Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jude 1:7

Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

7. the cities about them, in like manner going after strange flesh ] The words describe the form of evil for which the cities of the plain have become a byword of infamy. In saying that this sin was like that of the angels, it is clearly implied that in the latter case also there was a degradation of nature, such as is emphasized in the words that “the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men” (Gen 6:4). Impurity, and not simply or chiefly pride, as in the medival traditions represented in the poems of Cdmon and Milton, is thought of as the leading feature in the fall of the angels ( Book of Enoch, c. 9).

suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ] The words imply a reference to something more than the natural phenomena of the Dead Sea region. The fire which had destroyed them is thought of as being still their doom, as permanent as the “eternal fire” of Mat 25:41. For “vengeance,” which admits of a bad as well as a good meaning, it might be better to read “just punishment.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha – Notes, 2Pe 2:6.

And the cities about them – Admah and Zeboim, Gen 14:2; Deu 29:23; Hos 11:8. There may have been other towns, also, that perished at the same time, but these are particularly mentioned. They seem to have partaken of the same general characteristics, as neighboring towns and cities generally do.

In like manner – In a manner like to these, ( ton homoion toutois tropon.) The Greek word these, is in the plural number. There has been much diversity in interpreting this clause. Some refer it to the angels, as if it meant that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah committed sin in a way similar to the angels; some suppose that it refers to the wicked teachers about whom Jude was discoursing, meaning that Sodom and Gomorrah committed the same kind of sins which they did; some that the meaning is, that the cities round about Sodom and Gomorrah sinned in the same way as those cities; and some that they were punished in the same manner, and were set forth like them as an example. I see no evidence that it refers to the angels, and if it did, it would not prove, as some have supposed, that their sin was of the same kind as that of Sodom, since there might have been a resemblance in some respects, though not in all. I see no reason to believe, as Macknight holds, that it refers to false teachers, since that would be to suppose that the inhabitants of Sodom copied their example long before the example was set. It seems to me, therefore, that the reference is to the cities round about Sodom; and that the sense is, that they committed iniquity in the same manner as the inhabitants of Sodom did, and were set forth in the same way as an example.

Going after strange flesh – Margin: other. The reference seems to be to the unusual sin which, from the name Sodom, has been called sodomy. Compare Rom 1:27. The meaning of the phrase going after is, that they were greatly addicted to this vice. The word strange, or other, refers to that which is contrary to nature. Doddridge, however, explains it, going after strange and detestable gratifications of their pampered and indulged flesh.

Are set forth for an example – They furnish a warning against all such conduct, and a demonstration that punishment shall come upon the ungodly. The condemnation of any sinner, or of any class of sinners, always furnishes such a warning. See the notes, 2Pe 2:6.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire – The word rendered suffering ( hupechousai) means, properly, holding under – as, for example, the hand; then to hold toward any one, as the ear – to give attention; then it is used as denoting to hold a discourse toward or with any one, or to hold satisfaction to any one, to make atonement; and then as undergoing, paying, or suffering punishment, when united, as it is here, with the word diken (punishment, or vengeance). See Rob. Lex. Here it expresses the idea of undergoing punishment. The word properly agrees in the construction with cities, ( poleis,) referring to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them; but the things affirmed relate to the inhabitants of those cities. The word vengeance means punishment; that is, such vengeance as the Lord takes on the guilty; not vengeance for the gratification of private and personal feeling, but like that which a magistrate appoints for the maintenance of the laws; such as justice demands. The phrase eternal fire is one that is often used to denote future punishment – as expressing the severity and intensity of the suffering. See the notes, Mat 25:41. As here used, it cannot mean that the fires which consumed Sodom and Gomorrah were literally eternal, or were kept always burning, for that was not true. The expression seems to denote, in this connection, two things:

1. That the destruction of the cities of the plain, with their inhabitants, was as entire and perpetual as if the fires had been always burning – the consumption was absolute and enduring – the sinners were wholly cut off, and the cities forever rendered desolate; and,

(2)That, in its nature and duration, this was a striking emblem of the destruction which will come upon the ungodly. I do not see that the apostle here means to affirm that those particular sinners who dwelt in Sodom would be punished forever, for his expressions do not directly affirm that, and his argument does not demand it; but still the image in his mind, in the destruction of those cities, was clearly that of the utter desolation and ruin of which this was the emblem; of the perpetual destruction of the wicked, like that of the cities of the plain. If this had not been the case, there was no reason why he should have used the word eternal – meaning here perpetual – since, if in his mind there was no image of future punishment, all that the argument would have demanded was the simple statement that they were cut off by fire.

The passage, then, cannot be used to prove that the particular dwellers in Sodom will be punished forever – whatever may be the truth on that point; but that there is a place of eternal punishment, of which that was a striking emblem. The meaning is, that the case was one which furnished a demonstration of the fact that God will punish sin; that this was an example of the punishment which God sometimes inflicts on sinners in this world, and a type of that eternal punishment which will be inflicted in the next.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jud 1:7

Sodom and Gomorrah.

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah

1. Cities and countries suffer for the evil of the inhabitants. Carnal men are usually moved by carnal arguments, and tremble more to hear of the loss of their estates than of their souls; we are startled to hear of scarcity, and famine, and fires, and pestilences; all these are the fruits of sin.

2. Those cities were utterly destroyed, and accordingly is the destruction of Sodom put for an utter overthrow (Isa 13:19; Zep 2:9; Jer 48:18; Jer 50:40; 2Pe 2:6). Observe thence, that in judgments wicked men may be brought to an utter destruction. The synagogue of Satan may be utterly destroyed, but not the city of God; in the saddest miseries there is hope of Gods children.

3. Fellowship in evil can neither excuse sin nor keep off wrath. It cannot excuse sin; nothing more usual than for men to say, they do as others do; if you do as others do you shall suffer as others do; example doth not lessen sin, but increase it, partly because their own act is an approbation of the act of others. Again, it doth not keep off wrath; multitudes and single persons are all one to avenging justice. Well, then, learn to live by rule and not by example, and propose the sins of others to your grief, not imitation: Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but reprove them rather; their practice will never afford you excuse nor exemption. To walk with God is praiseworthy, though none do it besides thyself; and to walk with men in the way of sin is dangerous, though millions do it besides thee.

4. The lesser cities imitated the greater. Admah and Zeboim followed the example of Sodom and Gomorrah. An error in the first concoction is seldom mended in the second. When the first sheet is done off, others are printed by the same stamps. Diodorus Siculus telleth us of a people in Ethiopia, that if their kings halted, they would maim themselves that they might halt likewise. The vices of them in place and power are authorised by their example and pass for virtues; if they be slight in the use of ordinances, it will be taken up as a piece of religion by inferiors to be so too.

5. From the first crime here specified, giving themselves over to fornication, that adulterous uncleanness doth much displease God. When they were given over to fornication they were given over to judgment.

(1) This is a sin that doth not only defile the soul but the body (1Co 6:18). It is a wrong to the body, considered either as our vessel (1Th 4:4), or as the temple of the Holy Ghost (1Co 6:19). If you consider it as our vessel or instrument for natural uses, you wrong it by uncleanness–namely, as it destroyeth the health of the body, quencheth the vigour of it, and blasteth the beauty, and so it is self-murder. If you consider it as the temple of the Holy Ghost, it is a dishonour to the body to make it a channel for lust to pass through. Shall we make a sty of a temple?

(2) It brawneth the soul; the softness of all sensual pleasures hardeneth the heart, but this sin, being the consummate act of sensuality, much more (Hos 4:11).

(3) Next to the body and soul there is the name, now it blotteth the name (Pro 6:33).

(4) It blasteth the estate (Heb 13:4). God will judge others, but surely these, and that remarkably in this life.

(5) This doth exceedingly pervert the order of human societies; Solomon maketh it worse than theft (Pro 6:29-32).

(6) It is a sin usually accompanied with impenitency–namely, as it weareth out remorse and every spark of good conscience (Pro 22:14; Pro 2:19; Ecc 7:26-28). Beware of all tendings that way; do not soak and steep the soul in pleasures. Guard the senses, cut off the provisions of the flesh, avoid occasions, be employed.

6. Again, from the other sin, and going after strange flesh, observe, sin is never at a stay; first, uncleanness, and then given over to uncleanness, and then strange flesh. When a stone runneth down hill it stayeth not till it cometh to the bottom.

7. The wicked Sodomites were not only burnt up by that temporal judgment, but cast into hell, which is here called eternal fire. The scourges of conscience that we meet with here are too great price for the short pleasures of a brutish lust, much more the worm that never dieth, the fire that shall never be quenched.

8. There is one note more, and that is from that clause, are set forth for an example. Observe thence, that Sodoms destruction is the worlds great example. You will say, What have we to do with Sodom, their sins being so unnatural, their judgments so unusual?

(1) As to their sins, I inquire, Are there none of Sodoms sins amongst us? If not going after strange flesh, yet fornication; if not fornication, yet pride and idleness and fulness of bread? We sin against more light, more love, etc.

(2) As to the judgments, though God doth not nowadays smite a country with judgments immediately from heaven, yet His displeasure is no less against sin; and if not the same, a like judgment, one very grievous, may come upon us. (T. Manton.)

