On
Jude 3:
In typically Jewish fashion,
resembling ‘the tradition of the elders’ (cf. Mk. 7.3, 5, 13), Jude puts
boundaries around his community, to protect them from impurity and pollution.
In v. 3 Jude claims for his teaching that it is τη απαξ
παροδοθειση τοις
αγιος πιστει. The implication is that the false teaching of the
interlopes has no such legitimacy. In his narration in v. 3, Jude
pre-emptively calls on his community to side with him against the opponents
introduced in v. 4. They are thus marked off by social boundaries against Jude’s
addresses, the ‘pious’ ones in his community.
Put another way, in Jude 3, the author appeals to the faith entrusted to
the αγιοι as something the
audience must preserve and share, thus inoculating themselves against division
caused by false teaching and evil conduct. (Chris
Armitage, From Qumran to Jude: A History of Social Crisis at Qumran and in
Early Jewish Christianity [Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023], 37-38)
Jude 4 vs. OSAS:
But there is an important difference
between [1QS] and Jude 4. At 1QS 3.13 we read that because ‘in the
story of all men’ in their ‘two divisions, every deed they do falls into their divisions
. . . God has sorted these into equal parts until the last time’. This is the
predestinarian principle underlying 1QS. From this deterministic formulation,
the basic dualistic structure of humankind is expressed through the traditional
symbols of light and darkness.
True it is that Jude in v. 4
stigmatises the opponents as οι
παλαι προγεγραμμενοι
εις τουτο
το κριμα, but he presents an alternative in v. 3, επαγωνιζεσθαι τη
απαξ παραδοθειση
τοις αγιοις
πιστει. Jude does not contemplate
that the opponents will turn from their impure ways and contend for the faith
once delivered. They are condemned from the beginning because they will not
do so, not the other way about. Though his audience are wanted of them, so
they will not associate with them. (Chris
Armitage, From Qumran to Jude: A History of Social Crisis at Qumran and in
Early Jewish Christianity [Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023], 42,
italics in original)
Jude
5 vs. OSAS:
The phrase το δευτερον in v. 5
does not just mean ‘when’; it forms a pair with απαξ, and does not merely signify that God first
rescued a people from Egypt and then let the faithless die in the desert,
without entering the promised land. It is a more subtle reference to God’s
anger, since the people lacked faith at the Red Sea (Exod. 14.10-12) and were
rescued by God, but repeated faithlessness (Num. 14.2, 11), ‘at a second time’
of divine intervention in history, provoked God’s anger and the death of most
of the desert generation (except Joshua and Caleb), despite Moses’ intercession
(Num. 14.13-14).
Another challenge in v. 5 is to
ascertain the significance of the adverb απαξ, ‘once’, or
‘once for all’. The best interpretation is that it means ‘once (and) for all’
here, because it denotes a unique and unrepeatable salvific event, later
followed by judgment on the unbelieving. Jude’s interest in those κλητοις, along with the phrase ειδοτας υμας
απαξ παντα, would suggest
that the apostate were formerly orthodox, and that just as with the Israelites
delivered from Egypt who το
δευτερον did not believe,
God will judge them. This suggests that Jude’s opponents are at all times within
his community—not intruders from without it. (Chris Armitage, From Qumran to Jude: A History
of Social Crisis at Qumran and in Early Jewish Christianity [Sheffield:
Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023], 58, italics in original; emphasis in bold added)
Jude 21 vs. OSAS
The mention of ‘everlasting
life’, ζωην αιωνιον, in v. 21 confirms that Jude uses the participle
προσευχομενοι eschatologically.
The danger is that even orthodox members of Jude’s community will fall victim
to the opponents’ false teaching, and so fail to attain eschatological salvation. Hence his purpose is to encourage his
community in the true faith, from which the heretics have fallen away, thus maintaining
a purity by false teaching. (Chris Armitage, From Qumran to Jude: A History
of Social Crisis at Qumran and in Early Jewish Christianity [Sheffield:
Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023], 134)
