Bible Study Series: Judah 17-25

(Sorry for the lapse of time between entries on this, November just seemed to fly by!)

“But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions." It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.” (RSV)

“But you, dear friends, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, “In the end time scoffers will come living according to their own ungodly desires.” These people create divisions. Since they don’t have the Spirit, they are worldly. A strategy for the faithful But you, dear friends: build each other up on the foundation of your most holy faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep each other in the love of God, wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will give you eternal life. Have mercy on those who doubt. Save some by snatching them from the fire. Fearing God, have mercy on some, hating even the clothing contaminated by their sinful urges. Blessing To the one who is able to protect you from falling, and to present you blameless and rejoicing before his glorious presence, to the only God our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, belong glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, now and forever. Amen.” (CEB)


After spending the main body of his epistle denouncing the false teachers, Judah now turns to his final exhortation which serves as a beautiful sending off for those beloved and “rescued by God’s power.” As the Navarre commentary points out, this final section serves as a call to “guard the faith, to practice virtue and to set good example (651).” There are a few different ways to “divide” this section and perhaps the easiest would be to break it into two: 1) Warning and Exhortations (17-23) and 2) Closing Benediction (24-25).

Verses 17-19 begin by reminding the community that the Apostles predicted that there would be disruptions and ungodly people who would arise at various points. (See also Acts 20:29-30; 1 Tim 4:1-3; 2 Pet 3:3 for more on this.) Of course, this also harkens back to our Lord’s statement in Matthew 24 that “False Christs and false prophets” would come. These scoffers, who “create division”, do not have the Spirit, and as Wright suggests, simply “are living at the merely human level (203).” Therefore, without the Spirit, they can’t truly be Christians as they claim to be (Perkins 155). As most of us know, this problem persists to this day in and outside the Church. In some ways, it is a sign of the messianic age, which was initiated by Christ and will last until his Second Advent. The question for all Christians, then, is how we respond to this reality. This is what Judah is concerned with in the verses that follow.

Judah charges these young Christians to be built up in their “most holy faith (20)” which they received. This brings us back to the point Judah made in verse 3, where he called them to “contend for the faith”. Thus being filled with holy faith, the Christian is urged to prayer. We see what he means beginning at the end of verse 20, where Judah exhorts them to “pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.” This is truly a remarkable call for the believer, wrapped within a deep and rich Trinitarian theology. As the Navarre commentary points out, this invocation is tied to the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and love (651). Citing from the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1812, we see that the “theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.”

Verses 22-23 are rendered differently depending on which version of the Bible you own. The Greek text is uncertain at several points due to the existence of variants. (Perhaps one of my astute readers would like to comment with greater detail on this?) In any case, they follow closely to the preceding verses. Here, Judah calls for greater communal action and mercy to those who need to be snatched “out of the fire”. Wright is helpful by summarizing this as if Judah is saying to them: “Make sure you look carefully to see what condition people are in, and apply the mercy of God appropriately in each case (205).” While it is true that as Christians we need to be mindful where sin exists, it is equally important that we seek to heal through mercy, just as our Lord did for us.

This short, but wonderful, epistle ends with a beautiful benediction/doxology. These final words remind us that all glory is due to our heavenly Father through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are reminded here how the Church has always addressed her prayers at Mass, to the Father through the Son (and in the Spirit). Through these trials, we are called to remain fixed on Jesus, who will present us “without blemish” to the throne of his Father. And as Perkins explains: “God’s eternal power and majesty makes it clear that he can bring the faithful to that glorious destiny (158).” Amen.

Bible Study Series: Judah 5-16

“Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that he who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you." But these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals do, they are destroyed. Woe to them! For they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perish in Korah's rebellion. These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever. It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage.” (RSV)

NT Wright acknowledges a number of difficulties when reading this section from Judah. As he suggests, one of the main issues is coming to grips with the fact that “things could have been, or could be again, quite as bad as he (Judah) is making out (199).” In this context, particularly with the harsh and direct tone that Judah takes, it can be tempting to accuse Judah of “demonizing people” as Wright suggests some may do today. But as he points out, distancing themselves (ourselves) “from what Judah has perceived as the enormous danger facing the church, opening up in front of the little community like a huge hole in the road into which, unless they watch out, they will stumble to their doom (199).”

