In the gainsaying (77 dvtidoyig). In the practice of gain- saying like Korah’s. ’Avioyia is from avré, against, and eyo, to speak. ence, literally, contradiction. Gainsay is a literal translation, being compounded of the Anglo-Saxon gegn, which reappears in the German gegen, against, and say.
Korah. Who spake against Moses (Num. xvi. 3). The water which Moses brought from the rock at Kadesh was called the water of Meribah (Strife), or, in Septuagint, dep avTiAoylas, the water of contradiction.
12. Spots (amiAdées). Only here in New Testament. So rendered in A. V., because understood as kindred to omidoe (2 Pet. ii. 13); but rightly, as Rev., Aidden rocks. So Homer, (“ Odyssey,” iii., 298), “ the waves dashed the ship against the rocks (omindbecow).” See on deceivings, 2 Pet. ii. 18: These men were no longer mere bdozs, but elements of danger and wreck.
718 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
When they feast with you. See on 2 Pet. ii. 13.
Feeding (zowpatvovtes). See on 1 Pet. v. 2. Lit., shepherd- ing themselves; and so Rev., shepherds that feed themselves ; further their own schemes and lusts instead of tending the flock of God. Compare Isa. lvi. 11.
Without fear (4680s). Of such judgments as visited Ana- nias and Sapphira. Possibly, as Lumby suggests, implying a rebuke to the Christian congregations for having suffered such practices.
Clouds without water. Compare 2 Pet. ii. 17, springs without water. As clouds which seem to be charged with re- freshing showers, but are borne past (mapadepdpevar) and yield 0 rain. :
Whose fruit withereth (f3worwpiva). From $3ivw or Pia, to waste away, pine, and dopa, autwmn. Hence, liter- ally, pertaining to the late autumn, and rightly rendered by Rey., autumn (trees). The A. V. is entirely wrong. Wyc., harvest trees. Tynd., trees without fruit at gathering-time.
Twice dead. Not only the apparent death of winter, but a real death ; so that it only remains to pluck them up by the roots.
13. Raging (aypra). Rev., wild, which is better, as imply- ing guality rather than act. Waves, by nature wntamed. The
act or expression of the nature is given by the next word.
Foaming out (é7adpifovra). Only here in New Testament. Compare Isa. Ivii. 20.
Shame (aicydvas). Lit., shames or disgraces.
Wandering stars. Compare 2 Pet. ii. 17. Possibly re- ferring to comets, which shine a while and then pass into dark-
Cu. I.) THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 719
ness. “They belong not to the system: they stray at random and without law, and must at last be severed from the lights which rule while they are ruled” (Lumby).
Blackness (fogos). See on 2 Pet. ii. 4.
Of darkness (rod oxdrous). Lit., “the darkness,” the article pointing back to the darkness already mentioned, ver. 6.
14. Enoch prophesied. This is the second of the apocry- phal passages referred to in notes on ver. 9. It is quoted from the apocryphal book of Enoch, directly, or from a tradition based upon it. The passage in Enoch is as follows: “ Behold he comes with ten thousands of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and to destroy the wicked, and to strive (at law) with all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him.” The Book of Enoch, which was known to the fathers of the second century, was lost for some centuries with the exception of a few fragments, and was found entire in a copy of the Ethiopic Bible, in 1778, by Bruce. It became known to modern students through a translation from this into English by Archbishop Lawrence, in 1821. It was probably written in Hebrew. It consists of rev- elations purporting to have been given to Enoch and N oah, and its object is to vindicate the ways of divine providence, to set forth the retribution reserved for sinners, angelic or human, and “to repeat in every form the great principle that the world— natural, moral, and spiritual—is under the immediate govern- ment of God.” Besides an introduction it embraces five parts : 1. A narrative of the fall of the angels, and of a tour of Enoch in company with an angel through heaven and earth, and of the mysteries seen by him. 2. Parables concerning the king- dom of God, the Messiah, and the Messianic future. 3. Astro- nomical and physical matter; attempting to reduce the images of the Old Testament to a physical system. 4. Two visions, representing symbolically the history of the world to the Mes- sianic completion. 5. Exhortations of Enoch to Methuselah and his descendants. The book shows no Christian influence,