Ver. 3. ἀγαπητοί occurs in vv. 17 and 20, also in 2 Pet. iii. 1, 8, 14, 17, 1 Pet. ii. II, iv. 12 and James. It is common in the Epistles of John and of Paul, sometimes with pov attached, as in 1 Cor. x. 14, Phil. ii. 12, and is often joined to ἀδελφοί, especially in James. The ἀγάπη of ver. 2 leads on to the ἀγαπητοί here. They are themselves ἀγαπητοί because the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts.
πᾶσαν σπουδὴν ποιούµενς. For πᾶσαν, see my n. on Jamesi. 2, and cf. 2 Pet. i. 5, σπουδὴν πᾶσαν παρεισενέγ- καντες, i. 15, σπουδάσω ἔχειν ὑμᾶς μνήμην ποιεῖσθαι, also Isocr. Orat. v. p. gi 6, πᾶσαν τὴν σπουδὴν περὶ τούτου
* For this see the Introduction on Early Heresies.
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κοινῆς ἡμῶν Ἰ σωτηρίας ἀνάγκην ἔσχον γράψαι ” ὑμῖν παρακαλῶν
> γι - ο , a κ , ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει.
Ίκοινης ημων] κ. υµων boh.; om. ηµων KLP + ; σωτηριας] add. και ζωης N.
"γραψαι] γραφειν NY.
ποιεῖσθαι, Plato, Euthyd. 304 ε, περὶ οὐδενὸς ἀξίων ἀναξίαν σπουδὴν ποιοῦνται. Jude was busy on another subject, when he received the news of a fresh danger to the Church, which he felt it his duty to meet at once. Whether he lived to carry out his earlier design, and whether it was of the nature of a treatise or of an epistle, we know not. It is noteworthy that there is a similar allusion in 2 Peter iii. 1 to an earlier letter now lost. Com- pare Barn. iv. 9, πολλὰ δὲ θέλων γράφειν 2 + = γράφειν ἐσπούδασα.
κοινῆς σωτηρίας. Cf. Tit. i. 4, κατὰ κοινὴν πίστιν, Ign. Eph. i., ὑπὲρ τοῦ κοινοῦ ὀγόματος καὶ ἐλπίδος with Light- foot’s n., Jos. Ant. το. 1. 3 (Hezekiah besought Isaiah to offer sacrifice) ὑπὲρ τῆς κοινῆς σωτηρίας. Bede explains as follows: ‘omnium electorum communis est salus, fides, et dilectio Christi”. Jude puts on one side the address he was pre- paring on the main principles of Chris- tianity (probably we may take vv. 20 and 21 as a sample of what this would have been) and turns to the special evil which was then threatening the Church. " ἀνάγκην ἔσχον Ὑράψαι. Cf. Luke xiv. 18, ἔχω ἀνάγκην ἰδεῖν αὐτόν, Heb. Vile) 27; α. also. Elut. (Cate M7: 24) ἀνάγκην ἔσχεν ἐκβαλεῖν ἀσχημονοῦσαν τὴν γυναῖκα. There is a similar com- bination of γράφειν and γράψαι in 3 John 13. The aor. γράψαι, contrasted with the preceding pres. γράφειν, im- plies that the new epistle had to be writ- ten at once and could not be prepared for at leisure, like the one he had pre- viously contemplated. It was no wel- come task: ‘necessity was laid upon him”.
ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει. '' Το contend for the faith,’ almost equivalent το the ἀγώνισαι περὶ τὴς ἀληθείας in Sir. iv. 28, see 1 Tim. vi. 12, ἀγωνίζου τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα τῆς πίστεως, and εἰς ὃ κοπιῶ ἀγωνιζόμε- vos, Col. i. 29. We may compare étra- µύνειν, ἐπαναπαύειν νόµῳ, Rom. ii. 17 and Clem. Strom. iii., p. 553, ἐπαγωνιζό- µενος τῇ ἀθέῳ δόξῃ. It is possible (as is shown by the following examples) for spiritual blessings, once given, to be lost, unless we use every effort to maintain them. The redemption from Egypt was
a fact, as baptism into the name of Christ is a fact, but, unless it is borne in mind and acted upon, the fact loses its efficacy.
τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει. The word πίστις here is not used in its primary sense of a subjective feeling of trust or belief, but in the secondary sense of the thing believed, the Truth or the Gospel, as in ver. 20 below, Gal. i. 23, 6 διώκων ἡμᾶς ποτε viv εὐαγγελίζεται τὴν πίστιν ἤν ποτε ἐπόρθει, also Gal. iii. 23, Phil. i. 27, συναθλοῦντες τῇ πίστει τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, where see Lightfoot, Acts vi. 7. In the same way ἐλπίς is used in a concrete sense for the object or ground of hope (as in Col. i. 5, τὴν ἐλπίδα τὴν ἀποκειμένην ἡμῖν, r Tim. i 1, Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τῆς ἐλπίδος ἡμῶν, Tit. ii. 13, προσδεχόµενοι τὴν µακαρίαν ἐλπίδα), and φόβος for the object of fear, Rom. xiii. 3, 1 Pet. iii. 14. ἅπαξ. Used here in its classical sense ‘once for all,’ as below ver. 5, and in Heb. vi. 4, τοὺς ἅπαξ dwticbévras, ib. 1X.) ο 27, X12, © Εεῖ ii. 18. This ex- cludes the novelties of the Libertines, of. Gal. 1.09. The later sense ‘“‘ on one occasion ”’ is found in 2 Cor. xi. 25, ἅπαξ ἐλιθάσθην, 1 Thess. ii. 18, καὶ ἅπαξ καὶ δὶς ἠθελήσαμεν ἐλθεῖν.