3. Contents and Design. —The epistle com mences with an assertion of the necessity of zeal for, and steadfastness in, the faith once delivered to the saints ; the writer then warns his readers against some who had crept in unawares, and were insinuating doctrines of an unwholesome kind ; instances are adduced of the danger of apostasy, rebellion, and laxity of moral principle ; a contrast is instituted between the dogmatism and audacity of the teachers he has in view, and the gentleness and modesty with which the highest of 'God-fearing beings speak ; these wicked persons are then strongly denounced, and their evil cnd predicted ; the believers are exhorted to continue in the faith of the gospel, in humble dependence on promised grace, and in pious efforts to preserve others from the snares of the false teachers ; and the whole concludes with a solemn doxology to the only wise God our Saviour. The design of such a train of thought is obviously to put the believers to whom the epistle was addressed on their guard against the misleading efforts of certain persons to whose influence they were exposed. Who these persons werc, or to what class of errorists they belonged, can only be matter of conjecture. Some, indeed (De Wette, Schwegler, Bleek), think the persons alluded to held no peculiar opinions, and were simply men of lax morals ; but, from the manner in which the writer refers to them, it is evident that they were, to use the words of Dorner (Entroickeiangsgesch., i. o4, E. T. i. 72), not merely practically corrupt, but teachers of error as well.' Their opinions seem to have been of an antinomian character (vers. 4, 18, 19), but there is nothing to connect them, except in a very vague and distant \vay, with any of the later gnostic systems. The writer formally charges them with denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ,' language which Dc Wctte admits usually applies to error of doctrine, but which here he, without any reason, would understand of feeling and conduct. The licentious courses in which they indulged led Clement of Alexandria to think that they were the prototypes of the Carpocratians and such lilce : Of these, and such as these,' he says, I think that Jude spoke prophetically in his epistle' (Stro77z. p. 431, Sylb.) ; but this does not imply that they had formcd a system like that of the Carpocratians, but only that the notions and usages of the one adumbrated those of the other. Perhaps there have been in all ages per sons who have sought by perverted doctrine to gain a sanction for sensual indulgence ; and such undoubtedly were found disturbing the peace and corrupting the purity of the churches of Christ in different places as early as the second half of the ist century. The persons against whom Jude writes were apparently of this class ; but in their immorality, the practical element was more promi nent than the speculative.
4. The Parties to whom the Epistle is aa'arressed are described by the writer as the called who are sanctified* in God the Father, and lcept for Jesus Christ.' Beyond this general intimation that they were Christians, however, nothing more is said to guide us to an acquaintance with them. From the
resemblance of some parts of this epistle to the Second of Peter, it has been inferred that it was sent to the same parties in Asia Minor, and with a view of enforcing the apostle's admonitionA whilst others, from the strongly Jewish character of the writing, infer that it was addressed to some body of Jewish Christians in Palestine. I3ut neither of these inferences rests on a strong basis ; for one might as well conclude from the resemblances between this epistle and that of Peter, that they were not addressed to the same parties (which would seem to be superfluous), as that they were ; and the Jewish colouring of the epistle may be due to the author, and have no relation to his readers. From the fact that the parties addressed seem to have been surrounded by a large and wicked popu lation, some have supposed they may have dwelt in Corinth ; while others suggest one of the commer cial cities of Syria. But all this, as well as the sup position that they dwelt in Eg-ypt, is mere conjecture.
5. The time when and the p/ace at which the epistle was written, cannot be exactly determined. From the allusion, however, to the preaching of the apostles, we may infer that it was among the later productions of the apostolic age ; for it was written whilst persons were still alive who had heard apostles preach, but when this preaching. was beginning to become a thing of the past (ver. 17). It is not credible,' says Huther (in Meyer's Krit-Exeget. Commentar, 12th Abt., p. i88), that Judas would refer to the preaching of the apostles as already past, if these were still at the height of their apostolic working.' As the writer, in speaking of the divine judgments, makes no allusion to the destruction of Jerusalem, it has been inferred that this catastrophe had not occurred when he wrote ; but on this much stress cannot be laid, because the destruction of Jerusalem was not traceable to the divine wrath against the particular class of sins which Jude seeks to expose, and therefore might be passed over by hiin as not a case exactly in point. Attempts have been made to prove a late date for the epistle, from an alleged quotation in it from the Apocryphal book of Enoch (ver. 13) ; but it is by no means certain that the passage is a quotation from the book of Enoch, and scholars have yet to settle when the book of Enoch was written ; so that from this nothing can be inferred as to the date of this epistle. As to the place where it was written, there is not ground for even a plausible conjecture.
6. Conzmentaries. —Besides those of Jacques Lc Fevre d'Estaples (Antw. 1540), Calvin, and Es this, may be mentioned those of Junius, Leyd. 1599 ; Perkins, Land. 16°6 ; Jenlcyn, Lond. 1652, new edition by Sherman ; Martin, Lips. 1694 ; Schmidt, Lips. 176S ; Semler, 1784 ; Hasse, Jena 1786 ; Carpzov, Hal. 1790 ; Hart mann, Cothen 1793; Haenlein, Erl. 1799, 1804 ; Laurmann, Groning. 1818 ; Stier, Ber. iSso ; Rampf, Sulzb. 1854 ; and the expositions in the general works of De Wette, Meyer, Alford, 'and Lange.—W. L. A.