Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - Jude 1:7 - 1:7
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Jud_1:7. Third example: the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities about them, which, however, is not co-ordinate with the preceding two, but is closely connected with the last-mentioned, “whilst here both times a permanent condition is meant, which a similar sin has had as its consequence, whereas ἀπώλεσεν (Jud_1:5) states a judgment of God already past” (Hofmann’s Schriftb. I. p. 428).
ὡς ] is not to be connected with the following ὁμοίως , Jud_1:8; nor is ὅτι , Jud_1:5, to be connected with ὑπομνῆσαι … βούλομαι (de Wette) = how instead of “that;” it refers rather to what directly precedes = like as (Semler, Arnaud, Hofmann, Brückner, Wiesinger, Schott, and others; Luther: as also), whilst Jud_1:7 confirms ἀγγέλους … τετήρηκεν by the comparison with what befell Sodom and Gomorrha: God retains the angels kept unto the day of judgment, even as Sodom and Gomorrha πρόκεινται δεῖγμα κ . τ . λ . With the connection with ὑπομν . βουλ . (Jud_1:5) a preceding καί would hardly be necessary, also the words τὸν ὅμοιον τούτοις indicate the close connection with Jud_1:6.
Σόδομα καὶ Γόμοῤῥα ] frequently adduced in the O. and N. T. as examples of the divine judgment; see, for example, Rom_9:29.
καὶ αἱ περὶ αὐτὰς πόλεις ] according to Deu_29:23; Hos_11:8 : Admah and Zeboim.
τὸν ὅμοιον τρόπον τούτοις ἐκπορνεύσασαι ] τούτοις may grammatically be referred to Σόδ . κ . Γόμ . (or, by synesis, to the inhabitants of these cities; so Krebs, Calvin, Hornejus, Vorstius, and others); but by this construction the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha would only be indirectly indicated. Since, also, τούτοις cannot refer to the false teachers, Jud_1:4, because, as de Wette correctly remarks, the thought of Jud_1:8 would be anticipated, it must refer to the angels who, according to the Book of Enoch, sinned in a similar way as the inhabitants of those cities (thus Herder, Schneckenburger, Jachmann, de Wette, Arnaud, Hofmann, and others).
ἐκπορνεύσασαι , the sin of the inhabitants, is designated as the action of the cities themselves. The verb (often in the LXX. the translation of æÈðÈä ; also in the Apocrypha) is in the N. T. a ἅπ . λεγ . The preposition ἐκ serves for strengthening the idea, indicating that “one by πορνεύειν becomes unfaithful to true moral conduct” (Hofmann), but not that “he goes beyond the boundaries of nature” (Stier, Wiesinger, and similarly Schott).
καὶ ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω σαρκὸς ἑτέρας ] The expression ἀπέρχ . ὀπίσω τινός is found in Mar_1:20 in its literal sense; here it has a figurative meaning; comp. 2Pe_2:10, πορεύεσθαι ὀπ .; Jer_2:5; Sir_46:10.
Arnaud: ces mots sont ici un euphémisme, pour exprimer l’acte de la prostitution. In ἀπο is contained the turning aside from the right way. Oecumenius thus explains the import of σὰρξ ἑτέρα : σάρκα δὲ ἑτέραν , τὴν ἄῤῥηνα φύσιν λέγει , ὡς μὴ πρὸς συνουσίαν γενέσεως συντελοῦσαν ; so also Brückner and Wiesinger. Stier, Schott, Hofmann proceed further, referring to Lev_18:23-24, and accordingly explaining it: “not only have they practised shame man with man, but even man with beast” (Stier). Only this explanation corresponds to σαρκὸς ἑτέρας , and only by it do the connection of Jud_1:7 with Jud_1:6, expressed by ὡς , and the explanation: τὸν ὅμοιον τρόπον τούτοις , receive their true meaning. The σάρξ of men was ἑτέρα σάρξ to the angels, as that of beasts is to men. In the parallel passage, 2Pe_2:6, the sin of the cities is not stated.
πρόκεινται δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκην ὑπέχουσαι ] πρόκεινται : they lie before the eyes as a δεῖγμα ; not: “inasmuch as the example of punishment in its historical attestation is ever present” (Schott); but: inasmuch as the Dead Sea continually attests that punishment, which Jude considers as enduring. There is a certain boldness in the expression, as properly it is not the cities and their inhabitants who are πρόκεινται . The genitive πυρὸς αἰωνίου may grammatically depend both on δεῖγμα and on δίκην . Most expositors (particularly Wiesinger, Schott, Brückner) consider the second construction as the correct one; but hardly rightly; as (1) δεῖγμα would then lose its exact definition; (2) πῦρ αἰώνιον always designates hell-fire, to which the condemned are delivered up at the last judgment (see Mat_25:41); (3) the juxtaposition of this verse with Jud_1:6, where the present punitive condition of the angels is distinguished from that which will occur after the judgment, favours the idea that the cities (or rather their inhabitants) are here not designated as those who even now suffer the punishment of eternal fire.[23] But Jude could designate the cities as a δεῖγμα of eternal fire, considering the fire by which they were destroyed as a figure of eternal fire. Hofmann correctly connects πυρὸς αἰωνίου with δεῖγμα , but he incorrectly designates δεῖγμα πυρ . αἰων . as a preceding apposition to δίκην : “it may be seen in them ( δεῖγμα = exhibition) what is the nature of eternal fire, inasmuch as the fire that has consumed them is enduring in its after-operations;” by this explanation πῦρ αἰώνιον is deprived of its proper meaning. With δίκην ὑπέχουσαι the fact is indicated that they have continually to suffer punishment, since the period that punishment was inflicted upon them in the time of Lot;[24] corresponding to what is said of the angels in Jud_1:6.
δεῖγμα in N. T. ἅπ . λεγ . (Jam_5:11, and frequently: ὑπόδειγμα ), not = example, but proof, testimony, sign. ὑπέχειν likewise in N. T. ἅπ . λεγ .; 2Ma_4:48, ζημίαν ὑπέχειν (2Th_1:9, δίκην τίειν ).
[23] Wiesinger incorrectly observes that “by this connection we must also assume that those angels also suffer the punishment of eternal fire,” since precisely the contrary is the case. Wiesinger arrives at this erroneous assumption by taking δεῖγμα as equivalent to example. It is also entirely erroneous when it is asserted that πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκη is an evident type of hell-fire, since πῦρ αἰώνιον is itself hell-fire. To be compared with this is 3Ma_2:5 : σὺ … Σοδομίτας … πυρὶ … κατέφλεξας , παράδειγμα τοῖς ἐπιγινομένοις καταστήσας ; and Libanius in reference to Troy: κεῖται παράδειγμα δυστοχία ; πυρὸς αἰωνίου .
[24] There is no necessity to derive this representation from Wis_10:7, and the various phenomena which lead to the supposition of a subterranean fire at the Dead Sea (see Winer’s bibl. Realw.; todtes Meer).