1. [From] Yehudah, a servant of Yeshua the Messiah though brother of Yaaqov, to those who have been loved in Elohim the Father and [the] called who have been preserved through Yeshua the Messiah.
Yaaqov was also Yeshua’s brother, so Yehudah is being very modest here about his relationship to Yeshua, but probably also wishes to emphasize that Yeshua himself counted his true brothers and sisters by a different measure (Mat. 12:50), and that any who lived up to this could have the same standing he did. Preserved: kept intact, watched over, guarded.
2. May mercy and total well-being and love be multiplied to you!
3. Beloved ones, [though I was already] completely eager to write to you about the deliverance we have in common, I was obliged by urgent necessity to write to encourage you to contend earnestly for that of which we are persuaded, [which was] once [and for all] committed to those who are set apart.
Encourage: stronger, more like “urge”, but with the sense that help is readily available “alongside” to accomplish what one is being exhorted or admonished to do. Contend earnestly: a single word in Greek but with the component meanings of a focused, agonizing struggle—going to whatever lengths are necessary to guard and defend something entrusted to your care.
4. Indeed, certain people have come in by stealth—those who long ago were marked out for this very sentence: irreverent people who are turning the concessions our Elohim has extended [to us] into license [to, like brutes, lawlessly throw off all restraints], and repudiating our only authority and master, Yeshua the Messiah.
By stealth: literally, from close beside—i.e., appearing to be sympathetic and to have the same goals as we, as if genuine brothers and sisters, but who are only posing as such in order to gain inroads and destroy what they appear to be supporting. Repudiating: disowning, refusing to confess or affirm something once believed, or denying one that they once claimed as their own. This is indeed occurring again as we make the shift back to Torah, as some are trying to undermine everything Yeshua accomplished by carrying the backswing too far into the very kind of over-interpretation of Torah that he opposed and even deny that his coming was even necessary to bring Israel back into covenant with YHWH, mainly because they do not like some of the restrictions the Christian interpretations had put on them, thinking Judaism is somehow more lenient, but not really careful about keeping the Torah either. Irreverent: honoring nothing as sacred, especially in the ceremonial sense—overly skeptical and sarcastic about mistakes others have made in the name of religion—as if they would do any better.
5. I am also resolved to reminds you—since you knew all this at one time—that although YHWH delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, He subsequently destroyed those who were not faithful.
Destroyed: with the implications of completely, permanently cutting them off and cancelling the benefits He had once given them.
6. Even the angels who did not maintain their proper [original] domain, but abandoned their own habitation, He keeps in perpetual chains under a murky gloom until the sentencing of the Great Day,
This refers to the “sons of Elohim” who cohabited with the “daughters of men” prior to the Deluge, producing unnaturally-large and strong progeny known in later legends as demi-gods or “superheroes”. (Gen. 6:2ff)
7. just as S’dom and Ghamorrah and the cities around them in a similar way as they [did] indulged themselves in fornication and, having gone after a different kind of flesh, are set before us as an exhibit—an example—undergoing the penalty of eternal fire.
Eternal: or age-long.
8. Nonetheless, these dreamers likewise still indeed defile the flesh, disregard constituted authority, and speak evilly of dignitaries.
Defile: or corrupt. Disregard: rejecting it as if it were spurious or invalid, refusing to respect it, ignoring or despising it because they think it is of no value.
9. Even Mikha’el the archangel, when in dispute with the Accuser, arguing about Moshe’s body, did not presume to bring a railing accusation against him, saying rather, “May YHWH rebuke you!”
Clement of Alexandria and Origen claimed that Yehudah is referring to an apocryphal book called the Assumption of Moses, but this portion of the book is not among the few fragments still extant today. Apparently the Accuser wanted to use Moshe’s body for something—possibly to do something with it that would induce people to worship it as they later would the brass serpent he had made—but YHWH kept it hidden, possibly needing to use it again in the resurrection or just to prevent this kind of abuse. Presume: or dare. He did not have the “nerve”, though in the right, because haSatan had a high rank as well, before being deposed. Today there is a tendency by those who have only lately come to a more complete knowledge of some truths to ridicule sincere people who are in the same position they themselves were in not long ago, just because they have escaped some of the errors their former comrades are still stuck in, rather than lovingly extending to them the same “hand up” that they were themselves offered.
10. But these [people] speak abusively of whatever things they have not seen, and whatever things they do understand instinctively, like the irrational animals, with these they corrupt themselves.
Abusively: or profanely. Corrupt: cause themselves to waste away, deteriorate, move from a higher to a lower position, i.e., inflict moral breakdown on themselves.
11. Woe to them! Because they pursued a course on the path of Qayin, and rushed out into the deviant [delusion] of Bilaam—for reward—and were violently cut off in the controversy of Qorakh.
Rushed: in the sense of flowing like water into the easiest course available.
