Bengel explains ‘“ Hominum mere naturalium indoles graphice admodum descripta est. Somnians multa videre, audire, etc. sibi videtur.” And so Chase “they live in an unreal world of their own inflated imaginations,” comparing the conjectural reading of Col. ii. 18, ἀέρα κενεμβατεύων. This accords with ver. το: in their delusion and their blind- ness they take the real for the unreal, and the unreal for the real. The verb is used both in the active and middle by Aristotle, Somm. i. 1, πότερον συμβαίνει Gel τοῖς καθεύδουσιν ἐνυπνιάζειν, ἀλλ ° οὐ μνημονεύουσιν; Probl. 30, 14, 2, οἱ ἐν τῷ καθεύδειν ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι ἱσταμένης τῆς διανοίας, καὶ καθ ὕσον ἠρεμεῖ, ὀνειρώττουσιν, cf. Artem. Oneir, i. 1. Some interpret of polluting dreams (cf. Lev. 15); but the word ἐνυπνιαζόμενοι is evidently intended to have a larger scope, covering not merely µιαίνονσιν but ἀθετοῦσιν and βλασφημοῦσιν. We must also interpret ptatvw here by the ἀσέλγειαν of ver. 4, the ἐκπορνεύσασαι and σαρκὸς ἕτέρας of νετ. 7. This wide sense appears in Tit. i. 15, τοῖς
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262 ΙΟΥΔΑ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗ κά κυριότητα] δὲ ἀθετοῦσιν, δόξας δὲ βλασφημοῦσιν. 9. Ὁ δὲ 1 κυριοτητα]--τητας ky Orig.
µεμιασµένοις οὐδὲν καθαρόν, ἀλλὰ mentioned offenders. For the former μεµίανται αὐτῶν καὶ 6 vots καὶ ἡ we may refer to ver. 4, τὸν κύριον ἡμῶν συνείδησις. apvovpevor, for the latter to the contempt κυριότητα δὲ ἀθετοῦσιν, δόξας δὲ shown by the Israelites towards the com- βλασφημοῖῦσιν. On first reading one is mandments of God. So the desertion of
inclined to take the words κυριότης and δόξαι simply as abstractions. The re- sult of indulgence in degrading lusts is the loss of reverence, the inability to recognise true greatness and due degrees of honour. This would agree with the description of the libertines as sharing in the ἀντιλογία of Korah, as κύματα ἄγρια θαλάσσης, 45 γογγυσταί uttering hard speeches against God. When we examine however the use of the word ἹΚυριότης and the patristic comments, and when we consider the reference to the archangel’s behaviour towards Satan, and the further explanation in ver. Io, where the σάρκα of ver. 8 is represented by ὅσα Φυσικῶς ἐπίστανται, and the ‘phrase κυριότητα ἀθετοῦσιν, δόξας δὲ Βλασφημοῦσιν by ὅσα οὐκ οἴδασιν βλασφημοῖῦσιν, we seem to require a ‘more pointed and definite meaning, not simply “majesty,” but ‘the divine majesty,’’ not simply ‘‘ dignities,’’ but "πε Ane elicMOrders 7.75) σε It. to, Eph. i. 21 (having raised him from the dead and set him on his right hand) ὑπεράνω πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας καὶ δυνάµεως καὶ κυριότητος, Col. i. 16, ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα, εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες εἴτε ἀρχαὶ etre ἐξουσίαι, where Light- foot considers that the words are in- tended to be taken in their widest sense, including bad and good angels, as well as earthly dignities. In our text, how- ever, it would seem that the word should be understood as expressing the attribute of the true κύριος, cf. Didache, iv. 1 (honour him who speaks the word of God), ὡς κύριον, ὅθεν γὰρ ἤ κυριότης λαλεῖται, ἐκεῖ κύριός ἐστιν, Herm. Sim, ν. 6, 1, εἰς δούλου τρόπον οὐ κεῖται 6 vids τοῦ Θεοῦ, GAN’ εἰς ἐξουσίαν μεγάλην κεῖται καὶ κυριότητα. The verb ἀθετέω has God or Christ for its object in Luke x. 16, John xii. 48, 1 Thess. iv. 8, etc. We have then to consider how it can be said that the libertines (οὗτοι) “' despise authority ’’ in like manner to the above-
their appointed station and abode by the angels showed their disregard for the divine ordinance, and the behaviour of the men of Sodom combined with the vilest lusts an impious irreverence to- wards God’s representatives, the angels (Gen. xix. 5). Cf. Joseph. Ant. i. 11. 2, εἰς ἀνθρώπους ἦσαν ὑβρισταὶ καὶ πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἀσεβεῖς, and Test. Aser. 7, where the sin of Sodom is expressly stated to have been their behaviour towards the angels, μὴ Ὑγίνεσθε ὡς Σόδομα Aris ἠγνόησε τοὺς ἀγγέλους Κνρίου καὶ ἀπώλετο ἕως αἰῶνος.