Jude 1:12

These are spots in your feasts of charity,— The first writer who describes these love-feasts is Tertullian, in his Apologies, ch. 39. Having given an account of the public worship and discipline of the Christians, their great charity and holy lives, and having taken notice of some luxurious suppers among the Heathens, he adds, "The nature of our supper may be known by its name; it is called by a Greek word which signifies love; whatever we spend therein, we look upon it as so much gain, seeing we thereby refresh all our poor: nothing vile or immodest isthere admitted; we do not sit down before we have prayed to God; every one eats what is sufficient, and drinks with sobriety, as remembering that in the night he must engage in the adoration of God. They converse together, as they who know that the Lord heareth them. After washing their hands, and lighting candles, they sing divine songs, either taken out of the scriptures, or of their own composing, as every one is able. The feast is concluded with prayer." The reader will find more on this subject in Cave's or Fleury's account of the primitive Christians, or in Hallett's Notes, vol. 3: p. 235. Respecting the word σπιλαδες, spots, see Parkhurst and Wetstein. The meaning of the next clause, Feeding themselves without fear, which Heylin renders well, indulging their appetites without restraint, seems to be, that they fed themselves in a voluptuous manner, without the fear of God, or of any scandal or disgrace which they might bring upon the Christian name. In St. Peter it is εντρυφωντες, they lived luxuriously, 2 Ephesians 2:13. They indulged to excess both in eating and drinking, and so were spots and blemishes, or a scandal to the Christian name. Instead of whose fruit withereth, some render the Greek word by in the decline of autumn: the word φθινοπωρινον properly signifies, "the latter end of autumn," when it verges towards the winter. St. Jude therefore says, that those corrupt Christians were like trees in the decline of autumn, when they have shed their leaves, and are in a withering condition. Dr. Heylin renders it withered trees. Some fig-trees had fruits upon them when they had no leaves: but to shew that these differed from good trees, St. Jude adds, without fruit. Here is a remarkable gradation; first, they are trees in the decline of autumn, stripped of their leaves and withering; secondly, they are without fruit, as well as without leaves; successive summers and winters have passed over them, and they have been continually, growing more and more fit for fuel: thirdly, they are twice dead, or, they are spiritually dead a second time by making shipwreck of their faith: therefore, fourthly, they are plucked up by the roots, as hopeless and irrecoverable. See Parkhurst on the word φθινοπωρινος.