all proving that ' the body of Moses' means the Jewish people. The phrase is never elsewhere used in such a sense, nor is it easy to see how it could be so used with propriety. Reference 2 Mace. xv. nas indeed been made to the prayer of Onias 12- for " the whole body of the Jews ; " but inde- UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 113 pendently of the fact that this has nothing to do with ' the body of Moses,' the Greek word is that from which the English 'system' is derived — an entirely different word from that used by St. Jude* Christians are often called the body of Christ, and with evident reason : they draw from Him their spiritual life, and maintain with Him an intimate and real communion of which the union of our members in one body is a lively and appropriate image. But with Moses the Israelites had not, and never could have had, any such connection. He was their lawgiver and their prophet, and it might be allowable to speak of him as in some sense their head; but to call them his body would have been too bold a figure of speech, even while he lived ; much more when centuries had elapsed since his death. The federal head of the Israelites was Abraham ; yet even to him such an expression could not properly be applied. To Moses it would be still more inappropriate. His office, how important soever, was yet of an external character. He is never repre sented, like Abraham, and Israel, and David, as con nected with the inward, spiritual life of the chosen people. Until, therefore, some other instance can be shown of such a meaning, or at least of some similar representation in connection with Moses, it seems too great a license to interpret " the body of Moses" by " the people of Israel." Another figurative interpretation of the phrase un derstands by it rather the Jewish polity — the whole * The word in Maccabees is o-vgTnua, in St. Jude o-upta. 10* 114 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE body of the ritual and ceremonial law — supposed to be called the body of Moses because he was, humanly speaking, its author. If any figurative explanation is to be admitted, {his certainly is the more probable one. A passage in Zechariah is commonly urged in its support, where Joshua the high-priest, represents the Jewish economy. The prophet in a vision saw. Joshua " standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan zecn. m. 1 standing at his right hand to resist him. And 2 ot0, the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan ; even the Lord that hath chosen Jeru- ralem rebuke thee." It is urged that the Lord is here evidently the same person -with the angel of the Lord, and that this may have been the archangel Michael. In the original, however, the word Lord is throughout this passage 'Jehovah' (probably meaning Christ), and it has been already shown that this name cannot be applied to the archangel, under any circumstances, and such an application in St. Jude would be encumbered with peculiar difficulties. What is here said of the archangel's fear and of his reference of the matter to the Lord for adjudication would be on this theory, wholly out of place. Is not Christ Himself the Judge of all ? Or when the Devil " contended" with Him in the wilderness did He hesitate to. rebuke him accord ing to his wickedness? And independently of this consideration, " the angel of the Lord" appears in Zechariah not as one of the disputants, but as the Judge ; nor does the vision afford any proof of the modesty of angels, the particular point for which St. Jude refers to the contention of Michael with Satan. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 115 Other resemblances between the vision of the prophet and other parts of the epistle are too slight and of too incidental a character to require examination. Zechariah, it is true, calls Joshua, according to a com mon proverb, " a brand plucked out of the r ' r Zeoh. iii. i, fire," and St. Jude directs that certain of the 5; and „„ ' St. Jude 22, evil men should be saved by " pulling them 23- out of the fire ;" and both represent iniquity under the very frequent figure of soiled garments. These resem blances, however, are merely upon the surface, and fade away when the two passages are carefully com pared. Although, therefore, the words " the Lord rebuke thee" occur in both, the passages have no real connection. The speakers are different; the dispu tants are different ; the point and object are different ; and it yet remains to be proved that the subject in dis pute was the same. This interpretation thus deprived of all support from the vision of Zechariah, has no other weight than that which it may derive from its own inherent probability. The fatal objection to it arises from the fact that the word body does not appear to have been ever used either in the Hebrew or the Greek Scriptures, or even in the ancient classics in the sense it would be here required to bear.* Lightfoot * The only appearance of such a sense is in Col. ii. 17, where aapta is opposed to stela ; but here it plainly means substance, reality. In the classics, an instance has been cited from Aristotle (Bhet. Lib. I. c. 1. near the beginning) ol Se irepl ptev iv^vptdTav ovSev Xeyovtrtv, direp iarl caput ttjs trio-Teas. But Aristotle clearly means by o^apta exactly what is meant in Colossians substance ; a fair translation would be ' They say nothing of enthymemes which constitute the mass of proof.' 'S.wpta in the 116 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE even goes so far as to characterize this reference to Zechariah in explanation of the passage in St. Jude as " absurd ; " because, he says, " neither the name of ' Michael' nor anything like ' the body of Moses' is there to be found." * An interpretation which, like the one just given, understands our Saviour under the name of Michael, and explains " the body of Moses" as meaning the books of the Pentateuch, because when Christ con tended with the Devil in the wilderness, He quoted against him the words of the Pentateuch, seems un worthy of any serious refutation, f Still another figurative interpretation explains body as meaning slave, and the " body of Moses" as " the servant of Moses" i. e. Joshua. It is very doubtful whether the word can bear this meaning ; J but if it sense required, or at least something like it, may be found in Clemens Alex., Chrysostom, and others, as well as the scholiasts ; but this use of the word belongs to a later date than that of the New Testament canon, and may have been a Latinism. The word required by the above inter pretation would be either aapATtov or o-apaTeiov, and even these only as used in the corrupt Greek of later ages. * " Absurde nimium, ut mihi videtur, nonnulli ad Zach. iii. 1, 2, hsec referunt, cum neque nomen Michae'lis, neque aliquid simile corpori Mosis, illic reperiendum est. Lightfoot, chron. temp. Jud. ep. Vol. II. p. 116, ed. 1699. t Sapta is however sometimes used for a whole booh in contradistinc tion to any part thereof, by late writers. See Laurman in Judam, p. 72. X Unquestionably o-ipuna (plural,) often means slaves in the classics and very rarely in the Scriptures. See Bev. xviii. 13. See also 2 Mace. viii. 1 1 and possibly Draco 39. I know of no instance in which trap-a, in the singular, means a slave. This usage, however, may be illustrated by a reference to Gen. xlvii. 18 et seqq. and Neh. ix. 37. This usage (if in deed it were so ancient as the LXX), has been referred to by commen- UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 117 could, is there any evidence that Joshua ever held such a relation to Moses as that of a slave to his master? or that there was ever any dispute concerning him between the archangel and Satan ? * The other class of interpreters — by far the most numerous and weighty — -who agree in understanding the phrase the body of Moses in its literal sense, are yet divided in opinion as to the nature of the dispute about it. Three leading explanations have been given. The first, which it may suffice barely to mention, sup poses the contention to have been occasioned by the preservation of the fife of Moses in his infancy. But how should the Devil then have known that Moses was to become of any especial importance in the world? Moreover, he being then alive, any conten tion about him would have been more naturally de scribed as " about Moses" than as about his body.f The second view, advocated in ancient times by Chrysostom, Theodoret, and others, and received in later days by such men as Calvin, Grotius, Beza, Es- tius, Tillotson, and many more, and which must be allowed to have the greatest weight of authority tators in explanation of the quotation in Heb. x. 5, from the Greek ver sion of Ps. xl. (xxxix) 6. * In the English version Joshua is indeed called the ' servant' of Moses in Ex. xxxiii. 11 ; and ' his minister' xxiv. 13 ; but the LXX in the former passage is 6 bepdiruv and in the latter 6 irapeo'T-nKas abr$. The Hebrew in either case is irH»B Piel participle from mti, to minis ter unto, specifically in sacred things. In the same way Joshua is called i tmovpyts of Moses, Josh. i. 1. He was Moses' disciple and assistant ; but not his slave. t 2copa does indeed sometimes stand for the whole man; but is 118 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE among the commentators, regards the dead body of Moses as the subject of contention. The Devil, it is said, wished to make this a snare, that through rever ence for the relics of their great prophet, the Israelites might be seduced into idolatry; Michael rebuked him, and to defeat his purpose buried the body so privately that no man ever knew the place of its sepulture. This interpretation, however strongly supported by an array of eminent names, is yet based upon the suppo sition that the Israelites might have been seduced into worshipping the remains of their great leader had they had the temptation to do so placed in their way. But amid all their sinfulness and idolatry, the Is raelites were never guilty of the abomination of wor shipping relics. Dead men's bones were always es teemed by them utterly unclean. In utter opposition to the customs and habits of their Egyptian task masters, and in perfect accordance with the posi tive teachings of their own Divine law, before the time of Moses' death the very touch of a dead body was considered defiling. So deep-seated and permanent was this feeling that in later days the prophet could denounce no greater profana- xiu. 2. tion against the idolatrous altar at Bethel xxulTie than that dead men's bones should be burnt 20, upon it ; and it was esteemed utterly and for ever polluted when King Josiah had fulfilled the prophecy. It seems hardly probable — in the absence usually applied either to a dead body, or to the body in contradistinction from the soul. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 119 of all proof of the fact — that the Devil would have been so especially anxious to have the means of tempting them to a sin to which they were so utterly averse. A modification of this last view urges that had the place of Moses' burial been known, it might have be come in after ages a kind of Mecca to the Israelites, and thus possibly have led to the invocation of his departed spirit. But had the dispute mentioned by St. Jude been occasioned by this danger, its object must have been differently stated as not about the body, but about the burial place of Moses. Other ex planations, almost without number, might be adduced, but they would rather add to the perplexity than help to the explanation of the passage. The third, and last view of this transaction is essen tially the one given by "Whitby in his commentary* and seems at once less encumbered with difficulties, and better supported by the circumstances of the case than either of the others. Moses was buried in a valley of the land of Moab, by the Lord,f with ^^ such secrecy that his sepulchre was never xxxiT-5> 6- known. It is distinctly asserted that he died and was * See his notes on Matt. xvii. 3, and Jude 9. If, on reading the latter, it could be supposed that the author doubted the reality of the death of Moses, such an impression would be removed by the former note. t Or by angels at his command, without human aid. So saith Philo, De Vita Moses lib. III. p. 538 D.ed. Cologne, 1613 — as erdtyi\ penSevhs irapovTos, StjXov6ti xePff^v ov ^vrprdis, hxX b&avdTOts Svvdptefftv. So also Epiphanius (Hseres. IX. p. 28 as quoted by Patrick), iveraMturtv ol HyyeXot. 120 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE buried. He could not therefore have been taken up into heaven alive, although such a conceit may be found among^ Jewish writers,* and may even have been entertained by some of the Christian fathers.-)- St. Jude, however, says there was a dispute between Michael and Satan about his body. May not a clue to the explanation of the matter be found in the ac count of the transfiguration ? There Moses and Elias met and talked with the Saviour. St. Luke saying st.m. ix. that "two men appeared in glory" shows that both of them were in human, yet glorified forms. This was to have been expected in regard to Elias who had been translated, and whose body, never * E. g. Josephus, who writes " As he [Moses] was going to embrace Eleazer and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, a cloud stood over him on the sudden, and he disappeared in a certain valley ; although he wrote in the holy books that he died, which was done out of fear lest they should venture to say that because of his extraordinary virtue he went to God." Whiston's Joseph. Antiq. lib. IV. cap. 8. § 48 ad finem. t Thus St. Ambrose at some length, De Abel et Cain, lib. I. cap. 2. p. 174 C. ed. Paris, 1586. So also Hilary as quoted by Sextus Senensis, Biblioth. Sancta. lib. V. annot. 61. p. 550 C. ed. Venice, 1566. It has been before remarked that there once existed a book &vdxri\pis Mwo-eW, ' the ascension of Moses.' Protogones, Bp. of Sardis, cites it in the Acts of the Council of Nice, Pt. II. i-. 20. p. 131. 'Ev fiipxa Mao-e'ws, Mixa-fjA o apxdyyeXos StaXey6p.evos ra Sta$6Xa Xeyef 'Airb yap irvevpuTOS aylov avTov irdvTes iKrlfffrnptev " In the boohofthe Ascension of Aloses, Michael the archangel, discoursing with the Devil, says : Eor by his Holy Spirit we have all been created." Origen (7repi itpxav lib. III. cap. 2. Tom. I. p. 138 A. ed. Bened.) mentions the same book, and says, that the Apostle Jude mentions it in his epistle. Athanasius also, in Synopsi Scriptural (Tom. II. p. 134 B.) reckons avdXri^tv Mao-ecus among the Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 121 separated from the soul by death, was doubtless glori fied. The Saviour is expressly said to have been " trans figured " at the moment. But how could Moses have been also there in a visible form of corresponding glory ? Believing the transfiguration to have been a real event, we must admit one of two hypotheses : either the glo rified form of Moses was produced by a special act of Divine creation, or else the body of Moses must have been, according to the tradition of the Jews, raised and glorified* Of the former hypothesis there is no evi dence, and it is hard to see how a form thus produced, could have been individualized as the form of Moses. If the latter supposition be correct, a sufficient reason at once appears for the dispute between Michael and the Devil. For since it is the ordinary and appointed lot of men's bodies to remain locked in the embrace of death until "the Lord shall descend from J6Theas- iT- heaven with the voice of the archangel " to gg0, T' 28' call forth all that are in the grave, and since the soul, though resting joyously in Paradise, thus waits for its full consummation of bliss until the final day of the resurrection ; if " the body of Moses " was exempted from this delay and sooner raised, glorified, and re united with his soul (whether temporarily or perma nently), Satan, who is the author of death, and has * It is obvious to remark that this hypothesis in no way clashes with the declaration ' Christ is the first fruits of them that slept' (1 Cor. xv. 20) ; for the supposed resurrection of the body of Moses was, like the translation of Enoch and Elijah, but a single act of Almighty power, standing out by itself, with no connection with the hopes or fears of other men, in no sense the " first fruits " of a harvest to come. 11 122 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE Hebews ii. " tne power of death," would naturally dispute its emancipation and seek, if possible, to retain it still within his grasp. With whom should he con tend about it unless with Michael " the Prince " of the nation which was led by Moses and to which Moses belonged ? But whatever may be the precise meaning of this much vexed passage, this at least is clear : we have here another proof of the cheering truth that the an gels of heaven stand ever ready to execute their Mas ter's purposes in regard to His chosen servants de spite of all resistance of opposing spirits. Not the souls only, but the bodies also of the children of God are an object of care to these heavenly ministers. The phrase durst not, though sometimes injudicious ly softened, is an exact translation of the original. It does not imply any fear of Satan on the part of Michael, but rather shows his dread of transcending the bounds of his own duty, and arrogating to himself an office and authority belonging to the Lord alone. The exact sense of the following clause, bring against him reviling accusation, has been considerably disputed in consequence of the unusual sense of accu sation being here given to the word commonly ren- Kplo-tv- dered judgment. The word is not found in this sense elsewhere in the New Testament except in the parallel passage of St. Peter ;* but in the classics *2 Pet. ii. 11. "The angels do not prefer reviling charges against their fallen fellows." Such is the meaning, whether the reading iavriiv be adopted, or the conjectural emendation abrav, or with Gries- UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 123 this is one of its well-defined and established mean ings,* and the same sense must be occasionally given to it also in the Septuagint.f There seems therefore sufficient authority for translating it both here and in the parallel passage in St. Peter in the way most agreeable to the context. We can hardly turn from the consideration of this remarkable verse without again alluding to the exam ple which St. Jude here holds up for our imitation. Michael, ' one of the chief princes' of the courts of heaven, a ruler over hosts of angels, each ' greater in power and might' than man, was opposed in the exe cution of his duty by the enemy of all truth and right eousness. Poets may have represented angels as ren dering back to Satan railing for railing ;J but the Scripture speaks otherwise, and in this instance gives the reply of the archangel to the Devil in the simple words " The Lord rebuke thee." St. Jude might well set such an example in bright and heavenly contrast with the conduct of those who shrunk not from " revil ing dignities." However prevalent in apostolic days bach, Lachmann, and Tischendorf, avTuv be retained and referred to the ayyeXav auapr. in ver. 4. * See Scapula Lex. in verbo, who quotes Demosthenes iffix&ov olTr)s Kpiaeas xptvot, " the time for the accusation has run out." t See e. g. Job xxxix. 32 (Eng. xl. 2) ; Job xiii. 6 ; Prov. xxvi. 17, etc. X Thus Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. IV. line 834 : " To whom thus Zephon answering scorn with scorn," and so on to the end of the book. See especially the speech of Gabriel, line 904. 124 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE may have been the sin thus reproved, it cannot be said that our own is altogether free from it. There is something suspicious in a temper which, often under the garb of piety, and professedly seeking holy ends, can boastfully violate an oft-repeated precept of Holy Writ. Nor is this suspicion removed, although a large amount of present good may sometimes be accom plished under the influence of such a temper. There is a higher duty laid upon man than the accomplish ment of any good work however great or however im portant, and that duty is implicit obedience to our heavenly Master. There is a certain type of religion which seems not unwilling to follow the example of Saul, and having executed the main purpose of God's command, does not consider its application to smaller matters so obligatory as not to allow of a deviation in 1 Sam. xv. order to honor the Lord with a splendid sac- 20-22. rifice. But in all cases, now as then, "to obey is better than sacrifice." The utmost results of our puny efforts are as nothing to Him by the breath of Whose mouth the universe was called into exist ence. What matters it to Him how much or how lit tle we may accomplish, in comparison with our work ing in the spirit He has required ? Why the Cheru bim in the presence of the Lord of hosts should em ploy two wings to veil the face, and two to cover the feet, and use two only of the six He gave them in fly- isa. vs. 2. ing to execute his commands ; and why the xiu. 9, 10. wrath of the Lord should have gone forth against the hand that essayed to stay the tottering ark, may be inexplicable mysteries to such as have thought UNGODLY SHOWN BY EXAMPLES. VER. 5-10. 125 little upon the spirit which pervades the courts of heaven ; but men who have meditated upon the pro foundness of the reverence described in the visions of the Apocalypse, will understand how it is that God demands of us only obedience in the present act. Its results are under His own control. He has forbidden us to speak evil of dignities. What circumstances shall justify man in the violation of this law, when even against the Devil an archangel did not dare to bring a reviling accusation ? In the following verse St. Jude applies the ver. 10. high example of the archangel by placing in contrast therewith the conduct of the evil men whose punish ment he foretells. He says of them, They revile what soever they know not. Neither the necessity of self- control, nor the benefits of the restraints of authority are understood — known — by the self-willed and sensual. And further the Apostle says whatsoever they naturally, as the irrational animals understand, in those things they corrupt themselves* They employed the reason — that peculiar and distinguishing attribute of man — which should have raised them above, in debasing themselves below the level of the brutes. These can not go beyond the instincts of their nature ; but man * $vatKas is a word air. Xey. fvmicis is however used by St. Peter in the parallel passage, and is also found Bom. i. 26, 27. Neither word occurs in the LXX., but both are found in profane writings. It is worthy of note that the lower animals are described by the term &Koya, a word which perhaps more accurately than any other, marks the essential distinction between man, even in his lowest estate, and the highest of the brute creation. 