The extermination of sin

I. Gods hatred of sin demonstrated by the destruction of sinners. The punishment of evil-doers forms a large portion of the sacred volume. Sin is never unpunished if not pardoned. This is a beneficent as well as just treatment. The safety of moral beings is thereby secured.

II. National sins visited by universal destruction.

III. Sin must be exterminated. God does destroy sin by reconstructing, and He reconstructs the order of society by destroying.

IV. The warning is the strongest. (T. Davies, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha] What their sin and punishment were may be seen in Gen. 19, and the notes there. This is the third example to illustrate what is laid down Jude 1:4.

Are set forth for an example] Both of what God will do to such transgressors, and of the position laid down in Jude 1:4, viz., that God has in the most open and positive manner declared that such and such sinners shall meet with the punishment due to their crimes.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.] Subjected to such a punishment as an endless fire can inflict. Some apply this to the utter subversion of these cities, so that by the action of that fire which descended from heaven they were totally and eternally destroyed; for as to their being rebuilt, that is impossible, seeing the very ground on which they stood is burned up, and the whole plain is now the immense lake Asphaltites. See my notes on Gen. 19.

The first sense applies to the inhabitants of those wicked cities; the second, to the cities themselves: in either case the word signifies an eternally destructive fire; it has no end in the punishment of the wicked Sodomites, c. it has no end in the destruction of the cities; they were totally burnt up, and never were and never can be rebuilt. ln either of these senses the word , eternal, has its grammatical and proper meaning.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The cities about them; Admah and Zeboim, Jer 49:18 Hos 11:8.

In like manner, as Sodom, and Gomorrah did, likeness of sin inferring likeness of punishment.

Strange flesh; margin, other flesh; he means male flesh, which is other than what God appointed for that use they made of it; or, as we render it, strange flesh, i.e. that which is strange, improper, and unfit for such an end. It is the description of the unnatural filthiness of the Sodomites, Gen 19:5; see Rom 1:26,27.

Are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire: eternal fire may be joined either:

1. With example, and the words thus placed, are set forth for an example of eternal fire, suffering vengeance; and the meaning is, that the vengeance they suffered in being destroyed by fire, is an example, or type, of eternal fire, that of hell: or:

2. With vengeance, according to our reading; and then the sense is, they are set forth for an example, ( viz. to those that after should live ungodly, 1Pe 2:6), suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; the vengeance they suffer is an example to deter others from the like wickedness. This fire is called eternal, either because of the still continuing effects of it, or rather, because it was a type or representation of the fire of hell, and to those miserable Sodomites the very beginning of it, they being brought by these temporal flames into everlasting burnings.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Evenas Alford translates, I wish to remind you (Jud1:5)that.

Sodom,etc. (2Pe2:6).

givingthemselves over to fornication following fornication extraordinarily,that is, outof theorder of nature. On in like manner tothem(Greek),compare Note,see on Jud1:6.Compare on spiritual fornication, go a whoringfrom thee,Psa73:27.

goingafter strange flesh departing from the course of nature, and going after that whichis unnatural. In later times the most enlightened heathen nationsindulged in the sin of Sodom without compunction or shame.

areset forth before our eyes.

suffering undergoing tothis present time;alluding to the marks of volcanic fire about the Dead Sea.

thevengeance Greek,righteous retribution.

eternalfire The lasting marks of the fire that consumed the citiesirreparably, is a type of the eternal fire to which the inhabitantshave been consigned. Bengel translates as the Greekwill admit, Suffering(the)punishment(which they endure) as an example or sampleof eternal fire(namely, that which shall consume the wicked). Eze16:53-55shows that Sodoms punishment, as a nation, is noteternal.Compare also 2Pe2:6.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them,…. Admah and Zeboiim, for Zoar was spared. This is a third instance of God’s vengeance on sinners; and which, like that of the Israelites, and of the angels, was after great favours had been enjoyed: these places were delightfully situated, and very fruitful, as the garden of God; they were under a form of government, had kings over them, and had lately had a very great deliverance from the kings that carried them captive, being rescued by Abraham; they had a righteous Lot among them, who was a reprover in the gate, and Abraham made intercession for them with God. But they

in like manner giving themselves over to fornication; not as the angels, who are not capable of sinning in such a manner; though the Jews make this to be a sin of theirs, and so interpret Ge 6:2 i, but rather the Israelites, among whom this sin prevailed,

1Co 10:8; though it seems best of all to refer it to the false teachers that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, and were very criminal this way; and then the sense is, that in like manner as they, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, gave themselves over to the sin of fornication; wherefore these men might expect the same judgments that fell upon them, since their sin was alike; which sin is a work of the flesh, contrary to the law of God, is against the body, and attended with many evils; exposes to judgment here and hereafter, and unfits for the communion of the saints, and for the kingdom of heaven:

and going after strange flesh; or “other flesh”; meaning not other women besides their own wives, but men; and designs that detestable and unnatural sin, which, from these people, is called sodomy to this day; and which is an exceeding great sin, contrary to the light of nature and law of God, dishonourable to human nature, and scandalous to a nation and people, and commonly prevails where idolatry and infidelity do, as among the Papists and Mahometans; and arose from idleness and fulness of bread in Sodom, and was committed in the sight of God, with great impudence: their punishment follows,

are set forth for an example; being destroyed by fire from heaven, and their cities turned into a sulphurous lake, which continues to this day, as a monument of God’s vengeance, and an example to all such who commit the same sins, and who may expect the same equitable punishment; and to all who live ungodly lives, though they may not be guilty of the same crimes; and to all that slight and reject the Gospel revelation, with whom it will be more intolerable than for Sodom and Gomorrah; and to antichrist, who bears the same name, and spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt; and particularly to all false teachers, who besides their strange doctrines, go after strange flesh:

suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; which may be understood of that fire, with which those cities, and the inhabitants of it, were consumed; which, Philo the k Jew says, burnt till his time, and must be burning when Jude wrote this epistle. The effects of which still continues, the land being now brimstone, salt, and burning; and is an emblem and representation of hell fire, between which there is a great likeness; as in the matter of them, both being fire; in the efficient cause of them, both from the Lord; and in the instruments thereof, the angels, who, as then, will hereafter be employed in the delivery of the righteous, and in the burning of the wicked; and in the circumstance attending both, suddenly, at an unawares, when not thought of, and expected; and in the nature of them, being a destruction total, irreparable, and everlasting: and this agrees with the sentiments of the Jews, who say l, that

“the men of Sodom have no part or portion in the world to come, and shall not see the world to come.”

And says R. Isaac,

“Sodom is judged , “with the judgment of hell” m.”

i Pirke Eliezer, c. 22. Joseph. Antiqu. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 1. k De Abrahamo, p. 370. l T. Hieros. Sanhedrin, fol. 29. 3. m Zohar in Gen. fol. 71. 3.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Even as (). Just “as.” The third instance (Jude passes by the deluge) in Jude, the cities of the plain.

The cities about them ( ). These were also included, Admah and Zeboiim (Deut 29:23; Hos 11:8). Zoar, the other city, was spared.

In like manner ( ). Adverbial accusative (cf. ). Like the fallen angels.

Having given themselves over to fornication (). First aorist active participle feminine plural of , late and rare compound (perfective use of , outside the moral law), only here in N.T., but in LXX (Gen 38:24; Exod 34:15, etc.). Cf. in verse 4.

Strange flesh ( ). Horrible licentiousness, not simply with women not their wives or in other nations, but even unnatural uses (Ro 1:27) for which the very word “sodomy” is used (Ge 19:4-11). The pronoun (other, strange) is not in 2Pe 2:10.

Are set forth (). Present middle indicative of , old verb, to lie before, as in Heb 12:1f.

As an example (). Predicate nominative of , old word (from to show), here only in N.T., sample, specimen. 2Pe 2:6 has (pattern).

Suffering (). Present active participle of , old compound, to hold under, often with (right, justice, sentence 2Th 1:9) to suffer sentence (punishment), here only in N.T.

Of eternal fire ( ). Like in verse 7. Cf. the hell of fire (Mt 5:22) and also Mt 25:46. Jude has no mention of Lot.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

The cities about them. Admah and Zeboim. Deu 29:23; Hos 11:8.

Giving themselves over to fornication [] . Rev., more strictly, having given, etc. Only here in New Testament. The force of ejk is out and out; giving themselves up utterly. See on followed, 2Pe 1:16. Going after [ ] . The aorist participle. Rev., having gone. The phrase occurs Mr 1:20; James and John leaving their father and going after Jesus. “The world is gone after him” (Joh 12:19). Here metaphorical. The force of ajpo is away; turning away from purity, and going after strange flesh.

Strange flesh. Compare 2Pe 2:10; and see Rom 1:27; Lev 18:22, 23. Also Jowett’s introduction to Plato’s “Symposium;” Plato’s “Laws,” 8, 836, 841; Dollinger, “The Gentile and the Jew,” Darnell’s trans., 2, 238 sq.