12. These are the submerged rocks at your love [feast]s, dining sumptuously along with you, shamelessly “shepherding” [only] themselves, waterless clouds being carried away by the winds, late-autumn trees without fruit—having died off twice [and in the process of] being uprooted;
Submerged rocks: or reefs, hidden from view but a great threat to our safety and the viability of our fellow-“ship”. They “graze” with the flock but do not herd together like sheep, but rather go off on their own like goats. Late-autumn: i.e., leafless, looking as if they are dead.
13. savage waves of the sea, foaming up to their own shame; wandering stars for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved into the [next] age.
Wandering stars: literally, planets—which before their reference point was known, appeared to be aimlessly following anomalous (lawless) paths that led nowhere.
14. But Hanokh, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied for these, saying, “Behold, YHWH has arrived with tens of thousands of His set-apart ones,
This is from the First Book of Enoch (1:9), an apocalyptic work that was highly respected during the first century. Though it is “pseudepigrapha” (of doubtful authorship), that Yehudah quotes it suggests that it is of value for us to read the rest of it as well. If nothing else, it does throw much light on what the people of Yeshua’s day and the last generation of the second Temple were expecting in regard to the end times.
15. “to execute judgment against everyone, and to convict all of those who are impious, concerning all the profane deeds that they have [so] profanely carried out, and concerning all the stubborn [words] that the impious sinner have spoken against Him.”
Stubborn: or harsh, violent.
16. These are the grumblers, discontentedly going away according to their own lusts, while their mouth speaks overly-swollen words, flattering [people] in their presence for the sake of [their own] advantage.
Discontentedly: complaining or blaming others for their lot. Overly-swollen: bragging, immoderate, excessive, pompously exaggerating their own importance—in Yeshua’s words, “leavened”.
17. But you, beloved, remember the decisive words by which you were warned in advance under the [authority of] those sent by our master, Yeshua the Messiah,
18. in which they told you, “Concerning the last of the time there will come scoffers, going off after their own lusts—those of irreverence.
19. These are the ones who are causing divisions—naturally-minded ones, not having a spirit.
Naturally-minded: only focusing on the lower aspect of what constitutes a human life; literally, soulish or psychic—relating only to what is tangible or physical, not the attitudes that make physical things beautiful because used properly or ugly because they are fought over. If they had been “born from above”, they would be able to rise above this pettiness.
20. You, however, beloved, [keep] building yourselves up in your most set-apart faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
Since they do have another personality component that others (v. 19) do not, they should utilize it to its fullest capacity. Praying: interactively; literally, exchanging wishes—i.e., expressing one’s perceived wishes to YHWH, then hearing what His wishes in regard to the situation actually are, and accepting them, integrating them into one’s plans.
21. Keep watch, [guarding] yourselves in YHWH’s love, welcoming the mercy of our master, Yeshua the Messiah, [which leads] into eternal life.
Welcoming: actively awaiting, expecting, and receiving willingly with warm reciprocity. Eternal life: or, the life of the age [to come]. This is what that spirit that YHWH has given us, which Messiah earned the right to share with us, allows: a foretaste of what our lives will be like when the sinful part of us, inherited from Adam, no longer holds us down.
22. Have mercy indeed on those [among you] who are wavering:
Wavering: going back and forth, over-thinking things and thus having honest doubts, though not in a hostile way. Don’t be sarcastic of them like those described in verses 4-10, but remember where you yourselves came from and be compassionate:
23. Some indeed rescue, snatching them out of fire; while on others, have pity with alarm, detesting even the under-garment that has been stained by the flesh.
Snatching: or seizing by force, not covertly but with an open display and decisively. Alarm: fear, readiness to flee, i.e., awareness of the danger that too close an association with them could have on you if you are not watchful. Stained: spotted, soiled, and thus defiled; treat it as contaminated, avoiding any unnecessary contact. This hearkens back to the impurity laws in the Torah (e.g., Lev. 13-15, 22) wherein touching a garment with an impurity on it renders one unfit to visit YHWH’s sanctuary for a full day and until one has washed himself of the residue of fleshly issue that has rubbed off one oneself. This has figurative applications as well, which is the biggest cause of fear—that we could end up in the same place, because defilement, whether physical or spiritual, is very contagious.
24. But to Him who is able to [vigilantly] keep you sure-footed and present you, unstained, before the presence of His shining honor, with [exuberant] delight--
Sure-footed: preventing you from stumbling so as to fall. Unstained: or without blemish that causes disgrace, the kind of spot described in verse 23, especially in the figurative moral sense. Delight: deep joy at His having not only preserved us but welcomed us with approval.
25. to the only Elohim, our Savior, by means of our master Yeshua the Messiah, be [ascribed] honor, greatness, dominion, and authority, before every cycle of time, as well as now and into all the ages [to come]. So let it be!
By means of: through the instrumentality of, or on account of, for his sake. Note the clear distinction between YHWH and Yeshua and yet the complete unity of purpose between them. Greatness: or majesty. Dominion: power actually put into effect.
THE LETTER FROM
Yehudah
INTRODUCTION: Written by a second brother of Yeshua, the author is often known as “Jude” to distinguish him from the others in the B’rith Chadashah known as “Judas”, though the Hebrew name is the same.
