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Jud_1:13. Continuation of the figurative description of those false teachers. The two images here employed characterize them in their erring and disordered nature.
κύματα ἄγρια θαλάσσης κ . τ . λ .] Already Carpzov has correctly referred for the explanation of these words to Isa_57:20; the first words correspond to the Hebrew ëÌÇéÌÈí ðÄâÀøÈùÑ ; the following words: ἐπαφρίζοντα τὰς ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνας , to the Hebrew éÄâÀøÀùÑåÌ îÅéîÈéå øÆôÆùÑ åÈèÄéè , only Jude uses the literal word where Isaiah has the figurative expression.
ἐπαφρίζειν ] properly: to foam oJude Jud_1:1 :Luther well translates it: which foam out their own shame.
αἰσχύνας , not properly vices (de Wette); the plural does not necessitate this explanation, but their disgraceful nature, namely, the shameful ἐπιθυμίαι which they manifest in their wild lawless life; not “their self-devised wisdom” (Schott).
From the fact that the Hebrews sometimes compared their teachers to the sea (see Moses, theol. Samar., ed. Gesenius, p. 26), it is not to be inferred, with Schneckenburger and Jachmann, that there is here a reference to the office of teachers; this is the more unsuitable as the opponents of Jude hardly possessed that office.
ἀστέρες πλανῆται ] These two words are to be taken together, wandering stars; that is, stars which have no fixed position, but roam about. The analogy with the preceding metaphors requires us to think on actual stars, with which Jude compares his opponents; thus on comets (Bretschneider, Arnaud, Stier, de Wette, Hofmann) or on planets (so most of the early commentators, also Wiesinger). The latter opinion is less probable, because the πλανᾶσθαι of the planets is less striking to the eye than that of the comets. It is incorrect “in the explanation entirely to disregard the fact whether there are such ἀστέρες πλανῆται in heaven or not” (so earlier in this commentary, after the example of Schott), and to assume that Jude, on account of their ostentation (Wiesinger, Schott), designates these men as stars, and by πλανῆται indicates their unsteady nature. De Wette incorrectly assumes this in essentials as equivalent with πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι , 2Ti_3:13. Bengel thinks that we are in this figure chiefly to think on the opaqueness of the planets; but such an astronomical reference is far-fetched. Jachmann arbitrarily explains ἀστέρες = φωστῆρες , Php_2:15, as a designation of Christians. Several expositors also refer this figure to the teaching of those men, appealing to Php_2:15 and Dan_12:3; so already Oecumenius: δοκοῦντες εἰς ἄγγελον φωτὸς μετασχηματίζεσθαι … ἀπεναντίας μόνον τοῦ κυρίου φέρονται δογμάτων (Hornejus, and others); but the context gives no warrant for this.
οἷς ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους εἰς αἰῶνα τετήρηται ] This addition may grammatically be referred either to what immediately precedes, thus to the ἀστέρες πλανῆται , or to the men who have been described by the figures used by Jude. It is in favour of the first reference (Hofmann: “Jude names them stars passing into eternal darkness, comets destined only to vanish”) that a more precise statement is also added to the preceding figure; thus the addition ὑπὸ ἀνέμων παραφερόμεναι to νεφέλαι ἄνυδροι κ . τ . λ . But it is against it that the expression chosen by Jude is evidently too strong to designate only the disappearance of comets, therefore the second reference is to be preferred (Wiesinger; comp. Jud_1:6), which also the parallel passage in 2Pe_2:17 favours. The addition of the genitive τοῦ σκότους to ὁ ζόφος serves to strengthen this idea.