Are set forth [] . The verb means, literally, to lie exposed. Used of meats on the table ready for the guests; of a corpse laid out for burial; of a question under discussion. Thus the corruption and punishment of the cities of the plain are laid out in plain sight.

As an example [] . Only here in New Testament. From deiknumai, to display or exhibit; something, therefore, which is held up to view as a warning.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire [ ] . Rev., rightly, substitutes punishment for vengeance, since dikh carries the underlying idea of right or justice, which is not necessarily implied in vengeance. Some of the best modern expositors render are set forth as an example of eternal fire, suffering punishment. This meaning seems, on the whole, more natural, though the Greek construction favors the others, since eternal fire is the standing term for the finally condemned in the last judgment, and could hardly be correctly said of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities are most truly an example of eternal fire. “A destruction so utter and so permanent as theirs has been, is the nearest approach that can be found in this world to the destruction which awaits those who are kept under darkness to the judgment of the great day” (Lumby). Suffering [] . Only here in New Testament. The participle is present, indicating that they are suffering to this day the punishment which came upon them in Lot’s time. The verb means, literally, to hold under; thence to uphold or support, and so to suffer or undergo.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) God’s judgement of Sodom and Gomorrha are used by Jude as a third specific example of Divine judgment that falls upon the presumptuous wicked. As Israel and the fallen angels received judgment for rebellious and presumptuous sins against God, so did Sodom and Gomorrha. And just as all three-of these did not escape Divine punishment for their sins, neither, (Jude asserts) shall these immoral, degenerate, racket-raisers who entered to sabotage the fellowship of the sanctified believers.

2) “Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them “, indicates a broad area of large cities and small cities, inhabited places.

3) “In like manner” refers to similar disregard for the preeminence of God’s law, shown by Israel and fallen angels – was also embraced by these territories of judgment.

4) “Giving themselves over to fornication”, illicit and immoral sexual relations of men with women -outside the pledge of espoused matrimony.

5) “And going after (wandering around after) strange (Greek heteras – another kind) of flesh, (1) man with man, sodomy and (2) woman with woman, lesbianism – etc., condemned of the Lord, Gen 9:24-25; Gen 19:5-8; Lev 18:22-23; Rom 1:26-27; Rom 1:32.

6) “Are set forth for an example of what awaits these lascivious, ungodly infiltrators, among the sanctified to whom Jude wrote with all diligence, (Jud 1:3-4).

7) “Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire”. Jude simply asserts that just as Divine fiery judgment fell on the lascivious, fornicating, practitioners of sodomy and lesbianism in Sodom and Gomorrha and the cities, suburbs around them, so shall eternal fiery vengeance come upon these religious degenerates who had crept in under false colors among the sanctified.

8) Holiness and separated living are standards to be followed by every believer, God’s sanctified Mat 5:48; Mar 8:34; Heb 12:14.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha. This example is more general, for he testifies that God, excepting none of mankind, punishes without any difference all the ungodly. And Jude also mentions in what follows, that the fire through which the five cities perished was a type of the eternal fire. Then God at that time exhibited a remarkable example, in order to keep men in fear till the end of the world. Hence it is that it is so often mentioned in Scripture; nay, whenever the prophets wished to designate some memorable and dreadful judgment of God, they painted it under the figure of sulfurous fire, and alluded to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. It is not, therefore, without reason that Jude strikes all ages with terror, by exhibiting the same view.

When he says, the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, I do not apply these words to the Israelites and the angels, but to Sodom and Gomorrha. It is no objection that the pronoun τούτοις is masculine, for Jude refers to the inhabitants and not to the places. To go after strange flesh, is the same as to be given up to monstrous lusts; for we know that the Sodomites, not content with the common manner of committing fornication, polluted themselves in a way the most filthy and detestable. We ought to observe, that he devotes them to eternal fire; for we hence learn, that the dreadful spectacle which Moses describes, was only an image of a much heavier punishment.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Jud. 1:7. Giving themselves over.; the denotes the intensity of their lust, which would be gratified at all hazards. Strange flesh.Other flesh; prter naturam; Romans 1. Eternal fire.As eternal is a spiritual quality, and fire a material substance, the association of the two terms must be figurative, and suggestive of moral truth. Vengeance.Is of course just punishment, not unrestrained feeling.

Jud. 1:8. Filthy dreamers.Omit the adjective. We call similar persons mystics; and with such there is always peril of neglecting the moral claims of religion. Under the plea of spiritual perfection, these men have indulged in carnal pollutions, have sinned against themselves, have held tenets subversive of all civil authority and constituted government, have formed degrading conceptions of heavenly glories, or of glorified beings, as saints and angels, reducing the hope of the Church to the sensual delights of a Mahometan paradise.

Jud. 1:9. Michael the archangel.For the legends concerning him, see Illustrations. See Zec. 3:2; Dan. 10:21; Dan. 12:1; Rev. 12:7. There can be no doubt that an unhistorical incident is here cited as a warning; and our theories of inspiration must be such as can admit this fact.

Jud. 1:10.What they do not know, and cannot know, they abuse by gross irreverence. What they know, and cannot help knowing, they abuse by gross licentiousness.

Jud. 1:11.Three examples of similar wickedness. The stories of Cain, Balaam, and Korah. The root-evil in each case is covetousness. There were singular Rabbinic legends associated with Cain. Balaams advice to seduce Israel to moral evil is in mind (2Pe. 2:15). A strange legend placed the souls of Korah and his company in Gehenna, but represented them as not being tormented there.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

7. THIRD EXAMPLE. Sodom and Gomorrah.

Even as Rather, how that, to correspond with how that in Jud 1:5, and depend on put you in remembrance.

Like manner Alford and many earlier commentators refer like to the angels of the previous verse, and make the likeness consist in following strange flesh, so that Jude is held to sustain the ancient legend, that the angels contaminated themselves with females of the human race. But unquestionably the like refers to the certain men of Jud 1:4. To this in like manner corresponds the likewise of next verse, containing the reference to the same men.

Strange flesh Literally, other flesh; other than the “natural use” of Rom 1:27, implying the crime which has received its name from Sodom.

Are set forth Literally, lie forth; lie before our eyes, both on the face of the record and on the earth’s surface.

Example Literally, a showing of eternal fire, suffering punishment. The fires of ages on these plains are an illustration of eternal fire; as if the bituminous fires of the Dead Sea were a visible counterpart of the invisible fires of gehenna. The “slime-pits” of “the valley of Siddim” are recorded by successive writers as burning for centuries. In Deu 29:23, they are described as “brimstone, and salt, and burning.” Zep 2:9, describes them as “the breeding of nettles, and salt-pits, and a perpetual desolation.” And in the Apocrypha, the Book of Wisdom says, that “even to this day the waste land that smoketh is a testimony.” Even so near Jude’s time Philo says, “The memorials of that terrible destruction yet remain; and ruins are shown in Syria mixed with ashes, smoke, sulphur, and slight flames still occasionally playing about, as in the remains of a conflagration. Josephus says, that in his own time “the remains of a fire, sent down from God, are yet visible.” Jude, as we understand him, views the material of a perpetual fire as a visible image of the fires of eternal retribution.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.’

The third incident cited is the case of the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, cities which had sunk into deep sin, corruption, lasciviousness and illicit sex. This had caused God to send angels to inspect them, and resulted in an attempt by the men of Sodom to rape the angels (to ‘go after strange flesh’).

Here was an example of lasciviousness and illicit sex, and a further attempt to break down the barrier between the heavenly and the earthly by the rape of angels. Alternately ‘strange/other flesh’ may signify ‘that which was not usual’ and may therefore indicate ‘man with man doing what is unseemly’ (Rom 1:27).

And what was the consequence? The result was that they were made an example of, and suffered the punishment of eternal fire. The idea behind the phrase ‘eternal fire’ might be that it was fire from heaven (the eternal regions), or it may refer to its everlasting consequences, or it may refer to both. Jude also no doubt expects his readers to consider the eternal fire yet to come (Mar 9:43-48; Mat 25:41; Rev 19:20; Rev 20:10; Rev 20:14).

So these three incidents make clear the consequence of unbelief:

1) In the light of the demands of the one God and the offer of the One Saviour.

2) In consequence of men trying to involve themselves with spirit beings.

3) And in consequence of men living lives of lasciviousness and illicit sex .

All such sins bring men into destruction and judgment.

We should note in the present day that this has in mind belief in numerous intermediaries in relation to God, ‘modern’ attitudes to illicit sex (which are simply a repetition of the ancient sins) and modern attempts to become involved with the occult in whatever way it is done, whether by mediums, ouija boards, tarot cards, crystal balls, or whatever. All are equally condemned.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jud 1:8 “and speak evil of dignities” Scripture References – Note similar Scriptures;

Exo 22:28, “Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.”

Act 23:5, “Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people .”

2Pe 2:10-11, “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities . Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.”

Jud 1:8 Comments – It appears that each of these three descriptions of false prophets relate to the three examples just given of the children of Israel, the fallen angels and the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrha.

As the Sodomites, they both defile the flesh. As the fallen angels, they both despise dominion. As the children of Israel spoke evil of Moses and God, they criticize the leaders of the Church and nation.

