τοῦ Katy ἐπορεύθησαν, καὶ τῇ πλάνῃ τοῦ Βαλαὰμ μισθοῦ ἐξεχύθησαν,
and of love, cf. 1 John iii. 23. Euthym. Zig. gives an allegorical explanation, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἀδελφοκτόνοι εἰσί, δι ὧν διδάσκουσι τὰς τῶν ἀἁπατωμένων ψυχὰς ἀποκτείνοντες. Cain and Korah are said to have been objects of special reverence with a section of the Ophite heresy, which appears to have been a development of the Nicolaitans (Epi- phan. Pan. i. 3, 37, 1, ot Ὀφῖται τὰς προφάσεις εἰλήφασιν ἀπὸ τῆς Νικολάου καὶ Γνωστικῶν καὶ τῶν πρὸ τούτων αἱρέσεων). They held that the Creator was evil, that the serpent represented the divine Wisdom, that Cain and his successors were champions of tight (Epiphan, ib. 38, 1, ot Καιανοί φασι τὸν Καὶν ἐκ τῆς ἰσχυροτέρας Δυνάμεως ὑπάρχειν καὶ τῆς ἄνωθεν αὐθεντίας, and boast themselves to be of kin to Cain, καὶ τῶν Σοδόβιτῶν καὶ Hoad καὶ Κορέ, see too Iren. 1. 51. Clem. Sir. vii. § 108.)
τῇ πλάνῃ τοῦ Βαλαὰμ μισθοῦ ἐξεχύ- θησαν. Every word in this clause is open to question. The passive of ἐκχέω, to ‘‘ pour out,” is used to express either the onward sweeping movement of a great crowd, or the surrender to an over- powering motive on the part of an in- dividual = effusi sunt,* as in Sir. xxxvii. 29, μὴ ἐκχυθῆς ἐπ) ἐδεσμάτων, Test. Reub. I, πορνεία ἐν ᾖ ἐξεχύθην, Clem. Al. Str. ii. Ῥ. 491, εἰς ἤδον τράγων δικήν, ἐκχυθέντες καθηδννάδοῦσω, Ρος Ve Ant, 21, eis τὸν ἡδυπαθῆ καὶ ἀκόλαστον βίον ἐκκεχυμένος. Such an interpreta- tion seems not quite consistent with μισθοῦ, which implies cool self-interest. That covetousness, αἰσχροκέρδεια, was a common motive with false teachers is often implied or asserted by St. Paul and St. Peter in the passages quoted below : and this, we know, was the case with Balaam ; but would it be correct to say either of him or of his followers, here condemned by St. Jude, that they ran greedily into (or ‘‘ in ”’) error for reward ? Perhaps we should understand it rather of a headstrong will breaking down all obstacles, refusing to listen to reason or expostulation, as Balaam holds to his purpose in spite of the divine opposition manifested in such diverse ways. Then
comes the difficulty, how are we to understand the dative πλάνῃ, and what is the reference in the word? Should we take πλάνῃ as equivalent to eis πλάνην (Winer, p. 268)? This is the interpretation given by Lucifer p. 219, *‘vae illis quoniam in seductionem B. mercede effusi sunt,’’ but it is a rare use of the dative, and it seems more natural to explain πλάνῃ by the preceding ὁδῷ (dative of the means or manner), which is used in the same collocation in 2 Peter ii. 15. What then are we to understand by ‘‘ they were hurried along on the line of Balaam’s error”? What was his error? From Num. xxii., xxv. 1-3, and xxxi. 16, Neh. xiii. 2, Μωαβῖται ἐμισθώσαντο én” αὐτὸν τὸν Βαλαὰμ καταράσασθαι, Jos. Ant. iv. 6, 6, we learn that B. was induced by Balak’s bribe to act against his own convictions and eventually to tempt Israel to fornica- tion. This then is the error or seduction by which he leads them astray.+ In rab- binical literature Balaam is a sort of type of false teachers (Pirke Aboth, v. 29, with Taylor’s n.). Some suppose the name Nicolaitan (Apoc. ii. 6) to be formed from the Greek equivalent to Balaam = ‘‘corrupter of the people’”’; see how- ever the passages quoted from Clem. Al. inthe Introduction on Early Heresies. In Apoc, ii. 14 we read of some in Per- gamum that held the teaching of Balaam, ὃς ἐδίδασκεν τῷ Βαλὰκ βαλεῖν σκάν- δαλον ἐνώπιον τῶν vidv Ισραήλ, φΦαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα καὶ πορνεῦσαι. There is no hint to suggest that the innovators, of whom Jude speaks, favoured idolatry, but they may have prided themselves on their enlightenment in disregarding the tule of the Apostolic Council as to the use of meats offered to idols (cf. x Cor. 8), and perhaps in burning incense in honour of the Emperor, see Ramsay, Expositor for 1904, p. 409, and July, pp. 43-60. On the other hand, Jude con- tinually charges them with moral laxity, and we may suppose that this was com- bined with claims to prophetic power, and with the covetousness which is often | ascribed to the false teachers of the early Church, as in t Thess. ii. 3 f., where