ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of at God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto

belong to his spiritual being. "Sensual," or better perhaps, sensuous, is the nearest English equivalent, but, strictly speaking, it expresses the lower aspect of the character represented by the Greek term. The "sensuous" or psychical man is not necessarily "carnal" in the sense usually attached to that term, but the two words are closely connected with, and indeed overlap each other. The words seem specially directed against the boast of many of the Gnostic teachers, who, looking to St Paul's words in 1 Cor. ii. 14, boasted that they alone were "spiritual" in that Apostle's sense of the term, and that the members of the Church were, as the "natural" or "sensuous," incapable of knowing the higher mysteries of God (Iren. 1. 6. 2—4). St Jude retorts the charge, and says that they, who boast of their illumination, are in very deed destitute of every higher element of the religious life. The word for "Spirit" stands without the article in the Greek, and though this does not necessarily exclude the thought that the Spirit of God is spoken of, it is, perhaps, better to rest in the meaning that the false teachers were so absorbed in their lower, sensuous nature that they no longer possessed, in any real sense of the word, that element in man's compound being, which is itself spiritual, and capable therefore of communion with the Divine Spirit.

20. building up yourselves on your most holy faith...] Both the adjective, which is nowhere used of faith in its subjective sense, and St Jude's use of the substantive in verse 3, lead us to take "faith" in the objective sense, as nearly identical with "creed," which attaches to it in the later Epistles of the New Testament (1 Tim. v. 8 and perhaps 2 Tim. iv. 7). The readers of the Epistle are exhorted to take that faith as a foundation, and to erect on it the superstructure of a pure and holy life.

praying in the Holy Ghost] The precise combination is not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but the fact which it expresses corresponds with St Paul's language in Rom. viii. 26, and the almost identical phraseology of 1 Cor. xiv. 15. What is meant is the ecstatic outpouring of prayer in which the words of the worshipper seem to come as from the Spirit who "helpeth our infirmities" and "maketh intercession for us," it may be in articulate speech, it may be also as with "groanings that cannot be uttered" (Rom. viii. 26). Here again we may recognise a side-glance at the false teachers. Not those who deserted the Church's faith for a life of impurity, but those who "built" on it a life of holiness, were capable of that height of devotion which is described as "praying in the Spirit."

21. keep yourselves in the love of God...] The words admit equally of being taken of our love for God, or God's love for us, but the latter meaning is more in harmony with the general tenor of Scripture, and, in particular, with our Lord's language ("continue ye in my love") in John xv. 9, and probably also St Paul's ("the love of Christ constraineth us") in 2 Cor. v. 14.

22 eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a dif23 ference: and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ] The verb implies, as in Luke ii. 25, 38, xxiii. 51, that the "mercy" is thought of as in the future, and probably there is a special reference to the second coming of Christ as that which will manifest His mercy no less than His righteous judgment. There is no ground, however, for limiting it to this significance, and it may well include all acts of mercy to which men were looking forward in patient expectation, as in store for them during the remainder of their earthly pilgrimage.

The reference in this and the preceding verse (1) to the Holy Spirit, (2) to the Father, (3) to the Lord Jesus Christ, may be noted as shewing St Jude's witness to the "faith once delivered to the saints."

22. And of some have compassion, making a difference...] The MSS. present a strange variety of readings. Those of most authority give, Some rebuke (or convict, the same word as that used in John xvi. 8; Eph. v. 11) when they debate with you (participle in the accusative case). The Received Text rests on the evidence of later MSS., but it may be questioned whether the participle (in this case in the nominative), which is in the middle voice, can have the meaning of "making a difference," and even if we adopt that reading it would be better to render the word rebuke, as you debate with them, as with an implied reference to the same word as used in verse 9. Internal evidence, as far as it goes, agrees with the better MSS. There is more point in the contrast between the teachers who need a severe rebuke and those who may be saved with fear than in the two degrees of pity presented by the Received Text.

23. and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire] Here again the MSS. present a striking variation, those of most authority giving "others save, snatching them out of the fire, and have compassion on others with fear." If we adopt this reading we have two classes of offenders brought before us, those who are to be saved as from the fire, as on the very verge of destruction, and those who are for some reason or other objects of a more tender pity, though they do not come within the range of immediate action. That pity, however, the context shews, was not to be accompanied by any tolerance of the evils into which they had fallen. In "snatching out of the fire" we have probably a reminiscence of the "brand plucked out of the fire" of Zech. iii. 2.

hating even the garment spotted by the flesh] The "garment" is the inner tunic worn next to the flesh, and therefore thought of as contaminated by its impurity, and it serves accordingly as a symbol of all outer habits of life that are affected by the inner foulness of the soul that is in bondage to the flesh. As men would loathe the touch of a defiled garment, bearing the stains of a cancerous ulcer, so they were to hate whatever was analogous to it in conduct (comp. Isaiah xxx. 22). The allusion to Zech. iii. 2 in the previous clause makes it probable that here also there is a reference to the "filthy garments;" polluted, i.e., with

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and 24 to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory 25 and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.

some ceremonial uncleanness, in which the high-priest Joshua the son of Josedech first appears in the prophet's vision. In the benediction of Rev. iii. 4 on those who "have not defiled their garments," we have the same imagery.

24. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling] Better, able to keep you from stumbling. See note on the difference between "stumbling" and "falling," on 2 Pet. i. 10. The form of the concluding doxology is determined naturally by the thoughts that have led up to it. The writer had been dwelling on the various ways in which men had stumbled and fallen. He now directs their thoughts to God as alone able to preserve them from a like disastrous issue.

to present you faultless before the presence of his glory] The adjective is a favourite one with St Paul (Eph. i. 4, v. 27; Phil. ii. 15; Col. i. 22) as describing the character of believers. In Heb. ix. 14 and 1 Pet. i. 19 it is used of the stainless purity of Christ. The "glory" spoken of is that which is to be manifested at the coming of Christ "in his own glory, and that of the Father, and of the Holy Angels" (Luke ix. 26). Comp. also Tit. ii. 13.

with exceeding joy] Both adjective and substantive are expressed in Greek by the one word for "exulting joy" in Luke i. 14, 44; Acts ii. 46.