Jud 1:9 “durst not bring against him a railing accusation” – Comments – Michael remembered that the Devil used to be a “dignity” (verse 8), and thus, spoke no evil against him.

Jud 1:9 “but said, The Lord rebuke thee” Comments – Note this same statement when the angel of the Lord rebuked Satan from Joshua the high priest.

Zec 3:2, “And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?”

In addition, the Lord will rebuke the devourer off of those who give the Lord tithes and offerings.

Mal 3:11, “And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.”

Note how David used this same statement when Israelites from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah came to David in Zizlag.

1Ch 12:17, “And David went out to meet them, and answered and said unto them, If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you: but if ye be come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon, and rebuke it .”

Jud 1:9 Comments – What would Satan want with Moses’ body? Look at Lenin in Russia and Mao Te Sung in China. Or, look at the great pyramids and ancient tombs in Egypt. People take great leaders and make a monument out of physical bodies and do not give God the glory.

Jud 1:9 Comments – Origen, along with his fellow-Alexandrians, Clement and Didymus, tell us that the story referred to in Jud 1:9 is taken from an ancient work called The Assumption of Moses. The work bearing this title that has come down to us has no such reference the description in Jud 1:9. Therefore, either they knew of another version that was more comprehensive, or this book was not the correct reference.

“We have now to notice, agreeably to the statements of Scripture, how the opposing powers, or the devil himself, contends with the human; race, inciting and instigating men to sin. And in the first place, in the book of Genesis, the serpent is described as having seduced Eve; regarding whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a little treatise, of which the Apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael, when disputing with the devil regarding the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve’s transgression.” ( De Principiis 3.2.1)

Clement of Alexandria writes, “‘When Michael, the archangel, disputing with the devil, debated about the body of Moses.’ Here he confirms the assumption of Moses. He is here called Michael, who through an angel near to us debated with the devil.” ( Fragments of Clemens Alexandrinus: 1. From the Latin Translation of Cassiodorus 2 Comments on the Epistle of Jude)

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Jud 1:7. And the cities about them in like manner, &c. That is, “In like manner with their neighbours in Sodom and Gomorrha.” Dr. Heylin gives the passage a very just turn: and the adjacent cities who were guilty of the same prostitution, in following unnatural lusts. The whole verse may be thus paraphrased: “Utter destruction shall certainly and suddenly come from the Lord upon all such: even as it did on the infamously wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the neighbouring cities of Adma and Zeboim, in storms of fire and brimstone, rained down from heaven upon them for the flagitious crimes which they greedily committed. The perpetual desolation of that wicked people, and of their cities, the evident marks of which remain to this day, is exhibited in the sacred history, and in providence, to open view, as an example of God’s tremendous vengeance, which carries a lively emblem of the everlasting destruction of all the wicked and ungodly in hell-fire.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

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 (Jud 1:5 ) states a judgment of God already past” (Hofmann’s Schriftb. I. p. 428).

] is not to be connected with the following , Jud 1:8 ; nor is , Jud 1:5 , to be connected with (de Wette) = how instead of “that;” it refers rather to what directly precedes = like as (Semler, Arnaud, Hofmann, Brckner, Wiesinger, Schott, and others; Luther: as also ), whilst Jud 1:7 confirms by the comparison with what befell Sodom and Gomorrha: God retains the angels kept unto the day of judgment, even as Sodom and Gomorrha . . . With the connection with . . (Jud 1:5 ) a preceding would hardly be necessary, also the words indicate the close connection with Jud 1:6 .

] frequently adduced in the O. and N. T. as examples of the divine judgment; see, for example, Rom 9:29 .

] according to Deu 29:23 ; Hos 11:8 : Admah and Zeboim.

] may grammatically be referred to . . . (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, 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).

, the sin of the inhabitants, is designated as the action of the cities themselves. The verb (often in the LXX. the translation of ; also in the Apocrypha) is in the N. T. a . . The preposition serves for strengthening the idea, indicating that “one by becomes unfaithful to true moral conduct” (Hofmann), but not that “he goes beyond the boundaries of nature” (Stier, Wiesinger, and similarly Schott).

] The expression . is found in Mar 1:20 in its literal sense; here it has a figurative meaning; comp. 2Pe 2:10 , .; Jer 2:5 ; Sir 46:10 .

Arnaud: ces mots sont ici un euphmisme, pour exprimer l’acte de la prostitution. In is contained the turning aside from the right way. Oecumenius thus explains the import of : , , ; so also Brckner 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 , and only by it do the connection of Jud 1:7 with Jud 1:6 , expressed by , and the explanation: , receive their true meaning. The of men was 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.

] : they lie before the eyes as a ; 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 . The genitive may grammatically depend both on and on . Most expositors (particularly Wiesinger, Schott, Brckner) consider the second construction as the correct one; but hardly rightly; as (1) would then lose its exact definition; (2) 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 of eternal fire, considering the fire by which they were destroyed as a figure of eternal fire. Hofmann correctly connects with , but he incorrectly designates . . as a preceding apposition to : “it may be seen in them ( = 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 is deprived of its proper meaning. With 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 .

in N. T. . . (Jas 5:11 , and frequently: ), not = example, but proof, testimony, sign . likewise in N. T. . .; 2Ma 4:48 , (2Th 1:9 , ).

[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 as equivalent to example . It is also entirely erroneous when it is asserted that is an evident type of hell-fire, since is itself hell-fire. To be compared with this is Mal 2:5Mal 2:5 : , ; and Libanius in reference to Troy: ; .

[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 ).

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

7 .] Third Example : Sodom and Gomorrha. See 2Pe 2:6 . How (not “even as,” E. V.; “ wie auch ,” Luther; “ similiter ,” Semler, al.; nor does it answer to below, Jud 1:8 ; but is dependent on above, Jud 1:5 , and parallel with there: see reff.) Sodom and Gomorrha , and the cities about them, following fornication (the , as in ref. Gen., seems to mean, to its fulfilment, thoroughly, without reserve: hardly, as Stier, “beyond the bounds of nature,” though this was so) in like manner to these ( , the angels above mentioned. The manner was similar, because the angels committed fornication with another race than themselves, thus also . So is taken by Lud.-Cappell., Herder, Augusti, Schneckenberger, achmann, De Wette, Arnaud, Stier, Huther. But other references have been attempted. Beza, Est., Calov., Krebs, understand the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha to be intended: justifying the construction by such passages as Jos. Vita 69, . But it is fatal to this, that thus we should have as the main subject of the sentence, and Sodom and Gomorrha only mentioned by the way. Again, Bengel and Rosenmller have referred to the ungodly men who are being treated of. But this is still less likely, seeing that they come in Jud 1:8 , evidently after a series of examples in which they have not been mentioned, with ) and going away after (see reff. Here more stress is to be laid on the -, than in those passages: it was a departure from the appointed course of nature and seeking after that which was unnatural) other flesh (than that appointed by God for the fulfilment of natural desire: as c., : the sin of Sodom was afterwards common in the most enlightened nations of antiquity, see Rom 1:27 . But in all probability Sodom and Gomorrha must be numbered among those whose sin went farther even than this: cf. Lev 18:22-25 . See 2Pe 2:10 ), are set forth as an example (reff. Libanius says of Troy, ), undergoing (to this day, pres. part. alluding to the natural phnomena of the Dead sea: cf. Wis 10:7 , : and Winer’s Realw., “ Todtes Meer ”) the just punishment of eternal fire ( , see reff.: especially 2 Macc., and add , 2Th 1:9 . is far better joined with than with as Huther: and the sense is, undergoing the punishment, as may even now be seen, of eternal fire of that fire; which shall never be quenched).

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Jud 1:7 . . The 3rd example of Divine judgment differs from the two others, as it tells only of the punishment, not of the fall from grace. Hence the difference of connexion . . Cf. 2Pe 2:6 , . The destruction was not limited to these two cities, but extended to all the neighbouring country (Gen 19:25 , called in Wis 10:6 ), including the towns of Admah and Zeboim (Deu 29:23 , Hos 11:8 ). Zoar was spared at the request of Lot.

. For the adverbial acc., cf. Mat 23:37 , , 2Ma 15:39 , , , Luc. Catapl. 6 . “Like them.” i.e. the fallen angels. The two judgments are similarly joined in Test. Nepht. 3, . , . Others understand of the libertines who are subsequently referred to as (Jud 1:8 ; Jud 1:10 ; Jud 1:12 ; Jud 1:16 ; Jud 1:19 ); but the beginning of Jud 1:8 ( ) seems to distinguish between them and the preceding. The verb . occurs in Gen 38:24 of Tamar, Exo 34:15-16 , ( ) , Lev 17:7 , Hos 4:12 , Eze 16:26 ; Eze 16:28 ; Eze 16:33 .

. In the case of the angels the forbidden flesh (lit. “other than that appointed by God”) refers to the intercourse with women; in the case of Sodom to the departure from the natural use (Rom 1:27 ), what Philo calls ( de Gig. M i. p. 267), cf. Exo 30:9 . . For the post-classical phrase cf. 2Pe 2:10 , , Deu 4:3 , Jer 2:2-3 .

