The Pulpit Commentary — Jude — Section 15

thing,) whioh ungodly ■inners have spoken and afterwnrds in most scholarly fnshiou by age.in1t him. The " ten thous11.nds of hie Dillmanu, in I 851, who also published a. e11.ints" is bettc-r rendetC'd "ten thousands new German translation with impol'tnnt of hie holy ones," or, ns the Hevised Version emendations in 1853. Sinco then much gives it in the mnrgin, "hie holy myriads." nttention hns been paid to the hook. For the "holy ones" here intendrd n-re the Within the htst few yel\rs o. corrected nngels. The mention of this retinue of edition of Lauronoe's English translation Jelio'l'Rh is in nooordRnce with the Hebrew has been published by the author of the idea which nppears in snob passages as • Evolution of Christi.rnity' (Kegn.n Pl\ul Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3; Dan. "<ii. 10; Zeeb. xiv. and Co., 18S1); while another edition, with 5 (where the Letter reading is, "and the an English translation nnd important holy on<>s \\ith him"); and appears again in explanatory matter, has been issued by the New TC6tnment (Matt. xxv. 31; 2 Tbess. Professor Schodde of Ohio (Andover, 1S82). i. 7, etc.). The clause, "among them," An attempt bes been made by some to which might limit the ungodly to those in bring the composition of the book down to Israel, is omitted by tlie best authorities. Christian times, so that Enoch should quote The epithet " hard,'' which is applied to Jude, not Jude Enoch. But there is every the "speeches,'' means hard in the sense of reason to believe that it belongs to the "h11.rsh,'' not in the sense of "difficult to second century B.O. Certain portions of the understand." It is the" churlish" which is book, however, a.re of later date. For it is applied to Kahal (1 Sam. xxv. 3). In the scarcely possible to deny that it is the work original the whole emphasis of the sentence of more than one hand. The original seems is on the "ungodly sinners,'' which words are to have been written in Hebrew or Are.ma.io. thrown forward to the close, thus: "all the We cannot be fe.r astray, therefore, in hard things which they uttered against accepting it as the composi tiou of a Jew cif him-these impiou.s sinners I" Near the Palestine doting between s.c. 166 and 110 beginning of that remarkable specimen of It professes to give a series of revelations or encient apocalyptic literature, the Book of visions received by Enoch, in which tho fall Enoch ( eh. i. 9), we find these words, "And of the angels, the punishment of un- Lebold, he comes with myriads of the holy, righteous men, the reward of the godly, to pass judgment upon them, and will the coming of Messiah, the mystery of the deatroy the impious, and will call to account world-weeks, and the secrets of the kingdom all flesh for everything the sinners tmd the of nature, as well es those of the kingdom of impious have done and committed age.inst grace, are shown him. That such a book him" (Schodde'e rendering). This is the should have been ascribed to Enoch is not passege which Jude quotes. He does so, strange. It was suggested by the account however, with some modification ; for the which is given of him in Gen. v. 21-24. original, ns we now have it, does not contain "The statements there left ample room,'' as any reference to the " hord speeches" of the Dr. Schodde well remarks, "for a vivid men of impiety. The book i!Belf has had o. imA.gination to supply unwritten history, singular history. Some acquaints.nee with while antiquity and piety me.de Enoch a it is discovered as early as the ' Epistle of welcome name to give force e.7d authority Barnabas,' the ' Book of J uhilces,' and the to a book, and the 'walking with Goel' of 'Testament of the Twelve Pe.trLnche.' It Enoch, and his translation to heaven, which wo.s free] y used by the Fathers of the first five correct exegesis has al ways read in this centuries. Though never formally recog- passage, founded his claim of having en- nized as canonical, it was in great esteem, joyed close communion with God and largely accepted as o. reoOl'd of revelations, having possessed superhuman !mow ledge." and regarded as the work of Enoch. It Ver. 16.-As in 2 Pet. ii. 18, 19, the men disappeared after Augustine's time, the are further stigmatized for the gross and only traces of its existence being some profane selfishness to which they gavo vent references to it in the writings of Syneellus in sptecb. The present verse enlarges on and Kioephoru.s. From this time (about the particular vice which the writer adds A.D. 800) it wa.s entirely Jost sight of till to the more general statement given in the rather more than a C'entury ago, when the Book of Enoch-the vice of uttering bard Abyssinian Church was discovered to things against God. These are murmurers, pos.sess an Ethiopic version of it. The complainers, walking after their own lusts; well-known traveller, l:lruee, obtained three and their mouth speaketh great swelling copies of this version in I 773, and iu 1821 words, having men'1 persons in admiration 1m English translation was published by beoauae of advantage. 'fhe words rendered Archbishop Laurence. This was followed "murmurers" and "complainers" occur by a German translation by Hoffmann in nowhere else in the New 'festament. It is 1833. The Ethiopic text itself was first doulitfol whether any clear distinction cnn i;;su~d by Archbishop Laurence in 1838, Lo drawn lietween them, except that the l-25,] THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JUDE. 13