25. to the only wise God our Saviour...] The form of the doxology in the Received Text presents a parallelism to that of 1 Tim. i. 17. The word "wise" is, however, omitted in many of the best MSS. In the use of the word "Saviour" as applied to God we have a parallelism with 1 Tim. ii. 3. The Father, no less than the Son, was thought of by both writers as the Saviour and Preserver of all men. The MSS. that omit "wise" add, for the most part, "through Jesus Christ our Lord."

be glory and majesty, dominion and power] The Greek has no verb, and the gap may be filled up either with the imperative of ascription or the indicative of assertion. The four words are brought together as expressing the aggregate of the Divine Omnipotence, the last word expressing the "power of authority," as distinct from that of energy. The better MSS. insert after "power" the words "before all time" (literally, before the whole son), so that the doxology includes the past eternity as well as the future. In the words "for ever" we have literally unto all the ages, or æons.

The Epistle ends with the "Amen" which was the natural close of a doxology, and, like the Second Epistle of St Peter, contains no special messages or salutations. The letter was strictly a catholic, or encyclical, Epistle.

name.

EXCURSUS ON THE BOOK OF ENOCH.

JUDE, VERSE 14.

The history of the book which bears this title is a sufficiently remarkable one. St Jude's reference to the prophecy of Enoch does not necessarily prove that he was acquainted with the book, but it at least shews the existence of traditions that had gathered round the patriarch's Allusions elsewhere to the fall of the angels (Justin, Apol. II. 5) or to the work of Enoch in preaching to them (Iren. IV. 6), or to his knowledge of astronomy (Euseb. H. E. VII. 32), in like manner do not indicate more than the widely diffused belief that he represented not only the holiness, but the science of the antediluvian world. The first Church writer who seems really to have known it is Tertullian (De Hab. Mul., c. 3), who, after giving at length the story how the angels that fell were allured by the beauty of the daughters of men, adds that he knows that the Book (scriptura) of Enoch is rejected by some as not being admitted into the Jewish "Storehouse" of holy writings. He meets the supposed objection that such a book was not likely to have survived the deluge by the hypothesis that it might have been committed to the custody of Noah, and been handed down after him from one generation to another, or that he might have been specially inspired, if it had perished, to rewrite it, as Esdras was fabled (2 Esd. xiv. 38-48) to have re-written the whole Hebrew Canon. He defends his acceptance of it on the grounds (1) that it prophesied of Christ, and (2) that it had been quoted by St Jude. In another passage (de Idol. c. 15) he names Enoch as predicting certain superstitious practices of the heathen, and so as being the most ancient of all prophets. Augustine, on the other hand, adopting the view that the "sons of God" of Gen. vi. were righteous men who fell into the temptation of lust, rejects the book (which he clearly knew) as apocryphal, and while he admits the prophecy quoted by St Jude as authentic, dismisses all the rest as fabulous (De Civ. Dei, XV. 23). After this the book seems to have dropped out of sight, and it is not again referred to by any ecclesiastical writer. Fragments of it were found by Scaliger in the Chronographia of Georgius Syncellus, and printed by him in his notes on Eusebius in 1658. In 1773, however, Bruce, the Abyssinian explorer, brought over three copies which he had found in

the course of his travels, and one of these, presented to the Bodleian Library, was translated by Archbishop Lawrence and published in 1821. Another and more fully edited translation was published in German by Dillmann in 1853.

The book thus brought to light after an interval of some fourteen hundred years, bears no certain evidence of date, and has been variously assigned by different scholars, by Ewald to B.C. 144-120, by Dillmann to B.C. 110, while other scholars have been led by its reference to the Messiah to ascribe a post-Christian origin to it. As regards its contents, it is a sufficiently strange farrago. The one passage which specially concerns us is found in c. ii., and is thus rendered by Archbishop Lawrence. It comes as part of the first vision of Enoch: God will be manifested and the mountains shall melt in the flame, and then "Behold he comes with ten thousand of his saints to execute judgment upon them, and to reprove all the carnal for everything which the wicked and ungodly have done and committed against him." In c. vii., viii. we have the legend of the loves of the angels and the birth of the giants, and the invention of arts and sciences. Then comes a prophecy of the deluge (c. x.), and visions of the city of God (c. xiv.), and the names of the seven angels (c. xx.). He sees the dwelling-place of the dead, both good and evil (c. xxii.), and the tree of life which had been in Eden (c. xxiv.), and a field beyond the Erythraean Sea in which is the tree of knowledge (c. xxxi.). Vision follows upon vision, until in c. xlvi. we have a reproduction of that in Dan. vii. of the Ancient of Days in the Son of Man, who is identified with the Messiah (c. xlvii.), the Chosen One of God. And so the book goes on, leaving on the reader's mind an impression like that of a delirious dream, with endless repetitions and scarcely the vestige of a plan or purpose. The reader of the English Apocrypha may find the nearest accessible approach to the class of literature which it represents in the Second Book of Esdras, but that, in its profound and plaintive pessimism, has at least the elements of poetry and unity of purpose. The Book of Enoch stands on a far lower level, and belongs to the class of writings in which the decay of Judaism was but too prolific, on which St Paul seems to pass a final sentence when he speaks of them as "old wives' fables" (1 Tim. iv. 7).