Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Jude 1:17 - 1:18
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jud_1:17-18. Jude now turns to his readers, comforting[42] and exhorting them in reference to the ungodly above described; see 2Pe_3:2-3.
ὑμεῖς δέ ] an emphatic contrast to those above mentioned.
μνήσθητε ] presupposes the words meant by Jude known to the readers, as learned from the apostles.
τῶν ῥημάτων τῶν προειρημένων ] ῥῆμα ; the word as an expression of thought. The προ in προειρημένων designates these words not as those which predict something future, but which were already spoken before (so also Hofmann).
ὑπὸ τῶν ἀποστόλων κ . τ . λ .] Jude would hardly have so expressed himself were he himself an apostle, which several expositors certainly do not grant, explaining this mode of expression partly from Jude’s modesty and partly from the circumstance that, except himself and John, the other apostles were already dead.
Jud_1:18. ὅτι ἔλεγον ὑμῖν ] ὑμῖν here renders it probable that Jude means such sayings as the readers had heard from the mouth of the apostles themselves; yet the words which follow are not necessarily to be considered as a literally exact quotation, but may be a compression of the various predictions of the apostles concerning this subject.[43]
ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου [ τοῦ ] χρόνου ] a designation of the time directly preceding the advent of Christ. In the reading ΤΟῦ ΧΡΌΝΟΥ , ἘΣΧΆΤΟΥ is the genitive neuter, as in Heb_1:1.
ἜΣΟΝΤΑΙ ἘΜΠΑῖΚΤΑΙ ] only here and in 2Pe_3:3, a word occurring only in later Greek; the LXX. have translated úÌÇòÂìåÌìÄéí by ἘΜΠ ., as they render äÄúÀòÇìÌÅì by ἘΜΠΑΊΖΕΙΝ . Mockers, that is, men to whom the holy (not merely the resurrection, Grotius) serves for mockery. ΛΑΛΕῖΝ ὙΠΈΡΟΓΚΑ is a ἘΜΠΑΊΖΕΙΝ of the holy (which Hofmann without reason denies); this is naturally united with a surrender to their own lusts; therefore ΚΑΤᾺ ΤᾺς ἙΑΥΤῶΝ ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑς ΠΟΡΕΥΌΜΕΝΟΙ ΤῶΝ ἈΣΕΒΕΙῶΝ ] ΤῶΝ ἈΣΕΒΕΙῶΝ , an echo of the saying of Enoch, is placed emphatically at the close, in order to render prominent the character and aim of ἘΠΙΘΥΜΊΑΙ .
That the apostles in their writings frequently prophesied of the entrance of heretical and ungodly men into the church, is well known; comp. Act_20:29; 1Ti_4:1; 2Ti_3:2 ff.; yet ἘΜΠΑΊΖΕΙΝ is not elsewhere stated as a characteristic mark of these men; this is only the case in 2Pe_3:3, where, however, the mockery is referred only to the denial of the advent of Christ.
[42] Why Jude should not have intended to comfort his readers by reminding them of what the apostles had, at an earlier period, said of the appearance of these men, as he here describes them, cannot be perceived (against Hofmann).
[43] Entirely without reason, Schott maintains that the intervening words: ὅτι ἔλεγον ὑμῖν , prove that Jude will here give a verbal quotation, and that this must be a writing earlier directed to the readers. ὅτι ἐλ . ὑμ . simply introduces the statement of the contents of the ῥήματα , which were earlier spoken by ths apostles. The plural is not to be referred to one apostle, and the verb does not in the least degree indicate that this word was written.