. Cf. Enoch lxvii. 12, “this judgment wherewith the angels are judged is a testimony for the kings and the mighty,” 2Pe 2:6 , , 1Co 10:6 ; 1Co 10:11 , Heb 4:11 . The present aspect of the Lacus Asphaltites was a conspicuous image of the lake of fire and brimstone prepared for Satan and his followers, Rev 19:20 ; Rev 20:10 ; Rev 21:8 . It is questioned whether is governed by or . If by , then the burning of Sodom is itself spoken of as still going on (eternal), and this is in accordance with Jewish belief as recorded in Wis 10:7 ( ) , Philo ( De Abr. M. ii. xxi.), . . , , ib. V. Moys. M. ii. p. 143. Some disallow this sense of and think that it can only be used of hell-fire, as in 4Ma 12:12 (the words of the martyr contrasting the fires of present torture with the eternal flames awaiting the persecutor), , . For an examination of the word see Jukes, Restitution of all Things , p. 67 n. and cf. Jer 23:39-40 , Eze 16:53 ; Eze 16:55 (on the restoration of Sodom), Eze 47:1-12 (a prophecy of the removal of the curse of the Dead Sea and its borders), Enoch, x. 5 and 12, where the of the former verse is equivalent to seventy generations in the latter, also Eze 47:10 where is reckoned at 500 years. As the meaning of is made clear by the following participial clause, it seems unnecessary to take it with in the sense of “an example or type of eternal fire,” which would escape the difficulty connected with , but leaves (for which cf. Xen. Mem. ii. 1, 8, 2Ma 4:48 ) a somewhat otiose appendage. In the book of Enoch (lxvii. 4 foll.) the angels who sinned are said to be imprisoned in a burning valley (Hinnom, ch. 27) in which there was a great swelling of waters, accompanied by a smell of sulphur; and “that valley of the angels burned continually under the earth”. Charles notes on this that “the Gehenna valley here includes the adjacent country down to the Dead Sea. A subterranean fire was believed to exist under the Gehenna valley.”

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

about. App-104.

manner. Add “to these”, i.e. the angels of Jud 1:6. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrha, like that of the angels of Gen 6 (App-23,), was an unnatural one, breaking through the bounds which God had set.

giving, &c. Greek. ekporneuo. Only here. Anintensive form of porneuo, which occurs: 1Co 6:18. &c.

strange = other. App-124.

are set forth. Greek. prokeimai. See 2Co 8:12.

example. Greek. deigma. Only here.

suffering = undergoing. Greek. hupecho. Only here.

vengeance. App-177.

eternal. App-151.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

7.] Third Example: Sodom and Gomorrha. See 2Pe 2:6. How (not even as, E. V.; wie auch, Luther; similiter, Semler, al.; nor does it answer to below, Jud 1:8; but is dependent on above, Jud 1:5, and parallel with there: see reff.) Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, following fornication (the , as in ref. Gen., seems to mean, to its fulfilment, thoroughly, without reserve: hardly, as Stier, beyond the bounds of nature, though this was so) in like manner to these (, the angels above mentioned. The manner was similar, because the angels committed fornication with another race than themselves, thus also . So is taken by Lud.-Cappell., Herder, Augusti, Schneckenberger, achmann, De Wette, Arnaud, Stier, Huther. But other references have been attempted. Beza, Est., Calov., Krebs, understand the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha to be intended: justifying the construction by such passages as Jos. Vita 69, . But it is fatal to this, that thus we should have as the main subject of the sentence, and Sodom and Gomorrha only mentioned by the way. Again, Bengel and Rosenmller have referred to the ungodly men who are being treated of. But this is still less likely, seeing that they come in Jud 1:8, evidently after a series of examples in which they have not been mentioned, with ) and going away after (see reff. Here more stress is to be laid on the -, than in those passages: it was a departure from the appointed course of nature and seeking after that which was unnatural) other flesh (than that appointed by God for the fulfilment of natural desire: as c., : the sin of Sodom was afterwards common in the most enlightened nations of antiquity, see Rom 1:27. But in all probability Sodom and Gomorrha must be numbered among those whose sin went farther even than this: cf. Lev 18:22-25. See 2Pe 2:10), are set forth as an example (reff. Libanius says of Troy, ), undergoing (to this day, pres. part. alluding to the natural phnomena of the Dead sea: cf. Wis 10:7, : and Winers Realw., Todtes Meer) the just punishment of eternal fire ( , see reff.: especially 2 Macc., and add , 2Th 1:9. is far better joined with than with as Huther: and the sense is, undergoing the punishment, as may even now be seen, of eternal fire of that fire; which shall never be quenched).

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Jud 1:7. ) [in a manner like] to these, the ungodly, who are doomed to undergo a like punishment.-) giving themselves to fornication. For the simple verb , , the Septuagint often has . But here the word is peculiarly adapted to a lust still more abominable.–, going away after-other) unnatural lusts.-[, are set forth, lie before our eyes) The cities therefore were situated, not in the Dead Sea, but upon the shore.-V. g.]–, an example-punishment) These are put in apposition; the punishment, which they endure, is an example of eternal fire, as Cassiodorus says: for the punishment of those cities is not itself eternal: Eze 16:53; Eze 16:55. Comp. 2Pe 2:6.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

The Second Advent

Behold he cometh with the clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they which pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen.Rev 1:7.

No one can study the New Testament without feeling that the thought of Christs Return was everywhere present and powerful in the first age. In the Gospels and in the Apocalypse, in the Acts and in the Epistles, the same hope is the subject of promise, of exhortation, of vision. It would perhaps be impossible to find any other special doctrine of Christianity which is not only affirmed, but affirmed in the same language, by St. Paul and St. James, by St. Peter and St. John. The Return of Christ to judgment was the subject on which St. Peter spoke when the Jewish multitude were astonished at the first apostolic miracle; it was the subject on which St. Paul spoke when he first passed over into Macedonia and his enemies accused him of preaching another king than Csar. It seems to rise uppermost in the minds of the Apostles when they are themselves most deeply moved and when they wish to move others most deeply. It is, as they declare it, the sufficient motive for patience in affliction and the end of expectation in the presence of triumphant evil. And more than this: the hope of Christs Return was not only universal in the first age; it was instant. From Jerusalem and Corinth the same voice came that the time was at hand, even as when the Baptist heralded Christs ministry. The dawn of an endless day was held to be already breaking after a weary night; and while St. Paul reproved the error of those at Thessalonica who neglected the certain duties of life that they might, as they fancied, watch better the spread of the heavenly glory, he confirmed the truth which they had misinterpreted. With us it is far otherwise. A few enthusiasts from time to time bring the thought of Christs Return into prominence, but for the most part it has little influence upon our hearts and minds. We acknowledge generally, in a vague manner, that we shall severally render an account of our doings, but we do not look beyond this either in hope or in fear to any manifestation of judgment in the world.

One of Dr. Bonars reminiscences of the people at Jedburgh was a story of a half-witted man whom he used to visit. This poor man had found Christ and had learned to rejoice in the thought of His return to earth. He went to Edinburgh on a visit, and came home much dissatisfied with the ministers. When asked why, he said, Oh, they a flee (fly) wi ae (one) wing! They preached Christs First, but not His Second, Coming.1 [Note: Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar, 4.]

I

He cometh.

1. The Lord shall come! This is the burden of this last book of Scripture. It was the burden of the Old Testament; for Enochs prophecy runs through all its books,Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints. It is the burden of the New Testament; for both the Master and His Apostles give out the same solemn utterance,Behold he cometh; and the Church in the early ages took up the subject as of profoundest and most pressing interest, looking for that blessed hope. In that coming, the manifestation of Christ, all things, our actions and ourselves, shall be seen as they are, seen by ourselves and seen by others. Then the whole course of life, the life of creation, of humanity, of men, will be laid open, and that vision will be a judgment beyond controversy and beyond appeal.

Dr. Bonar was absorbed from first to last in the faith and hope of the Second Advent. Wherever we open the New Testament, we find it thrilling to the heat and joy of that manifestation and coming of the Lord when we shall see Him as He is. Edward Irving, with all his errors, did one thing. He revived for his generation the Parousia as the definite hope of the Church which witnesses to the Lords death till He come. Dr. Nansen has recently told us what science has to say about the end of the world. He tells that the end will take place after millions of years, when the sun has been cooled. Life will then have to cope with greater and greater difficulties of existence, until it finally and entirely disappears. The possibilities of existence will become gradually less and less favourable for the complicated and highly developed animals, whilst the simple low organisms will probably be those that will live longest until even they disappear. But the faith of the Church is that the Christ who once offered Himself in our nature as the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, satisfaction, and oblation for the sins of the whole world will come again. The Christ who comes will be the Christ who departed, and His coming will be in like manner as the disciples saw Him go, visible, corporeal, local. We, according to His promise, look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. I venture to think it a great weakness of our teaching that so little is said about the blessed hope and appearing of our great God and Saviour. Meanwhile, if He returns not in our lifetime, we know that we are dying people, all of us; that there are before us death, judgment, and eternity. So let us offer the prayer:

Then, O my Lord, prepare

My soul for that great day;

O wash me in Thy precious blood,

And take my sins away.1 [Note: W. R. Nicoll, in Memories of Dr. Horatius Bonar, 109.]