11' 126 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE UNGODLY. by means of the reason, given him for the restraint and proper direction of his instincts, has the power of perverting them to evil ends. St. Jude here again points out the close connection between ungoverned passions and contempt of authority. He describes those who revile dignities as corrupting themselves also in respect of the animal propensities of their nature. XI. THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, etc. Ver. 11— 13. This portion of the epistle contains the minor pre mise of a syllogism, the major of which has been developed in the former part. Thus, God punishes all the ungodly; these men are ungodly; therefore God will punish them. The language of the Apostle warms as he goes on. It here rises to the sublimity of prophetic diction, and the writer, as it were unconsciously, clothes his thoughts in the lofty forms of Hebrew poetry. The past tense usurps the place of the future ; the strictest parallelism, that distinctive mark of Oriental poetry, is observed ; while the fervidness of the language, the felicity of arrangement, the highly poetic character of the figures, the rapidity of the illustrations, and the terseness of the numerous comparisons combine with the solemn nature of the subject to give this short and sudden outpouring of the prophetic spirit a high place among the lofty strains of sacred poetry. The solemn severity of this denunciation is fearful. The Apostle first likens the evil men of his own day to one after another of the ungodly in ancient times. The three examples he brings forward in rapid suc- 027) 128 THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. cession, are all of men who carried their wicked ness to so daring a height as to become landmarks and beacons to later generations. Two of them were pun ished for their iniquity by the direct interposition of the Almighty. The other, acting in wilful and obsti nate opposition to the will of God, perished in the midst of His enemies. Terrible as the lot of the! wicked of old shall be the fate of evil-doers now. By a series of lively comparisons the Apostle still further portrays their fearful end. These comparisons are five in number, following in rapid succession, and rising one above another in intensity of meaning, until when the power of language would fail, the terrible energy of their accumulated force drives on the thoughts to " the blackness of infernal darkness" as the portion of the ungodly " forever." I. THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY BY EXAMPLES. V. 11. In the examples cited in the earlier part of the epis tle, St. Jude gives prominence to the punishment with which guilt was visited, because he wished to show that such punishment belonged to the plan of the Divine government ; in the examples which follow, the sin itself is the prominent object, because he is giving the reason for the denunciation, " Woe unto them." These three examples may be considered as proverbial instances of wickedness, even as Noah, Daniel, and See Ezek. Job were of righteousness ; yet they are here is, 20,' etc', peculiarly pertinent to the argument. verses 11, 12, 13. 129 the first example. Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain. As Cain suffered his uncurbed passions to hurl him into the guilt of cutting off his brother's earthly life, so did the ungodly men who had crept into the church allow their uncontrolled sensuality to seduce their brethren to their eternal destruction. The Way of Cain, it is plain from the Scriptures, was in the first place a " setting aside of dominion." It is not unlikely that even his offering of fruits in sacrifice was in con tempt of some Divinely expressed preference for animals. But however this may have been, it is certain that the great defect in his sacrifice was a want of faith ; and even after the Divine displeasure had been Heb.xi4. shown in the rejection of his offering, he still Gen.iv.5-7. gave no heed to the way of acceptance which God pointed out. St. John says, " his works were 1 John %_ evil and his brother's righteous." He had 12' neither faith nor works. He neither trusted in God nor submitted to His authority. The Jerusalem Targum represents Cain as " saying to his brother Abel, There is no judgment, and there is no judge, and there is no future world; and no reward shall be given to the righteous, nor vengeance taken of the wicked. The world was not created in mercy, neither in mercy is it governed." * And Jonathan Ben Uziel in his para- * Gen. 4:8. bhjf. I^V" I'l ri^."' T"! ^. ,|,f1[l ^^ ""281 YM ''IZ 130 THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. phrase of the same passage puts much the same lan guage into the mouth of Cain, accusing the Supreme Governor of the world of injustice and partiality. Whether the unbelief of Cain was really carried to the extent supposed in these Rabbinical traditions we cannot certainly know ; but the Scripture evidently describes him as one who opposed his own will to the will of God, and thus despised His dominion. This was the first step in his downward " way." Soon, aban doning all self-control, he gave free rein to his evil pas sions until they led him, under the guidance of " the ijno.iii.12. wicked one," to imbrue his hands with his brother's blood. Afterwards he boldly set at nought the authority of his Maker, and called in question His right to sit in judgment upon his conduct. Such was the way of Gain. Well might the Apos tle say, Woe to them that have gone therein ! Let us remember that the same fallen nature, the same human passions and infirmities are in us, as were in Cain. The same Tempter also watches against our souls. Only by the grace of God can we be kept from the same course and the same end. THE EXAMPLE OF BALAAM. V. 11. And abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam for reward. It is difficult to transfer into English the full force of the nervous language of the original. The sense is, .13.!*? s?n "p^ltia s^ k»V£ i"iaris v^rdl51 VERSES 11, 12, 13. 131 ' They have given themselves over, without check or restraint, to the course in which Balaam went astray for the hope of reward.' * The prophet Balaam showed a certain outward and official respect for the commands of God, while in his heart he utterly rejected His dominion. In obedience to the positive Divine command, he at first Num. xxii. refused to go with the messengers of Balak. 19 ; 2'o,2i7 Afterwaxds tempted by the promise of more glittering rewards, he sought to change the Divine purpose, and neglecting the appointed token of permission — "if the men come to call thee" — he rose up and went his way, notwithstanding the clearest manifestation of the Divine displeasure. Arrived in the court of Balak he officially proclaimed the will of God with clearness ; but afterwards privately gave counsel as to the Num_ j^, most effectual way of circumventing that will. 15' 16, His evil counsel was for the moment partially success ful, but in the end he was himself slain among the idolaters with whom he had cast in his lot. The persons mentioned in the Apocalypse as practising his seductive arts at Pergamos belonged, doubtless, Rev. u. 14. to the same class of characters as those condemned by St. Jude. They are described by St. Paul as 2 Tim. m. 5 " having a form of godliness, but denying the 6' power thoreof .... Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with * The construction of ptta&ov here is in accordance with that rule of Gr. Syntax which allows " the more definite qualification or limitation of a general proposition" to be expressed by the Genitive, where in the translation we supply eVemt. See Buttman Gr. Gr. Syntax. § 132. 6. 1. 132 THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. sins, led away with divers lusts." Indulging their passions, and practising their seductions, all the while professing boundless respect for the Divine commands, but with no real fear of God in their hearts, they richly merited the woe denounced against them by the Apostle. Their character has never been without its illustrations in the world, and perchance some repre sentatives of it may still be found in the most modern days. THE EXAMPLE OF KORAH. And have perished in the gainsaying of Korah. V. 11. Korah * was a Levite descended, like Aaron, from Bx.vi. 21. the family of Kohath. Discontented with his own subordinate position in the ministry of the ancient church, he proclaimed himself the advocate of the rights of the people and set about overthrowing what he pronounced the usurped authority of the priests of the Lord. His undertaking was to some extent popu lar, as such movements have ever been. The plausible argument which in all ages has proved so seductive, " Ye take too much upon you seeing all the uum.xvi3. congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them," was ready to his hand, and he wielded it to the destruction of many souls. He had the advantage of being himself a Levite, appointed to minister in holy things ; for there is always a peculiar fascination in the opposition to authority of those who * Written here Kopi just as we in English write Jude for Judah or Judas. verses 11, 12, 13. 133 themselves share some degree of its responsibility. Men forget that those in a lower or coordinate station are subject to the authority of their superiors or the restraints of their associates. There is a show of dis interestedness in their opposition, an apparent sacri ficing of self for the good of others which excites sympathy ; while the hidden, but real, motive is to free themselves from restraint, to pull down what is above them, and by giving license to the self-will of others, to obtain it also for themselves. Thus the more honest and generous, through a mistaken sympathy, are made the tools of the more crafty and selfish, and are incited by those who should have counselled them to a better course, to despise dominion and revile authority. This example has a peculiar force and pertinency in regard to those, if there were any such in the days of St. Jude, who sought to thrust them selves without authority into the sacred offices . 3Jno.v. 9. of the Church ; or who, like Diotrephes, " loving to have the preeminence," caused trouble and division among the fold of Christ. Korah's followers were by no means taken from the lowest of the people. Dathan and Abiram, his chief as sociates, " were famous in the congregation." Nmn Two hundred and fifty others, persuaded of the XXT1- 9- rightfulness of their cause by Korah's sophistry, united with them and hesitated not to bring the matter to an issue by assuming the priestly office of offering incense before the Lord. Their rashness met its reward, and the fire of the Lord consumed them in the midst of their sin. Their leaders were punished by a still more 12 134 THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. N3i-35^' terrible death. The earth opened her mouth XXTi" 11- and swallowed them up alive. Nevertheless, as the children of Korah were not destroyed, so the heirs of his gainsaying spirit have never perished from the earth. They had crept into the Church unawares even in the days of St. Jude. They have lurked under its shelter ever since, and it behooves us to take heed lest we fall into their condemnation now. The Al mighty may not in these days by the earthquake and by fire take vengeance upon His adversaries; yet their final punishment is nevertheless certain, so that the Apostle hesitated not to say, in the true spirit of prophecy, "they have perished in the gainsaying of jno.m. is. Korah." As "he that believeth not is con demned already," so their souls, already burdened with the woe denounced by the voice of inspiration, are hurrying on to the tribunal of Him who hath said to Lukexi.i6. His commissioned ambassadors "He that de- spiseth you, despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me, despiseth Him that sent Me." II. THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY BY COM PARISON. THE FIRST COMPARISON. V. 12. These are rocks in your love-feasts, feasting with you fearlessly, caring only for themselves. The Apostle first likens the ungodly men who had crept unawares into the fold of Christ's holy Church, verses 11, 12, 13. 135 to those sunken rocks * which amid smooth seas and under fair skies, prove fatal to the mariner. The like ness as QEcumenius remarks,! consists in the covert * Such is undoubtedly the true meaning of a-irtxdSes. The word does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament nor in the LXX ; but its sig nification in the classics is well defined. See Scapula lex. in verb. ; Schleusner, lex. ; Suicer, Thes. Eccl. ; and Laurman com. in loco. Suidas says ^ZirtxdSes' ai iv vSaTt KolXat ireTpat.as 'Airtav. 'HXioSupas Se Tcts irapa&aXafffftas irerpas, Kal airetXriptptevas vrrb twv Kvpdrav. Hesychius also defines 'S.irtXdSes, at ireptex^ptevat ttj fraXafftry ireTpat, rocks encom passed by tlte sea. The gloss gives also the meaning ptep.taffp.evot, polluted ; bnt this latter definition seems to have been founded, as Suicer well re marks, upon airiXot in the parallel passage of St. Peter. If the two words are to be assimilated at all, it had better be by retaining in the ep. of St Peter the original meaning of ffiriXos, rock, — a sense never aban doned by Attic writers, who use kt/XIs for a spot. Laurman gives the two following among other instances of the use of crirtxds by the Greek poets. The first is from Callimachus Hymn, in Delum v. 242, where Juno says to Latona that she should bring forth as tputcat 'EtvdXtai TlicTovfftv iv oirtXdSeo-fftv ipf)p.ots. The other is from the history of the Argonauts. Apol. Bhod. LII. v. 549. Ot 5" ore Sri ffKoXolo iripov ffTetvairbv Xkovto, TpTixyLris airiXdSeffatv iepyptevov apttporepw&e. These rocks are such as are described by Virgil when, speaking of the ships of ^Eneas, he says, Tres notus abreptas in saxa latentia torquet ; Saxa, vocant Itali mediis qua? in fluctibus Aras, Dorsum immane mari summo. — Ma. lib. I. 112. The figure used by St. Jude is not uncommon, and may be found e. g. in Cicero Orat. in L. Pisonem, c. 18. " Atquo adeo vos (Piso et Gabinius) geminas voragines scopulique reipublicse," etc. The English translation, however, is in accordance with the Syriac and the Vulgate. t oTre yap trmXdSes toIs irXeovfftv bXe&ptot, aTrpoaSoKipras iirtyiv6p.evar 136 THE denunciation of the ungodly. and disguised character of the danger in either case. The objects of the Apostolic denunciation, " wolves in sheep's clothing," mingled with the faithful and, taking for their theme ' the grace of God,' turned it ' into licentiousness,' thus perverting the very means of salvation into an instrument of destruction. They boldly approached the most holy rites of the Church, and partook without fear of those solemn feasts which in early ages were wont to be celebrated in connection with the Lord's supper. These " feasts of charity," * where rich and poor met and ate together in token of their common brotherhood in Christ, must have al lowed ample scope for the diffusion of pernicious doctrines by evil-minded men. The flock of Christ, in the peaceful security of the Church's fold, was there unguarded. They met as brothers, unthinking of danger in the sweet communion of their brotherhood. Ungodly men who privily crept in there to lure guile less souls to their destruction might well be compared to sunken rocks, on which the ship is wrecked in the moment of its utmost fancied security. A certain recklessness there must always be in those who live in habitual and utter disregard of the will of the Almighty ; but the hardihood must be great indeed of those who, so living, dare to enter the fold of Christ, and mingle among His followers as members of His &s Kctl avrol Tots ffwSelirvots aveXirttrrov Kcucbv iirtfiovTat. CEcumen. in loco. * Eor some account of the " agapse," or Feasts of Charity, see Ex cursus I. at the end of this volume. verses 11, 12, 13. 137 flock. Such audacity marks a deeply seared con science. When, therefore, the Apostle describes these evil men as feasting with you * fearlessly, he shows that they had given themselves over to wickedness, having reached that extremity of depravity which alone can, for a time, counterfeit perfect love in being without fear. At the feasts of charity these men were as shep herds providing for themselves, but with no care for their flock. Such is the force of the word in the original f which cannot well be given by any single word in English. The authorized version is strictly correct, if only feeding be understood in the wide sense of a shepherd's care for his flock. In like Ezekiei, xxxiv. 8, manner did the prophet of old reprove the JO. negligent pastors of Israel : " The shepherds fed them selves, and fed not my flock." We learn from St. Peter that these men who " per verted the grace of God unto licentiousness" 2Pcter a took advantage of the love feasts for the 13'14' furtherance of their wicked designs, and employed them as a means of ministering to their lusts. $ The * ^wevuxeopuu does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament (ex cept in the parellel passage in 2 Peter), nor in the LXX, either in the compound or the simple form. It is here used however with the nicest classical propriety, as may be seen by a reference to the explanation of its meaning by Socrates, Xenoph. Mem. lib. III. t. 14. § 7. t HotptaivovTes from irotpudva, Theme icotp^v, a shepherd. X Noteworthy in this connection are the words of CEcumenius on the parallel passage in St. Peter, as quoted by Wolfius cur. in 2 Pet. ii. 13 ctXXct teal ffvvvev6p.evot [ffwevaxoiptevoi] tpvffiv, vp.1v, ob St3 aydirnv, Ktd to HeraXapt0dvetv aXav tovto iraovfftv, aXXh Slit rb natpbv evplffKetv tovtov 12* 138 the denunciation of the ungodly. continuance of such men in the Church in all ages, and the peculiar danger to which " unstable souls " were thereby exposed at the love-feasts was probably one chief reason of the decay and final abandonment of that apostolic institution* THE SECOND COMPARISON. Waterless clouds, borne along by winds. Ver. 12. Clouds betoken rain, and in Eastern lands their promise of refreshing showers upon the thirsty land is hailed with grateful joy. When this promise is unful filled and the useless clouds are borne away by the winds, they cause only that deferring of hope which maketh the heart sick. The application of the com parison in this its literal sense is apparent,! and this may have been all that St. Jude intended. But when the common figurative meaning of water is considered, the comparison becomes still more pregnant with meaning. Isaiah, proclaiming the freeness of Gospel blessings, isa. iv. 1— cries " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to *"' 3p the waters." Elsewhere he speaks of " draw- Ezek.xiviii. mg water out of the wells of salvation." Ezek- 1_12' iel foretels the progress and blessed effects of iirtTT)Setov tt)s irpbs yvvdiicas hydros' ovrot yap otp&aXpabs exovres obSev &XXo fiXeirovfftv t) ptotxaXtSas. * Compare Hooker, Pref. to Eccl. Polity, ch. IV. § 4. t Compare Virgil, Georgics, IH. 196. Qualis hyperboreis Aquilo quum densus ab oris Incubuit, Scylhiaeque hicmes atque arida differt Nubila. verses 11, 12, 13. 139 the Gospel under the figure of a fountain of holy waters. Our Saviour in His discourse with the woman of Samaria, and again when teaching in the Jno iT 10 temple " in the last day, that great day of the ™' S7' 38' feast," used the word water in the same signification, as if its figurative meaning were well known. ReT ^ Beautiful is the description of " the pure river ' 2' of the water of life " in the closing chapter of the in spired volume. And in the initiatory sacrament of Christianity this figurative language is translated into the symbolical act of " the washing of regener- Tit. m. 5. ation." In view of this common figurative use of the word there is a peculiar emphasis in the comparison of St. Jude. The men whom he likens to waterless clouds were ungodly perverters of the gracious doctrines of the Gospel. Their promise.of good was without any in ward character answering thereto. Solomon made use of the same metaphor, " Whoso boasteth him- Pr0T ^v_ self of a false gift is like clouds and wind with- 14' out rain." Nor was this the end of the matter. Un- steadied by any love of truth, these hollow professors were driven hither and thither by the varying winds of error ; and, unrestrained by any principle of obedi ence, fell an easy prey to every blast of temptation. THE THIRD COMPARISON. Fruitless autumnal trees, doubly dead, to be plucked up by the roots. Ver. 12. This comparison is still more rich and many-sided 140 THE DENUNCIATION OF THE UNGODLY. than those which have gone before. First is the sim ple likening of the evil men to autumnal trees* whose leaves are sere and fallen, and whose naked branches show no sign of hfe. If nothing more were added, these autumnal trees might be supposed to have ful filled their appointed office and then to have sunk into that state of repose provided by nature to recruit their energies; but the addition of the word fruitless more than excludes this idea. Fruitless autumnal trees are a sad image of men whose season is over, whose time of probation is drawing to a close, but in whom the Lord of the vineyard seeks in vain for heavenly fruit. Even this image is too weak fully to express the Apostle's meaning, and he adds, doubly dead.