Jude 1:16

These are murmurers, complainers The first noun is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but the use of cognate verbs and nouns in Matthew 20:11; Luke 5:30; 1 Corinthians 10:10; Acts 6:1 and elsewhere, suggests that it refers primarily to the temper of a rebellious murmuring against human authority; in this case, probably, against that of the apostles and other appointed rulers of the Church. The Greek word for "complainers" has a more specific meaning, and means strictly blamers of fate, or, in modern phrase, finding fault with Providence. They took, as it were, a pessimist view of their lot of life, perhaps of the order of the world generally. The same word is used by Philo (Vit. Mos. p. 109) to describe the temper of the Israelites in the wilderness, and appears in the Charactersof Theophrastus (c. xvii.) as the type of the extremest form of general discontent, which complains even of the weather.

walking after their own lusts This stands in connexion with the foregoing as cause and effect. The temper of self-indulgence, recognising not God's will, but man's desires, as the law of action, is precisely that which issues in weariness and despair. The Confessions of the Preacher present the two elements often in striking combination (Ecclesiastes 2:1-20).

their mouth speaketh great swelling words For the latter words and what they imply, see notes on 2 Peter 2:18.

having men's persons in admiration Literally, admiring persons. The phrase, which is a somewhat stronger form of the more familiar "accepting persons" (James 2:1; Galatians 2:6; Matthew 22:16) occurs in the LXX. of Genesis 19:21; Leviticus 19:15. The temper characterised is that which fawns as in wondering admiration on the great, while all the time the flatterer is simply seeking what profit he can get out of him whom he flatters.