2. No truth, therefore, ought to be more frequently proclaimed, next to the first coming of the Lord, than His second coming; and we cannot thoroughly set forth all the ends and bearings of the first advent if we forget the second. At the Lords Supper, there is no discerning the Lords body unless we discern His first coming; there is no drinking His cup to its fulness, unless we also hear Him say, Until I come. We must look forward, as well as backward. We must look to Him on the cross and on the throne. We must vividly realize that He who has once come is coming yet again, or else our testimony will be marred and one-sided. The great advent may be near, or it may be far off. It may come while things remain as they are, or not till after great changes. But, come when it may, it will come surely. Of that our Lord has warned us. We know not, and we are not to know, when; but come it will. Those who are then living will see it; and those who are in the graves will awake to see it. We know not of which number we shall be. But this we do know, that see Him we shall, and that either to our unspeakable joy or to our shame and terror and despair.

These were the days of warm and even bitter discussion relative to The Lords Second Coming. Pre-millennialists and post-millennialists could scarcely come together for prophetical Bible study without sharp controversy on the subject. Since Dr. Piersons views had undergone a change, through his interviews with George Mller and his later Bible studies, he held the decided and unyielding conviction that Christians must be ready and looking for the return of the Lord at any moment. He was not prepared, nor did he think it right, to prophesy as to dates, since, he said, the only date given for the Lords return is In such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. He believed that the world was to be evangelized but not necessarily converted before the Lord should come.1 [Note: Arthur T. Pierson: A Biography, by his Son, 185.]

3. The text speaks of Christs coming with the cloudsan expression suggestive of glory and power. Of all natural objects that awaken the sense of awe none can rival for power, mountains, clouds, and sea. But clouds combine, in a measure, the resources of sea and mountains; smoothed out at dawn or sunset, twisted into strange contortions by the storm, they rival the solemnity of mountains in their vast proportions, and imitate in their changeful movements the beating of the waves. Black as forces of evil, bright with the smile of opening day, floating on the surface of an azure heaven, or piled in giant waves above the mountains with a look of doomeverywhere they give the sense of thinly veiled depths of mystery yet to be revealed, and of the wrath and power of God against sin.

Each common cloud in this our cloudy climate may serve to remind us of the cloud of the Ascension, and of the clouds of the second Advent. Also of that great cloud of witnesses who already compass us about, who one day will hear our doom pronounced; who perhaps will then for the moment become as nothing to us when we stand face to face with Christ our Judge: At the brightness of His presence His clouds removed.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 20.]

Every one knows the history of Raphaels Madonna di San Sisto, at Dresden. Its background is composed of clouds. For many years the picture, begrimed with dirt, remained uncleaned, and the background of clouds looked dark and threatening; when the picture was cleaned and carefully examined, it was discovered that the supposed clouds were not dark atmospheric clouds but multitudes of angel faces luminously massed together. It is ever thus. His clouds are ministering spirits, angel faces; the heavy masses of Earths dust, which look so dark and unangelic, are His veil; in them He comes, seeking the heart, striving to eradicate selfishness, to quench passion, to melt obstinacy, to wean from earthly things.1 [Note: B. Wilberforce, New (?) Theology, 243.]

II

Every eye shall see him.

1. When Christ came before, He came to an obscure quarter of the world, and if all of that land had assembled to see Him, the number would have been but moderate; but, in fact, only Mary and Joseph were present, with perhaps one or two attendants; and the shepherds came to look, and the wise men brought their gifts; and that was all. Few were the eyes that saw Him then. But when He comes again every eye shall see him, as every man sees the sun each day. Jesus said to the high priest, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven (Mat 26:64). Caiaphas will see Him, and the scribes and eldersthose who mocked Him, and smote Him, and spit upon Him; the people who cried Crucify him! not this man, but Barabbas; Pilate, who, against his conscience, condemned Him; the penitent thief, and the impenitent; all the penitent and all the impenitent; those who have crucified Him afresh by their sins, and those who have served and glorified Him; all who have ever lived, the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the old and the young; all shall see Him, at one and the same moment, all together; the eyes of the blind shall be opened to see Him, all that are in the graves shall see Him, and all who lie in the depths of the sea.

And every eye shall see himAll impelled in one direction, all looking in one direction. Even a very small crowd doing the same thing at the same instant has a thrilling, awful power; as once when I saw the chorus of a numerous orchestra turn over their music-sheets at the same moment, it brought before me the Day of Judgment.2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 20.]

Earth must fade away from our eyes, and we must anticipate that great and solemn truth, which we shall not fully understand till we stand before God in judgment, that to us there are but two beings in the whole world, God and ourselves. The sympathy of others, the pleasant voice, the glad eye, the smiling countenance, the thrilling heart, which at present are our very life, all will be away from us, when Christ comes in judgment. Every one will have to think of himself. Every eye shall see Him; every heart will be full of Him. He will speak to every one; and every one will be rendering to Him his own account.1 [Note: J. H. Newman.]

2. There is consolation in the thoughtEvery eye shall see him. It is a glorious promise, for, whether in this life or in the life to come, the law is eternal, that only the sanctified can see the Holy One, only the pure in heart shall see God,yet every eye shall see him. It is the infinite thirst of every awakened soul, the supreme consummation awaiting the noblest spirits who have passed through earths education. Every inarticulate upward straining of the spirit that we have been unable to interpret has been the inner eye feeling for Him. Some can interpret it. Faraday, when asked by Acland his conception of after-death consciousness, cried out, I shall see Him, and that will be enough for me. Augustine cried out, O let me see Thee; and if to see Thee is to die, let me die that I may see Thee.

I remember a man born blind who loved our Lord most intensely, and he was wont to glory in this, that his eyes had been reserved for his Lord. Said he, The first whom I shall ever see will be the Son of man in His glory.2 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]

Every eye shall see him. Every eye; the eye of every living man, whoever he is. None will be able to prevent it. The voice of the trumpet, the brightness of the flame, shall direct all eyes to Him, shall fix all eyes upon Him. Be it ever so busy an eye, or ever so vain an eye, whatever employment, whatever amusement it had the moment before, will then no longer be able to employ it, or to amuse it. The eye will be lifted up to Christ, and will no more look down upon money, upon books, upon land, upon houses, upon gardens. Alas! these things will then all pass away in a moment; and not the eyes of the living alone, but also all the eyes that have ever beheld the sun, though but for a moment; the eyes of all the sleeping dead will be awakened and opened. The eyes of saints and sinners of former generations. Your eyes and mine. O awful thought! Blessed Jesus! May we not see Thee as through tears; may we not then tremble at the sight!1 [Note: Philip Doddridge.]

III

And they which pierced him; and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn over him.

1. With what different feelings shall men see Christ on the last great day! Some rejoicing, others mourning: some with hallelujahs, others with cries of despair. All tribes of the earth shall mourn over him. Some of every generation and every tribe; so many, that it is said all. Yet not every individual. Of every generation and tribe, some will see Him with joy. This was the hope with which He cheered His disciples, sorrowing at His going: I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also (Joh 14:3); I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you (Joh 16:22). And this was the comfort the angels gave to those who saw Him ascend out of their sight: This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. To them, as to all His disciples, the Lords return was and is an object, not of dread, but of joyful hope.

This same great coming, then, which every eye shall see, is an object of dread to some, of joy unspeakable to others. When they see the Lord appear, some will wail in terror and despair, others will rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory; and even now, while some love his appearing, others are terrified at the thought. Whence arises this vast difference? From the vast difference in their present state with regard to Him who will come. As men (those at least to whom the gospel has come) feel towards Christ Himself, so do they feel with regard to His coming, and so will they feel when they see Him appear. They who love Him love to think of His appearing, and will rejoice to see Him; they who love Him not, and have no saving faith in Him, now fear to think of His coming, and will then call on the rocks to cover them.

All kindreds of the earth shall wail is the reading of the Authorized Version. I cannot put into English the full meaning of that most expressive word, wail. Sound it at length, and it conveys its own meaning. It is as when men wring their hands and burst out into a loud cry; or as when Eastern women, in their anguish, rend their garments, and lift up their voices with the most mournful notes. All kindreds of the earth shall wail; wail as a mother laments over her dead child; wail as a man might wail who found himself hopelessly imprisoned and doomed to die. Such will be the hopeless grief of all the kindreds of the earth at the sight of Christ in the clouds: if they remain impenitent, they shall not be able to be silent; they shall not be able to repress or conceal their anguish.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon.]

2. They which pierced him are by no means a few. Who have pierced Christ? The Roman soldier who thrust his spear into the Messiahs side is not the only one. They that once professed to love Christ and have gone back to the world; they that speak against the Christ whom once they professed to love; they whose inconsistent lives have brought dishonour upon the sacred name of Jesus; they who refused His love, stifled their consciences, and rejected His rebukes; they who scorn the love and mercy offered by the Saviourall these may be said to have pierced Him.

