The Pulpit Commentary — Jude — Section 8

frt>qnent abo in the Pauline Epistles. It is made. The unexpressed subject may ho onlv here, however, and in 3 John 2 the.t God, e.e some suppose who point to the ana- it is introduced so nee.r the beginning of logy of 1 Cor. xi. 23 and xv. 3; or it may be e.n Epistle. The statement itself conte.in ■ the apostles, as others hold who look to the ~everRl expressions which dem&nd notice. an&logy of such passages as 1 Cor. xl. 2: The phre.se which the Authorized Version 2 Pet. ii. 21, and espeoially the seventeenth renders, When I gave e.11 diligenoe, is better verse of the present Epistle itself. The rendered, ,,,hil.e I u,m, gi'Ving all diligenoe, main point is, not the author or the instru- with the Revised Version. In this par- ments of the deliverance, but the fe.ot that ticular form it oocnre nowhere elee in the euch a deliverance he.a taken pl9.00. What New Testament; bnt it he.e cloRe pe.mllols he.I! been transmitted is carefully defined, in 2 Pet. i. 5 e.nd Heh. vi. 11. The noun is not, indeed, e.e a system of doctrine, but at the se.me e.e ie tre.nsl&t.ed "diligence" in least e.s a sum or deposit of things necesse.ry Rom. xii. 8, e.nd "business" in Rom. xii. to be believed. This is said to have been l l. It is not eerte.in whether the p h ra.se given once for all, so that there is no expresses action here as well BS earnest repetition or extension of the gift. It is desire; but it indicates the position of the desoribed, further, e.s committed, not to the author, whether e.e seriously bethinking Churoh as an organization, nor to any himself to write, or aotu&lly engaged in tho particular office-bearers, but to the saints in task, when he he.d occe.sion to send the general. counsels given in this Epistle. The subject Ver. 4.-It has beeu inferred that the on which be had thought of e.ddressing writer had been actually at work upon them was the common aa.l.vation-tbe term another Epistle, when he felt it necessary "sal ,·ation " meaning here neither the to give it up and compose this one. The.t doctrine nor the mearw1 of redemption, but is uot a certain inference from the previous the grace of redemption itself. And this verse. What that verse makes clear is that :;race is designated "common," or, as the it had been Jude's purpose to compose an 1,etter reading gives it, "our common ssh-a- Epistle on the general subject of the common tion ; " not with reference to any contrast salvation, and that something emerged of Jew with Gentile, but simply RB a grace which made him change his plan and write open to all, and in which writer and readers a letter dee.ling with certain specific matters had an equal interest (comp. Acts ii. 44; of urgent importance, and hortatory in its iv. 32 ; and especie.lly the "common faith " form. The circumstance which led to this of Titus i 4). The" like precious fo.ith" of change is here stated-it was the appear- 2 Pet. i. 1 is a stronger expression, and ance of a corrupt and insidious party in the probably points to a distinction, formerly Church. l!'or, he ea.ye, there are certain existent, but now removed, between Jew and men crept in unaware&; or, e.e the Revised Gentile. The next phrase is rendered too Version more forcibly renders it, privily. weakly by the Authorized Version, It WILi 'l'he verb describes the men e.s men who had needful for me to write unto you. Neither no rightful standing in the Church, but bad does the Revised Version quite bring out made their way into it secretly and by false the idea when it substitutes, I wa.a con- pretences. Compare Paul's description of «trained to 'IMite unto you. What is in view the " false brethren uno.wares brought in, is an objective necessity; certain circum- \"l>ho came in privily to spy out our liberty, stanees which he.d erisen and imperatively which we have in Christ Jesus" (Gal. ii demo.nded writing. So that we might 4); but especially the picture which two of trauslo.te it, " necessity arose for me to the le.test Epistles give of the" false teachers write," or, "an emergency occurred con- who privily shall bring in damnable stro.ining me to write." He was thUB induced heresies " (2 Pet. ii. 1 ), e.nd those who to write in the way of ezhorting them. The "creep into houses and lead captive silly particular subject of the exhortation is women" (2 Tim. ill. 6). '.fhe men thus described e.s the duty of oontencling ear- generall;r described are next designated nestly for the faith; the contention being more precisely e.s those who were before of expressed by a strong term somewhat old ordained to this oondemnation. So the analogous to that used by Paul in Phil. i. Authorized Version renders it. But the 27, and the " faith" being taken, not in the point is more correctly caught by the "even subjective sense of the quo.lity or grace of they who" of the Revised Version. The belief, but in the objective BBnse of the men just spoken of in general terms are things believed. This "faith" is declared immediately described as the 1:ery men to to have been delivered onos for all (so, with whom something more precise applies, wbioh the Revised Version; not once d..eliflered, is now to be stated. There is some difficulty, as the A.uthorized Version _r,uts it, which however, e.s to the exact sense of the 1tate- might mean " once on a time ) to the ll&int.l. men t. 'fhe term which is translated It is not statad brl u,/,om the deliverance we.a "ordained" by the Authorized Version is of 1-26.) TlIE GENERAL EPISTL:l!J OF JUDE.