\ Not only had they the leafless and death-like appear ance of autumnal trees ; but the vital principle was gone from within. They had neither the good works by which the Christian life is manifested, nor the faith by which a vital connection is maintained with the Source of that life. Or, the expression may be viewed as prophetic. Thus Beza explains, " Bis peribunt * I have adopted the version of the Vulgate " arbores autumnales in- fructuosje." tp&tvoiraptva is a word air. Xey. and is not found in the LXX. Its classical sense, according to Scapula is " Qui est autumni ad finem vergentis : brumalis," from " i. 3. in the second epistle of St. Peter. The refer- UNGODLY SHOWN BY PROPHECY. VER. 14-19. 157 ence of St. Jude, however, seems to be rather to the spoken than to the written warnings of the apostles, and to the predictions of several or all of them rather than to any one in particular. Independently there fore of all questions in regard to the comparative date of the two epistles, it is not probable that St. Jude had his mind upon the language in the epistle of St. Peter. The instructions of the apostles were the common inheritance of the whole church, so that St. Jude could say told you * to all who received the apostolic teach ing, whether they had themselves heard the living apostolic voice or not. The apostles' discourses and their various writings may have been all called forth by some immediate occasion ; but once uttered and recorded they form a body of doctrine for the instruc tion of all Christian people in all time, and even of us it is true that we also are told whatsoever is therein declared. The phrase the last time, or " the last days," is fre quently met with in the New Testament, and has been sometimes supposed to indicate an immediate expectation in the minds of the apostles of the second coming of Christ. There is, however, abundant proof that their expectation was only that of men anxious to obey the Divine injunction, " Watch ye, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man shall come." Not only the care of St. Paul in providing for a due * With the construction ikt ixeyov compare Acts xx. 35. — 'Irjo-oS, &Vt avTbs %Xeyev. 14 158 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE succession in the ministry, and the desire of St. Petei that after his death the disciples might have a 2 Pet. i. 15. record of his teachings ; but the various prophecies in terwoven with the substance of many of the epistles. and the unfolding of the Divine purpose to gather into His church the fulness of the Gentiles, and then Rom. xi. afterwards to receive again the now blinded Isra elites, bear witness that the apostles were not delu ded in this matter. St. Paul is even earnest in cau tioning the disciples lest they should by any means be betrayed into the belief " that the day of 2 Thess. a. Christ is at hand." In the New Testament the last day (in the singular number) always means the day of judgment ; but the more general phrases " last days" and " last time" may be understood either of the times of the Chris- Acts a. i7 ; tian dispensation in contrast with the former fpeter,i.5, days of the law ; or indefinitely of any future ' e c time, and particularly, as here, of a comparatively late period when the Gospel should have been widely pro claimed and the Christian Church fully established. The scoffers* whose appearance had been foretold by the apostles, were evil men setting at nought the Divine authority, and especially casting contempt upon the threatened vengeance of the Judge of quick and dead and upon the promise of His coming again for judgment. Such scoffers, alike in ancient and in * ^nraucrtu, found only here and 2 Peter, iii. 3. In the LXX it occurs only Isa. iii. 4. [3.] I do not know of any instance of its use in the Classics. Its cognates, however, are frequent both in sacred and profane writings. UNGODLY SHOWN BY PROPHECY. VER. 14-19. 159 modern times, having shut their eyes to the certainty of future punishment, and being therefore unchecked by its fear, have given full scope to the corrupt impul ses of the natural heart, and have followed their own ungodly desires. Such ever has been, and such ever must be the fruit of doing away with the truth of the judgment to come.* Public opinion and the estab lished restraints, of society may at one period of the world keep unbroken longer than at another, the outward crust of morality ; but that opinion and those restraints are based ultimately upon the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments. Their foundation once sapped, they will sooner or later give way, and precipitate those who lean upon them into the abyss of corruption which ungoverned human passions have prepared beneath. They who are so self-willed in opinion as to deny the future retribution, will also be so self-willed in conduct, as to " follow their own desires." In the application of this prophecy a single clause serves to identify those therein foretold with the evil men before described by St. Jude. There is an uncer tainty whether the reading should be who separate themselves, or who cause separation.^ The difference is * " Negantes enim pcenam, negant et disciplinam," saith Tertullian. De Eesur. c. II. t eau-rouj continues to stand in the text of Griesbach, though marked as rather to be omitted. It is rejected by both Lachmann and Tischen dorf. airoStoplfa is a word era-. Xey. It is not found in the LXX, and but rarely in profane writers. It corresponds to the erepoStSaffKaXovvTas (1 Tim. i. 3 ; vi. 3), and aipeTuc6s (Tit. iii. 10), and those Sixoffraffias itotovvTas (Bom. xvi. 17), of St. Paul. Compare also Gal. v. 20. 160 THE CERTAIN PUNISHMENT OF THE UNGODLY. of little importance ; for either reading necessarily in volves the sense of both. The old' English translation was " these are the makers of sects." Division, schism, and heresy are the inevitable consequence of the in dulgence of self-will. The Christian army can move with unbroken ranks only while governed throughout by the sole will of the Captain of our salvation. It is easy to see that self-will is a cause pf division ; but the converse of .this truth should not be forgotten, that division is an effect of self-will. The cause and the effect are alike condemned in Scripture. 1cor.ii.14. The term sensual* sometimes translated jaTuTis. natural, is intended to describe those who yield themselves up to the control of their natural desires and affections, holding in abeyance the higher spiritual capacities and powers of our nature which can be brought into activity only by the quickening energy of the Holy Spirit. * touched by certain unclean persons became fy> %^7e • itself unclean. The defiling influence of sin is ^c"27, etc-' therefore forcibly set forth under this figure. Loath some in itself, it renders abominable to the Eye of holiness, whatsoever has received its impress or been discolored with its stain. He who would rebuke the gainsayer, who would save the perishing sinner, pluck ing the brand from the burning, who would have com passion on the erring, must take heed lest he himself incur defilement while in the midst of all that is defil ing. The soul is too precious not to be snatched at all risks from the fire ; yet let it be plucked out with fear, and without attempting to subdue the disgust at " the garment spotted by the flesh." 15 XIV. THE CONCLUSION. The Apostle concludes his epistle with a solemn commendation of the Faithful to God, and with the usual ascription of praise. The whole is arranged with elegance in the form of one complete sentence ; but it will be more convenient to consider separately the benediction and the doxology. THE BENEDICTION. V. 24. Now unto Him that is able to keep you unfallen, and to cause you to stand spotless in the presence of His glory with exceed ing joy. — The ability here implies the disposition, as in the epistle to the Hebrews, " He is able to Rom xi.23- x xiv. 4 ; xvi. succor them that are tempted," and in many p; 2 Tim. other like passages. To keep us unfallen rests with God alone. It is for us to use the means, to put forth our efforts ; but He only can bring them to good effect. With reason, therefore, St. Jude com mends the faithful to His guardian care. Herein is ground both for humility, and for faith : For humility, in that we cannot stand in our own strength or by the sufficiency of any human aid ; for faith, because (170) THE CONCLUSION. VER. 24, 25. 171 whatever powers of flesh or of spirit may be leagued for our overthrow, God is above all and is " able to keep us unfallen." * The sheep of Christ's fold have His own assurance, " My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck John x 2g them out of my Father's hand ; I and my 30' Father are one." Full of consolation must have been this thought in days when danger pressed on every side, and ungodly men bringing with them all error of doctrine and viciousness of life, had crept into the very fold whither the faithful had turned for safety. Equally comforting must it prove in an age when the name of Christ is made the cloak for strange opposi tion to His teaching and His example, and when, in the wide wilderness of error, it is difficult to discern the narrow pathway of truth. The Divine power is put forth not only to keep us from falling into sin for the future, but also to cleanse us from its defilements aheady contracted. This is effected, as all Scripture shows, through the atoning blood of the Redeemer, and thereby our purification is so perfect that, even in the eyes of Him who cannot bear to look upon iniquity, it shall cause us to stand spotless in the presence of His glory. As it was re quired of those who joined in the Jewish typical worship that they should come with a clean body and pure garments, so in the antitype of the Christian church, an inward purity of heart signified by that # forraioToui, a word found in Xenophon, but air. Xey. in the New Testament. It is from a neg. and irrala, and signifies steady, free from hesitation or vacillation. 172 THE CONCLUSION. VER. 24, 25. outward cleanliness, is made an essential qualification. This purity is partial and imperfect on earth ; but the hour cometh when the great Refiner shall remove all dross from the pure silver of His church, and make her garments "white so as no fuller on earth can white them." At that day, our sanctification as well as our justification shall be entire and wanting nothing. Then shall we be clothed forevermore in that wed ding garment of " fine linen, clean and white," Rev. xix. 8. prepared by the Lamb for His bride, " which is the righteousness of the saints." The phrase before the presence of His glory is Hebraistic, the word presence being in our idiom re dundant. Awful as the least unveiling of the Divine glory before fleshly eyes has ever proved, and terrible as will be its contemplation to those who are to be driven forth from its brightness ; to those that are saved it can bring only exceeding joy. If here, where we see but as through a glass darkly, — where the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him have not entered into their hearts, where faith struggles painfully with the sense of sin, and where the eye of hope is dimmed by the tears of doubt ; — if even here the thought of that joy enable us to say " It is far better to be absent from the body and present with the Lord," who shall describe the exceed ing gladness with which the soul of the redeemed shall welcome the realization of its hope, and standing faultless before the presence of His glory, shall see eye to eye the Author of its existence and its sal vation ? THE CONCLUSION. VER. 24, 25. 173 II. THE DOXOLOGY. V. 25. Unto the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ, our Lord,* oe glory, majesty, strength and power, both now and for all ! Amen. Almost all the epistles close with either a benedic tion or a doxology, usually the former; here, as Phil, T- w. in the epistle to the Philippians, and the first ioil,Pi4.'v' of St. Peter, we have both. With this doxology may be compared that at the close of the epistle to the Romans, in imitation of which apparently the early copyists here introduced the word " wise." The title of Saviour, although more peculiarly belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ, is here applied to the e.g.nim. ' rr ii. 3 ; Tit. i. Father, as it is frequently in the Old Testa- 3 ; m. i. ment and several times in the epistles of St. Paul. As the Apostle here ascribes praise to the Father through the Son, so all our approaches to Him, whether of prayer or praise, must be made through the one only Mediator between Him and us. Praise is at once a commanded duty, and the natural impulse of a grate ful heart. It has been in all ages the delight of the saints on earth, and shall be forever the joy of the redeemed in Heaven. Four particulars are mentioned in this ascription : Glory, as due to God in view of all His mighty acts ; * The words Sta 'Vnaov XptffTov tov Kvplov r)p.av, wanting in the ' textus receptus,' may possibly have been introduced, like ffoftjl, from Rom. xvi. 27 ; but Griesbach, Lachmann and Tischendorf, concur in editing them, and with reason. 15 174 THE CONCLUSION. VER. 24, 25. Majesty, as the peculiar attribute of the King of kings and Lord of lords; Strength, for He is Al mighty, and none can resist His arm; and Power which belongeth rightfully to Him by whom and for whom all things were created and do exist. This praise is to be given now, — by us of this present generation, with our lips and our lives. It is to be given also for all ages by all the works of God's hands. But it shall be given in the fullest tones and with the most acceptable service by those whose portion it shall be to join in the loud-voiced cry, " Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be Rev.'v. 13 unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Amen. Blessed be His glorious name for- Ps ]xjdli EVER : AND LET THE WHOLE EARTH BE 19r FILLED WITH HlS GLORY. AMEN AND AMEN ! EXCUESUS I. ON THE AGAP.E, OR " LOVE-FEASTS," MENTIONED IN VERSE 12. In the earliest ages of the Church it was customary, in connection with the celebration of the Eucharist, to hold a feast, of which all the faithful were invited to partake. This feast, named ar/airr), formed so impor tant a part of the institutions of the Church as to call for frequent legislation in its councils, and to attract the attention of the heathen as to a prominent feature in the aspect of Christianity. The " daily ministration," which was the immediate occasion of the appointment of the order of Acts vi.1,2. deacons, may have been the original, in continuation and imitation of which the 'love-feasts' were afterwards less frequently celebrated. At the time when St. Paul wrote his first epistle to the Corinthians, they seem to have been held in that city, as by an established cus tom, immediately before the Lord's Supper, 1Gor:,^.w strictly so called. This name, however, may ~23' be taken in a wider sense as including both the sacra ment itself and the accompanying agapte. 2 "Peter ii ' Love-feasts' are also alluded to by St. Peter 13 ; Jude and by St. Jude in such a way as to show that t175) 176 excursus i. then the institution must have been generally known and observed. It has been questioned, moreover, whether the phrase, 'breaking of bread' does not in several instances in the New Testament refer rather to these accompanying feasts than to the sacrament of the Eucharist itself. After the time of the completion of the inspired volume, frequent mention is made of the agapse, both in the writings of the fathers, and in the canons of councils. As late as the close of the seventh century, they were still of sufficient importance to be made the subject of one of the canons of the General Council held " in Trullo ; " nor is it possible to assign with exactness the date when they ceased to be widely observed. An institution so primitive, so long continued, and considered, alike by the church itself and by the church's adversaries, as forming an important part of her disci pline, but of which scarcely a trace now remains among the whole body of Christians* may well excite inquiry both as to the character of the institution itself, and in regard to the causes of its decay. Something may be learned of the nature of the agapas from the fact that in early times they were ridiculed by the heathen as a mere imitation of their # The traces of the aydirat said to exist to this day in the Greek Church, are so faint (consisting merely in the distribution of a small portion of bread among the whole congregation), and the " love-feasts" observed among the Methodists have so little beyond the name in com mon with those of the early church, that they can hardly be considered as entering into the present inquiry. ON THE AGAPSE OF VER. 12. 177 own sacrificial banquets. The parallel between the two has been not infrequently drawn in modern days, and it may prove an assistance in ascertaining the true nature of the agapse to review briefly some of the facts connected with the sacrificial feasts of old, and which appear to have been common as well to the Divinely appointed institutions of Israel as to the customs of the idolatrous Gentiles. Under the Mosaic law, all sacrifices were accom panied with eating. The ' whole burnt offerings' were indeed entirely consumed upon the altar ; but these, except when offered for the whole congregation, always had ' peace-offerings' connected with them, a portion of which was eaten by the priests, and another portion given to the offerer. Of all other offerings a part was reserved to be eaten either by the priests, as in the case of the ' sin-offering' and the ' trespass-offering ; ' or to be divided between the priests and the person who presented the sacrifice, as in the case of the ' peace- offering' just mentioned. Thus, in all cases, except in offerings for the whole congregation, eating was an accompaniment of sacrifice. Hence, in Scripture, sacrifice and feasting are continually spoken of in the same connection, and frequently one only is mentioned, leaving the other to be understood as a matter of course. This is done both in regard to the worship of the true God, and in reference to the sacrifices of idola try. When Samuel was sent to anoint David , „ ^ 1 Sam. xvi. he said, " I am come to sacrifice unto the 5> l\ „ Seo ' also 1 Sam. Lord : sanctify yourselves, and come with me ];23^5 y_x- to the sacrifice." But when he found David e^*™-*2- 178 excursus i. was absent, he said, " We will not sit down till he come hither." So also when the Israelites Num. xxv. 2. Com- Were corrupted by the Moabites, it is said pare Ex. r J ' ISv if • " They called the people to the sacrifices of Ps.cvi.28. their gods : and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods." Many otherwise obscure passa ges of Scripture receive their explanation from this mode of expression. Thus St. Paul says, " Neither be 1 cor. x. 7. ye idolaters, as were some of them : as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink" — mean ing of the things offered in sacrifice to their idols. So isa. m. 7. also Isaiah, " Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy couch" (for the feasters to recline upon), "even thither wentest thou up to offer sacri fice." In the same way " eating upon the mountains" is frequently equivalent to " sacrificing in the high places of idols." The high privilege of Christians to feed upon the Great Sacrifice for the world's salvation Heb.xiii.io. is spoken of in the epistle to the Hebrews in language founded upon this custom. " We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the tabernacle." To find a common source for the custom thus pre vailing alike among the Israelites and their idolatrous enemies, we must go back at least to the time of Abraham. The same custom was observed, more over, among the Greeks and Romans, and other heathen nations of antiquity. No reader of Homer can fail to remember his descriptions of the sacrificial feasts of his heroes. And in later times the custom of eating of things sacrificed unto idols became so interwoven ON THE AGAP.E OF VER. 12. 179 with all the domestic arrangements of the 1Cor ^ Greeks, as early to perplex Christians of tender ~27- consciences. It is necessary, therefore, to seek a still earlier date for this usage, and indeed it is prob able that this custom was coeval with the institu tion of sacrifice, — in other words, a part of the in stitution itself, and, therefore, preserved along with it, in all parts of the world* When our Saviour had eaten with his disciples the sacrificial feast of the Passover — like all other sacri fices, a type of Himself — He commanded His follow ers to observe a corresponding feast upon the Antitype — to eat of His body and drink of His blood offered upon the cross, once for all, for the sin of the world. This they were to do through the medium of bread and wine appointed as the material of this sacrament. Hence, the Lord's Supper may be called a true sac rificial feast. Not that there is any offering of sacrifice therein ; but only a constant participation in the sac rifice once offered. This sacrificial feast, now for many ages reduced to the utmost simplicity, in early times was more extended ; and in imitation, perhaps, of the paschal supper of our Saviour and His disciples before its institution, there was connected with it the agapse, or feast of love. These feasts therefore were not copied from the * The reader who wishes to pursue the subject further is referred to Cudworth's " Discourse concerning the true nature of the Lord's Sup per," whereof three chapters (that is, 56 pages out of the whole 76) are occupied in proving the analogy between the Lord's Supper and the sacrificial feasts of the Jews and heathens. 180 excursus i. Gentile banquets, but were rather derived, like them, and by a far purer channel, from the primeval custom of sacrificial feasts. The name ar/am-rj, love, was given, as Tertullian and others have mentioned* in token of the object for which they were designed — the promotion of love among the members of Christ's flock, and the supply of the wants of the needy through the charity of the wealthy. The feast was simple in its character, and was celebrated with solemnity as a religious rite.