Jude 1:23

and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire Here again the MSS. present a striking variation, those of most authority giving "others save, snatching them out of the fire, and have compassion on others with fear." If we adopt this reading we have two classes of offenders brought before us, those who are to be saved as from the fire, as on the very verge of destruction, and those who are for some reason or other objects of a more tender pity, though they do not come within the range of immediate action. That pity, however, the context shews, was not to be accompanied by any tolerance of the evils into which they had fallen. In "snatching out of the fire" we have probably a reminiscence of the "brand plucked out of the fire" of Zechariah 3:2.

hating even the garment spotted by the flesh The "garment" is the inner tunic worn next to the flesh, and therefore thought of as contaminated by its impurity, and it serves accordingly as a symbol of all outer habits of life that are affected by the inner foulness of the soul that is in bondage to the flesh. As men would loathe the touch of a defiled garment, bearing the stains of a cancerous ulcer, so they were to hate whatever was analogous to it in conduct (comp. Isaiah 30:22). The allusion to Zechariah 3:2 in the previous clause makes it probable that here also there is a reference to the "filthy garments;" polluted, i.e., with some ceremonial uncleanness, in which the high-priest Joshua the son of Josedech first appears in the prophet's vision. In the benediction of Revelation 3:4 on those who "have not defiled their garments," we have the same imagery.