I begin with this wisdom from Wright because it captures the reality of what is at stake in the mind of Judah as he writes his letter to this young Christian community (and to us). This section of Judah (5-16) focuses on the false teachers/ungodly people in the midst of this community. There are a lot of unique references to the Old Testament (as well as apocryphal literature) in this section. While often the discussion on this section turns to either the unnatural lust of the ungodly or Judah’s use of apocryphal books (which I am sure will occur in the comments), I am going to focus on verse 5.

In verse 5, Judah begins: “I wish to remind you, although you know all things, that [the] Lord who once saved a people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe (NABRE).” (I should note that “Lord” in verse 5 is attested to in some ancient manuscripts, while others read “he” or “Jesus” or God”.) Judah sets the tone for the rest of this section by pointing out that even those who had seen the Lord free them from bondage in Egypt, and brought them safely to Mt. Sinai, quickly fell away and were “destroyed.” Their lack of faith is a warning to this new community of Christian believers. Like the ancient Hebrews, our call is to remain faithful, knowing that our journey with God will not always be easy. This is not only for the new believer, like the community to which Judah writes, but also to those who have remained steadfast throughout their lives. It is important to remember Judah’s charge at the very beginning of this letter to “contend for the faith.” All are called to remain, in a truly active sense, faithful and to trust in the Lord. May we not be like the Hebrews, who in Exodus 16:16-21, did not trust that the LORD would provide each day the manna that they (and we) need. Lack of faith and trust can lead us down a road to where we begin to act like the ungodly, which inevitably brings about judgment.

The verses that follow provide a series of examples of ungodly actions done by both man and angel. Judah sites Old Testament passages and the writings from OT apocrypha (1 Enoch and Assumption of Moses?) to show that those who remain unfaithful and engage in wickedness are condemned. Of note, verse 12 mentions abuse at “love feasts” which indicates that there were liturgical abuses even back in the first century (see also 1 Corinthians 11). The Navarre commentary notes that “these false teachers are quite happy to attend Christian assemblies, but they end an immoral life and cause scandal (650).” Again, this small letter is not only useful to the original readers, but also to us in 2011.

Verses 17-25 will conclude this letter with additional warnings, but also with an important exhortation and benediction. We’ll look at that in the coming days. But for now, I open the comment box to you for your thoughts and wisdom, particularly in the middle section of this portion of Jude.

Bible Study Series: Judah 1-4

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (RSV)

“From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James; to those who are called, to those who are dear to God the Father and kept safe for Jesus Christ, 2 mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance. 3 My dear friends, at a time when I was eagerly looking forward to writing to you about the salvation that we all share, I felt that I must write to you encouraging you to fight hard for the faith which has been once and for all entrusted to God's holy people. 4 Certain people have infiltrated among you, who were long ago marked down for condemnation on this account; without any reverence they pervert the grace of our God to debauchery and deny all religion, rejecting our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (NJB)


Verses 1-4 contain the salutary greeting and the occasion for the writing of this letter. The writer of this letter identifies himself as Judah (Jude or Judas). (We discussed in the introductory post about the issue of authorship, so I will direct you here for more info.)

(1-2) It can be tempting to quickly pass through the opening salutations in many of the NT letters, which is a shame since examples like this one prove to be quite beautiful and rich. As the compact Navarre New Testament point out: “In the way he describes his addressees, the writer provides a description what a Christian is: his life starts with a call from God, it develops thanks to the grace of God, and reaches its culmination in Jesus Christ (649).” Indeed, it is a striking description, which should bring great solace to all those who are “kept safe for Christ” no matter if you are living in the first or the twenty-first century. As many early Christian letters offer the reader “grace and peace” this one is more expansive in bestowing “mercy, peace, and love” in abundance to those who are “beloved in God.” We will see this again in the concluding remarks (Perkins 147). Hahn and Mitch suggest that this is an expanded form of the “Jewish greeting of shalom (ICSBNT 485).”

