Jude 1:12

These are spots in your feasts of charity Here also, as in 2 Peter 2:13, the MSS. vary between "deceits" (ἀπάταις) and "feasts of charity, or love" (ἀγάπαις), but the evidence preponderates for the latter reading. Some MSS., including the Sinaitic, insert the words "these are murmurers …," which now stand in Jude 1:16, at the beginning of this verse. The word rendered "spots" (σπιλάδες) is not the same as that in 2 Peter 2:13 (σπῖλοι), and in other Greek writers has the sense of "reefs" or "rocks below the sea." It is possible that St Jude may have looked on the two words as identical in meaning, but it is obvious, on the other hand, that the word "rocks," though it suggests a different image, gives a perfectly adequate sense to the whole passage. The false impure teachers who presented themselves undetected in the Christian love-feasts were as sunken rocks, and, if men were not on their guard, they might easily, by contact with them, "make shipwreck" of their faith (1 Timothy 1:19). On these love-feasts and their relation to the life of the Apostolic Church see notes on 2 Peter 2:13.

when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear Better, feasting with you without fear, pasturing themselves. The adverb is more naturally joined in the Greek with the participle that precedes it, and the English "feeding," suggesting, as it does, in this context simply the act of eating, fails to give the force of the Greek word for "feed," which, as being that used in Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2, expresses the idea of the pastoral office. What St Jude means is that these teachers of impurity, instead of submitting themselves to the true "pastors" of the Church, came in, like the false shepherds of Ezekiel 34:1-2; Ezekiel 34:8; Ezekiel 34:10, to "feed themselves," i.e. to indulge their own lusts in defiance of authority.

clouds they are without water The "clouds" take the place of the "wells" of 2 Peter 2:17. The difference of imagery makes it probable that there may have been a difference of a like kind in the previous verse, and so far confirms the interpretation as to the "rocks" in the first clause of the verse. A like comparison is found in Proverbs 25:14 ("Whoso boasteth himself of a false gift is like clouds and wind without rain"). Men look in the hot climate of the East to the cloud as giving promise of the rain from heaven. It is a bitter disappointment when it passes away leaving the earth hard and unrefreshed as before. So men would look in vain to these false teachers, shifting alike in their movements and their teaching, borne to and fro by "every wind of doctrine" (comp. Ephesians 4:14), for any spiritual refreshment.

trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit Literally, autumn-withering trees. This may mean either simply "autumnal trees," as "in the sere and yellow leaf" that is the forerunner of decay, or "trees that wither just at the very season when men look for fruit," and which are therefore fit symbols of the false teachers who are known "by their fruits." The use of a cognate word in Pindar (Pyth. v. 161) suggests, however, that the part of the compound word that corresponds to "autumn" may, like our "harvest," be taken as a collective expression for the fruits of that season, and so the term, as used by St Jude, would mean "trees that wither and blight their fruit instead of bringing it to maturity." The addition of "without fruit" is accordingly not a mere rhetorical iteration, but states the fact that the withering process was complete. The parable implied in the description was familiar to the disciples from the teaching both of John the Baptist and our Lord (Matthew 3:10; Matthew 7:16-20; Luke 13:6-9, and the Miracle of the Barren Fig-tree, Matthew 21:19).

twice dead Better, that have died twice, stress being laid on the repetition of the act of dying. It is not easy to fix the precise meaning of the phrase, either as it affects the outward imagery or the interpretation of the parable which it involves. Probably the tree is thought to die once when it ceases to bear fruit, and a second time when the sap ceases to circulate and there is no possibility of revival. So with the false teachers, there was first the blighting of the early promise of their knowledge of the truth, and then the entire loss of all spiritual life. The end of such trees was that they were "rooted up" and cast into the fire (Matthew 3:10). In the interpretation of the parable, this may refer to the sentence of excommunication by which such offenders were excluded from fellowship with the Christian society, or to the judgment of God as confirming, or, it may be, anticipating that sentence.