Jude 1

¹Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: ²May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

³Beloved, while making every effort to write to you about our shared salvation, I found it necessary to write and urge you to contend for the faith delivered once for all to the holy ones. ⁴For certain people have slipped in, people whose condemnation was written about long ago, ungodly people who turn the grace of our God into shameless indulgence and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵Now I want to remind you, although you have come to know all this once for all, that Jesus, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶And the angels who did not keep their own position but abandoned their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloom for the judgment of the great day. ⁷Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which in the same way as these indulged in sexual immorality and went after other flesh, stand as an example, undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸Yet in the same way these dreamers defile the flesh, reject lordship, and slander the glorious ones. ⁹But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about Moses' body, did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment against him, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” ¹⁰These people, however, slander whatever they do not understand, and what they understand by instinct, like animals without reason, is what destroys them. ¹¹Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, abandoned themselves to Balaam's error for pay, and perished in Korah's rebellion.

¹²These people are reefs at your love feasts, feasting with you, shepherding themselves without fear. They are waterless clouds carried along by winds, late-autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; ¹³wild waves of the sea foaming up their own shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness has been kept forever.

¹⁴Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these people, saying, “Look, the Lord came with his holy myriads ¹⁵to execute judgment against all and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds that they have done in ungodliness, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” ¹⁶These people are grumblers, complainers, following their own desires. Their mouths speak arrogant things, and they flatter people for gain.

¹⁷But you, beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁸They used to tell you, “In the last time there will be mockers following their own ungodly desires.” ¹⁹These are the people who cause divisions, unspiritual people who do not have the Spirit. ²⁰But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. ²²And have mercy on some who waver; ²³save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on others with fear, hating even the tunic stained by the flesh.

²⁴Now to the one who is able to guard you from stumbling and to make you stand without blemish before his glory with great joy, ²⁵to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, might, and authority, before all time, now, and through all the ages. Amen.

Translation notes 10

1:1–2 — Jude and those kept for Jesus. Jude is the familiar English form of the name Judas. He identifies himself as James's brother; the letter does not add “brother of Jesus.” “Slave” retains the language of belonging to a master. “Loved in God the Father” preserves the Greek wording; “loved by God the Father” is a common alternative. “Kept for Jesus Christ” can also be understood as “kept by Jesus Christ.” Keeping recurs throughout the letter.

1:3–4 — Faith and condemnation. “Faith” here is the faith shared and handed on to the community; “holy ones” refers to God's people. “Written about long ago” points to an earlier written condemnation, illustrated in what follows, rather than explicitly saying these individuals were predestined to sin. “Shameless indulgence” includes the unrestrained sexual conduct condemned in the letter. Both “Master” and “Lord” most naturally refer to Jesus Christ. Some witnesses add “God” after “Master.”

1:5 — Jesus and the exodus. The Greek base reads “Jesus,” attributing the rescue from Egypt and subsequent judgment to him. “Lord” and “God” are important textual alternatives. The placement of “once for all” also varies; in this draft's base it belongs with the readers' knowledge, not with the saving from Egypt. The wording is difficult, but has not been replaced merely to make it less surprising.

1:6–7 — Angels, other flesh, and fire. The angels' abandoned dwelling recalls the tradition of heavenly beings crossing into the human sphere, associated with Genesis 6 and 1 Enoch. “These” in verse 7 most naturally refers to those angels. “Other flesh” leaves the unusual expression visible: in the Sodom story the attempted sexual assault targets angelic visitors, making a crossing of human and angelic boundaries a likely point of comparison. A broader reference to forbidden sexual relations is also defended. The Greek says “eternal fire,” without naming Gehenna, Hades, or Tartarus. Alternatively, the cities are “an example of eternal fire, undergoing punishment”; the connection of the phrase is disputed.

1:8–10 — Dreamers and slander. Dreams may be claimed revelations. “Lordship” likely concerns divine authority; “glorious ones” most naturally refers to heavenly beings, without specifying good or evil angels. Michael's dispute over Moses' body comes from a Jewish tradition not narrated in the Old Testament. His words recall Zechariah 3:2. “Slanderous judgment” means a condemnation expressed abusively; “a judgment for slander” is another possible construction. The repeated slander language connects the contrast with Michael to the accusations in verses 8 and 10.

1:11–13 — Examples and images. Cain, Balaam, and Korah recall Genesis 4, Numbers 22–25 and 31:16, and Numbers 16. The completed language “perished” portrays the opponents' ruin as accomplished. “Reefs” pictures danger; “stains” is an alternative understanding of the word. Love feasts were communal meals. “Shepherding themselves” accuses these people of caring for themselves. Fruitless trees are called twice dead and uprooted; no exact sequence of two deaths is supplied. Wandering stars complete the series of unstable or unproductive images.

1:14–15 — Enoch's prophecy. Enoch is seventh when Adam is counted first. The quoted prophecy corresponds to 1 Enoch 1:9; Jude calls it prophecy without explaining the status of the whole work. “Came” preserves the Greek past form in a prophecy of judgment, presenting the coming as accomplished. “Holy myriads” means vast companies of holy ones, most naturally angels here. The repeated ungodliness language is deliberate. Some Greek texts read “every person” instead of the base's “all the ungodly.”

1:16–21 — Desires, Spirit, and keeping. “Flatter people” expresses an idiom about admiring faces for advantage. “Unspiritual” in verse 19 is explained by the contrast with the Holy Spirit in verse 20, not by saying these people lack a human soul. Building and praying belong with the command to keep yourselves in God's love; “yourselves” is plural and allows a communal emphasis. God's love for them is prominent, while the expression can also encompass their love for God. The letter retains both divine keeping and the community's responsibility.

1:22–23 — Mercy, rescue, and fear. The wording has substantial textual variation. This draft follows the Greek base's three clauses; other forms have two groups or “convince” in place of the first “have mercy.” “Who waver” can also mean “who dispute.” Fear may involve both reverence for God and caution against being drawn into the wrongdoing. The tunic is clothing worn next to the skin; the stained-clothing image expresses contamination, while the people themselves are to receive mercy. Fire recalls the letter's judgment warnings.

1:24–25 — Guarding and praise. “Guard” is a different Greek verb from the repeated “keep,” but continues the theme of protection. “Without blemish” preserves the image of being presented undefiled. The Greek does not specify whose joy is meant. “Before all time” is literally “before the whole age.” Some witnesses add “wise” to “only God” and omit “through Jesus Christ our Lord” and “before all time”; this draft follows its Greek base.