The Pulpit Commentary — Jude — Section 13

proteotor of Israel o.gainst the world-powers travel all the way to the Zcnd-Avcsta for of heathoniam. He is "one of the chief it. Calvin referred it to ore.I Jewish tra- princes" (x. 13), "your prince" (x. 21),1" the dition. Another view of it appears, how- great prince" (xii. I), who gives help o.gninst ever, in so early a writer as Origen, viz. Persi11, e.nd sto.nds for the chosen people. that it is a quotation from e.n old ap,,- He is 11lso introduced in the Book of Ennch, crypha.1 writing on the Ascent or Assump- and the view given of him there ie like lh11t tion of Moses, the date of which is mucl: in Jude. He is "the merciful, the po.tient, diopnted, but is to.ken by •ome of the best the holy Mich11el" (xl. 8). He belongs to authorities (Ewald, Wieseler, Dillmanu, th11t developed form which the doctrine of Drummon<l) to be the first decade a[ter tho o.ngels took towo.rds the close of Old Testa- death of Herod. This is the ffi()St probable ment revelntion, when the ideas of distinc- explanation; e.nd Jude's use of this story, tion in dignity and office were added to the therefore, carries no more seriow~ conse- simpler conception of earlier times. In the quences with it than the use he after- apocryph11l books we find o. hierarchy with wards makes of the Book of Enoch. seven archaugels, including Micha.el,Gabriel, Beyond what could be gathered from a few Raphael, Urie!. When oontending with scattered references and quotations in the the devil he disputed. about the body of Fathers and some later writings, the book in Moses, durst not bring age.inst him a railing question remained unknown for many cen- aoouee.tion, but so.id, The Lord rebuke thee. turies. Bnt in the year 1861 a. considerable These last words occur in Zech. iii. 2, where part of it, which harl been discovered in the they are e.ddressed by the Lord to Satan. Ambrosian Library of Milan, was given to 'fhe term used for "disputed" points to a. the publio by Ceriani, in a.n Old Latin contention in words. The phrase rendered version, and since that time various edi- " railing accusation" by the English tions of it have been published. Ewald Version, e.nd "invective" by others, means observes that the quotation "shows how rather a. judgment or "sentence savouring of early the attempt was made to describe evil-speaking," a.s Alford puts it. Follow- exactly the fina.l moment of the life of ing the Rhemish Ve1·sion, therefore, the Moses, aud to weave into this description a. Revised Version renders it a "railing judg- complete answer to the questions which ment." What is meant, then, is that Michael a.rose concerning hie highest glory, and hi~ restrained himself, leaving e.ll judgment and guilt or innocence" (' History of Israel,' ii. vengeance even in this case to God. But p. 226, Eng. trans.). Some who are not what is the case referred to? The Ta.rgnm prepared to accept the theory that the of Jona.than, on Dent. xxxiv. 6, speaks of passage is a quotation from this ancient Michael as having charge of the grave of book, under5ta.ud Jnde to refer to a tradi- Moses, and there may be something to the tional expansion of Scripture, based partly ea.me effect in other ancient Jewish legends on the narrative of the death of Moses in (see Wetstein). But with this partial ex- Deuteronomy, and partly on the scene ception, there seems to be nothing resem- between Joshua and Sa.t:m in Zech. iii. bling J ode's statement either in apocryphal So, for example, Professor Lumby, who is books like that of Enoch or in the ra.bbini- of opinion that the mention of Jannes and ca.l litemture, not to speak of the canonical Jamfrres in 2 Tim. iii. 8, and certain passages Scriptures. Neither is the object of the in Stephen's speech as reported in Acts vii., contention quite apparent-whether it is show that there were current among the meant that the devil attempted to deprive Jews "tra,litional explanations of the earlier Moses of the honour of burial by impeB,ch- hi5-tory, which had grown round the Oltl ing him of the murder of the Egyptian, or Testament narrative." (On the A.ssumptiun that he sought to preserve the body for of Moses, e.nd the spread of legenrl on the idolatrous uses such as the brazen serpent subject of the death of Moses, see Schiirer's lent itself to, or what else. The matter, ''fhe Jewish People in the Time of Christ,' nevertheless, is introduced by Jude e.s one vol. iii. div. ii. pp. 80-83, Clark's tr,msla.- with which his readers would be familiar. tion.) Whence, then, comes the story? Some have Ver. 10.-The description of the men solved the difficulty by the desperate ex- dealt with in ver. 8 is resumed, their irnpiom1 pedient of allegory, as if the body of Moses irreverence e.nd self-indulgence being set were a. figure or the Israelite Le.w, polity, ove1· age.inst ll'Iichael's bearing. The corre- or people; e.nd as if the sentence refened to sponding passage in 2 Pet. ii. 12 is less de- the giving of the Law at Sine.i, the siege finite. Here we havo two pointed statements, under Hezekiah, or the rebuilding under one referring to the railers o.t dignities, the Zerubb11bel. Others seek its source in a other to the defilers of the flesh in ver. 8. But speoia.l revelation, or in some unrecorded these rail e.t whatsoever things they know instructions given by Clnist in explanation not: and what they understand naturally, of the Truusfigumtion scene. Horder would like the oreEPotures without reason, in these 10 THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE. (1-2G. -~------------------------------------ things are they dHtroyed. So the Rcvisc,l from obvious thnt various renderings e.rn Yersion renders it, with rut1oh more precision proposed: e.g." They gnve themscl vee wholly thnn t.he At1thorizcd VC'rsion, and preserving up to the error of Dalaam for the enke of 11 the distinction which appears in the original reward;" "Dy the seduction of D11limm'e between two verbs,•• 1.