254
e—
Θεῷ πατρὶ ἠγαπημένοις ] καὶ ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστῷ τετηρηµένοις κλητοῖς.
2. ἔλεος ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ ἀγάπη πληθυνθείη. 3. ᾿Αγαπητοί, πᾶσαν σπουδὴν ποιούµενος γράφειν ὑμῖν περὶ τῆς.
ηγαπηµενοις AB WN; ηγιασµενοις KLP.
Israelites, or bodies of Israelites, to perform certain functions for Israel. . . . The calling and the choosing imply each other, the calling being the outward expression of the antecedent choosing, the act by which it begins to take effect. Both words emphatically mark the pre- sent state of the persons addressed as being due to the freeagency of God... . In Deuteronomy (iv. 37) the choosing, by God is ascribed to His own love of Israel: the ground of it lay in Himself, not in Israel... . As is the election of the ruler or priest within Israel for the sake of Israel, such is the election of Israel for the sake of the whole human race. Such also, still more clearly and emphatically, is the election of the new Israel.”’ For a similar use of the word “‘call” in Isaiah, cf. ch. xlvili. 12, κ. 1.7. The chief distinction between the the ‘‘calling’’ of the old and of the new ‘dispensation is that the former is rather expressive of dignity (‘“‘called by the name of God”’), the latter of invitation ; but the former appears also in the N.T. in such phrases as James ii. 7, τὸ καλὸν ὄνομα τὸ ἐπικληθὲν ἐφ᾽ ὑμᾶς, and 1 Pet. ii. Q, ὑμεῖς δὲ γένος ἐκλεκτόν, βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα . . . λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιγ. The reason for St. Jude’s here character- ising the called as beloved and kept, is because he has in his mind others who had been called, but had gone astray and incurred the wrath of God.
Ver. 2. For the Salutation see my note on xalpew, James i. 1, and Hort’s excellent note on 1 Pet. i. 2, χάρις... πληθυνθείη. We find ἔλεος and εἰρήνη joined in Gal. vi. 16, and with the addi- tion of χάρις in 1 Tim. i. 2, 2 Tim. i. 2, 2 John 3. The mercy of God is the ground of peace, which is perfected in the feeling of God’s love towards them. The verb πληθυνθείη occurs in the Saluta- tion both of 1 Peter and 2 Peter and in Dan. vi. 25 (in the letter of Darius), εἰρήνη ὑμῖν πληθυνθείη, cf. 1 Thess. iii. 12, ὑμᾶς δὲ 6 κύριος πλεονάσαι Kai πε- ρισσεύσαι TH ἀγάπῃ eis ἀλλήλους. ᾿᾽Αγάπη (=the love of God) occurs also in the final salutation of 2 Cor. ἡ χάρις
τ. κυρίου Ἰησοῦ καὶ ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ,
and in Eph. εἰρήνη τοῖς ἀξελφοῖς καὶ ἀγάπη μετὰ πίστεως ἀπὸ Θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου Ἰ. X. Cf. 1 John iii. 1, ἴδετε ToTaTHv ἀγάπην δέδωκεν ἡμῖν 6 πατὴρ ἵνα τέκνα Θεοῦ κληθῶμεν, where West- cott’s n. is “The Divine love is infused into. them, so that it is their own, and be- comes in them the source of a divine life (Rom. xii, το). In virtue of this gift they are inspired with a love which is like the love of God, and by this they truly claim the title of children of God as partakers in His nature, 1 John iv. 7, 1g.” The same salutation is used in the letter of the Smyrnaeans (ο. 156 A.D.) giving an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, ἔλεος καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ ἀγάπη Θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰ. Χ. πλη- θυνθείη. The thought of ἔλεος and ἀγάπη recurs again in ver. 21.
Vv. 3, 4.—Reasons for Writing. He had been intending to write to them on that which is the common interest of all Christians, salvation through Christ, but was compelled to abandon his intention by news which had reached him of a special danger* threatening the Gospel _ once for alldelivered tothe Church. His duty now was to stir up the faithful to defend their faith against insidious as- saults, long ago foretold in ancient pro- phecy, of impious men who should change the doctrine of God’s free grace into an excuse for licentiousness, and deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.