The Pulpit Commentary — Jude — Section 14

fellowe mlLke shipwreok. Bo the Revieecl life (Ruther). This comparison recalld at Voreiou gives "hiclclen rooks" in the text, once the figure in Isa. !vii. 20. Wandering ancl lro.nsfers "Ypots" to tho margin. Tho stars, to whom is ( or, ha, been) reserved the "without fenr," which is usuolly 1Ltl11checl blaoknese of darkn~ss for ever. In the Book to the thircl olnuse, is oonnectecl by some of Enoch (eh. xviii. 14) the angel shows with the seconcl, in which cose it expresses the prophet "a prison for tho stars of tho reckless, irreverent spirit in which these heaven, and for lhe host of hPa.vr•n," nnr1 men joined in the snored agapm. The last in the next verse it is explainer! that "the clause, "feeding [or, 'posturing'] them- stars that roll ovrr the fire are they who selves," describes them further as having have transgressed the command of Gnrl no regard to the proper objoot of these lovo- before their rising, because they di,l not feoste in ministering to Christian fellowship come forth in their time." It is possible and the holy eense of brotherhooil, but as that Jude had this in mincl here, as the lan- using them simply os a means for the satis- guageof earlier chapters of the same book may faction of their own appetites a.ad the have suggested others of Juile's figures. If flll'themnce of their own base ends. Com- the "wandering stars" are to be identified poro the evils referred to by Paul in 1 Cor. with o.ny particular order of the heavenly xi. 21, and the description of the shepherds bodies, it will be with the comets rather than in Ezek. xxxiv. am! Isa.. lvi. 11. "They the planets, the movements of the former are like shepherds," eaye Humphry, "tba.t seeming, to the common eye, so much the more hove themselves for their flocks, feasting erratic. The doom which is declared to be in themselves, not their sheep, and doing this reserve, no doubt takes its form so far from without fear of the chief Shepherd, who has the immediate figure of the comet va.n ishing bis eye upon them." Clouds they a.re with- into the unseen. But the idea expressed is out wa.tar, oo.rried a.bout of wiuds; or, not so much that of suddenness as that carried past by winds. Like rainless clouds, of certainty and irreversibility. It is the the spol't of the uncertain breezes, yielding doom which Christ himself pronounces to bi; nothing for the fruitfulness of earth, these p'T'epared (1,fatt. xxv. 41 ), and, therefore, ine- empty, volatile, iriconsto.nt men disappoint vitable a.ndperpetual. In confirmation of this the expectation of the Chw·ch nnd do it no statement of the certainty of the doom, the service. Trees whose fruit. withereth, with- readel's are next reminded of the Lord's out fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. judicial coming, o.nd of that a.a the subject The Authorized Version is less happy than of prophecy. The prophecy in question, usual in its rendering of the first clause. though not one of those recorded in the The Revised Version, in adopting" autumn co.nonico.l Hebrew Scriptures, seems to have trees" instead of "trees whose fruit been familiar enough to the readers to ma.ke withoretb," returns to the renderings of the it a natural and pertinent thing to quote it. earlier versions, Wickliffe giving "harvest Bo Paul cites heathen o.nthors or common trees," Tyndole o.nd Cranmer" trees without popular sayings in support of his statements. fruit at gathering-time," and the Rhemish Vers. 14, 15.-And Enoch a.!so, the "bees of autumn." The idea of uselessness seventh from Adsm, prophesied of these. e.nd unfruitfulness, which we.a expressed in The Revisers render it, ar.d to thes,, also the provious figure, is repeated, but in a Enoch . . . prophesied. In the apocryphal ttiore absolute form, in this new figure. The writing from which the passage is taken late autumn is not the time, from the Enoch is styled, as here, "the seventh from Eastern point of view, for the putting forth Adam." Seven occurs in Scripture as a of fruit. The tree then becomes bare, saoreo. symbolical number. Its introduc- ba!'ren, leafless. So is it with these men. tion here, therefore, is very generally under- Nor is it only that they have no fruit to stood to cla.im a peculiar authority anr.l show. The capa.city of fruitfulness is finality for the prophecy emitted by Enoch. extinct within them. The possibility of But it moy be intended simply to mark the recovering it is gone from them. They high antiquity of the prophecy, and its are o.s dead to all good service as trees are connection with the man who was dis- which are rooted out os hopelesily useless. tinguished from others of the same uame The phrase, "twice dead," may mean no mentioned in the oldest Scriptures (Gen. iv. ·mol'e than "utterly dead." The point, how- 17; xxv. 4; xlvi. 9) by his exceptional ever, is rather this-that they ore dead, uot nearness to God. Saying, Behold the Lord only in respect of barrenness-which is 11 oometh (literally, came) with ten thonsands death in life-but in respect of the extinction of his saints, to execute judgment upon o.ll, of a.II vitality. Raging ( or, wild) wa.vas of and to oonvince (that is, to convict) o.ll that the sea, foaming out their own aha.me; or are ungodly among them of all their un- shames, a.a the original gives it ; that is to godly deeds wllioh they have ungodly com- eo.y, shameful deeds, or, it mo.y be, the lk- mitted, o.nd of o.ll their hard speeches (or, 9radinq lmta which iuspire their unliceusei with the Revised Version, all the harcl 12 THE GENE1UL EPISTLE OF JUD!!:. [1-2&