--uowing" e.nd "under- reward they committed excess of wioked• standing," applied to two different cla~ses of ness;" "They went to e1cess by D11le.am's "bjects. The id<'e. is that high and holy error, which was one determined by gain." objects are beyond their knowledge, and The first of these is adoptecl, with 80!118 their understanding is limited to t.he modification, by the Revised Version, o.ud senses. the physical wants e.nd appetites eomcs nearest the idea, which is that of whicli they have in common with the brutes. men losing themselves in riotous excess for In the rese of the former they a.re rash and the sake of worldly advantage. The point profe.ne of speech where they should be of the e.ualogy between Balo.am and them, ~ileut and restrained; in the case of the therefore, is, not his enticing Israel to latter they use them only to their own un- idolatry or to immorality, 11s some und.er- doing. 'l'he turn of the phrase. "in these ste.nd it, but the covetous spirit which the the)· are destroyed" (or, "destroy them- Old Testament and the New a.like attribute sekeii "), indie.ates, perhaps, how absolutely to the prophet of Pethor, to which also the they are lost in the service of the physical Book oi Numbers carries back the entire appetites. The words which Milton makes debasement of his clJaracter e.nd perversion tl,e tempter use of himself have been cited of his gifts. And perished in the ga.insa.ying as e. parallel to this verse- of Core. The term which is very fitly ren- " I was nt first e.s other beasts that graze dered" go.insaying" by the English Version The trodden herb, of abject thoughts and here l ''contradiction" in the Rhemish Ver- low, sion ; " treason" in Tyndnle, Cranmer, and As was my food; nor aught but food dis- the Geuevan) denotes properly an opposition cerned expressing itself in words. It is, therefore, Or acz, and apprehended nothing high." aptly applied to tbe rebellion of Kore.h and (' Paradise Lost,' ix. 571-5i4.) his company, who "gathered. themselvE!s together against Moses and against Aaron. Yer. 11.-As in 2 Pet. ii. 15, the darktlllt e.nd said unto them, Ye take too much upoµ pnssages in the Old Testament history lll'e you," etc. (Numb. ni. 3). The analogy u~niu nppealed to. While Peter, however, between the two cases, consequently,. i~ refers only to a single instance, Jude intro- limited by some to the s.ssertion of an,, duces three, and prefaces the whole by a unregulated liberty, the assumption of a Woe! such as the Gospels repeatedly attri- self-invented holiness, or the adoption .of bute to Christ himself. Woe unto them! e. worship which was a.lien _to God. It Ji~s for they have gone in the way of Ca.in; in the broader idea of a.. coi;itemptuous a.11-d rather, they went in the way of Cain. The determined assertion of self against divinelyJ phrase is the familiar one for a habitual appointed ordinances. . course of conduct (Ps. i l; Acts ix. 31; xiv. Vere. 12, 13.-The next two verses carry 16, etc.). Bnt whe.t is the point of the on the description of the men in a running comparison? Ca.in is supposed to be intro- fire of epithets and figures, short, sharp, and d aced as the type of murderous envy, of the piercing, corresponding also at certain points persecuting spirit, or of those who live by with 2 Pet. ii. 13-17. These are spots in the impulse of nature, regardless of God or your feasts of charity, when they feast with man. In John iii. 12 he is the type of all you, feeding themselves without fear. What that is opposed io the sense of brother- is referred to appears not to be ordinary hood, the murderer of the brother whose friendly gatherings or oooasions for the rigLtcous works Bie e.n offence to him ; but interchange of affection, but the well-known in the present passage he is introdnced agap~, or love-feasts, of the primitive rather e.s the fimt and, in some respects, Church, the meals provided in connection the most prononnced example of wickedness with the Lord's Supper, at which rich and whicli the Old Testament offers-a wicked- poor sat down. together. In adopting the ness defying God and destroying man. rendering "spots," the English ·Voreion And re.n greedily after the error of Balaam follows Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevnn, fcrr reward. The "error" in view is a life and the Rhemish, and is followed by some diverted from righteousness aud truth. 'l'he good interpreters on the ground thu.t the verb rendered "ran greedily," or "ran riot- term, though formally diflerent, is essen- ously," is a very strong one, meaning they tially the so.me as that in 2 Pet. ii. 13. "were ponred out,'' and expressing, there- The word itself, however, properly means fore, the bnneful o.beoluteness of tLcir Hur- "rocks," and therefore the point may be render to the error in question. Otherwise that their immoral couduct makes these tl..e construction of the sentence is so far men like treacherous reefs, on which t\Jeir 1-25.) 'J'HE GENEflAL EPISTLE OF ,JUDE. 11