The words they which pierced him are taken from Zec 12:10. Both here and in Joh 19:37 the New Testament writer does not adopt, as usual, the Septuagint reading, which runs, because they have mocked me but whom they have pierced. This, as Alford remarks, is almost a demonstration of the common authorship of the Apocalypse and the Fourth Gospel. This and Joh 19:37 are the only places in the New Testament where this prophecy is alluded to.2 [Note: M. F. Sadler, The Revelation of St. John the Divine, 7.]

Ah, Lord, we all have pierced Thee: wilt Thou be

Wroth with us all to slay us all?

Nay, Lord, be this thing far from Thee and me:

By whom should we arise, for we are small,

By whom if not by Thee?

Lord, if of us who pierced Thee Thou spare one,

Spare yet one more to love Thy Face,

And yet another of poor souls undone,

Another, and anotherGod of grace,

Let mercy overrun.3 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Poetical Works, 137.]

IV

Even so, Amen.

1. This same Jesus shall come. These words of the angel to the disciples after the Ascension are words of comfort to those who believe. He who loved me, and gave himself for me, is He who will come in glory; the same Jesus as went about doing good, and died to redeem us by His blood; as full of grace and love as ever, unchangeably the same. It is our Saviour who will come with clouds, and whose coming the Apostle hails in the closing words of the text, Even so, Amen. The first of these words is Greek, Yes; the second Hebrew, So be it; both together form the fullest expression that could be given of the certainty and truth of what is stated, and the deep longing of heart for the fulfilment of the prediction. Here are all St. Johns innermost desires summed up and spoken out. What earnestness, what vehemence, what longing, are expressed in this double Amen! It is the amen of faith, and hope, and joy. It is the amen of a weary, heart-broken exile. It is the amen of a saint left on earth long behind his fellow-saints, and sighing for the promised rest when the great Rest-giver comes. It is the Churchs amen; her vehement desire for the day of meeting.

Even so, Amen.Amen alone closed the doxology (Rev 1:6), but here where judgment is the theme, St. John doubles his assent. A lesson of adhesion to the revealed Will of God, be that Will what it may: a foreshadowing of the perfected will and mind of all saints at the separating right and left of the final division: an example of the conformity we must now pray and strive after: Even so, Amen.1 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, The Face of the Deep, 23.]

The little word Amen means, truly, verily, certainly; and it is a word of firm, heartfelt faith: as if thou saidst, O God and Father, those things for which I have prayed I doubt not; they are surely true and will come to pass, not because I have prayed for them, but because Thou hast commanded me to ask for them, and hast surely promised; and I am convinced that Thou art indeed God, and canst not lie. And, therefore, not because of the worthiness of my prayer, but because of the certainty of Thy promise, I do firmly believe it, and I have no doubt that an Amen will come out of it, and it will be an Amen.1 [Note: Luther, Commentary on the Lords Prayer.]

2. Thus the Book of Revelation calls the Church to fix her eyes more intently upon her true hope. For what is that hope? Is it not the hope of the revelation of her Lord in the glory that belongs to Him? No hope springs so eternal in the Christian breast. It was that of the early Church, as she believed that He whom she had loved while He was on earth would return to perfect the happiness of His redeemed. It ought not less to be our hope now. Watching for it, waiting for it, being patient unto it, groaning without it, looking for it, hasting unto it, loving itthese are the phrases which Scripture uses concerning the day of God. And surely it may well use them; for what in comparison with the prospect of such a day is every other anticipation of the future?

In a letter to Lady Kinloch he wrote: The return of the Lord Jesus, and our being glorified together with Him (if so be that we suffer with Him), this true and lively hope seems to me like a star, which is not seen in the garish light of prosperity and a smooth course, but only in the stillness of sorrow, or at least of a chastened, crucified condition. I think this is one reason why the Church lost this hope, after the first ages of martyrdom, and why now-a-days it so often degenerates into a mere sentimental speculation,a pious Zeitvertreib.2 [Note: G. Carlyle, A Memoir of Adolph Saphir, 216.]

Writing to his sister Mrs. Julius Hare, he says: The words of the Apostle, Looking for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, have seemed to me the only words that gave me any glimpse into the future state, or into the use which we are to make of it, in urging ourselves and others to fight. I think the Millenarians are altogether right, and have done an infinite service to the Church, in fixing our minds upon these words, and so turning them away from the expectations of mere personal felicity apart from the establishment of Christs kingdom; from the notion of Heaven which makes us indifferent to the future condition of the earth. I think they have done good also, in urging the hope of Christs coming, as a duty upon the Church, and in denouncing the want of it as a sin.3 [Note: Life of Frederick Denison Maurice, ii. 243.]

The whole Bible was to him bright with the promise of the Lords Return, and this expectation gave joy and hopefulness to his whole life. Sorrow and bereavement made him think of the glorious time when death shall have become resurrection; pain and suffering reminded him of the new heavens and the new earth yet to come. Are you content, he writes to a friend, with the Lords gracious letter to you when you might rather be wearying for Himself? I know that this same Jesus is as precious to you as to any of us, but when will you be a man of Galilee, gazing up into heaven? To another friend he writes: Are you loving Christs appearing and His kingdom? If not, He hath somewhat against thee. Some Christians make a great mistake. They think that because Christ said it was expedient that He should go away, therefore it is expedient that He should stay away! He went away to present His finished work to the Father, but He must come back again.

I find the thought of Christs Coming, he said, very helpful in keeping me awake. Those who are waiting for His appearing will get a special blessing. Perhaps they will get nearer His Person. I sometimes hope it will be so, and that He will beckon me nearer to Him if I am waiting for Him; just as at a meeting, you often see one beckoned to come up to the platform nearer the speakers.

At a meeting in Philadelphia in 1881, to bid him farewell, the chairmanthe late George Stewartclosed his address by saying that the Lord, the Righteous Judge, would give to His dear servant a crown of righteousness at the great day. He sat down, and on rising to reply, Dr. Bonar said, And not to me only, but to all them also that love his appearing 1 [Note: Reminiscences of Andrew A. Bonar, 148.]

The Second Advent

Literature

Banks (L. A.), John and his Friends, 189.

Bonar (H.), Light and Truth: The Revelation, 25.

Bourdillon (F.), Short Sermons, 201.

Davies (T.), Sermons and Expositions, i. 347.

Eadie (J.), in The Home Preacher, 737.

Eyton (R.), The Apostles Creed, 104.

Little (W. J. K.), The Mystery of the Passion, 181.

Milligan (W.), Lectures on the Apocalypse, 219.

Rossetti (C. G.), The Face of the Deep, 19.

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxxiii. (1887), No. 1989.

Temple (W.), Repton School Sermons, 198.

Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 85.

Wilberforce (B.), New (?) Theology, 236.

Christian World Pulpit, lxiv. 408 (E. H. Eland).

Church of England Magazine, lxxi. 368 (J. J. Cort).

Contemporary Pulpit, v. 257 (W. Thomson).

Literary Churchman, xxx. (1884) 510 (C. G. H. Baskcomb).

National Preacher, xxxii. 382 (S. B. Willis).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Reciprocal: Gen 13:13 – But the Gen 19:5 – General Gen 19:7 – General Gen 19:13 – Lord hath Gen 19:24 – the Lord Gen 19:28 – General Lev 18:22 – General Lev 20:13 – General Num 26:10 – they became a sign Jdg 19:22 – Bring forth 1Ki 15:12 – the sodomites 1Ki 22:46 – the remnant Job 31:3 – a strange Pro 5:14 – General Isa 34:9 – General Jer 20:16 – as Jer 23:14 – Sodom Jer 49:18 – in the Jer 50:40 – General Eze 16:46 – thy younger sister Eze 16:50 – and committed Eze 24:9 – I will Hos 11:8 – Admah Amo 4:11 – as God Nah 3:6 – will set Mat 11:23 – in Sodom Mar 3:29 – but is Mar 6:11 – It shall Luk 17:29 – General Act 1:25 – by Rom 1:26 – vile Rom 9:29 – Sodoma 1Co 10:6 – these 2Co 12:21 – uncleanness 1Ti 1:10 – defile 2Pe 2:3 – whose 2Pe 2:6 – turning Rev 11:8 – Sodom Rev 14:10 – be Rev 19:3 – And her

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Jud 1:7. Even as denotes that the people of Sodom and Gomorrha will also be punished at the last day. Suffering the vengeance refers to the future judgment day. The last word means a sentence unto punishment the same as 2Th 1:9. The destruction of those cities was for this world only and did not constitute the eternal fire, for that is to come at the day of judgment. But their destruction in Genesis was intended as an example for the warning of others, and when that calamity came upon them they were given this sentence to be carried out at the last day. Strange flesh refers to their filthy immorality as described in Rom 1:27.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

The Apologists Bible Commentary

Jude 7

7just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.

