Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Jude 1:1

Jude 1:1. Judas. This name is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament, and is given in the shorter form, Jude, only here in the Authorised Version, perhaps to distinguish the writer from Iscariot; but the following clause is sufficiently distinctive; and it should be noted that the name is uniform in the Greek.

and brother of James. The Greek ‘and' expresses a Greek affirmativeness not quite equal to ‘but the brother,' though approaching it. If he were, as suggested in the Introduction, the brother of our Lord as well as of James, neither of whom speaks of his relation to Christ, the omission is probably owing to the fact that the human relation was temporary and entirely subordinate to the higher relation of spiritual fellowship (Matthew 12:49). As brother, moreover, he did not at first believe, and so the relation itself was at once humbling and honourable.

To them that are called. Not invited merely, but having accepted the invitation, and having therefore the ‘calling' of sons. This is the uniform meaning in Scripture; not having the name, but the character (comp. ‘a man's calling').

beloved in God the Father (the true reading). Our affection for Christians springs from their relation to Christ and their likeness to Him, as our love for God's children rests on the same grounds. This is the brotherly love of the Gospel as distinguished from the love of good-will. If ‘sanctified' is adopted as the reading, then it may be noted as an unusual expression, Christians being said to be sanctified (feed from the guilt of sin, and made fit for God's service) in Christ. The meaning of both expressions is, that in communion with Christ through faith they have been freed from the guilt of sin, and that their faith, working as it was by love, is the beginning of personal holiness (1 Corinthians 1:2).

kept. The nearly uniform rendering of this verb is ‘kept;' and the keeping, it is important to notice, is the fulfilment of the intercessory prayer of our Lord (John 17). The safety of all who believe is the Father's answer to the Son. God keeps us as we keep His word (Revelation 3:3, Greek). Nor is the writer's play upon this expression throughcut his epistle without its meaning. ‘God keeps us for Jesus Christ;' we ‘keep ourselves in the love of God' (Jude 1:21). Evil angels are kept for judgment, because they ‘kept not their first estate' (Jude 1:6). And a like play upon the word is found in 2 Peter.

for Jesus Christ is the meaning, not ‘in;' for He created them, and redeemed them, and renewed them; they are therefore His own possession (His ‘ peculiar people'), and as His, are kept for and finally presented to Him (cp. John 17:6; John 17:12).

The order of the words admits of another, though a less likely interpretation: ‘to those in God the Father, beloved, and kept for Jesus Christ, being called;' but the parallelism of the thought is better preserved by the rendering given above.

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Philip Schaff's Popular Commentary (4 vols)

Jude 1:1

Old Testament

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