Jude 11-13
11 Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. 12 These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
________________________
Jude continues rebuking the False Teachers. In this section, he compares them to three different archetypal rebellions from the Old Testament: Cain, Balaam, and Korah.
From The Pulpit Commentaries:
Jude 1:11
As in 2 Peter 2:15, the darkest passages in the Old Testament history are again appealed to. While Peter, however, refers only to a single instance, Jude introduces three, and prefaces the whole by a Woe! such as the Gospels repeatedly attribute to Christ himself. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain; rather, they went in the way of Cain. The phrase is the familiar one for a habitual course of conduct (Psalms 1:1; Acts 9:31; Acts 14:16, etc.). But what is the point of the comparison? Cain is supposed to be introduced as the type of murderous envy, of the persecuting spirit, or of those who live by the impulse of nature, regardless of God or man. In John 3:12 he is the type of all that is opposed to the sense of brotherhood, the murderer of the brother whose righteous works are an offence to him; but in the present passage he is introduced rather as the first and, in some respects, the most pronounced example of wickedness which the Old Testament offers—a wickedness defying God and destroying man. And ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward. The "error" in view is a life diverted from righteousness and truth. The verb rendered "ran greedily," or "ran riotously,'' is a very strong one, meaning they "were poured out," and expressing, therefore, the baneful absoluteness of their surrender to the error in question. Otherwise the construction of the sentence is so far from obvious that various renderings are proposed: e.g., "They gave themselves wholly up to the error of Balaam for the sake of a reward;" "By the seduction of Balaam's reward they committed excess of wickedness;" "They went to excess by Balaam's error, which was one determined by gain." The first of these is adopted, with some modification, by the Revised Version, and comes nearest the idea, which is that of men losing themselves in riotous excess for the sake of worldly advantage. The point of the analogy between Balaam and them, therefore, is, not his enticing Israel to idolatry or to immorality, as some understand it, but the covetous spirit which the Old Testament and the New alike attribute to the prophet of Pethor, to which also the Book of Numbers carries back the entire debasement of his character and perversion of his gifts. And perished in the gainsaying of Core. The term which is very fitly rendered "gainsaying" by the English Version here ("contradiction" in the Rhemish Version; "treason" in Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan) denotes properly an opposition expressing itself in words. It is, therefore, aptly applied to the rebellion of Korah and his company, who "gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you," etc. (Numbers 16:3). The analogy between the two cases, consequently, is limited by some to the assertion of an unregulated liberty, the assumption of a self-invented holiness, or the adoption of a worship which was alien to God. It lies in the broader idea of a contemptuous and determined assertion of self against divinely appointed ordinances.
Keeping in mind that Jude was a 1st century writer, it is worthwhile to contextualize his writing within a 1st century / Second Temple Period context. One writer from this period, whose work survives to the present, is Philo of Alexandria.
Philo wrote about Cain (link HERE) and I'll provide some excerpts below:
II. (5) And from whence does Cain go forth? is it from the palace of the ruler of the world? But what house of God can exist perceptible by the outward senses except this world which it is impossible and impracticable to quit? For the great circle of the heaven binds round and contains within itself everything which has ever been created; and of those things which have already perished, the component parts are resolved into their original elements, and are again portioned off among those powers of the universe of which they consist, the loan which, as it were, was advanced to each, being restored back at unequal periods of time, in accordance with laws previously laid down, to the nature which originally made it, whenever that nature chooses to call in its debts. (6) Again, if any person goes out from any place, that which he leaves behind him is in a different place from that in which he now is, but if this be true it must follow that there are some portions of the universe deprived of the presence of God, who never leaves any place empty or destitute of himself, but who fills up all things for all time; (7) and if God has not a face (inasmuch as he is not bound by what may seem appropriate for created things), and if he does not exist in parts inasmuch as he surrounds all things and is not surrounded by any, it is impossible for anything to remove and depart from this world as from a city, as there is no portion of it left without. It now remains for us, considering that none of these things are spoken of in terms of strict propriety, to turn to the allegorical system, which is dear to men versed in natural philosophy, taking the first principles of our argument from this source. (8) If it is hard to depart from before the face and out of the sight of a mortal king, how can it be anything but extremely difficult to depart and quit the appearance of God, and to determine no longer to come into his sight. This indeed is to be left without any idea of him, and to be mutilated as to the eyes of the soul, (9) and all those who of necessity have endured this fate, being weighed down by the might of irresistible and implacable power, are objects rather for pity than for hatred; but all those who voluntarily and of deliberated purposes have rejected the living God, exceeding even the bounds of wickedness itself, for what other evil of equal weight can possibly be found? Such men should suffer not the usual punishments of evil doers, but something new and extraordinary. And surely no one could invent a more novel or more terrible penalty than a departure and flight from the presence of the Ruler of the universe.
III. (10) Accordingly God banished Adam; but Cain went forth from his presence of his own accord;
In addition to his association with anger and greed, Cain is the archetypal exile. Jude's warning here indicates that false teachers and those who follow them will become spiritual exiles.
