Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Jude 5-7, Israel in the desert, the angels who left their place, and Sodom
Jude reminds his readers that the Lord who saved a people out of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe; that the angels who did not keep their position are held in darkness, bound in everlasting chains, for the judgment of the great day; and that Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example of the punishment of eternal fire.
Jude 5-7, in every translation this tool compares.
Jude explains that he set aside the letter he had planned in order to urge his readers to defend the faith, because ungodly intruders have slipped in and are using God's grace as an excuse for immorality. He reminds them of three warnings from the past: the generation saved from Egypt and then destroyed for unbelief, the angels who left their proper place and are held in chains for judgment, and Sodom and Gomorrah, punished with fire. Who wrote the letter, who the angels were, and what other flesh means are all read in more than one way.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/wilderness\/","n":"The wilderness","s":"The dry, empty country beyond the Jordan where John preached, Jesus was tested and a crowd was fed. It was hard ground, and it was where Israel's story with God began.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-abyss-and-bound-angels\/","n":"The Watchers, the flood and the bound angels","s":"Most Jews of the period read the sons of God of Genesis 6:1-4 as angels who took human wives before the flood. Their books, above all 1 Enoch, had the guilty angels bound under the earth in darkness until the judgment, and 1 Peter, 2 Peter and Jude speak of that prison.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sodom-and-gomorrah\/","n":"Sodom and Gomorrah","s":"The cities of the plain that God destroyed with fire in Lot's day. The prophets and later Jewish teachers made Sodom the byword for wickedness and sudden judgment, and its burned ruins by the Dead Sea were still pointed out in the first century.","r":""}
Who wrote the letter, and when, is open. Keener, the cultural backgrounds notes and Carson, Moo and Morris argue that no one writing under another's name would choose this Jude, since "Jude the brother of Jesus had no great reputation in the early church", so the author is most likely the Lord's brother; Wright's commentary, not absolutely sure, agrees, noting that he calls himself a slave of Jesus, not his brother. Kümmel and many recent scholars think it pseudonymous, and Wright and Bird hold it open. Dates run from the 50s (Bauckham) to 65 to 80 (the cultural backgrounds notes; the CSB Study Bible; Carson, Moo and Morris) and about AD 100 (Kümmel). The angels who left their place were, in most Jewish traditions and in 1 Enoch, the sons of God of Genesis 6 (Keener; the cultural backgrounds notes; Heiser); the ESV Study Bible also gives an original fall, and Wright's commentary a revolt against their assigned ranks and duties, known from later Jewish tradition, not the Bible. Going after other flesh is read as lust for the angelic visitors (Wright and Bird; Keener) or attempted homosexual rape (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Jude (Authorship, Situation, Genre), and on Jude 1-2, 3-4, 5, 6 and 7
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Jude 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to Jude (Author and Title, Date, Purpose, Occasion, and Background), and study notes on Jude 5, 6 and 7
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to Jude, and note on Jude 5-7
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 31, The origins of Jude, Opponents in Jude, Date and purpose of Jude, and The Argument of Jude, section 3
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 12, Divine Transgression, section Peter and Jude
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 22, Jude, Author and Date, and notes 1-3
- N. T. Wright, Early Christian Letters for Everyone, comment on Judah 1-4 and 5-16