-, Ignatius says : " It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to celebrate the agapse.f Tertul lian, in his Apology, gives a beautiful description .of this Christian feast : " Our Supper shows its design by its name ; for it is called cuydirri, which among the Greeks means love. Whatever expense it requires, such expense for piety's sake is gain. For with that refreshment we relieve the poor, and we sit not down until we have first tasted of prayer unto God. As much is eaten as the hungry need, and drunk as is good for the temperate. We so satisfy ourselves as they who remember that God is to be worshipped by night also ; we so discourse as they who know that the Lord hears. Then, after water for the hands and lights, each one is called upon according to his ability, to sing some hymn unto God, either taken out of the # Tertul. Apol. cap. 39 (Vide infra). Again, Ad Martyr, cap. 2, ho mentions the " agapa? fratrum.'' t 'Ouk i%6v iffTt xapls tov eVioTcoVou, otfre PairrlCetv, obre ayiirnv irotetv. Ignatius Epist. ad Smyr. § 8. ON THE AGAP.E OF VER. 12. 181 Holy Scriptures or of his own composition. Thus the extent of his drinking is put to the proof. Prayer fikewise concludes the feast. Thence we depart, not to the gatherings of the factions, nor into the ranks of the vagrants, nor to join in the prowlings of the licen tious ; but to the same pursuit of chastity and temper ance, as men who have held not so much a supper as an exercise of discipline." * Clement of Alexandria calls this feast " the holy agapse, the excellent and salutary work of the Word," loudly condemning those who would turn them into a common banquet.f And again he speaks of the agapse as the earthly counter part to the heavenly feasts above.J St. Chrysostom * Ccena nostra de nomine rationem sui ostendit : id vocatur aydirri, quod dilectio penes Grsecos est. Quantiscumque sumtibus constet, lucrum est pietatis nomine facere sumtum, siquidem inopes refrigerio isto juvamus Nihil vilitatis, nihil immodesties admittit. Non prius discumbitur, quam oratio ad Deum prasgustetur. Editur quantum esuri- entes cupiunt ; bibitur quantum pudicis est utile. Ita saturantur, ut qui meminerint etiam per noctem adorandum Deum sibi esse. Ita fabu- bantur, ut qui sciant Dominum audiri. Post aquam manualem et lumina, ut quisque de Scripturis Sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest, provocatur in medium Deo canere : hinc probatur quomodo biberit. Aeque oratio convivium dirimit : inde disceditur non in catervas ccesio- num, neque in classes discursationum, nee in eruptiones lasciviarum, sed ad eandem curam modestia? et pudicitise ; ut qui non tarn coenam ccena- verint, quam disciplinam. Tertul. Apol. c. xxxix. ad finem. t To yap &ppta.Ta Trj kolXlo., e| wv 6 ffapKtKbs fivras ovroffl tcdi tp^opo- irotbs airr)prriTai filosm oV aydirnv Ttves ToXptafft KaXetv, a&ipa yXtirT-n Kexprtpevot, Setirvdpta Ttvct, Kviffffrfs Kat (upav hiroirveovra' Tb ttaXbv Kal G £tJo-ei Ka&vfipLCovTes, k. t. X. Clem. Alex. Psedag. lib. II. c. i. p. 165 15. Ed. Oxon. X 'Ej/ ovpavols effTtv avTn r) iirovpdvtos evaxla' r) 5e iirlyetos, Setirvov k4k- torrae as e/c Trjs ypatpijs airoSeSelicTar SC aydir-nv p.ev ytv6p.evov to Setirvov, 16 182 EXCURSUS I. gives this account of them : " When the three thou sand believed at the first, all feasted together, and pos sessed all things in common ; and so it was when the Apostle wrote these things, not exactly indeed, but a certain emanation from, or fruit of that fellowship re mained and continued afterwards. And inasmuch as it happened that some were poor and others rich, all their possessions were not indeed held in c©mmon, but on set days, according to custom, they made a com mon table; and the congregation having been dis missed after the participation of the mysteries, all met together at a common feast. The rich brought pro visions, and the poor, and such as had nothing, being invited by them, they all feasted in common."* Such a practice reminds us of the words of the Saviour, iu xi 13 " When thou makest a feast, call the poor, the u- maimed, the lame and the blind, and thou shalt be blessed ; for they cannot recompense thee, but thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." Well, therefore, might St. Chrysostom, in &XX' ovk aydirti to Setirvov, Setypa Se evvotas KoivuvtKr)s /col evpteTafiorov. Clem. Alex. Pffidag. lib. II. u. i. Oxon. 1715, p. 166. * Ku&direp iirl tuv TptffxtXlav tuv i£ apXTJs irtffTevffdvTuv KOtvf iravres eiffrtavTO, Kcd Kotva irdvTa iKeKTinvTo, oUto Kal T6re ravra eypcaj/ev 6 air6ff- toXos, iylvero ovx ovtu ptev pteTh aKpifielas' warrep Se Tts ctiripp'oia ttjs Kotvuvlas iKeiv-ns evairopteivaffa, /cat els tovs pteTO. tavra KaTefiy Kal iiretSr] ffvveflatve, Tobs ptev Trevrjras eival, Tobs Se irXovfflovs, Ta ptev eavruv ob Ka- TerifrevTo irdvra els pteffov, Kotvas Se iirotovvro tos rpaire£as iv r)p.epats ve- voptarptevats, us et/coV Kal Trjs ovvd^eus airaprtff&elffTis pera t^v tuv ptvff- Tnplav Kotvaviav M kowt)v irdvTes ijeaav evuxtav, tuv ptev ttXovtovvtuv tpepovruv Ta iSeopaTa, tuv Se irevop.evuv Kal ovSev ix^vruv birep clvtuv Ka- Xovpevav Kal Kotvy irdvTav effTtapevuv. Chrysost. Horn. XXVII. in 1 Cor. xi. 17. Tom. III. p. 416, 417. ON THE AGAPiE OF VER. 12. 183 another place, speak of this as " an admirable custom in the churches," that " when all the faithful met to gether and had heard the sermon and prayers and received the communion, they did not immediately return home upon the breaking up of the assembly ; but the rich and more" prosperous brought meat and food from their own houses, and called the poor, and made a common table, a common supper, a com mon banquet in the church itself. And so from this fellowship in eating, and the reverence of the place, they were all closely united in charity, one with an other, and much pleasure and profit arose thence to them all ; for the poor went away comforted, and the rich went home having reaped the fruit of what they did in much good-will from those whom they had fed, and much grace from God for what they had done." * From these passages of St. Chrysostom it is evi dent that the agapse were then held in the churches, and after the celebration of the Lord's Supper. St. Jerome speaks of the same custom,! an(i so a^so do * Tts ffvvf)&eta fravptaffT-h, TdVe iv Tats iKKXrjfftats' ffvvt6vres yap ol irtffTol irdvTes pterb. ttjv tt)s StSaffKaXlas aKpodfftv, pera to.s evxas, ptera ttjv tuv uvffTTiptuv KOtvaviav, ttjs ffvvd^eus Xvfrelffris ovk avex^povv ev&eas otKaSe, aXX1 ol irXoifftot Kal eviropcoTepot (pepovres o?Kofrev rpocpcts Kal iSeff- para, tovs irevryras eKaXovv, Kcit Kotvas iirotovvro Tpairefas, Kotvas effrtdffets, Kotvh. ffvptirSffta iv avTJj ttj iKKXr]ffl%' IhffTe Kal airb tt)s Kotvuvlas ttjs KaTa TTfV Tpdire£av, Kal ctirb ttjs evXafielas tt]s airb tov t6itov, Kal iravrctxd&ev tt\v ctydirnv abrots iirifftptyyeofrat, Kal iroXXiff ptev ttjv r)Sovr]V, iroXXrtv Se avrdis ylveoSat ttjv atpeXetav* o'i Te yap irevnTes irapapv&tas aireXavov ov ttjs TVXpvffTis, Kal 01 irXovrovvres iroXXtjV e&votav Kal irapa tuv rpe(popevav, Kal irapa tov ®eov, St '6v TavTa iirolovv, Kapiracrdpevot ttoXXtjvttiv X^Pivi ovtus ajrrjeffav o&caSe. Chrysost. Horn. vd. in 1 Cor. xi. 19. Tom. V. p. 365. t In ecclesia convenientes oblationes suas separatim offerebant, et post 184 EXCURSUS I. Theodoret,* GEcumenius,t and Theophylact,^: all com menting upon the passage in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. But as our Saviour ate the Passover with His disciples before He instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist ; so the love-feasts may have been sometimes held before the celebration of the Holy communion. This seems to have been the case at Corinth, in St. Paul's time ; for he complains that when they came together, they did not tarry one for 1 cor xi. an°ther, but " in eating every one taketh before 20, 22- other his own supper." In this he plainly refers ver. 22. to the agapse ; for the eating of which he speaks „ was not in their own houses, but in " the ver, 21. church of God." The result was, that being " one hungry and another drunken," they were in no fit state to partake of the communion. Suicer, Cave, communionem, quascumque eis de sacrificiis superfuissent, illic in eccle- sia communem coenam comedentes pariter consumebant. Hieron. in 1 Cor. xi. 20. * 'Etdi&afftv iv Tats iKKXrjfftats, pera ttjv pvffTtKtiv XetTovpylav, eort- aff&at Kotvfj irXoifftot Te Kal irevTjTes' Kal iroXXri ivrev&ev irapapv&la Tots irevopevots eylvero' tuv pev evirSpuv olKO&ev Ta b^tHvia Koptt^ovruv, tuv Se irevia o~v£tljvTuv, Sla ttjv pteTovfflav tt)s rclffTeus koivovovvtuv ttjs evux'tas. Theodoret in I Cor. xi. 16, Tom. III. p. 173, 174. ed. Paris, 1642. t Prajcipuis diebus, sive festis, post sacrorum mysteriorum participa- tionem agebantur communes ccense, prseparantibus Mas divitibus ac pau- peres invilantibus. CEcumen. in 1 Cor. xi. Tom. I. p. 529, (Cit. Bon. Eev. Liturg. lib. I. c. i. sect, iv.) Bingham, [p. 452, Suicer.] CEcumenius also speaks of the agapx in his commentary on Jude 12. ( ' Zlffirep ol iv apx$ irtffTeiffavres, KOtvh. irdvra exovres Kotvrj elffTtuvio ' ovtu KaTa Ttva plp-nfftv tovtuv, el Kal pr) aKpifSrj, iv KoplvStu Kara Ttvks pT)Ths ripepas, eoprtovs laus, Koivfj euojxouyTO /nera to pteraXaPeTv tuv p.va- TT/ptav. Theophyl. in 1 Cor. xi. 17. Bingham, [p. 255, Suicer.] ON THE AGAPJ3 OF VER. 12. 185 and others endeavor to show that this was, for a time, the general custom of the church ; but this opinion seems to lack the support of sufficient evidence. The prevailing arrangement at the beginning of the second century may be gathered from the account of Pliny, as he received it from the Christians themselves. Having described the worship and the sacrament cele brated on the Lord's day, he adds, " when this is done, they say it is their custom to depart, and meet again to partake of an entertainment harmless; indeed, and common to all." * And it is the more certain that the agapse were usually held after the celebration of the Eucharist from the fact that, by the common custom of the church, the latter was received fasting. There was a deviation from this rule in the African church, on the Thursday before Easter, when, in commemora tion of the original institution of that sacrament, it was celebrated after supper. It appears however from a canon of the third council of Carthage, that this was the only exception. It was there ordained " that the sacrament of the altar be never celebrated by any but such as are fasting, except on one anniversary day, when the Supper of the Lord is solemnized." f Nor was this rule a new thing ; for St. Augustine, -who was a member of that council, assures us that this was the * Quibus peractis, morem sibi discedendi fuisse, adfirmabant, rursus- que coe'undi ad capiendum cibum, promiscuum tamen et innoxium. Pliny, ep. ad Trajan, (lib. X. ep. xcvii.) t Ut sacramenta altaris non nisi a jejunis hominibus celebrentur, ex- cepto uno die anniversario, quo ccena Domini celebratur. Cone. Carthag. III. c. xxix. 16* 186 EXCURSUS I. universal custom of the church, derived, as he thinks, from the institution of the Apostles. In parts of Egypt also, it was customary to celebrate the Eucha rist on Saturdays in the evening and after Supper. Both Socrates * and Sozomen f mention this as a sin gular exception to the general custom of the church. There may have been other instances in which the rule was not always observed ; but it is abundantly evident that the practice of the church was to receive the Eucharist fasting.^ The agapse, therefore, could not have been usually held immediately before its cel ebration. It appears from the passages of the fathers aheady cited, that the love-feasts were for a time commonly held in the churches. This custom, however, was found to be not altogether convenient, and as the sacred solemnity of the agapse came to be more and more disturbed by the evil conduct of evil men, they were at last rigorously excluded from the consecrated edifice. This change was not effected without difficulty. The council of Laodicea, (held probably about A. D. * 'AtyimTtot Se yeWoves ovres 'AXe^avSpeuv, Kal ol ttjv @r}fiatSa otKovvres, iv aafSfidTu pev irotovvTat ffvvd^ets' ovx us *&os °~* XpttrnavoTs tuv ptvaTTj- pluv peTaXaptfidvovfft' pteTct yap Tb evaxrt&yvat, Kal iravToiuv iSeafidruv ip(popr]&r}vai, irepl effirepav irpoatyepovTes, tuv ptvffrnpluv p.eTa\ap.&dvovfft. Socrat. lib. V. c. xxii. ed. Val. p. 235, A. t Uapa. Se 'AtyvirTlots iv iroXXdts iriXeffl Kal Kupais irapct Tb KOlvij irafft vevopttffptevov, irpbs effirepav Tijj ffafi&dTu ffvvtovTes, 7]ptffTrjK6Tes ^S-n, pva- rnpluv pteTexovfft. Sozomen. Hist. Eccl. lib. VII. c. xix. ed. Val. p. 596, D. X Numerous quotations from the writings of the fathers and the de crees of councils to this effect, may be found in Bingham, Bk. XV. ch. vii. sect. viii. (Works 8vo. Vol. V. p. 288, etc.) ON THE, AGAPiE OF VER. 12. 187 365), while recognizing the institution and counte nancing its continuance by passing laws concerning it* was yet peremptory upon this point. " It is not permitted to celebrate the feasts called agapse in the Lord's house or church, nor to eat and spread tables in the house of God."f But the Third Council of Carthage recognized the difficulty of carrying out its purposes, decreeing " That no Bishops or clergymen should feast in the church, unless perchance on a jour ney they were obliged to receive refreshment there ; and that the people also should be restrained as far as possible from such feasting.^ This canon was passed by the advice of St. Augustine, in imitation of the ex ample of St. Ambrose. § He had succeeded in exclud ing all feasting from the church in Milan, so that St. Augustine's mother was turned away from the door when she had gone to the church with her basket of the accustomed festival food, as she had been wont to # E. g. " No persons, whether they belong to the Priesthood, or Cler gy, or Laity, if they are invited to a love-feast, may take away their por tions ; because by this means reproach is cast upon the priestly order." Cone. Laod. canon, xxvii. This, it may be remarked, is in opposition to the requirement of the Apostolic constitutions, lib. II. c. xxxii. t Ov Set iv Tots KvptaKols, r) iv Tats iKKXrtfflats Tas Xeyoptevas aydiras iroteTv, Kal iv t$ o%ku tov ®eov iff&ietv Kal aKKoi$cra ffTpuvvvetv. Cone. Laod. c. xxviii. X TJt nulli episcopi vel cleri in ecclesia conviventur, nisi forte trans- euntes hospitiorum necessitate illic reficiantur : populi etiam ab hujus- modi conviviis, quantum fieri potest, prohibeantur. Cone. Carth. III. c. xxx. § Aug. Epist. ad Aurelium, xxii. c. 1. (lxiv.) Tom. II. col. 90, ed. Abbe Migne. 188 EXCURSUS I. do in Africa* Yet either because the people were attached to the ancient custom, or because the churches were still found to be often the most convenient places for assemblies of this kind, the agapse contin ued to be sometimes held in them so late as the sev enth century. The General Council of Constantino ple, (" in Trullo") then reenacted the canon of Lao- dicea, enforcing obedience thereto under pain of ex communication.! The cause of this change is to be found, not so much in an increased reverence for the churches, — for however holy, they could not have been desecrated by the agapss so long as they continued to be a meet accompaniment of the Lord's Supper ; — but in the corruptions and disorders which crept into the feasts of charity themselves. These, as we learn from the language of St. Paul and St. Peter, had risen to a 1 cor. xi. 17 great height even in the times of the Apostles ; H.i3,jL4. nor were the efforts of the church to restrain them entirely successful in later ages. When Faus- tus, the Manichee, brought against the Catholics these two charges, — first, that the agapas were but Gentile banquets adopted by the church and turned into Christian feasts ; and secondly, that the Catholics were wont to make themselves drunk at the memo rials of the martyrs; — St. Augustine, while he roundly * Aug. Confess, lib. VI. c. ii. (i. 86.) t "On ob Set iv rots KvptaKots tf iv Tats iKKXrifflats rets Xeyoptevas ctydiras TTOtetv, Kal evSov iv t$ o%ku iff&tetv, Kal aKKoifitTa ffTpuvvvetv' ol Kal tovto irotetv ToXptuvres if iravffdff&uffav, ij &tpopt£efffruffav. Cone. Trull, c. lxxiv. ON THE AGAP.E OF VER. 12. 189 denied the former charge,* could not help confessing the latter to be true, and excused it as a thing of which the church utterly disapproved, and was com pelled to tolerate only until it could be corrected and amended.f The propriety of excluding from the church feasts at which men were disposed to indulge in such excess is evident. Nevertheless, the agapas were ever held in high honor, and doubtless contributed largely to the promo tion of brotherly feeling among the faithful, while they afforded at the same time a delicate and most accept able way of ministering to the necessities of the poor. The Council of Gangra enacted, " If anyone despise those who through faith make love-feasts, and for the honor of the Lord invite their brethren, and will not partake with those who are called, because he despises what is done ; let him be anathema." J The fathers with one voice extol this pious custom of the church. As long as the agapse were maintained with sincerity and observed with simplicity and piety, they must have been highly useful in binding together the mem- * Nee sacrificia eorum vertimus in agapas Agapse enim nostras pauperes pascunt sive frugibus, sive carnibus, etc. Aug. Cont. Eaust. lib. XX. c. xx. t Qui se in memoriis martyrum inebriant, quomodo a nobis approbari possunt, quum eos, etiamsi in domibus suis id faciant, sana doctrina con- demnet ? Sed aliud est quod docemus, aliud quod sustinemus, aliud quod prsecipere jubemur, aliud quod emendare prsecipimur, et donee emendemus, tolerare compellimur. Ibid. c. xxi. ± Et Tts KaTatppovolrj tuv e/c ir'tffTeas aydiras irotoivTav, Kal 5th Tiptr/v tov Kvptov avyKaXoivTuv robs aSeXtpobs Kal ptT/ ifreXot Kotvavetv Tats KX^ffefft, Sib. Tb e£evTeXi£etv rb yevSptevov, avdSreua effru. Cone. Gangr. c. xi. 190 EXCURSUS I. bers of the Christian flock, and in making its fold attrac tive to those still without. They must have afforded, moreover, admirable opportunities for mutual edifica tion and instruction in the truths of the Gospel, and for brotherly exhortation concerning their common spiritual warfare. Hence the peculiar danger, pointed ver. 4, 12. out by St. Jude, occasioned by the admission there of evil -men who, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, became like sunken rocks in the sea, threatening shipwreck to their brethren's souls. The heathen saw the good fruits which flowed from these feasts, and exclaimed, " See how these Christians love one-another."* And although the enemies of Christianity took advantage of misrepresentations con cerning them, and the occasional disorders which ac tually accompanied their celebration (as they did of everything else on which they could lay their hands), to make malignant attacks upon the religion of Christ, yet the more sagacious heathen saw and appreciated the wisdom of the institution. Even Julian the apos tate, that bitterest of the foes of the truth, thus pro vokes his heathen priests to the exercise of charity by the example of the Christian agapae. " There is the more reason to be careful in this matter," he writes, " for it has happened, I think, that while the poor were allowed to pass neglected and uncared for by the priests, the impious Galileans, watching over them, have by their benevolence stolen a march ; and that worst of things has grown strong through the customs * Vide ut invicem se diligant. Tertul. Apol. c. xxxix. ON THE AGAP.E OF VER. 12. 191 of its adherents. For as kidnappers steal away chil dren whom they have first allured with a cake ; so these, beginning with their so-called agapse and enter tainments and ministering of tables (for as is the thing, so also is the name for the most part among them), lead away the faithful into atheism." * Such is the testimony to the value of this Apostolic institu tion from a bitter enemy of Christianity. By what slow and gradual steps the agapse of the early church fell into disuse throughout the world, his tory has not recorded. From the fact that they have been equally abandoned by branches of the church which were not wont to be much influenced by each other's action, it would seem that there must have been some insuperable and inherent difficulty in main taining them, or unavoidable inconvenience in their observance. It is probable that they first fell into dis use in the larger cities, where the dangers attending them would be first and most strongly felt. That they were made by sensual men a cover for gluttony and drunkenness is noticed by St. Paul, and still confessed * 'EiretSri yap otpat ffvveffy, Tobs irevnTas ctpteXetff&at irapopupteyovs vrrb Tuv tepeav, ol Svffffafiets TaXtXatot KaTavot)ffaVTes, iKe&evro Tairij tptXav- tfrpuirta' Kal Tb xelptffTov tuv epyuv, Sta tov Sokovvtos tuv iirtT-nSevptdTuv iKpdrwav. "0.o"jrep ol Ta iraioia Sta tov irXaKOvvTOs i^airaTuvres, T