The ancient Jewish historian Josephus also wrote about Cain. As Josephus was a contemporary of Jude, we can infer (to some degree) the view and sentiment toward Cain in Jude's time. Excerpt below:
"And when Cain had traveled over many countries, he, with his wife, built a city, named Nod, which is a place so called, and there he settled his abode; where also he had children. However, he did not accept of his punishment in order to amendment, but to increase his wickedness; for he only aimed to procure every thing that was for his own bodily pleasure, though it obliged him to be injurious to his neighbors. He augmented his household substance with much wealth, by rapine and violence; he excited his acquaintance to procure pleasures and spoils by robbery, and became a great leader of men into wicked courses."
Cain not only sinned greatly, he was believed to have led others to do the same. Cain is clearly not company a False Teacher would not want to be named alongside.
The story of Balaam might be less familiar than the story of Cain. Balaam's story is told primarily in Numbers 22-24. The most familiar portion therein is when the donkey speaks to him.
Summarizing, Balaam is asked to curse Israel. He cannot do it and says as much. On the surface, it is difficult to see why this would lead to his characterization as a villain of the Jewish people. For that explanation, we have to look farther:
In Numbers 25, we are told that Israel began to sin with the daughters of the Moabites. It becomes clear later in the text that this sin was orchestrated and encouraged by Balaam.
Deuteronomy 23: 3 "No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, 4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
Joshua 13:22 Balaam also, the son of Beor, the one who practiced divination, was killed with the sword by the people of Israel among the rest of their slain.
Joshua 24: 9 Then Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel. And he sent and invited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you. So I delivered you out of his hand.
Nehemiah 13 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.
Balaam was not able to curse Israel, but we read here that this was not for lack of trying. He is credited in non-canonical texts with being the originator of the tactic of using Moabite women to lure and seduce Israelite men into worshipping false gods.
Balaam is, typologically, a betrayer of God's people while wearing the veneer of being God's mouthpiece. This would have been well-understood by Jude's original audience and it would have been a stinging rebuke of the false teachers he is addressing.
The story of Korah's rebellion is found in Numbers 16. Chabad.org has a good and lengthy article expounding on the details of the rebellion:
Korah, the Man of Stature
Korah1 was a great-grandson of Levi, the third of Jacob's twelve sons, and a first cousin to Moses and Aaron, the Jewish leader and High Priest, respectively.
Korah was born in Egypt,2 at the time when the Jews were enslaved to King Pharaoh. He experienced the miraculous Exodus from Egypt and journey through the Red Sea on dry land, and received the Torah at Mount Sinai along with the rest of his brethren.
Korah was extremely wealthy,3 and was a clever and astute individual.4 His status as a member of the Levite tribe enabled him to participate in the service in the Mishkan, the portable sanctuary the Jews carried with them throughout their journey to the Promised Land.
Despite—and because of—his many qualities, he felt able to take a stance against Moses and Aaron, which ultimately led to his downfall.
Korah's Rebellion
Korah was jealous of the fact that Aaron had been chosen as High Priest, to the exclusion of anyone else. Furthermore, his cousin Elitzafan had been chosen as head of the Levite family of Kehot, to which Korah belonged,5 and Korah felt this position was rightfully his.
These personal grievances led Korah to stage a full-blown rebellion. Accompanied by Dathan and Abiram, troublemakers since their early days in Egypt, he rallied an additional 250 community leaders to his cause. Together, they confronted Moses and Aaron and claimed that he had appointed his brother as High Priest on his own accord, without being instructed to do so by G‑d. They further demanded that they all be allowed to serve as High Priests.
Moses responded that this was impossible, as only one person could assume this sacred post. To demonstrate that Aaron was indeed Heavenly ordained, he instructed them all to take pans the next day and offer ketoret (incense) before G‑d, and G‑d would accept the sacrifice of the one whom He deemed worthy.
Korah's group grew in size, as throughout the night he lured thousands to his side. The next day, the 250 men approached the sanctuary with their incense-filled pans.
At this point, Moses warned the Jews to stay clear of the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Addressing the crowd, he foretold of the punishment that would befall them: the earth would open its mouth and swallow them alive.
As Moses finished speaking, the earth indeed opened up and swallowed Korah and his two cohorts along with their families and possessions, never to be seen again. At the same time, a Heavenly fire went forth and consumed the 250 incense-bearers.
The comparison here, from Jude, is relatively straight-forward. Korah asserted his own holiness and then challenged the divinely appointed authority and it led (literally) to not only his own downfall, but also everyone who followed him. This comparison is intended as a warning to the false teachers, and also to those who follow them.
Interestingly, the false teachers being rebuked by Jude seem to be antinomian. Korah is also often associated with antinomian heresy.
