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Jud_1:6. A second example taken from the angelic world. As God spared not the people rescued from bondage, so neither did He spare the angels who left their habitation. This also was an admonitory representation for Christians, who, in the face of the high dignity which they possessed by redemption, yielded themselves to a life of vice.
ἀγγέλους τε τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας κ . τ . λ .] is, according to the construction, as the τε indicates, closely connected with the preceding.
ἀγγέλους without the article considered generally; the participle connected with the article indicates the definite class of angels who are here meant.
For the understanding of this verse the following points are to be observed:—(1) By the twofold participial clause τοὺς μὴ … ἀρχήν and ἀπολιπόντας … οἰκητήριον , something sinful is attributed to the angels (2Pe_2:4 : ἁμαρτησάντων ), on account of which the punishment expressed by εἰς κρίσεν … τετήρηκε was inflicted upon them; (2) The two clauses μὴ … ἀλλὰ … so correspond, that the second positive clause explains the first negative clause; and (3) what Jude says of the angels corresponds with the doctrine of the angels contained in the Book of Enoch.
τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἀρχήν κ . τ . λ .] ἀρχή must here denote something which the angels by forsaking τὸ ἴδιον οἰκητήριον did not preserve, but gave up or slighted. But by ἀπολ . τὸ ἴδ . οἰκητ ., according to the Book of Enoch 12:4,[18] is meant their forsaking of heaven, and their descent to earth in order to go after the daughters of men (so also Hofmann); but not, as Hornejus and others think, the loss of the heavenly dwelling, which they drew upon themselves by conspiring against God; which would militate against the first observation.
By ἈΡΧΉ expositors understand either the original condition (origo: Calvin, Grotius, Hornejus,[19] and others), or the dominion which originally belonged to them (Bengel, de Wette, Wiesinger, Schott, Hofmann; Brückner thinks that the meaning dominion passes over into that of origin). According to the first explanation, the term is too indefinite, both in itself and in reference to the second parallel clause. It is in favour of the second explanation, that in the N. T. angels are often designated by the name ἀρχή , ἀρχαί ; as also the prevailing idea among the Jews was, that to the angels a lordship belongs over the earthly creation. By this explanation, also, the two clauses correspond; instead of administering their office as rulers, they forsook their heavenly habitation, and thus became culpable. The explanation, according to which ἀρχὴ ἑαυτῶν denotes not the dominion of the angels, but the dominion of God, to which they were subjected, is both against linguistic usage and against the context.
εἰς κρίσιν … τετήρηκεν ] Statement of the punishment. This also corresponds with the expression in the Book of Enoch, where in chap. 10:12 it is said: “Bind them fast under the mountains of the earth … even to the day of judgment … until the last judgment will be held for all eternity.[20]
τετήρηκεν is in sharp contrast to μὴ τηρήσαντας : the perfect expresses an action begun in the past and continued in the present. The mode of retention is more precisely stated by δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον ] By ἀϊδίοις the chains by which they are bound are designated as eternal, and incapable of being rent.
ὑπὸ ζόφον ] ζόφος only here and Jud_1:13, and in the parallel passages 2Pe_2:4; 2Pe_2:17; comp. also Wis_17:2;[21] usually ΣΚΌΤΟς , the darkness of hell; ὙΠΌ is explained by conceiving the angels in the lowest depths of hell, covered with darkness.[22] In τετήρηκεν is not contained the final doom which will only take place at the general judgment; therefore: εἰς κρίσιν μεγάλης ἡμέρας ] μεγ . ἡμέρα , without any further designation, used of the last judgment only here; the same adjective, as an attribute of that day, in Act_2:20; Rev_6:17; Rev_16:14.
[18] “Announce to the watchers of heaven, who forsook the high heaven and their holy eternal abodes, and have corrupted themselves with women;” xv. Jud_1:3 : “Wherefore have ye forsaken the high and holy and eternal heaven, and have slept with women?” … lxiv.: “These are the angels who have gone down from heaven to earth;” and other passages. Gen_6:2 lies at the foundation of this tradition, the explanation of which is to this day contested. Whilst Hofmann explains the expression áÌÀðÅé äÈàÁìÉäÄéí as a designation of the angels, Ferd. Philippi decidedly rejects this explanation.
[19] Hornejus, after Joh_8:44, designates as the original condition here meant, veritas i. e. innocentia et sanctitas. Stier thinks “that the original condition was at the same time the ground of their nature and condition in God, or, as it is now perhaps called, the principle of their true life. They preserved not themselves in God, whilst they surrendered and lost the proper pure ground of their glorious being.”
[20] Comp. also x. Jud_1:4 : “Bind Azâzêl, and put him in darkness,” xiv. 5, xxi. 10, etc. In the Midrasch Ruth in the Book of Zohar it is said: Postquam filii Dei filios genuerunt, sumsit eos Deus et ad montem tenebrarum perduxit, ligavitque in catenis ferreis, quae usque ad medium abyssi magnae pertingunt.
[21] Comp. also Hesiod. Theog. v. 729, where it is said:
[22] There is an apparent difference between what is here said and the representations of the N. T. elsewhere, according to which Satan and his ἄγγελοι have even now their residence in the air (Eph_2:2, or in the upper regions, ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις , Eph_6:12), and although already judged by Christ (Joh_16:11), yet as κοσμοκράτορες exercise power over unbelievers, and also lay snares for believers, in order to bring them again into subjection. Expositors, in general, have attempted to reconcile this by referring this continued activity of the devil to the special permission of God; Calvin otherwise: porro nobis fingendus non est locus, quo inclusi sint diaboli; simpliciter enim docere voluit Ap., quam misera sit eorum conditio … nam quocunque pergant, secum trahunt sua vincula et suis tenebris obvoluti manent. Dietlein remarks on 2Pe_2:4 : “Not only Tartarus, but also the chains of darkness, are to be understood in a local and corporeal sense, but not of such a locality, or of such an imprisonment in that locality, as would require an exclusion from our locality, or an incapability of movement through our locality.” But all these artificial explanations are to be rejected, inasmuch as Jude does not speak of Satan and his angels, but of a definite class of angels, to whom, in agreement with the Book of Enoch, he refers Gen_6:2. This is correctly observed by Hofmann, Wiesinger, and Schott, with whom Brückner appears to agree; on the other hand, F. Philippi (p. 140) observes: “Jude speaks here of the original fall of the angels from pride, not of their union with earthly women.”
Ἔνθα θεοὶ Τιτῆνες ὑπὸ ζόφῳ ἠρόεντα
Κεκρύφαται , βουλῆσι Διὸς νεφεληγερέταο
Χώρῳ ἐν εὐρώεντι .