^? 'Eva>x> «a&<»? trepiexei filfiXo? 'Eva>x tov Bitcatov, dtrb "tpaffi 'Evchx, iv pStpSXltp 'Evchx, etc. would leave the sense quite uninjured ; and further, there are obvious ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. - 211 reasons why any one seeking to establish the authority of the " Book of Enoch " should make such interpola tions. To such as may adopt this view, the question of the antiquity of the " Book of Enoch" can no longer be affected by the date of the " Testament of the twelve Patriarchs." It is a hazardous thing, however, to resort to the theory of interpolation in the absence of external evidence, nor can any argument be satisfac tory in its conclusions which rests upon so uncertain a basis. Another view is that these quotations may have been made from some other " Book of Enoch " than that we now have, and which has since been lost. This, like the previous view, destroys all connection between the two apocryphal works as we now have them ; but it is also destitute of any distinct evidence in its favor, and is not therefore to be relied upon. An endless variety of other conjectures may be hazarded, but that one of them is certainly to be pre ferred which is at once in accordance with existing facts, and does not involve the adoption of others of which we can have no knowledge. Now if the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs were written after the destruction of Jerusalem, that is to say, some time after the Epistle of St. Jude (and this I think, will presently appear), and if its author were familiar with the Scriptures of the New Testament, as the quotations that have been, and will be given abundantly show — then its author must have known of the prophecy of Enoch recorded by St. Jude, and this in itself would cover several of his references to 212 EXCURSUS II. the Book of Enoch. But beyond this, there were, unquestionably, other traditional sayings ascribed to that ancient and holy patriarch which may, or may not have been recorded in any book, and yet have con stituted a convenient precedent for putting assumed prophecies into his mouth. His was just such a name as the author of a pious forgery would wish to claim. Far back in the dimness of extreme antiquity, of pre eminent piety, and consequently great authority, it had already one definite and well authenticated proph ecy attached to it, and without doubt many other say ings floating around it uncertainly. These considera tions point to the conclusion that the professed quota tions contained in the " Testament of the twelve Pa triarchs " are but an earlier manifestation of that same disposition which was afterwards more fully developed in the composition of " The Book of Enoch." Or, if the words earlier and afterwards seem not sufficiently supported by the inherent probability of the case, at least that the two forgeries stand independent of each other. To establish this conclusion upon a sufficiently firm basis, it seems only necessary to show that the " Testament of the twelve Patriarchs " is of subsequent date to the Scriptures of the New Testament, and particularly to the destruction of Jerusalem and conse quent dispersion of the Jews. If this shall clearly appear from the matter of the book itself, any argu ments for an earlier date drawn from the style of the Greek in which it is written will have little weight. It may be argued that the common use of Hellenistic Greek ceased with the first century ; but this would ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 213 by no means forbid the reappearance of it in the hands of an author whose chief literature not improbably was the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The learned Grabe, notwithstanding his strenuous advocacy of the earliest possible date, of this work, is nevertheless constrained in his preface thereto, to give up entirely the argument from the style, on the ground that the work having been originally written in He brew, would naturally have preserved a Hellenistic style, at whatever age it may have been translated in to Greek* The evidence of a later composition than the date of the New Testament Scriptures and the destruction of Jerusalem and subsequent dispersion of the Jews, promised above, is to be found in nearly every one of the twelve testaments, and generally in allusions hav ing so much similarity one to another, that a few of the more remarkable passages may well serve for ex amples of the whole. In the Testament of Simeon (§ vi., latter part) we read, " Then shall Shem be glorified, because the Lord, the Great God of Israel, shall appear on earth as a man, and shall save Adam by Himself" " because God, taking a body, and eating with men, saves them." _ Here the doctrine of the incarnation is too plain to have been gathered from other than a Christian teacher. And so also in the following sec- * This preface appears in the prolegomena of Pabricius, and the pas sage above referred to may be found in his " Codex pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti," p. 511, ed. 2d. Hamburgh, 1722. 214 EXCURSUS II. tion : " The Lord shall raise up one as a high-priest from Levi, and as a king from Judah, God and man. So shall He save all nations and the race of Israel." * In the Testament of Levi § iv. we read of " Hades spoiled by the passion of the Most High,"f and a little further on that Levi's '" sons shall lay their hands upon Him to crucify Him."$ And here, also, as in connec tion with almost every allusion to the Saviour, we have mention made of the calling of the Gentiles. In § viii. we are told " A King shall arise from Judah, and shall make a new priesthood after the pattern of the Gentiles, for all the Gentiles."^ In § x. Levi is made to tell his sons of the wrongs they should do " to the Sa viour of the world ; " and that, in consequence, Jerusalem should be destroyed, the veil of the temple should be rent, and they should be scattered captives among the Gen tiles. The same facts of the destruction of the temple and the subsequent dispersion of the Jews are again mentioned in § xv. and xvi. as in many other places. In Judah § xxiv. the sinlessness of Christ, His bap tism, and His gift of the Spirit are thus mentioned : " A man shall arise of my seed, as the Sun of right eousness, walking with the sons of men in mercy and righteousness, and no sin shall be found in Him. And * The idea of the double descent of the Saviour from both Levi and Judah is of frequent occurrence in this Work. Cf. the prophecy concern ing " the coming Deliverer of Israel," Levi, § iii., etc. etc. t /cal tov aSov ffKvXevouevov iirl t$ ird&et tov tylffrov. X ol viol ffov iirtPaXovfft xetpas irr' avrbv too airoffKoXoirlffat abrov. § flafftXebs iic tov 'IoiiSa a.vaffTf)ffeTat, Kal irott]ffei lepaTelav vedv, koto Tor Tiirov tuv i&vuv, els irdvTa Ta %^vt\. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 215 the heavens shall be opened upon Him, to pour out the Spirit, the blessing of the Holy Father. And He shall pour out the Spirit of grace upon you," etc. In the following section (xxv.) there is this intima tion in regard to the resurrection : " And after these things Abraham shall arise {avao-Trjaerat) and Isaac and Jacob and I, unto life." In the Testament of Aser, § vii., we read that for their wickedness, his sons shall be dispersed and de spised " until the Most High shall visit the earth. And He, coming as a man, eating and drinking with men, shall silently bruise the head of the dragon. By water" shall He save Israel and all the Gentiles, God dis guised as man." The whole of § xix. in the Testament of Joseph is remarkable, especially the following passage : " And I saw that of Judah was born a Virgin, having a linen garment ; and from her came forth a Lamb without spot" In the Testament of Benjamin § iii. the following words are put into the mouth of Jacob, addressed to Joseph : " In thee shall be fulfilled the prophecy of heaven concerning the lamb of God, and the Saviour of the world, that He who is faultless shall be given up for the guilty, and He who is without sin shall die for the wicked, by the blood of the covenant for the salvation of Israel and of the Gentiles." The ninth section of the same has already been given in full as the last of the references to the Book of Enoch, and is well worth reading again in this con nection. 216 EXCURSUS II. Finally in § xi. is a distinct reference to St. Paul, which must be given in full. " I shall no longer be called a ravening wolf because of your rapacities, but a workman of the Lord, distributing to them that work that which is good. And in the last times there shall be raised up from my seed the beloved of the Lord, hearing His voice, enlightening all the Gentiles according to a new wisdom, a light of wisdom stand ing up for salvation to Israel, and snatching as a wolf from them and giving to the congregation of the Gen tiles ; and until the consummation of the ages he shall be among the congregations of the Gentiles and among their princes as a sweet song in the mouth of all. And he shall be registered in the holy books, both his work and his word ; and he shall be beloved of God forever. On account of him my father Jacob instructed me, saying, ' he shall make up for the deficiences of thy tribe.' " In these passages the reader will observe sufficiently plain allusions to various facts and doctrines of ' Chris tianity. The doctrine of the incarnation may be taught from a Sabellian point of view ; nevertheless, the true Deity of the Saviour is expressly declared, and that in many more passages than those cited. His perfect sinlessness is spoken of; an allusion is made to the opening of the heaven and descent of the Spirit upon Him at His baptism : His birth of a virgin is men tioned ; His crucifixion repeatedly and distinctly speci fied ; the particular circumstance of the rending of the veil of the temple is noticed ; His resurrection and ascension are spoken of; the entire change of the ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 217 Levitical priesthood is declared; the outpouring of the Spirit, the calling of the Gentiles, the destruction of Jerusalem and final dispersion of the Jews, all shared the author's attention ; the sacrament of baptism as an institution of the new covenant, in connection with the peculiarly Christian doctrine of salvation by faith, is not forgotten ; and lastly a tribute is paid to the prominence of St. Paul " of the tribe of Benja min" as the Apostle to the Gentiles, and his writings as well as his history declared to be a part of the sacred books. A work in which such things are found, notwith standing the ingenuity expended to prove the contrary, must plainly have been written, not only after the life of our Saviour on earth had- been completed ; but also after the great fact that " the middle wall of partition" between Jews and Gentiles was broken down, had come to be generally acknowledged, and the Scriptures of the New Testament, including the epistles of St. Paul, had come to be more or less completely joined together in one collection and acknowledged as sacred books. And if the often repeated fact of the disper sion of the Jews be insisted upon — as it fairly may be — then the date of this work is brought down defi nitely beyond the famous edict of Adrian, A. D. 135. For this there is abundant time before the first men tion of the work among ancient authors. The earliest author to whom Grabe* is able to refer as having * Loco citato p. 499. The passage referred to in Origen may be fonnd in Oberthur's ed. Vol. VI. p. 701. Horn, in Jos. XV. § 6. 19 218 EXCURSUS II. mentioned or quoted it, is Origen, who does distinctly quote it by name towards the end of Horn. XV. in Jos. Grabe does, indeed, think that a passage in Ter- tullian (Adv. Marcionem, lib. v. c. 1), speaking of St. Paul something in the same way as is done in § xi. of the Testament of Benjamin, may have been drawn therefrom; but this is a gratuitous assumption, and even supposing it to imply a connection between the two passages (for which there is no ground) affords no indication of their relative priority. There is then no reliable reference to, or quotation from, the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs before the third century. Nor is silence in this case without significance ; for had Tertullian known of the work, he would hardly have failed to refer to. it in his later writings. Be this as it may, we have earlier reference to the " Book of Enoch" than to this work, and if what has been said above be just, there is no necessary con nection between the two, so that we may now return to the " Book of Enoch" unencumbered by any further reference to the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs. Tertullian is the earliest writer who can be proved to have known of the " Book of Enoch," and he refers to it only in such of his works as were written after A. D. 200.* He alone of all the ancients maintained its inspired authority. In chap. iii. of his treatise de habitu muliebrum, he enters into a defence of the book as a part of Scripture, Divinely inspired, testifying of * Viz : De idolat. c. 4, c. 15 ; De culm foem. c. 10 (vel lib. ii. c. 10), and De habitu mul. c. 3 (vel de cultn foem. lib. i. c. 3.) ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 219 Christ, and sanctioned by the Apostle Jude.* In ch. xv. of his de idolatria, he says distinctly that the Holy Spirit spake by the most ancient prophet Enoch ;f and this, in view of what he has elsewhere said, must be understood of the Book of Enoch. It will be remem bered that none of these works of Tertullian were written until after A. D. 200. At this time, however, the book appears to have been quite extensively known. Although Clement of Alexandria makes no mention of it, yet in the " Readings from the proph- * Scio scripturam Enoch, qnse hnnc ordinem angelis dedit, non recipi quibusdam, quia nee in armarium Judaicum admittitur. Opinor non putaverunt ilium ante cataclysmum editam, post eum casum orbis, om nium rerum abolitorem, salvam esse potuisse. Si ista ratio est, re- cordentur pronepotcm ipsius Enoch fuisse superstitem cataclysmi Noe, qui ntique domestico nomine et hereditaria traditione audierat et meminerat de proavi sui penes Deum gratia, et de omnibus prsedicatis ejus ; cum Enoch filio suo Matusalse nihil aliud mandaverit, quam ut notitiam eorum posteris suis traderet. Igitur sine dubio potuit Noe in praedicationis delegatione snccessisse, vel quia et alias non tacuisset, tarn de Dei conservatoris sui dispositione, quam de ipsa domus sua? gloria. Hoc si non tarn expedite haberet, illud quoque assertionem scripture illius tueretur ; perinde potuit abolefactam earn violentia cataclysmi in spiritu rursus reformare ; quemadmodum et Hierosolymis Babylonia ex- pugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicse literature per Esdram constat restauratum. Sed cum Enoch eadem Scriptura etiam de Domi no prsedicarit, a nobis quidem nihil omnino rejiciendum est, quod per- tinet ad nos. Et legimus omnem scripturam aidificatione habilem divinitus inspirari. A Judseis potest jam videri propterea rejecta, sicut et cetera fere, quse Christum sonant. Nee utique mirum hoc, si scripturas aliquas non receperunt de eo locutas, quem et ipsum coram loquentem non erant recepturi. Eo accedit, quod Enoch apud Judam Apostolum testi monium possidet. Tertul. de hab. mulieb. c. 3. t Hsec igitur ab initio previdens Spiritus Sanctus, etiam ostia in superstitionem ventura precicinit per antiquissimum prophetam Enoch. Tertul. de Idolat. c. 15. 220 EXCURSUS II. ets" usually printed with his works, it is twice quoted* Origen cites it frequently, but almost as frequently he is careful to say that it is not to be received as a part of the Scriptures. His only expression regarding it which may seem of doubt&il meaning occurs in his commentary on the Gospel of St. John, where he says " as it is written in the Book of Enoch, if any one choose to receive that book as sacred."! Origen here refers to it merely in support of a fanciful etymology of the word Jordan, and claims that his interpretation is supported by the book of Enoch — whatever degree of authority his readers may choose to attach thereto. But when the book itself becomes the subject of his remark, it is in language not to be misunderstood. He rebukes his adversary, Celsus, for not knowing that " the books of Enoch were by no means received in the Church as of Divine authority." % Soon afterwards he accuses Celsus of employing against the Christians whatever he might have heard from any quarter, with out regard to whether such things were received among them as of Divine authority, or not. He then speaks of a notion advanced by Celsus, "apparently from Enoch, though he does not name him," and pro nounces it " a thing neither taught, nor heard of in the * 'Ek tuv npofijTtKuv iKXoyat non multum ab initio. Tom. II. p. 990 ed. Potteri. p. 801 ed. Sylburgii, et infra p. 808. t 'fls iv Tip 'Evux yeypairrat,et t$ iplXov TrapaSexeff&at us Hytov rb Bij3- Xtov. Orig. Com. in John i. 28. p. 142. B. ed. Bened. X "A Ttva ovS3 a&Ta tpatveTat ctvayvobs,ovSe yvuplffas, bri iv Tats iKKXt}- ffiats ob iravb tpiperat us S-eia Ta iirtyeypaptpteva tou 3Ev&>x frt&Xla. Orig. cont. Cels. lib. V. 54, p. 619, c. ed. Bened. Tom. II. p. 102, ed. Oberthiir. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 221 churches of God." * So also in his homilies upon the book of Numbers,! an<^ m ms treatise De principibus,\ he speaks of the Book of Enoch as not being a part of the inspired Scriptures. In the Synopsis Scriptures, printed with the works of Athanasius, § and in the commentary of St. Jerome upon the epistle to Titus, || it is ranked among the " Apocryphal books," and the same place is assigned to it also in the " Apostolic Constitutions," ^[ with various depreciating epithets. * E?ra, tpipav Kal ffvyxeuv a tirws irore IjKovffe, Kal Ta tSrrov ttot3 oZv yeypapp.eva, etre SeSoypteva &eta etvat irapa XptffTtavots, eft-e Kal ptrt, x ovk bvoptd{]uv abrbv) Tb, irpaypta, obre Xeyoptevov, ovt cucovop-evov iv Tats iKKXTjfflats tov @eov. ib. 55, p. 620 B. C. ed. Bened. t Having quoted Ps. cxlvii. 4, " He telleth the number of the stars; Be calleth them all by tlteir names," he says : De quibus quidem nominibus plurima in libellis, qui appellantur Enoch, secreta continentur, et arcana ; sed quia libelli ipsi non videntur apud Hebreos in auctoritate haberi, in terim nunc ea que ibi nominantur ad exemplum vocare differamus ; sed ex his que habemus in manibus, de quibus dubitari non potest, rerum pro- sequsemur indaginem. Num. xxxviii. Horn. 28. Tom.II. p. 384. E. ed.Bened. f Sed et in Enoch libro his similia describuntur. Verumtamen usque ad presens nullum sermonem in Scriptis Sanctis invenire potuimus per quem Spiritus Sanctus factura esse vel creatura diceretur. De Princip. lib. I. c. 3. p. 61 C. D. ed. Bened. Also lib. IV. cap. ult. p. 193 D. E., he quotes it without remark. § De Synop. Script, ed. Colonie 1686, p. 134 B. It is classed with the avdXrppts VLuffeus among to airoKpvtpa ttjs TraXatas Sta&riKris. || Qui autem putant totum librum debere sequi eum qui libri parte nsus est, videntur mihi et apocryphum Enochi, de quo apostolus Judas in epistola sua testimonium posnit, inter ecclesie scripturas recipere. Hieron. in ep. ad Tit. i. 12. Tom. VI. fol. 450 F. ed. Paris, 1602. If Kal iv Tots iraXatots Se Ttves ovveypw^av fitPXta airoKpvtpa Muffeus, Kal 'Evi>x, Kal 3ASdpt, 3Hffaiov Te, Kal Aa/3i5, Kal 3HXta, Kal tuv Tptav iraTptap- %Siv, Q&opoirola, Kal ttjs ctXri&elas ixfya' ToiaOra Kal vvv iirolriffav ol Svffi- 19* 222 EXCURSUS II. St. Augustine speaks of the work as containing something of truth, but also much of opposite charac ter, so that it could not be reckoned among the canonical Scriptures ; but rather with those apocry phal books whose fables were not to be received by wise men* It cannot be doubted by the modern reader of the Book of Enoch, that the ancients were just in their estimate of its character. Passages may be found in it of high moral excellence, and many exhortations to , the righteous to patient continuance in hope amid all the troubles of the present life. Mingled with these, however, are invectives against the wicked, showing a degree of bitterness — I had almost said spitefulness which do not savor of a deeply sanctified spirit. The object of the author seems to have been manifold. He has collected, without much discrimination, all proba bly that could be gleaned from the traditions of his time in regard to the antediluvian Patriarch. He is vvptot StafldXXovTes Septovpylav ydptov irpSvotav. TeKvoyovlav v6p.ov irpotpf)- Tas* fi&pfiapa Ttva bvSpta Ta iyypdtpovres Kal us abrol (pafflv, ayyeXav Tb ffaXri&es eliretv Satpt6vav tuv abrots inrrixoivTuv av airoQeiyeTe ttjv StSaff- KaXlav tva pr\ p.eTdffxnTe ttjs Ttpaplas tuv aura ffvyypa^aptevav iir ctirdTTj Kal airuXela tuv irtOTav Kal apteptirruv tov Kiptov 'l-nffov pta&nTav. Const. Apost. lib. VI. c. 16. * De civitate Dei. lib. XV. c. 23 § 4. In his autem apocryphis etsi in- venitur aliqua Veritas, tamen propter multa falsa, nulla est canonica auctoritas. Scripsisse quidam nonnulla divina Enoch ilium septimum ab Adam, negare non possumus, cum hoc in Epistola canonica Judas Apostolus dicat. Sed non frustra non sunt in eo canone Scripturarum, etc.— going to show that the book abounded in unprofitable fables not worthy to be received. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 223 earnest, and sometimes eloquent in encouraging his contemporaries to persevere in the way of righteous ness. At the same time he sought to enlighten them in the mysteries of science, especially of cosmology and astronomy ; and it is possible that the darkness of his own mind on these points may have been less dense than that of some of his readers. " Puffed up by a fleshly mind," perhaps, he has intruded also into those things which he had not seen, and a considerable part of the book is filled with details concerning the fallen angels based, in some particulars, upon Scrip ture, but for the most part visionary, and sometimes utterly absurd and at variance with all we know of angelic natures. One other element was needed to complete the curious compound of this apocryphal book — prophecy. This, purporting to have been ut tered by Enoch (except a single vision of Noah), tallies sufficiently well with history as far as it may be sup posed to have history for its foundation, — the visions reaching beyond the author's own time, of which there are but few, cannot be explained by any events that have since transpired. The arrangement of the book is far from perspicu ous, and even an extended analysis might fail in ac curately representing its contents. Nevertheless, the work cannot be without its value to such as care to know the thoughts and opinions of ancient times. Only it is important to ascertain as nearly as possible in what age it really was produced. If, as Laurence thinks, it was composed by a Jew just before the Christian era, then it is indeed a remarkable work, and 224 EXCURSUS II. in "its foreshadowing of Christian truth is far in ad vance of every other relic of ancient Jewish theology. If, however, as the writer in the Christian Observer attempts to prove, it was not written before the second century, its allusions to the truths of the New Testa ment are explained, and its remaining value is chiefly as an index of the state of learning and the com plexion of the theology of the age in which it was composed, and received with such marks of con sideration. In the first place the work, by the acknowledgment of all, is a forgery. Its own pretensions to antiquity are therefore to be utterly disregarded, and its date determined simply upon the evidence. This may be a truism ; but it often happens in the world that he who makes an utterly extravagant claim, is enabled by means of it to secure something more than rightfully belongs to him. There are certain limits, earlier or later than which the work cannot have been produced. It must have been in existence long enough to have obtained some circulation and credit, before it was quoted and defended by Tertullian in the beginning of the third century. Laurence, and those who join with him in assuming that it is quoted by St. Jude, of course maintain that it must have been antecedent to his time ; but this is a palpable begging of the ques tion. The argument may at least as fairly be turned the other way, and the quotation be looked upon . as proving that this book was written subsequently to the days of the Apostle. The question must be de termined on other evidence. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 225 To fix the period before which it could not have been written requires an examination of several pas sages in the book itself. Laurence (p. xxxi. ed. 1838), argues from the fact that "the very expressions, as well as descriptive ideas of Daniel are adopted by it in the representation of the Ancient of days coming to judg ment with the Son of man" that " it could not have been written before the captivity." The same course of argument is equally conclusive in proving that it could not have been written until after the completion of the canon of the New Testament particularly after the addition of the book of Revelation. Some of the passages which might form the basis of such an argu ment will be pointed out after the date of the work has been approximately fixed by other marks. ¦ Chapters 84 — 89 form a distinct portion by them selves,* and contain an allegorical narrative abridged from the Scripture history and continued on beyond. There is no difficulty in recognizing David (ch. 88 vv. 71 — 76), Solomon (ver. 77, etc.), and Elijah, whose translation is especially mentioned (ver. 86, 87). This brings us down to the reign of Jehoram, son of Ahab, over Israel, and of Jehoshaphat over Judah, about B. C. 900. To convey a fair view of the rest of the narra tive it is necessary to lay a full account of it before the reader. A considerable period, during which many prophets were sent (ver. 88), and the Israelites, giving themselves over to idolatry, were suffered to fall into the hands of their enemies, is comprised in the seven * They are marked in the Paris MS. as Section XVII. 226 EXCURSUS II. following verses. In 90 — 94, the Lord's withdrawal of His presence from the temple, and the carrying of the people into captivity is thus described : " I saw that the Lord of the sheep made a great slaughter among them in their pasture, until they cried out to Him in consequence of that slaughter. Then He de parted from the place of His habitation, and left them in the power of lions, tigers, wolves, and the Zeebt, and in the power of foxes, and of every beast. And the wild beasts began to tear them. I saw too, that He forsook the house of their fathers and their tower; giving them all into the power of lions to tear and devour them ; into the power of every beast He looked on in silence, rejoicing that they were de voured, swallowed up, and carried off." Then follows the appointment of seventy shepherds to whom the care of the sheep is resigned. To this there will be occasion to recur presently. In vv. 101 — 103 the de struction of the temple, and in vv. Ill — 113 the re building of it after the captivity and the opposition of the Samaritans to the work, is all distinctly described. The remainder of the chapter is occupied with the continued sinfulness and suffering of the people. In chap. 89, v. 1, it is said : " I observed during the time, that thus thirty-seven* shepherds were overlooking, all of whom finished their respective periods as the first. Others then received them into their hands, that they might overlook them in their respective periods, every shepherd in his own period." Then (ver. 2), a new # Archbp. Laurence thinks this an error for 35, as indeed the arith metic requires ; for 35+23=58 and again 35+23-|-12=70. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 227 • destruction begins, carried on by the "birds of heaven," " eagles, the avest, kites, and ravens. The eagle in structed them all." By them the sheep were utterly destroyed, their bones alone remaining. During this time, " twenty-three shepherds were overlooking, who completed in their respective periods, fifty-eight pe riods." In the following verses the lambs born of the sheep, to whom the sheep would not listen, evidently symbolize the disciples of Christ ; and the Dabelat (or Dabela) of w. 15 — 24, whom the shepherds called upon the birds to kill (v. 19, 20), and to whose as sistance one descended from heaven, must be taken to signify the Saviour Himself, for whose, destruction the rulers of the Jews called upon the Roman power. Jews and Gentiles . united together to overthrow His dominion. " All the eagles, the avest, ravens, and kites assembled and brought with them all the shee^p of the- field. All came together, and strove to break the horn of the Dabela" (v. 23, 24). During this period there were twelve shepherds who " destroyed more than those who preceded them" (v. 25). The remainder of the vision is irrelevant to the subject in hand ; it goes on to describe the judgment, first the trial of the seven stars, then of the seventy shepherds, and lastly of the blind sheep, with the fiery punishment of the wicked. It closes with the building of a new temple, where all the sheep are to be gathered together in peace and joy. In the interpretation of the latter part of this narra five disguised as prophecy, the first point to be de termined is, who are meant by the seventy shepherds. 228 EXCURSUS II. They are divided into three distinct classes of thirty- seven (or thirty-five), twenty-three, and twelve respec tively. The interpretation of Archbishop Laurence here is manifestly inadmissible.* He understands by the first class the thirty-five kings of Judah and Israel, omitting in his enumeration of the kings of Judah Jehoahaz son of Josiah, and in the list of the kings of Israel, Zimri, Tibni, Zechariah, and Shallum, on ac count of the extreme shortness of their reigns. To this interpretation there lies at the outset the fatal objection that the date of its commencement is wholly arbitrary. It is assumed that the appointment of the shepherds took place at the division of the kingdom on the death of Solomon; but for this there is no ground whatsoever. Solomon has indeed been pre viously mentioned, but so has also Elijah. According to the narrative itself, it is not until after the Lord had forsaken " the house of their fathers" and given up the sheep to their enemies to be " devoured and carried off," that the seventy shepherds are appointed — surely not a very appropriate description of the reign of Solomon. Moreover, the shepherds appear to be a succession of leaders, whereas this interpretation re quires that the contemporaneous sovereigns of Judah and of Israel should be included in the list, and even with the omission of several who clearly form a part of the royal line, however short may have been the duration of their power. A further and apparently conclusive objection to this interpretation is that the * Given in his preliminary dissertation, pp. xxxii — xxxv. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 229 close of its list is not late enough to include the time of the rebuilding of the temple which the narrative places within the period of this class. The second class, twenty-three in number, Laurence interprets of the four Babylonian, eleven Persian, and eight Mace donian monarchs. In the last class of twelve, he enumerates the native princes from Judas Maccabseus to Herod; and he supposes the Book of Enoch to have been composed in the reign of the last, probably in its earlier part — that is, just before the Christian era. This conclusion it is hardly worth while to oppose nor indeed to devote much space to the very serious objections to the interpretations of the last two classes, when that of the first, to which they succeed, has been shown to be erroneous. Nevertheless, it may not be amiss to remark that, if the first class be brought down to include Nehemiah, i. e. to cover the rebuild ing of the temple, as the words of the narrative require, then, there is not space left for the proposed second class. The four Babylonian, and the first five Persian monarchs are cut off, leaving but fourteen in the fist. It seems better to assume as the fixed point in the interpretation, the fact, that the rebuilding of the temple took place in the time of the first class of shepherds. This very distinctly appears from chapter 89, and must be taken as the key to the whole ex planation. "With this as our guide, it is of little con sequence to ascertain what persons may have com posed the first class. Probably this class is intended to describe the chief men of Judah during the cap tivity, beginning with Gedaliah and ending with 20 230 EXCURSUS II. ' Nehemiah ; although too little is known of the his tory of the Jews during this period to verify the num ber of the list. Whoever they were, their succession extended certainly as late as, and possibly a little later than, the rebuilding of the temple. "We have, there fore, a sufficiently definite point for the beginning of the second class, and the following names answer to its number of twenty-three. Eliashib, who was high- priest during the time of Nehemiah, is the first, and was succeeded by Joiada, Jonathan, Jaddus or Jaddua, Onias I., and Simon the Just, in regular succession. Then Eleazar was high-priest about 30 years, and Manasseh about three, until Onias II. (the son of Simon) came of age to be invested with the office. He was regularly succeeded by Simon II. and Onias III. In the time of the latter, Jason bought the high- priesthood of Antiochus Epiphanes ; but he does not appear to have been recognized as high-priest, and was succeeded by Menelaus within three years, and while Onias still lived. It would not therefore be proper to reckon his name in the succession. Mene laus then, who caused Onias to be put to death, is the twelfth of the number. The government of the Jews was now in a state of great confusion. Menelaus died (according to Calmet) — and the exact date is not important ; "Winer in his realworterbuch places it a few years earlier — B. C. 158, fifteen years after the death of Mattathiasj and was succeeded by Alcimus, who outlived Judas Maccabasus. Whether Judas or Alcimus should be reckoned the 13th is immaterial. One, but evidently not both, of them must be placed ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 231 upon the list. After this the succession was again, for a time, regular. Jonathan, the brother of Judas, was followed by Simon, John Hyrcanus, Aristobulus, Alexander Jannagus, Alexandra his widow, Aristobulus, Hyrcanus, Antigonus,and Herod. The last ten names are in the order given by Laurence in his list of the thud class. In the time of this class of shepherds, we are told (chap. 89, ver. 2 — 4), the eagle instructed all the other birds in devouring the sheep ; and, accord ingly, on the death of Herod, the sceptre departed from Judah altogether. The Jews lost their independent nationality, and henceforth the sheep and the " small lambs born of the sheep" (chap. 89, ver. 8), alike passed completely under the Roman authority. "We have thus a marked period in Jewish history for the end of the second, and beginning of the third class ; just as we had for the end of the first, and the beginning of the second, — forming eras such as the narrative seems to require. The last class of twelve, beginning with Augustus, who outlived Herod 16 years, reaches either to Nerva, or to Antoninus Pius. If the line be reckoned as it would have been by a Roman chronicler, it will termi nate with Nerva who succeeded Domitian A. D. 96. It seems more probable, however, that the author of the Book of Enoch, looking from a Jewish point of view, would have passed from Nero directly to Vespa sian. The intervening reigns of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius amounted in all to scarcely two years ; and during this period Vespasian was in command in Judasa, and carrying on the siege of Jerusalem. So 232 EXCURSUS II. far as the Jews were concerned, Vespasian was the actual successor to Nero. By this reckoning the last class of twelve would include Trajan, Adrian, and Antoninus Pius. During the reign of the last (A. D. 138 — 161), it is likely that the Book of Enoch was composed. It is quite in accordance with this inter pretation that the last twelve shepherds — the Roman emperors — are said to have "destroyed more sheep than those who preceded them" (chap. 89, ver. 25), and it was during their period that the "Dabela" maintained his struggle with the sheep and the birds. The writer in the Christian Observer arrives at the same conclusion by an entirely different course of reasoning. Taking up the astronomical portion of the book, he shows that so much of it as relates to the length of the year is based upon the reformation of the calendar by Julius Csesar, B. C.46. The author, who professes to have derived his information from the angel Uriel by a special revelation, speaks of the lunar year of 354 days, made up of six months of 29 days each, and as many of 30 days each (chapter 87, ver. 19, 20, and chapter 88, ver. 4), and of the solar year of 360 days anciently used in the East. This he corrects, in words of the writer in the Christian Observer (p. 498), " not by introducing an embolimic month at stated intervals in the lunar year, nor by adding five epa- gomense, or supernumerary days, at the end of the luni-solar year, the only methods in use up to the time of Csesar ; but by lengthening particular months, with out reference to the lunations; so that the whole annual period may embrace a so/ar-tropical revolution. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 233 Now this method being peculiar to the Julian calendar, places it beyond all doubt that the author had that reformation expressly in his view ; for though it is true that his months do not correspond exactly to the Julian, and that his year is, by a gross mistake, made to comprise 364 instead of 365 days, yet these errors are to be attributed to his affectation of simplifying and improving the Julian calendar, from which it seems unquestionable he must have borrowed his ideas. The following passage (chap. 81, ver. 5, 6), most distinctly refers to the inconvenient methods of reckoning the years which were superseded by the Julian principle : ' Four [days],' says the writer, ' are added and appertain to the four quarters of the year. Respecting these, men do greatly err, and do not compute them in the computation of every age ; for they greatly err respecting them ; nor do men know accurately that they are in the computation of the year : bnt indeed these are marked down forever, one [day] in the first gate [December], one in the third [March], one in the fourth [September], and one in the sixth [June].' Now it appears very improbable that the Pseudo-Enoch should have had the folly as well as the effrontery to propound his new calendar, as an antediluvian revelation from Heaven, within sixteen, or even forty-six years from the decree of the Roman senate, as must have been the case, if Dr. Laurence be right in his conjecture, that this work was written about B. C. 30, or at least before the Christian era. The actual Julian edict on the calendar would have been too fresh in popular recollection for such a gross 20* 234 EXCURSUS II. pretension of an astronomical revelation from ' Uriel, the holy angel,' to be tolerated an instant. These facts are infinitely more consistent with the supposition (which we think we can presently establish), that this forgery was perpetrated about two centuries after the Julian reformation : a period, neither too near that event for the imposture to be at once manifest, nor too remote from it for a Jew to be tempted to claim the honor of the discovery for his nation, with whose legends it well coincided The least interval which can be well allowed for the safe advancement of such a claim, brings us into the second century of the Christian era ; the period in the course of which the Book of Enoch is for the first time quoted* (so far as we have any evidence), and which also was ' par ticularly fruitful in apocryphal productions,' as Carpzov has well observed." In chap, xcii, the Pseudo-Enoch has given a prophecy extending through the whole history of the world. He computes its entire age at 7000 years, a Rabbinical conceit, as the Christian Observer remarks, first seen in the works of Justin Martyr and Irenseus, " that is, we hear of this fable for the first time in the middle of century II. ; a circumstance which affords additional ground for suspicion that the Book of Enoch, which adverts to the same idle tradition, was composed about the same period." * This refers to the supposed quotation by Ireneus, which may well enough be allowed for the sake of argument, but which is really, as has been shown above, no quotation at all ; nor has any quotation yet been discovered earlier than those of Tertullian at the beginning of the third century. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 235 The details of this prophecy, divided into ten weeks of 700 years each, correspond with history to about the same time, including the ascension of Christ, and the final dispersion of the Jews by the edict of Adrian, A. D. 135. These events are thus predicted : " In the sixth week [A. M. 4200--1900, i. e. B. C. 500 to A. D. 200] all those who are in it shall be darkened, the hearts of all of them shall be forgetful of wisdom, and in it shall a man ascend. During its completion also the house of dominion shall be burnt with fire, and all the race of the elect root shall be dispersed," (chapter xcii. ver. 10, 11). Beyond this period the prophecy finds no verification in the events of history, except in so far as its predictions are borrowed from Scripture, though it accords well enough with what is known of the views and expectations entertained in regard to the future towards the close of the second century. We have here therefore another and quite distinct evidence that the book was not composed until after the ascension of the Saviour, and if the mention of the dispersion of the Jews be insisted upon, not until after A. D. 135. These several independent lines of argument — and a more minute discussion of the work would but increase their number — all converge to show that the Book of Enoch could not have been written before about A. D. 140, and some years should be added to this date to allow time for the events recorded to come to the knowledge of the writer and be wrought into his composition. There is force in each kind of evi dence that has been brought forward, in itself; and in 236 EXCURSUS II. the concurrent testimony of these independent wit nesses there is, it would seem, quite sufficient strength to produce conviction. But perhaps the most impor tant proof of all yet remains behind, and is to be sought in the many plain allusions to Christian doc trine, and the evident acquaintance of the Pseudo- Enoch with the latest books of the New Testament. It is strange that so learned a Divine as Archbishop Laurence should have thought it possible for a Jew, before the Christian era, to have produced this work, and should have ventured to refer to it as an indication of the views entertained in regard to the nature and character of the Messiah before His advent. His judgment was fettered by the uncalled for assumption appearing in every part of his argument, that St. Jude must have quoted from the Book of Enoch. This has already been shown to be, at the least, a wholly gra tuitous assumption ; and it will appear to any one who examines the book with care that, if the ' Book of Enoch' had been written before the Christian era, not only one, but nearly all the New Testament writers, must have been familiar with it, and have fre quently borrowed its ideas and its language. The Christian allusions contained in this work have very naturally arrested the attention of its readers. Assuming it to have been written before the Christian era, Hoffman, in his German translation of it, was almost driven to the belief that " the passages relating to the Messiah were interpolated by Christians," although he acknowledges that " to such a con ception their intimate coherence is opposed, by which ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 237 these descriptions constitute essential parts of the whole." * So also Liicke, in his introduction to the Revelation of St. John, writes f : " Laurence here finds a Jewish preformation of the Christian Trinity. This point I cannot decide upon ; but I find in it a sign of the author's Christian way of thinking, in which the Lords, i. e. the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit, are more distinguished from each other than in a pure Jewish production at any period. But how much soever the whole makes one disposed to consider the book as the production of a Jewish Christian, I nevertheless hesi tate to pronounce any fixed opinion before the original form of the book is better known than has been hitherto possible." A reference to some of the passages alluded to in these extracts, with a notice of some others, also, based upon the language of the New Testament, may be not uninteresting. A selection only can be given ; for to quote all such passages would be to copy a large part of the work. Taking them in connection with the other evidences of the date of the book already pre sented, the reader of these extracts will feel, probably, little hesitation in adopting the conclusion to which Liicke was " much inclined." As we have only a translation of an Ethiopic version, itself made (as M. De Sacy has shown in the notes to his Latin transla tion), from a Greek version of the original, verbal coin cidence is of course no longer to be expected, even if * As quoted by Laurence, prelim, diss. p. lxix. t Ibid. p. 1. 