Jude 1:22,23

verses Jude 1:22-23 {C}

The text of verses Jude 1:22 and Jude 1:23 has been transmitted in quite diverse forms. Some of the witnesses refer to three classes of people, while other witnesses refer to only two classes; and there are other variations as well.

I. The following witnesses distinguish between three classes of people, and differ as to the verb in the first clause:

II. The following witnesses distinguish between only two classes of people, and involve several other variations as well:

III. Still more condensed is the reading of î⁷²: ou]j me.n evk puro.j a`rpa,sate( diakrinome,nouj de. evleei/te evn fo,bw|. Somewhat similar to this reading are also those of syr^ph and Clement^lat.

In view of the author’s predilection for arranging his material in groups of three (as in verses Jude 1:2, Jude 1:4, Jude 1:8, in the examples of judgment in verses Jude 1:5-7, and of sin in ver. Jude 1:11), a majority of the Committee was disposed to prefer as original the triple arrangement of the passage, and to regard the other forms as aberrations that arose partly from scribal inattentiveness, partly from indecision concerning the sense of diakri,nesqai in ver. Jude 1:22 (in ver. Jude 1:9 it means “to contend” with someone; here, however, it must mean “to doubt”), and partly from concern to provide a main clause after three (or two) relative clauses. (See also the following comments.)