Continuing on to verse 12, from The Pulpit Commentaries:
Jude 1:12, Jude 1:13
The next two verses carry on the description of the men in a running fire of epithets and figures, short, sharp, and piercing, corresponding also at certain points with 2 Peter 2:13-17. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear. What is referred to appears not to be ordinary friendly gatherings or occasions for the interchange of affection, but the well-known agapae, or love-feasts, of the primitive Church, the meals provided in connection with the Lord's Supper, at which rich and poor sat down together. In adopting the rendering "spots," the English Version follows Tyndale, Cranmer, the Genevan, and the Rhemish, and is followed by some good interpreters on the ground that the term, though formally different, is essentially the same as that in 2 Peter 2:13. The word itself, however, properly means "rocks," and therefore the point may be that their immoral conduct makes these men like treacherous reefs, on which their fellows make shipwreck. So the Revised Version gives "hidden rocks" in the text, and transfers "spots" to the margin. The "without fear," which is usually attached to the third clause, is connected by some with the second, in which case it expresses the reckless, irreverent spirit in which these men joined in the sacred agape. The last clause, "feeding [or, 'pasturing'] themselves," describes them further as having no regard to the proper object of these love-feasts in ministering to Christian fellowship and the holy sense of brotherhood, but as using them simply as a means for the saris-faction of their own appetites and the furtherance of their own base ends. Compare the evils referred to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:21, and the description of the shepherds in Ezekiel 34:1-31, and Isaiah 56:11. "They are like shepherds," says Humphry, "that have themselves for their flocks, feasting themselves, not their sheep, and doing this without fear of the chief Shepherd, who has his eye upon them." Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; or, carried past by winds. Like rainless clouds, the sport of the uncertain breezes, yielding nothing for the fruitfulness of earth, these empty, volatile, inconstant men disappoint the expectation of the Church and do it no service. Trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. The Authorized Version is less happy than usual in its rendering of the first clause. The Revised Version, in adopting "autumn trees" instead of "trees whose fruit withereth," returns to the renderings of the earlier versions, Wickliffe giving "harvest trees," Tyndale and Cranmer "trees without fruit at gathering-time," and the Rhemish "trees of autumn." The idea of uselessness and unfruitfulness, which was expressed in the previous figure, is repeated, but in a more absolute form, in this new figure. The late autumn is not the time, from the Eastern point of view, for the putting forth of fruit. The tree then becomes bare, barren, leafless. So is it with these men. Nor is it only that they have no fruit to show. The capacity of fruitfulness is extinct within them. The possibility of recovering it is gone from them. They are as dead to all good service as trees are which are rooted out as hopelessly useless. The phrase, "twice dead," may mean no more than "utterly dead." The point, however, is rather this—that they are dead, not only in respect of barrenness—which is a death in life—but in respect of the extinction of all vitality. Raging (or, wild) waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; or shames, as the original gives it; that is to say, shameful deeds, or, it may be, the degrading lusts which inspire their unlicensed life (Huther). This comparison recalls at once the figure in Isaiah 57:20. Wandering stars, to whom is (or, has been) reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. In the Book of Enoch (Isa 18:1-7 :14) the angel shows the prophet "a prison for the stars of heaven, and for the host of heaven," and in the next verse it is explained that "the stars that roll over the fire are they who have transgressed the command of God before their rising, because they did not come forth in their time." It is possible that Jude had this in mind here, as the language of earlier chapters of the same book may have suggested others of Jude's figures. If the "wandering stars" are to be identified with any particular order of the heavenly bodies, it will be with the comets rather than the planets, the movements of the former seeming, to the common eye, so much the more erratic. The doom which is declared to be in reserve, no doubt takes its form so far from the immediate figure of the comet vanishing into the unseen. But the idea expressed is not so much that of suddenness as that of certainty and irreversibility. It is the doom which Christ himself pronounces to be prepared (Matthew 25:41), and, therefore, inevitable and perpetual. In confirmation of this statement of the certainty of the doom, the readers are next reminded of the Lord's judicial coming, and of that as the subject of prophecy. The prophecy in question, though not one of those recorded in the canonical Hebrew Scriptures, seems to have been familiar enough to the readers to make it a natural and pertinent thing to quote it. So Paul cites heathen authors or common popular sayings in support of his statements.
Adding to the note above, "wandering stars" appears to be an allusion to the sinful "ben Elohim" of Genesis 6, also known as the "Watchers" of 1 Enoch. A correlation between star imagery and angels exists in ancient times, including in the Bible.
Job 38:4 "Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell me, if you have understanding.
5 Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
6 On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone,
7 when the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Isaiah 14: "How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!
Revelation 9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.
1 Enoch 18:13 I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, 14and to me, when I inquired regarding them, The angel said: 'This place is the end of heaven and 15earth: this has become a prison for the stars and the host of heaven. And the stars which roll over the fire are they which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord in the beginning of 16their rising, because they did not come forth at their appointed times. And He was wroth with them, and bound them till the time when their guilt should be consummated [even] for ten thousand years.'
Jude's consistent theme, regarding these false teachers, is their rejection of authority and their selfish greediness. The other implied theme is God's judgment. Cain's line was destroyed by the Flood. Balaam died by the sword. Korah and his cohorts were swallowed up by the earth. Jude is emphasizing that these rebellions are not light things. They are profoundly serious.
As we continue on in the text, in the next section, Jude moves from making inferred references to 1 Enoch to quoting from it directly. We will examine the implications of this quotation, as well as the subject matter of the text itself, in the next section.
No comments:
Post a Comment