238 EXCURSUS II. the Pseudo-Enoch had not the sagacity to avoid it at the outset. The first mention of "the Elect One" is in the vision in chap. xl. ver. 1, 2, when the Pseudo-Enoch sees " thousands of thousands, and myriads of myriads, and an infinite number of people, standing before the Lord of Spirits. On the four wings likewise of the Lord of Spirits, on the four sides, I perceived others, besides those who were standing before Him." These are the four beasts of Revelation v. ; but they so far differ, that each is made to utter his voice separately : " The second voice I heard blessing the Elect One," etc., ver. 5. Chapter xiv. 3, 4 is taken, apparently, from Matthew xxv. 31, etc., and partly from Revelation vii. 15, 17. Its subject is the judgment. " In that day shall the Elect One sit upon a throne of glory ; and shall choose then- conditions and countless habitations (while their spirits within them shall be strengthened, while they behold my Elect One) shall choose them for those -who have fled for protection to my holy and glorious name. In that day I will cause my Elect One to dwell in the midst of them," etc. In chap, xlvii. 2. is a representation of the assem bling of the saints in Heaven " on account of the blood of the righteous which has been shed, that the prayer of the righteous may not be intermitted before the Lord of spirits, that for them He would execute judgment ; and that His patience may not endure forever." Com pare Rev. vi. 10. In the following chapter, after a mention of the per- ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 239 petual fountain of righteousness in Heaven (taken from Rev. xxii. 1, 17), is an account of the Son, and of the Spirit, which must be quoted (ver. 2 — 5„). " In that hour was the Son of man invoked before the Lord of spirits, and His name in the presence of the Ancient of days. Before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of heaven were formed, His name was invoked in the presence of the Lord of spirits. A support shall He be for the holy and righteous to lean upon without falling ; and He shall be the light of nations. He shall be the hope of those whose hearts are troubled. All who dwell on earth, shall fall down and worship before Him ; shall bless and glorify Him; and sing praises to the name of the Lord of spirits. Therefore the Elect and the Concealed One existed in His presence before the world was created, and forever," etc. " Concealed" is not here an adjective agreeing with " Elect One ; " but the name of a distinct Being, as appears from the use of the word in other places. Laurence, in his notes, gives the following literal Latin translation of the verse : " Igitur fuit [or factus est] Electus, et Oc- cultus, coram Eo, antequam creabatur mundus, et usque ad secula seculorum." The preexistence of the Son and of the Spirit are here plainly asserted. At the close of this chapter (ver. 11), the Saviour is again mentioned under the name of Messiah. The Elect One is the subject of the whole of the next chapter — also numbered xlviii. — which is founded on Isaiah xi. 2. The fiftieth chapter begins with the following verses, 240 EXCURSUS II. which cannot fail to be recognized through their thin disguise by the readers of Revelation xx. 13, etc. " In those days shall the earth deliver up from her womb, and hell deliver up from hers, that which it has re ceived; and destruction shall restore that which it owes. He shall select the righteous and holy from among them ; for the day of their salvation has ap proached. And in those, days shall the Elect One sit upon His throne," etc. etc. From this point onward, the mention of the " Mes siah," and of the " Elect One" becomes very frequent. In chapter liv. 6, 7, the wicked angels are represented as " confined in a net-work of iron and brass," pre paratory to their final punishment ; and frequent allu sion to this preparatory confinement is made in other parts of the book ; (see chap. lxvi. 4, 13, 14 ; lxviii. 39), and with it is connected the idea of darkness (chap. x. 6,7,9), and subterraneous place of confinement (ibid. 15). Compare 2 Peter ii. 4 ; Jude 6. In chapter lx. 13, the Son and the Holy Spirit are spoken of distinctly, in the course of an eloquent passage drawn from the description of the praises of Heaven in the book of Revelation : " The Cherubim, the Seraphim, and the Ophamir, all the angels of power, and all the angels of the Lords, namely, of the Elect One, and of the other Power who was upon earth over the water on that day [an allusion to Gen. i. 2] shall raise their united voice ; shall bless, glorify, praise, and exalt with the spirit of faith," etc. etc. The whole passage is worthy of careful perusal. The sixty-first chapter contains some remarkable ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 241 passages, beginning with the exhortation : " Open your eyes, and lift up your horns, if you are capable of comprehending the Elect One," (ver. 1). The Pseudo-Enoch goes on to describe the effect of His presence upon " the kings, the princes, and the exalt ed," etc., — in the midst of which, he says, " and trouble shall seize them, when they shall behold this Son of woman sitting upon the throne of His glory. Then shall the kings, the princes, and all who possess the earth, glorify Him who has dominion over all things, Him who was concealed ; for from the begin ning the Son of man existed in secret," (ver. 9, 10). " They shall fix their hopes on this Son of man, shall pray to Him and petition Him for mercy," (ver. 13). Is there any presumption in asserting that he who penned such passages as these, could not have written before the Christian era ? It would be easy to multiply quotations from this work indicating in its author a familiarity with still other portions of the New Testament. The glowing language of St. Paul (1 Tim. vi. 16), concerning Him who " dwelleth in light which no man can approach unto" might be pointed out and recognized through its feeble disguise (chap. xiv. 20 — 23) ; the solemn warn ings of St. James to the rich (xciii. 7, etc.) ; the separa tion of departed spirits according as they have been righteous or wicked, by a chasm, until the time of the general judgment (xxii. 9, 10, 12, etc.) ; the description of that fair tree, excelling all that were in Eden, whose " leaf, flower, and bark never withereth, and whose fruit was beautiful," which " there shall be no 21 242 Excursus n. power to touch, until the period of the great judg ment ; but when all shall be punished and consumed forever, this shall be bestowed on the righteous and the humble" (xxiv. 3,9, etc.). All these, and many more plain allusions to the Scriptures of the New Testament might be pointed out; but enough has been already given to show the source of much of the better part of the Book of Enoch, and to give good ground for the conviction that even the Revelation of St. John had been made public before the time of its com position. Laurman, at the time his admirable commentary' upon the Epistle of St. Jude was published (1818), appears not to have seen the whole Book of Enoch, although he knew of the MSS. brought from Abys sinia by Bruce. Yet with his usual sagacity he con jectures from the fragments, even then known, that it was written by a Jewish Christian during the second century, or nearly at the same time with the Pastor of Hermas, to which it is assimilated both in character and style, as well as in its strange, half-way position between Judaism and Christianity.* In another pas sage, also, speaking of the Abyssinian MSS. he con siders these three propositions as firmly established; first, that it was the work of a later age, and therefore, * libros Henochi, quos, si conjecture locus, a Jndeo quodam, religionis tamen Christiane sequaci, confictos duxerim, seculo secundo, sive eodem fere tempore quo Herme Pastor ; quocnm egregie nonnun- quam conveniunt, cum fabularum inventione, earumque elocutione, tum etiam dicendi genere, singulari quodammodo, et medio quasi, ac fluctu ant religionem Christianam inter atque Judaicam. p. 151. ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH. 243 secondly, that it could not have been quoted by St. Jude ; but, thirdly, that the occasion of its forgery was this passage in the Epistle of St. Jude. * To sum up the argument : It appears that there is . no certain quotation of this singular book before the beginning of the third century, although it may possi bly have been known to Irenseus in the latter part of the second. There is in it an allegorical narrative, which, if correctly interpreted, reaches down to the time of Nerva certainly, and probably to that of Antoninus Pius, A. D. 138 — 160. It contains a calen dar founded upon the decree of the Roman Senate, B. C. 46, and which it would not have been safe to represent as a special revelation from heaven until a very considerable period had elapsed after the issue -of that decree. The Pseudo-Enoch advances a certain notion concerning the duration of the world, which we meet with nowhere else until the latter half of the second century ; and the work closely resembles, both in matter and manner, other writings of that period. He records a prophecy which tallies with history as far as A. D. 135. Finally, he shows a knowledge of Chris tian doctrine far greater than is anywhere to be found before that doctrine was made known by the preach ing of the Apostles, and he continually weaves into his work the ideas of the New Testament, and not unfrequently bases his descriptions upon the visions of * De libro etenim Henochi, qui fertur, Habessinico sic pcene statuo ; hec tria placita firmiter mihi adhucdum persuadens : ilium recentioris esse etatis ; neutiquam itaque a Juda Apostolo usurpatum, verum fin- gendi libri occasionem sumtam esse ex hoc Jude testimonio. p. 158. 244 EXCURSUS II. the Apocalypse. These passages are so frequent and so intimately interwoven with the whole fabric of the book, that the supposition of their being interpolations would blot out a very considerable, and certainly the better part of the book itself. Are not these considerations, especially in the utter absence of all real proof to the contrary, of sufficient weight to show that the so-called Book of Enoch, having been written from half a century to a century later than the Epistle of St. Jude, could not have been quoted therein ? As a forgery of the latter part of the second century, this work possesses little intrin sic value, except in so far as it may be an embodiment of the views and opinions of the times. While there fore we owe thanks to Archbishop Laurence for ena bling us to show the lateness of its date, and to clear up negatively one of the difficulties of Scripture, the regret must be again expressed that, by giving it an English dress, he should have made it so easily acces sible to the uncritical. APPENDIX.* Many and various are the conjectures which, from time to time, have been put forth to account for the remarkable resemblance between the epistle of St. Jude and the second of St. Peter. One critic finds, in the fact of this resemblance, conclusive proof that neither Apostle could have seen the epistle of the other, or he would not have written his own ; another thinks it equally clear that one of them must have had the epistle of the other before his eyes. This one cannot doubt that the epistle of Jude, being more terse and having greater concinnity, bears the plain mark of originality, and must have been the earlier 'of the two ; but another is convinced that the epistle of Peter preceded that of Jude, by a period long enough to allow his warnings to have been forgotten and his prophecies fulfilled. It has been suggested, on the one hand, that St. Jude might have been in the habit of hear ing St. Peter preach, and so have set down briefly, from memory, what St. Peter spoke, and afterwards himself wrote more fully ; and, on the other hand, it has been * This Appendix is in substance a republication of an article in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1854. (Art. VI. pp. 114—139.) To that article the reader is referred for some additional examples of the verbal differences between the two Epistles, and also for some notice of the bearing of the results of this investigation upon other questions. (245) 21* 246 APPENDIX. imagined that both writers might have derived their ideaj and their language from some other common source, of which we know nothing. And if there be any other pos sible theory, it has not wanted an advocate among the host of those who have sought to solve this interesting but most difficult -question. Amid this Babel of opinions among men of learning and sagacity, it may be doubted whether there really exist sufficient data for the establishment of any one view. In this doubt the student of Scripture cannot willingly ac quiesce until such data, as there are, have been fully presented to view, and all inferences drawn from them which they will legitimately bear. Arnold has justly remarked in regard to uncertainty in matters of history : " Scepticism must ever be a misfortune or a defect ; a misfortune, if there be no means of arriving at truth, a defect, if, while there exist such means, we are unable or unwilling to use them." * The uncertainty in regard to the present question must be considered more as a defect than a misfortune, until a clearer examination, and a more careful weighing of the evidence is made, than has hitherto been done, at least in our own language. This defect, Laurmann, in his admirable work upon this epistle proposed to remedy ; but he abruptly left his task half- finished, t There seems, therefore, the more necessity that some one else should take up the work and carry it on to such conclusion as he may. * Arnold, History of Pome, Introduction, pp. 13, 14. t "Priorem tantum Disputationis partem dare malui, quam binas reliquas addere, nondum ea que par erat diligentia elaboratas ; memor etiam moniti el. Praeceptoris Wassenberghii, ' Mirificem quandam convenientiam esse inter hanc Judae epistolam et caput illud secundum alterius Petri ; in ejus rei caussas inquirere licere, reddere tamen illas difficulter posse.' " P. 233 not. in loc. de fonte doctr. (31). APPENDIX. 247 There is no reliable historical evidence bearing upon the subject, and the investigation must be conducted wholly on other grounds. To this end, the first thing is to place the epistles themselves fairly before the eye of the reader, arranged in parallel columns, a few transpo sitions being made in Jude, and portions of second Peter omitted for the sake of brevity. 2 PETEK. 1: 2. Grace and peace be multi plied unto you, etc. # * * # # # 12. Wherefore I will not be neg ligent to put you always in remem brance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth. 13. Tea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remem brance : 14. Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. 15. Moreover, I will endeavor that ye may be able after my de cease to have these things always in remembrance. 16. For we have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. 17. Por he received from God the Pather honor and glory; when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. JUDE. 1. Jude, the servant of Jesns Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Pather, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called : 2. Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. 3. Beloved, when I gave all dili gence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and ex hort you, that ye should earnestly contend for the faith. 248 APPENDIX. 2 PETEB. 18. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. 19. We have also a more sure word of prophecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day- star arise in your hearts ; 20. Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.' 21. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 2: 1. But there were false proph ets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift de struction. 2. And many shall follow their pernicious ways ; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. 3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you : whose judg ment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slum- bereth not. 4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be re served unto judgment; 5. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bring ing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly ; which was once delivered unto the saints. 4. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemna tion, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lascivious ness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5. I will therefore put you in re membrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed them that believed not. 6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. APPENDIX. 249 2 PETEB. 6. And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an over throw, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly. TT TP * * * Tf 10. But chiefly them that walk after he flesh in the lust of un cleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities : 11. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. 12. But these as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and de stroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own corrup tion; 13. And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you: 14. Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls ; a heart they have exercised with covetous practices ; cursed children : 15. Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, fol lowing the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. 16. But was rebuked for his ini quity ; the dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbade the madness of the prophet. 17. These are wells without wa ter, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of dark- JTTDE. 7. Even as Sodom and Gomor rah, and the cities about them, in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of digni ties. 9. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a rail ing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. 10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not ; but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 12. These are spots in your feasts of -charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear : 11. Woe unto them ! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Ba laam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Clouds they are without water, car ried about of winds ; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots ; 250 APPENDIX. 2 PETEB. ness is reserved forever. 18. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they al lure through the luST of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that wero clean escaped from them who live in error. tP tT ^7? "5v *7r TV 3: 1. This second epistle, belov ed, I now write unto you ; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance ; 2. That ye may be mindful of the words which were before spoken by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour ; 3. Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walfting after their own lusts. ###### 7. But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,- and a thousand years as one day. 9. The Lord is not slack concern ing his promise, as some men count slackness ; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. 10. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night ; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burned up. ###### 14. Wherefore beloved, seeing JUDE. 13. Raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame ; wandering stars, to whom is re served the blackness of darkness for ever. 16. These are mnrmurers, com- plainers, walking after their own lusts ; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's • persons in admiration because of advantage. 17. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 18. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own angodly lusts. 19.. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. 14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, 15. To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are un godly among them of all their un godly deeds which they have un godly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sin ners have spoken against him. 20. But ye, beloved, building up APPENDIX. 251 2 PETEB. JUDE. that ye look for such things, be yourselves on your most holy faith, diligent that ye may he found of praying in the Holy Ghost, him in peace, without spot and 21. Keep yourselves in the love blameless : of God, looking for the mercy of 1 5. And account that the long- our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal suffering of our Lord is salvation : life. ****** 22. And of some have compas sion, making a difference : 23. And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire ; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. 24. Now unto him that is able to 17. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing keep you from falling, and to pre- ye know these things before, be- sent you faultless before the pre- ware lest ye also-, being led away sence of his glory with exceeding with the error of the wicked, fall joy, from your own steadfastness : 25. To the only wise God our 18. But growingrace, and in the Saviour, be glory and majesty, knowledge of our Lord and Saviour dominion and power, both now and Jesus Christ. To him be glory both ever. Amen. now and for ever. Amen. It is impossible to suppose that such a resemblance, as is here presented to us, could have been accidental. The similarity consists not merely in general design and argu ment, but extends to the order and arrangement of the two epistles ; to the use of particular illustrations and comparisons, and even of the same words and phrases, and those sometimes of an unusual character. Such resemblance can hardly be accounted for by supposing that one of the writers had been in the habit of listening to the preaching of the other. The idea that both drew from some common, but now unknown, source, is destitute of any shadow of evidence ; and, while it must be pressed to the utmost limit to account for the verbal coincidences of the epistles, could, in the end, only have the effect of doubling the present difficulty. It may, therefore, be assumed, as the basis of the present inquiry, that one of the writers must in some 252 APPENDIX. way have been made acquainted, not only with the ideas, but with the language used by the other. It is beheved that reasons abundantly sufficient to justify this assump tion will appear in the course of the investigation. It may not be amiss to remind the reader at the outset, that among the writers of Scripture, quotations and imita tions of one another without express acknowledgment, stand upon a very different footing from that occupied by the same act among uninspired authors. With the former there could be no design of concealment, inasmuch as all earlier portions of Scripture were aheady familiar to those for whom they wrote. Prom the nature of their office, they could lay no claim to originality of idea ; and, if only the truth were declared in the most effectual way, it mattered little whether the language were new or old. The Spirit of Truth seems either to have required that the same things should be set forth, in the same way, at different times, and by different persons ; or else merely directing the same things to be taught, the inspired writer naturally found expression for them in language aheady familiar. No student of Scripture can need to be remind ed how often, especially in the visions of prophecy, the same or very similar passages may be found in different books. Micah 4: 1 — 3 compared with Isaiah 2: 2 — 4 : the former part of Obadiah with Jeremiah xlix. (especially Obad. 1 — i with Jer. 49: 14—16; Obad. 5, 6 with Jer. 49: .9, 10; Obad. 8, 9 with Jer. 49: 7, 8), and the striking resemblances between parts of the Apocalypse and the writings of the ancient prophets, particidarly Daniel, may be mentioned as a few among the many instances of this fact. Therefore, without insisting upon the reference of both Peter (3. 2) and Jude (17, 18) to the words of others, the above considerations, if duly weighed, are sufficient APPENDIX. 253 to exempt the later writer from the suspicion of that moral obliquity which is now involved in the charge of plagiarism. The resemblance between the epistles, although most strongly marked in the second chapter of Peter, is not altogether wanting in the first, and is very noticeable in some parts of the third chapter. It becomes more re markable, throughout, when the language is carefully examined in the original. Much weight of learned authority may be found on either side of the question : " Which of the epistles was first -written ? " Jessien (de auSwra ep. Judae, c. iv. p. 83) alleges in favor of the priority of Peter, " Millius, Wolfius, Semlerus, Chr. F. Schmidius, Zachariae certe quoad par tem, Michaelis, Storrius, Hanleinius, Stolgius, Pottius, Flattius, Dahlius, Planchius junior in praelectionibus.'' In favor of the priority of Jude : " Herderus, Gableras Vogel, Schmidtius, Hugius, Welckerus, Bichtoras, Eichor- nius ;" add Jessien. The list might easily be extended on either side of the question. In this division of authorities, the only reliance for a determination of the question is in a careful balancing of the arguments to be derived from an examination of the epistles themselves. 1. The prima facie evidence is unquestionably in favor of the priority of Jude. There is a certain terseness about it, a nervous brevity of expression, which ill accords with the idea of its being borrowed. It abounds in fresh ness and vigor both of thought and language, and shows in its composition the ardor of a powerful mind. It is, moreover, far more remarkable than the epistle of St. Peter for its close coherence throughout, its concinnity, — a point of no small importance in the determination of this question. 22 254 APPENDIX. 2. The second epistle of Peter was addressed primarily to the same persons as the first (2 Peter 3: 1), that is, " to the strangers scattered through Pontus, Galatia, Cap- padocia, Asia, and Bythinia." (1 Peter 1:1.) If the epistle of Jude was intended primarily for some single church or class of persons, we know nothing positively of any such design. It bears no mark of any particular address, and perhaps was, from the first, designed for the church at large. Which supposition is the more probable — that St. Jude knowing of St. Peter's epistle to the churches of Asia Minor, in which there was nothing pe culiar to those churches, but which did contain several passages claiming especial authority for the writer, should have thought it advisable to abridge it for the benefit of the church at large ; or that Peter, having read the catho lic epistle of Jude, should have thought fit to commend its substance, extended and enforced by his own especial authority, to churches to whom he was well known, and to whom he had written before ? The balance of proba bilities, to the mind of the writer, is decidedly in favor of the latter hypothesis. 3. There is not here room for the discussion of the question (aheady spoken of p. 10 seq.), whether St. Jude be the same with 'IcniSag 'Lik ( carried about of winds. pest. ) Trees without fruit, etc. Paging waves, etc. Wandering stars. To whom 6 £ia, but for different purposes. In the former, as aheady remarked in a note, it is used to indi cate the knowledge derived from natural instincts. The 262 APPENDIX. comparison is apt, the illustration clear, and the whole verse graceful. In the parallel passage of Peter there is much obscurity. The object of the comparison seems to be, to set forth the ignorant brutality of insubordination. The addition of the words " made to he taken and de stroyed," although in harmony with the general design of the epistle, yet makes this particular comparison still more involved. The language of Jude has the running clearness of the fountain ; that of Peter the fulness, and also the comparative turbidness, of the lake fed by it. This pas sage will come again under review. Jude has given very briefly three examples (11), where Peter (2: 15, 16) has only one, but that one much more fully developed. The additional examples of Jude are not those of an epitomist, but are new matter thought out by the author himself. On the supposition that Jude was the later writer, it is hard to account for his having pre served no trace of ah that Peter has said concerning Ba laam. On the other hand, if Peter had the epistle of Jude before him, it is easy to see why, having just spoken (v. 14) of " covetous practices," he should have seized upon the example of Balaam, and have dilated upon it, to the exclusion of the others. That Jude should have retained no trace of the whole 14th verse of Peter is only to be accounted for on the sup position that it had never been seen by him. The word ottiXoi with the addition /cat p.S>fioi, in 2 Peter 2: 13, seems not so much required by the context as sug gested by the word of similar sound, but of different im port, (?) 7 of the faithful, to sunken rocks at sea — for such unques tionably is. the true sense of o-7ri\a8es — is pertinent and APPENDIX. 263 beautiful. The description of the same persons under the same circumstances by Peter, as "spots and blem ishes," does not appear so natural, nor is the figure a clear one, unless we suppoe that his crrTXoi was suggested by the cnriAaSes in Jude. The word d.7raT' pteTarfoevres ets aaeX- V 6Sbs ttjs OXe&eias fiXafffin- V "yeiay p.Tpyi)ffeTai. I 1. Tbv ayopdffavra avT. SeffiroWrjv t6v p.6vov SeffTr6Tnv k. K. r)pt. I. X. apvoiptevot. apvoiptevot. 4. ayyeXuv apapTTjffdvruv j 6. otyyeXovs Te Tobs prj TT\pi\ffav- < Tes ttiv eavruv ctpxriv,aXXa airoXtir. I, to iStov OIK. irapeSuKev els Kplfftv Tnpovpte- .....els Kplfftv pteydXrjs Tjptepas.... vovs X TeTt)pT\KeViX (Conf. fiptepav Kplareas ver. 9. ffetpats £6(pov. Seffuots aiSlots inrb {o'tpov. 4. and 17. C4>j.§ 4. Taprapdtffas.^ 10. Toiis birlau ffapxbs iv iir&vptii} 7. eKiropveiffaffat,X Kot aireX&ovffai utaffpov iropevoptevovs. orriffu ffapKbs erepas 6. vTr6Seiypta. Setypta t 10. KvptoTT]Tos KaTatppovovvras 8. Kvpt^Tiyra Se a&eTovfft S6£as ob Tpeptavfft fSXaptpnipovv- So'|as 8£ fSXafftprip.ovffiv. Tes. 11. ob rpepovfft kot3 airr. ir. K. 9. ovk ir6xpi]ffe Kplfftv \\ iireveyK. fiX&ffrprqptov Kplfftv. || fiXaffipriptias. * An unusual word in relation to spiritual things (yet see Matt. 24: 12). In apostolic salutations occurring only in the epistle of Jude and the two of Peter. t These words are air. Xey. X Very observable is this signification of rinpetv — carcere asservare. § This Homeric word, so peculiarly appropriate to the darkness of the infernal regions, in the New Testament occurs only in these two epis tles, and is not found in the LXX. II Kpiffts does not elsewhere in the New Testament occur in this 23 266 APPENDIX. 2 PETER. 12, 17, repetition oStoi. 12. iv ols ayvoovfft fiXafftpriptovv- Tes us aAoyat £aa $v&tKa, . . . . iv Trj tp&opa abruv KaTa8rapf)- ffovrat. 10. iropevop.evovsX (of the manner of life). 13. iv reus cmd/rats .... GitlKoi Kat fjLtiofioL .... avvevaxovfieyoi^ 17. irrjyal. aVi/Spot, bixi^Xai \yeos tov ffKor. els alava rer^p^rat. 6. acrefietv.W 10. iv iirifrvfiia fiia.afj.ov iropevo' fievovs If 18. uTrepoy/ca ** yap p.aTat6rT]T0S 3: 2. fj.vqo'&Tivai r. -wpoetpiiftevoM ftrj/Xarav virb t. ay. ired<{>., Kai t. t. diroaT. rjp,. evTO\ijs- rod Kvptov koI ^wrTJpos. J DDE. 10, 12, 16, 19, repetition of ovroi. 10. '6tra fieu ovk oiSatn jSAaff^/uoC- o~w (pvffiKSis/* &s ra aAo-yaf $3a, . , .,. iv tovtois ffieipovrai, 11. iTropeti&TjffayX 12. iv reus aydwais .... (TT(J/ta avr. AaAe? {ricipoy- «ra.** 17. flvf)0~&7}T€ T, pTlfiaTUVT. vpoet- pyjfjievuv vrcb tuv q\ttoo't6\qiv tov Kvptov. sense, and but rarely in the LXX, although the signification is estab lished by classical usage. * These words are air. Key. f This peculiarly expressive word occurs elsewhere in the New Testa ment, only in Acts 25: 27. J iropeveffbai is frequently Used in this sense in the LXX. = Jj^h (e. g. Lev. 26: 3, 23, 27, 40 ; 2 Chron. 6: 16, bis ; Ps. 26: [25:] 1, etc.), and occa sionally in the New Testament (See, Luke 1: 6) ; but very seldom, if in deed ever, in the classics. § Occurring only in these places in the New Testament, and not found in the LXX. [| The verb is found only in these places. The noun ao~ef$-fis occurs three times in Jude, three times in Peter (one of them 1 Peter 4: 18) and thrice only elsewhere ( Rom, 4:5; 5: 6 ; 1 Tim. 1: 9). 1" See note J above. ** Found only in these places in the New Testament, and somewhat rare in the LXX. APPENDIX. 267 2 PETER. JUDE. 3. iXeiffovrat iir3 iffxdrov tuv i)pte- 18. iviax&ra XP&va Zvovrai puv iptirdtKrat* .... ip.iraticra& .... Kara Tcts ISias iirtfrvp-las avr Kara Tas eaVTav hr&vplas iro- rropevj pevopt.X 14. a-irovSaa-aTe &ffrrtXot Kal ap.u- 24. powi v. 17. iv ayaX. These resemblances, it will be observed consist, for the most part, in the use of the same, or nearly the same, words to express the same thing ; in a few instances, the similarity is in sense only ; and in several, words are used alike in sound, but differing more or less widely in mean ing ; as irapeurd^ ovcriv and irapeuri^vrrav, airaraxs and aywn-av;, rnrlXoi and orriAaSeSj mryal dwSpoi and ve ctpxdyyeXos epiralKres ivvirviaCb'p.evot (itpos OlK7)Tf)ptOVffiriXeuffvvevuxovptaixnrepoyKOSuxpeXeta To these should be added in the peculiar sense it here bears. Kp'tms 9. 2: 2. From this it appears that of these twelve words there are as many common to Jude with 2 Peter only, as to Jude with all the rest of the New Testament together. There still remain in Jude fifteen words, and in 2 Peter fifty-four, not found at all elsewhere. The consideration of the more minute resemblances be tween the two writers, has a most important bearing upon the question of the relative priority of the epistles. One can hardly select, at random, any half dozen of the ex pressions used by one writer, and modified by the other, without feeling that Jude, if we may so speak, furnished the raw material, Peter the finished product. To write in detail of every instance would be a long and unnecessary labor ; the more striking and important passages may well serve for examples of the whole.* For the simple kob^s o-ornyptas, in Jude 3, we have the same idea in the longer expression of 2 Peter 1: 1. The words ot n-aXou «s t. t. Kpcpxi in Jude 4, are much * Por additional examples the reader is referred to the article in the Bibliotheca Sacra for January, 1854, pp. 132 — 136. APPENDIX. 269 amplified in 2 Peter 2: 1 and 3. First, is the strong ex pression in verse 1, hrayovrcs savr. ra^. d.Tru>\eux.v. ; then verse 3, the words oli to Kpl/jux eKwaAai owe dpyei, corresponding in sense with the language of Jude but altered in form, as if for the express purpose of removing any possible ambiguity in their meaning ; then, without the introduc tion of any new thought, apparently for the sake simply of fulness and emphasis, the expression is further ampli fied by the words ko.1 fj. chrd>\eia avr. oil w(rra£,u. These changes look like amplification, on the part of Peter rather than abridgment on that of Jude. The expression in the same verse, x°'Pm /*ewwt$6r€s as ao-eAyeuLv is replaced in 2 Peter 2: 2, by something to the, same purpose, but much more full. In this change may be observed, not only the substitution of the requisite 6,895 •rijs dAij^aas in place of the more common ttjv toS ®eoS x<£- pw, a change which would hardly have been made the other way, but also the popularity of the false teachers (iroAAol iiaKoXovStjcrovcriv avr. t. ao-eX.), and, if we may SO speak, the commentary upon fieraTiSevTes. As the ex pression stands in Jude, its meaning is ambiguous, and may be explained either, of the act of perverting the gracious doctrines of the Gospel, or of the effect of that act, in making the Gospel in the opinion of many a sys tem of licentiousness. Peter has chosen and clearly expressed the latter sense. Still, in the same verse, we have a singular instance of a longer expression (tov p,6yov SecnroVijv k. t. X.) in Jude, replaced by one more brief in Peter. Nevertheless, even this passage argues against the priority of 2 Peter ; for it is hardly supposable that Jude, having it before him, should purposely have omitted the volume of argument bound up jn the word dyopdowra. 23* 270 APPENDIX. On a review of this verse, the remarks of Jessien (ubi sup. cap. iv. p. 94) are in place : " If one carefully ex amine the whole passage in both writers, he will find in Jude the greatest brevity and closeness of connection ; in Peter, his interpretation ; in Jude, wonderful simplicity ; in Peter, almost oratorical skill in the arrangement of words." Hence he argues that Jude was the earlier writer. Passing on to Jude 6 and 2 Peter 2: 4, several striking differences between the two writers occur. In Jude there is a considerable description — the most full in Scripture — of the sin of the evil angels ; in Peter, the matter is despatched in a word : " the angels that sinned." The greater fulness of Jude here is a fulness of matter, not of mere words or ornament. In the remainder of the verse however, the matter is essentially the same, and several of the words are the same in both writers ; but the polish of the language, and the skill in the arrangement of the words, especially of the participles, is far greater in Peter He begins with the graceful expression ovk eepeio-aro ; then, for the simple SeoyioTs di'Siots, he puts the more elegant phrase o-eipais {pfov ; and, where Jude writes plainly eis Kpicriv p.ey. rjp. vtto £6ov TerfjprqKev, Peter expresses the same idea more artistically, rapTapoJo-as irapeSuKev ets »cp. ¦nnpovpevovs. Surely, the ordinary laws of composition, here, indicate Peter as the later writer. The last clause of Jude 7, compared with 2 Peter 2: 6, exhibits a striking difference. In the former we read simply and briefly irpoKUVTai Bexypia Trupds auoviou, Suajv wre» Xovo-ai. Peter, like one working up this idea placed be fore him, says, much more rhetorically, re^puo-as KaTaorpo- cfyg KariKpivev, £7ro8eiyp,a p.eKK6vrmv dcrE/Setv te#eu«us. For Kvpiorrjra Se aSeTovcn, in Jude 8, we read in 2 Peter APPENDIX. 271 2: 10, icupioVijros KaTa^poj/oCiras. Immediately, however, the writer changes to the nominative, inserting the words toA- [irjral, av&dSevs, and for the simple 8o£ . f3ka.a-cjiTip.ovrn of Jude, substituting the more artificial expression 8of. ov rpip.ovo-1 fiXojrr. dv., and, after adopting it, Peter still wished to retain the figure of the ve. -a-apa^ep., which he has done, in its general scope, but with different lan guage; and not caring to use all the comparisons furnished by Jude, he has closed the figure with the last words of Jude's succession of figures — ots 6 £o3-eyy6p.evoi. And the simple^ expression, 9av- /td£oires ¦n-poaanra ai^EXet'as x&Plv> *s greatly amplified and repeated in 2 Peter 2: 14 and 18, in the clauses beginning with SeXed^ovres and 8EX£d£ovo-i. The difference between Jude 17 and 2 Peter 3: 2 is quite remarkable. The words tSv dytW irporprjTtav are in serted in the midst of the clause, by Peter, precisely as if he had Jude's epistle before him, and, wishing to omit the prophecy of Enoch, given in Jude 14, 16, would yet retain a trace of the argument to be drawn therefrom. In Jude, the verse is compact, and its connection close : in 2 Peter, this clause is almost parenthetical. The Kat rijs eVroXiJs is added in the latter, and also the word r)p.5>v is inserted, with a construction so harsh as, by itself, to suggest the probability of its having been thrust into a sentence already written.* The simple eo-ovrai iprrouKTai, in Jude 18, Peter, with his accustomed skill in the moulding of words, changes (3: 3) to EXEuowrai ev ipuiraiyptovy IjtwratKTat ; and for his to,s iavr. eTriS., writes more emphatically tos tStas ImS-. a-ur. Beyond this point, the coincidence between the two epistles is less close, although a distinct parallel is still observable between Jude 21 and 24 and 2 Peter 3: 14, 17, 18. The closing doxology of Jude is much more rich and full than that of Peter. The result of this comparison of the verbal resem blances and differences between the two writers is, that while here and there a point is found on which, taken separately, it would be possible to base a feeble inference * It is worth noting that at the close of this verse St. Peter adds 2aiT7Jpoj, which, from 1: 1, 11 ; 2: 20; 3: 18, and this passage, seems to have become a favorite title with him, although it does not occur in the first epistle at all. 274 APPENDIX. for the priority of Peter's epistle, almost every verse' presents some indication, more or less strong, that Peter wrote with the Epistle of Jude before him. The same result has been reached independently — by the consideration of the other elements in the re markable likeness between the two epistles ; of the probable authority of the two writers ; of their different address ; and of the general character of their epistles. The inference in each case may not be decisive in itself; but there is strength in the combination. When it is once admitted that the two epistles could not have been written independently of each other — an admis sion to which we are irresistibly forced — it is of course admitted, at the same time, either that they were written conjointly, or else that one must have been written after the other, and with reference to the other. The former theory no one appears to advocate, and the question is thus brought within narrow limits. Neither epistle re fers directly to the other; there is no reliable historic evidence ; and the greatest possible interval between them is altogether too short to have wrought any per ceptible change in the language. The question of pri ority must depend, therefore, for its solution, upon such indications of originality as may be observed in the one, and such appearances of an opposite character as may be found in the other. These points have now been discussed at length. In conclusion, it may suffice to say, that the style of Peter is ornate, and at times almost artificial; that of Jude is simple, compact and direct. The style of Peter is well suited to paraphrase and amplification, while that of Jude has too much nerve and vigor for an epitome. In the language of the rhetoricians, Jude's skill is con- APPENDIX. 275 spicuous in invention, Peter's in composition. Fulness of thought, and rapidity of illustration are peculiarly characteristic of the epistle of the former. The epistle of Jude, on its face, bears no appearance of having been wrought out from the epistle of Peter; on the other hand, there are indications of Peter's having written with the epistle of Jude before him. There are many matters in 2 Peter of which there is not the shghtest trace in Jude ; but, with the exception of a few passa ges for the omission of which a reason can easily be imagined, there is nothing in Jude which is not also found, substantially, in 2 Peter. The illustrations, throughout, favor the supposition that those of Jude were first written, those of Peter formed from them. The connection of the parts is clear and compact in Jude ; in 2 Peter the language often becomes involved, as if the writer were moulding his epistle upon the former work of Jude; and, as often as he wandered away in paraphrase and amplification, sought to return to the point at which he had departed from his model. Finally, the details of the language, almost everywhere, present Peter as pohshing, ornamenting and amplifying the straightforward, inartificial language of Jude. These facts are beheved to be the result of a fan comparison of the epistles. Any one can test them for himself. It must be left to the judgment of the reader to decide to how much weight they are entitled. To the mind of the writer they are quite sufficient to establish the priority of the Epistle of Jude. .. ¦*¦¦¦-.