(3-4) The need to be “kept safe” is due to the infiltration of false teachers into the community to which Judah writes. Judah clearly sensed the vulnerability of these Christians against those false teachers, hence his quick transition from the opening greeting to immediately addressing the problem at hand. These false teachers, or intruders, “pervert the grace of our God” through immoral living (debauchery) and by proposing a false understanding of Jesus. (More will be revealed about this in subsequent verses.) That is why Judah encourages them to “contend for the faith”, because as NT Wright suggests: “The very heart of the Christian faith is under direct attack, and unless those who are grasped by the truth of the gospel do their best to maintain it those who are heading in another direction are going to take a lot of people with them (Wright 195).”

Beginning the Letter of Judah

The Letter of Jude is a short, but fascinating writing of the New Testament. Much like the equally short Letter to Philemon by Paul, there can be a tendency to fly through these letters without stopping to appreciate the importance of the message. (Hopefully we will be able to do so with this ongoing study.) This letter provides us a small insight into Judah’s fierce reaction to false teachers and bad morality. In many ways, this letter shows that the early Church had real issues it needed to deal with, some of them not unlike ones we deal with today. A couple of further points to consider before we proceed:

Author:
In Greek, the writer calls himself Ioudas. For various reasons, most likely do to connection to Judas Iscariot, many translations have preferred to translate the name as Jude. Along with Jude or Judas, it is also possible to refer to this writer as Judah. N.T. Wright prefers to call him Judah, since that name is both “royal and ancient.” I will use them interchangeably during this study, although I tend to prefer Judah. It should be noted that there are a number of people with the same name mentioned in the New Testament, including Judas Iscariot, Judas Barsabbas (Acts 15:22), the Apostle Judas the Son of James (Lk 6:16) sometimes called Thaddeus (Mk 3:18), and another Judas, a kinsman of Jesus and brother to James (Mt 13:55/Mark 6:3). Since the latter Judas is the only one mentioned to have a brother named James, which our letter writer refers to in the opening verse, most scholars tend to believe that this is the Judas who wrote the epistle.

Date:
As with many books in the New Testament, it is difficult to give a precise date of composition. Some commentaries date it as early as the 50’s while others think it was composed at the beginning of the second century. The letter is not addressed to any particular person or community, and the opponents to which Jude describes cannot be pinpointed precisely. Many scholars are uncertain as to whether he is arguing against Jews, Jewish-Christians, or Gnostics. Also, there is the issue of the literary connection between Jude and 2 Peter. The possibility that one drew information from another is likely, but did Jude borrow from 2 Peter or vice-versa?

Outline:
Jude 1-4
Jude 5-16
Jude 17-25

Resources that I will be utilizing:
Ignatius Catholic Study Bible New Testament
The Navarre Bible New Testament Compact Edition
The Early Christian Letters for Everyone (NT Wright)
Interpretation: First and Second Peter, James, and Jude (Perkins)
New Oxford Annotated Bible 4th Edition

Bible Study Series Update

First off, thank you for all the comments and ideas. I have certainly read them and considered each of them as I begin this new regular series. I think one of the more helpful suggestions was that we should begin with a shorter book of the Bible. I agree 100%. In addition, I think it might be interesting if we were to examine some of the lesser known or referenced books of the Bible to start with. (I am sure we will at some point turn to the Gospels or Genesis or Romans in the future.)

There are, of course, many ways in which I could go about leading these studies. Should it be more historical? Pastoral? Theological? Spiritual? I think that any decent Catholic Bible study should encompass all those things in some way, particularly in light of Dei Verbum and paragraphs 105-119 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Ultimately, my main goal is to provide a space where we can examine particular passages of Scripture from a Catholic perspective.

The plan, then, is that I will divide up each Biblical book we will study into more manageable pieces. For each "piece" discussed, I will provide the text, from at least one English translation, along with some insights I have gathered from a variety of sources. (I will list the sources that I use for each post.) This is not meant to be the only word on that piece of Scripture, so I encourage all of you to contribute insights you have found. These insights can be historical, pastoral, theological, translational, and spiritual. My hope is that our discussions on each passage could last a couple of days, with around two studies posted per week. (Perhaps I am being ambitious?)

So what are we going to study first? Well, in light of the release of NT Wright's The Early Christian Letters for Everyone, we will begin with the Letter of Judah (Jude). While it is a very short letter, there is a lot in those 25 verses that can be applicable to today. I will likely break the letter up into three sections starting next week. We'll get started early next week with an intro post on some of the issues related to the letter we are studying. I hope you will consider joining me in this new series.