Jude 1:12
A plain-spoken deep dive on this verse. Read the chapter →
These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
spots--So Pe2 2:13, Greek, "spiloi"; but here the Greek is spilades, which elsewhere, in secular writers, means rocks, namely, on which the Christian love-feasts were in danger of being shipwrecked. The oldest manuscript prefixes the article emphatically, "THE rocks." The reference to "clouds . . . winds . . . waves of the sea," accords with this image of rocks. Vulgate seems to have been misled by the similar sounding word to translate, as English Version, "spots"; compare however, Jde 1:23, which favors English Version, if the Greek will bear it. Two oldest manuscripts, by the transcriber's effort to make Jude say the same as Peter, read here "deceivings" for "love-feasts," but the weightiest manuscript and authorities support English Version reading. The love-feast accompanied the Lord's Supper (1Co. 11:17-34, end). Korah the Levite, not satisfied with his ministry, aspired to the sacrificing priesthood also: so ministers in the Lord's Supper have sought to make it a sacrifice, and themselves the sacrificing priests, usurping the function of our only Christian sacerdotal Priest, Christ Jesus. Let them beware of Korah's doom! feeding themselves--Greek, "pasturing (tending) themselves." What they look to is the pampering of themselves, not the feeding of the flock. without fear--Join these words not as English Version, but with "feast." Sacred feasts especially ought to be celebrated with fear. Feasting is not faulty in itself [BENGEL], but it needs to be accompanied with fear of forgetting God, as Job in the case of his sons' feasts. clouds--from which one would expect refreshing rains. Pe2 2:17, "wells without water." Professors without practice. carried about--The oldest manuscripts have "carried aside," that is, out of the right course (compare Eph 4:14). trees who…
Open source ↗We have here, I. An account of the penman of this epistle, a character of the church, the blessings and privileges of that happy society (Jde 1:1, Jde 1:2). II. The occasion of writing this epistle (Jde 1:3). III. A character of evil and perverse men, who had already sprung up in that infant state of the church, and would be succeeded by others of the like evil spirit and temper in after-times (Jde 1:4). IV. A caution against hearkening to and following after such, from the severity of God towards the unbelieving murmuring Israelites at their coming out of Egypt, the angels that fell, the sin and punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah (Jde 1:5-7). V. To these the apostle likens the seducers against whom he was warning them, and describes them at large, (Jde 1:8-10, inclusive). VI. Then (as specially suitable to his argument) he cites an ancient prophecy of Enoch foretelling and describing the future judgment (Jde 1:14, Jde 1:15). VII. He enlarges on the seducers' character, and guards against the offence which honest minds might be apt to take at the so early permission of such things, by showing that it was foretold long before that so it must be (Jde 1:16-19). VIII. Exhorts them to perseverance in the faith, fervency in prayer, watchfulness against falling from the love of God, and a lively hope of eternal life (Jde 1:20, Jde 1:21). IX. Directs them how to act towards the erroneous and scandalous (Jde 1:22, Jde 1:23). And, X. Closes with an admirable doxology in the last two verses.
Open source ↗1:12 The early Christians celebrated the Lord’s Supper as part of shared fellowship meals with one another.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
But Jesus replied, “Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by its roots.
‘As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because My flock lacks a shepherd and has become prey and food for every wild beast, and because My shepherds did not search for My flock but fed themselves instead,
Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame. Their minds are set on earthly things.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the seedlings withered because they had no moisture.
This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand from them My flock and remove them from tending the flock, so that they can no longer feed themselves. For I will deliver My flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.’
“Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel, who only feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed their flock?
But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.