The Pulpit Commentary — Jude — Section 11

ongels are <lcJlnerl n.s those who kept not their the statement is of I\ f1te prep,,_,,,z, and first estate j or bolter, their ou,n principality. nothing mnro. Thedifferoncc in the two rcpre- Tho lr1en conveyed by tho term here i• that sontati()ns is duo probably to a difference in of lordRhip ratlior tlmu beginning. It is tho the subjects. Other passages refor to the term which is held by most commentators devil Bild his angels. But in the present to Le use<l ns n, title of nngels in such passage there is nothing to indicate that the )JO.ssagcs ae Col. i. JG; Eph. i. 21; iii. 10; fa.II of Saton is in view. The sin suggested vi.12, etc., whcro mention is ma<lo of" prin- by the context is not the sin of pri,1e, but a cipalities." In the present passage 'fyndnle, sin against nature. The reference, there- Crnnmer, the Gonevan nncl our Authorized fore, is taken to ho to the .Jewish idea. that Vcrsi"n agree in rendering it" first estate." amatory passion is not limited to the But the Rhcmish 11:ives "principality," and creatures of earth, and that some an"'els, ,vicklitfo has "princehoocl." Those seem yielding to the spell of the beauty or° the right, therefore, who tako the reference to daughters of men, forsook their own king- be to the Jewish i<lea of n peculiar dignity dom, and entered unto unnatural relations or lordship hel,l by the angels in creation. with them. The Jewish belief is seen in The sin alleged ns the reason for the penalty the story of Asmodeus in the Book of which the writer recoils to the minds of his Tobit; it ie found by Josephus (who has roaders is that they failed to keep thie lord- been followed by not a few modem in- ship, and left their proper habitation; by terpreters) in Geu. vi. 1-4; a.nd it is given which latter clause a descent to a different with special distinctnesa in the Book of sphere of being is intended. The penalty Enoch. itself is thie-that God he.th kept them in Ver. 7.-Tbe third example is ta.ken from everlasting ohe.ins (or, bonds, with the Re- the history of the cities of the Plain. Thie vised Version) under darkness unto the example is closely connected with the jndgment of the great day: It is well to immediately preceding by the even as with retain the rendering "kept" in this clause, which the verse opens; which phrase ex- instead of the" resel'ved" of the Authorized presses a. likeness between the two ea.see, to Version. For the verb used in describing wit, b,etween the reservation of those ongels the sin o.nd that used in describing the in bonds for the final judgment,and thE.lfate pei;talty m·e the same. As they "hept not of those cities as subjects of the penal ven- their lordsbip," God has "kept them in geance of God. Two of those cities of evil everlasting bonds." The word by which memory, Sodom and Gomorrah, a.re men- the ideo of'the evBf•lasting is expressed is a tioned by name. The other two, Adma.h peculiarly strong orie, occurring only once and Zeboim, are included in the phrase, again in the New Testament, viz. in Rom. i. and the cities about them. Attention is 20, where it is applied to God's "eternal rightly called by some of the commentators power." It designates these bonds as bonds to the remarkable frequency with which the from which there never can be escape. The case of Sodom e.nd Gomorrah is brought for- place of this present penal detention is ward, both in the New Testament and in the declared to be "under darkness." The Old, a.nd to the use which Paul makes of it term selected for the darkness, again, is o.n (as he finds it cited by lso.iah) in the great unusual one, occurring only here, in ver. 13, argument of Rom. ix. '£he sin char1;;ed and in 2 Pet. ii. 4, 17, and possibly Heb. xii. against these cities is stated in express terms 18. It means the densest, blackest darkness, to ho.ve been the same in kind with that and is used both in Homer and in the of the angel.a-the indulgence of passion apocryphal literature (Wisd. xvii. 2) of the contrary to no.ture. They are described a.a da.rknese of the nether world. Thisda1·kness, he.ving in like m=er with these (that is, as Deau Alford observes, is" considered as surely, in like manner with these angels jnst brooding over them.and they under it." But referred to; not, a.s some strangely imagine, this present penol detention is itsolf the with these men who corrupt the Church) prelude to a still more awful doom_1,1• the given themselves over to fornication, and judgment of the great day" (cf. Acts ii. 20; gone after strange flesh. The verbs are Rev. vi. 17). There is n similar, but less selected to bring out the intense sinfulness definite, statement on the subject of angelio of the sin-the one being a strong compolllld siu and penalty in 2 Pet. ii. 4. But these form expressing unreserved surrender, the representations diffor greatly from others other an equally strong compound form ( e.g. Eph. ii. 2; vi. 12), where the air or the denoting n departure from the law of nature henvonly places appear as the scenes occu- in the impurities practised. The sin he.s pied· by evil spirits, and these spirits possess taken its name from the city with which freedom, In the Now Testament, indeed, the Book of Genesis so fearfully connects its there ore no puss11ges, except those in Peter indulgence. It forms one of the darkest and Judo, which speak of folleu angels as strokes in the terrible picture which Paul has at present in bonds. Even in Matt. xxv. 41, given us of the state of the ancient hea.the&  THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE. [:-25.