C O M M E N T A R YThis verse has been used by some to deny the doctrine of eternal punishment. They reason that since Sodom and Gomorrah were utterly destroyed by God’s wrath, and Jude tells us that these two cities are an “example” of those undergoing punishment, the “eternal fire” must be one that utterly destroys. Further, they argue that since the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction are no longer burning, the fire of hell cannot be “eternal” in a literal sense. This argument at first seems convincing. It is clear that Jude regards Sodom and Gomorrah as representative of a past punishment of wickedness that is “exhibited” as a warning of future punishment. If Sodom and Gomorrah are no more, and if the fires of their destruction are no longer burning, how can they be examples of a literal Hell of eternal torment? One of the essentials in Bible interpretation is to avoid projecting what is common knowledge in our culture into the world of the Biblical authors. It is vital that we take the historical context into consideration when attempting to discern the meaning of a given passage. The assumption underlying the arguments of those who use this verse as described above is that the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah are no longer burning, and therefore the destruction of these cities was a finite event in history. But is this the case? The Location of Sodom and Gomorrah The precise location of Sodom and Gomorrah is uncertain. We can deduce that it was somewhere east or southeast of Jerusalem, in the area of the Dead Sea. Abraham was able to see it from the great trees of Mamre, near Hebron (Genesis 18:1, 19:27). Hebron is located 18 miles west of the Dead Sea, about half-way between its north and south ends. Sodom and Gomorrah Still Burning? The question arises: If Jude knew that the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah were extinguished, why did he describe them as “eternal” (Greek: ainios)? It would seem unlikely that his is speaking hyperbolically, as Jude’s point would have been the same had he simply said “fire.” Some have said that “eternal fire” is that which cannot be extinguished by outside intervention, but which may die naturally when its fuel is exhausted. But this interpretation relies on special pleading; ainios never exhibits such a meaning elsewhere in Scripture. But what if Jude believed the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah had not been extinguished? What if he believed that the fires still burned in his day? Indeed, what if it were common knowledge that the fires of destruction still burned, and were conceived as being literally “eternal?” An examination of the historical record would seem to indicate that this is precisely the case: “And in one day these populous cities became the tomb of their inhabitants, and the vast edifices of stone and timber became thin dust and ashes. And when the flames had consumed everything that was visible and that existed on the face of the earth, they proceeded to burn even the earth itself, penetrating into its lowest recesses, and destroying all the vivifying powers which existed within it so as to produce a complete and everlasting barrenness, so that it should never again be able to bear fruit, or to put forth any verdure; and to this very day it is scorched up. For the fire of the lightning is what is most difficult to extinguish, and creeps on pervading everything, and smouldering. And a most evident proof of this is to be found in what is seen to this day: for the smoke which is still emitted, and the sulphur which men dig up there, are a proof of the calamity which befell that country” (Philo, On Abraham 27). “The length of this lake is five hundred and eighty furlongs, where it is extended as far as Zoar in Arabia; and its breadth is a hundred and fifty. The country of Sodom borders upon it. It was of old a most happy land, both for the fruits it bore and the riches of its cities, although it be now all burnt up. It is related how, for the impiety of its inhabitants, it was burnt by lightning; in consequence of which there are still the remainders of that Divine fire, and the traces [or shadows] of the five cities are still to be seen, as well as the ashes growing in their fruits; which fruits have a color as if they were fit to be eaten, but if you pluck them with your hands, they dissolve into smoke and ashes. And thus what is related of this land of Sodom hath these marks of credibility which our very sight affords us.” (Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, IV.8.4). “The fire which burns beneath the ground and the stench render the inhabitants of the neighboring country sickly and very short lived” (Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, II.48). “Lake Sirbonis [most historians agree that Strabo has confused Lake Sirbonis with the Dead Sea] is large; in fact some state that it is one thousand stadia in circuit; however, it extends parallel to the coast to a length of slightly more than two hundred stadia, is deep to the very shore, and has water so very heavy that there is no use for divers, and any person who walks into it and proceeds no farther than up to his navel is immediately raised afloat. It is full of asphalt. The asphalt is blown to the surface at irregular intervals from the midst of the deep, and with it rise bubbles, as though the water were boiling; and the surface of the lake, being convex, presents the appearance of a hill. With the asphalt there arises also much soot, which, though smoky, is imperceptible to the eye; and it tarnishes copper and silver and anything that glistens, even gold” (Strabo, Geography, XVI.42). There are historical reports as late as the 17th, 18th and even 19th Centuries that suggest that the region around the Dead Sea continued to reek of sulfur and contain pockets of “subterranean fire,” from which clouds of smoke would occasionally rise. Conclusion When Jude was writing his Epistle, he and his readers believed the fires of Sodom and Gomorrah were still burning. They believed that while the cities had been reduced to “thin ash,” and the inhabitants long dead, the ‘eternal fire’ of the Lord had penetrated the earth and still burned deep underground. Smoke and sulfur (“brimstone”) was common in the area. This was the image Jude had in his mind – the eternal Lake of Fire, a place of unending flame where the wicked shall be confined, the “smoke of their torment rising forever” (Rev 14:11). When understood in its historical context, Jude’s “eternal fire” is eternal, indeed: An image wholly consistent with the orthodox doctrine of eternal punishment (see also Matthew 25:46 ).

Fuente: The Apologists Bible Commentary

Another example of God’s severity against sin and sinners, is Sodom and Gomorrah, Adma and Zeboim, who having themselves up to the lusts of uncleanness, were in an extraordinary manner destroyed by fire from heaven, which was a forerunner of that eternal fire of hell, which they are to suffer to all eternity, and so may and ought to be a terrifying example and timely warning to all persons, that they fall not into the like sins.

Learn, 1. That the sin of uncleanness doth exceedingly displease and provoke God to punish above other sins, because it defiles both soul and body; it makes a sty of a temple: and because it is a sin usually accompanied with final impenitency, “none that go into her return:” that is, very few. Whoredom is a deep ditch, the abhorred of God do fall into it.

Learn, 2. That the sin of uncleanness is remarkably followed with vengeanace, even with eternal vengeance: God returns flames for flames, and revenges the fire of lust with the fire of hell.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Jdg 1:7-8. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha See on 2Pe 2:6-9; and the cities about them These were Admah and Zeboim. The four are mentioned Deu 29:23; Zoar, the fifth city in the plain of Sodom, was spared, at the request of Lot, for a place of refuge to him and his family. In like manner , in a manner like to these; that is, either like to these wicked teachers, or like to the inhabitants of these wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah; giving themselves over to fornication The word is applicable to any sort of uncleanness; and going after strange flesh Giving themselves up to unnatural lusts; are set forth for an example To other presumptuous sinners; suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Having their lovely and fruitful country turned into a kind of hell upon earth. The meaning is, The vengeance which they suffered is an example, or type, of eternal fire. Likewise , in like manner, indeed; these filthy dreamers So our translators render the word , an epithet which the persons described undoubtedly deserved. The word, however, only signifies dreamers; or rather, persons cast into a deep sleep, namely, into a state of ignorance and insensibility, of negligence and sloth, with respect to spiritual and eternal things; sleeping and dreaming all their lives. Defile the flesh Their own bodies, which ought to be sacred, together with their spirits, to the service of God. Despise dominion Those that are invested with it by Christ, and made by him the overseers of his flock; or, he may mean that they despised their civil rulers; and speak evil of dignities Of persons in the most honourable stations. The Jews, fancying it sinful to obey the heathen magistrates, despised both them and their office. The ungodly teachers, of whom Jude speaks, carried the matter still further; they reviled all magistrates whatever, as enemies to the natural liberty of mankind.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

7. Jude also alludes to the awful doom of Sodom and Gomorrah, which, like the fallen angels, stand before us a gloomy monument of the awful retributions inevitably following in the tread of sin.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1:7 Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, {g} giving themselves over to fornication, and going after {h} strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

(g) Following the steps of Sodom and Gomorrah.

(h) Thus he sets forth their horrible and wicked perversions.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The example of certain pagans v. 7

This example shows God’s judgment on those who practice immorality and sexual perversion, which the false teachers of Jude’s day evidently felt liberated to practice. The fire that burned up the cities of the plain was the instrument of God’s punishment. That punishment will eternally burn against those who similarly disregard God’s will (Rev 20:15). Here Jude seems to have had in view false teachers who were unsaved.

Each one of these illustrations highlights a particular aspect of the false teachers’ error. It was a sin of rebellion by professing, and perhaps genuine, believers. It was a proud departure from a position of superior privilege. Moreover it involved immoral behavior, which the Gentile pagans practiced.

"No matter who may be the sinners, or what the circumstances of the sin, outrageous offences, such as impurity and rebellion, are certain of Divine chastisement." [Note: Alfred Plummer, "The General Epistles of St. James and St. Jude," in An Exposition of the Bible, 6:655.]

"When we examine these examples of the past, we discover that they are not chronologically arranged. . . . Why this unchronological arrangement in this Epistle? . . . We believe the arrangement is made in the manner as it is to teach us the starting point and the goal of apostasy. It starts with unbelief. . . . Unbelief leads to rebellion against God. . . . The predicted lawlessness with which this age ends is the fruitage of infidelity. Such is the development of apostasy. Unbelief, rebellion against God and his revealed truth, immorality and anarchy. These steps may be traced in our own times." [Note: Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible, 4:179-80. See also Richard Lenski, The Interpretation of the Epistles of St. Peter, St. John and St. Jude, p. 616; Morgan, 2:2:198.]

They are also observable in the history of Israel in the Old Testament.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)