SEV Biblia, Chapter 1:12
Estos son manchas en vuestros convites, que banquetean juntamente, apacentndose a sí mismos sin temor alguno; nubes sin agua, las cuales son llevadas de ac para all de los vientos; rboles marchitos como en otoo, sin fruto, dos veces muertos y desarraigados;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Jude 1:12
Verse 12. Spots in your feasts of charity] It appears that these persons, unholy and impure as they were, still continued to have outward fellowship with the Church! This is strange: but it is very likely that their power and influence in that place had swallowed up, or set aside, the power and authority of the real ministers of Christ; a very common case when worldly, time-serving men get into the Church. The feasts of charity, the agapai or love feasts, of which the apostle speaks, were in use in the primitive Church till the middle of the fourth century, when, by the council of Laodicea, they were prohibited to be held in the Churches; and, having been abused, fell into disuse. In later days they have been revived, in all the purity and simplicity of the primitive institution, among the Moravians or Unitas Fratrum, and the people called Methodists.
Among the ancients, the richer members of the Church made an occasional general feast, at which all the members attended, and the poor and the rich ate together. The fatherless, the widows, and the strangers were invited to these feasts, and their eating together was a proof of their love to each other; whence such entertainments were called love feasts. The love feasts were at first celebrated before the Lord's Supper; in process of time they appear to have been celebrated after it. But they were never considered as the Lord's Supper, nor any substitute for it. See, for farther information, Suicer, in his Thesaurus, under the word agaph.
Feeding themselves without fear] Eating, not to suffice nature, but to pamper appetite. It seems the provision was abundant, and they ate to gluttony and riot. It was this which brought the love feasts into disrepute in the Church, and was the means of their being at last wholly laid aside.
This abuse is never likely to take place among the Methodists, as they only use bread and water; and of this the provision is not sufficient to afford the tenth part of a meal.
Instead of agapaiv, love feasts, apataiv, deceits, is the reading of the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Codex Ephrem, two MSS. of the highest antiquity; as also of those MSS. collated by Laurentius Valla, and of some of those in the Medicean library. This reading appears to have been introduced in order to avoid the conclusion that some might be led to draw concerning the state of the Church; it must be very corrupt, to have in its communion such corrupt men.
Clouds-without water] The doctrine of God is compared to the rain, Deut. xxxii. 2, and clouds are the instruments by which the rain is distilled upon the earth. In arid or parched countries the very appearance of a cloud is delightful, because it is a token of refreshing showers; but when sudden winds arise, and disperse these clouds, the hope of the husbandman and shepherd is cut off. These false teachers are represented as clouds; they have the form and office of the teachers of righteousness, and from such appearances pure doctrine may be naturally expected: but these are clouds without water - they distil no refreshing showers, because they have none; they are carried away and about by their passions, as those light fleecy clouds are carried by the winds. See the notes on 2 Pet. ii. 17.
Trees whose fruit withereth] dendra fqinopwrina? Galled or diseased trees; for fqinopwron is, according to Phavorinus, nosov fqinousa apwrav, a disease (in trees) which causes their fruit to wither; for although there are blossoms, and the fruit shapes or is set, the galls in the trees prevent the proper circulation of the sap, and therefore the fruit never comes to perfection. Hence the apostle immediately adds, without fruit; i.e. the fruit never comes to maturity. This metaphor expresses the same thing as the preceding. They have the appearance of ministers of the Gospel, but they have no fruit.
Twice dead] First, naturally and practically dead in sin, from which they had been revived by the preaching and grace of the Gospel. Secondly, dead by backsliding or apostasy from the true faith, by which they lost the grace they had before received; and now likely to continue in that death, because plucked up from the roots, their roots of faith and love being no longer fixed in Christ Jesus. Perhaps the aorist is taken here for the future: They SHALL BE plucked up from the roots - God will exterminate them from the earth.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 12. These are spots in your feasts of charity , etc.] Or love. The Jews speak atwnmyhmd hytdwes , of a feast of faith f26 . These here seem to be the Agapae, or love feasts, of the primitive Christians; the design of which was to maintain and promote brotherly love, from whence they took their name; and to refresh the poor saints, that they might have a full and comfortable meal now and then: their manner of keeping them was this; they began and ended them with prayer and singing; and they observed them with great temperance and frugality; and they were attended with much joy and gladness, and simplicity of heart: but were quickly abused, by judaizing Christians, as observing them in imitation of the passover; and by intemperance in eating and drinking; and by excluding the poor, for whose benefit they were chiefly designed; and by setting up separate meetings for them, and by admitting unfit persons unto them; such as here are said to be spots in them, blemishes, which brought great reproach and scandal upon them, being persons of infamous characters and conversations. The allusion is either to spots in garments, or in faces, or in sacrifices; or to a sort of earth that defiles; or else to rocks and hollow stones on shores, lakes, and rivers, which collect filth and slime; all which serve to expose and point out the persons designed. The Alexandrian copy and some others read, these are in their own deceivings, spots, apataiv , instead of agapaiv , as in ( 2 Peter 2:13); when they feast with you ; which shows that they were among them, continued members with them, and partook with them in their solemn feasts, and were admitted to communion; and carries in it a kind of reproof to the saints, that they suffered such persons among them, and allowed them such privilege, intimacy, and familiarity with them: feeding themselves without fear ; these were like the shepherds of Israel, who fed themselves, and not the flock, and were very impious and impudent, open and bare faced in their iniquities, neither fearing God nor regarding man. Clouds [they are], without water ; they are compared to clouds for their number, being many false prophets and antichrists that were come out into the world; and for their sudden rise, having at once, and at an unawares, crept into the churches; and for the general darkness they spread over the churches, making it, by their doctrines and practices, to be a dark and cloudy day, a day of darkness, and gloominess, a day of clouds, and of thick darkness, a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy; and for the storms, factions, rents, and divisions they made; as also for their situation and height, soaring aloft, and being vainly puffed up in their fleshly mind; as well as for their sudden destruction, disappearing at once. And to clouds without water, because destitute of the true grace of God, and of true evangelical doctrine; which, like rain, is from above, from heaven; and which, like that, refreshes, softens, and fructifies. Now these false teachers looked like clouds, that promised rain, boasted of Gospel light and knowledge, but were destitute of it, wherefore their ministry was uncomfortable and unprofitable. Carried about of winds ; either of false doctrines, or of their own lusts and passions, or of Satan's temptations: trees whose fruit withereth : or trees in autumn; either like to them, which put forth at that season of the year, and so come to nothing; or like to trees which are bare of leaves as well as fruit, it being the time when the leaves fall from the trees; and so may be expressive of these persons casting off the leaves of an outward profession, of their going out from the churches, separating from them, and forsaking the assembling together with them, when what fruit of holiness, and good works, they seemed to have, came to nothing; and so were without fruit , either of Gospel doctrine, or of Gospel holiness and righteousness; nor did they make any true converts, but what they made were like the Pharisees, as bad, or worse than themselves; and from their unfruitfulness in all respects, it appeared that they were not in Christ the true vine, and were not sent forth by him, nor with his Gospel, and that they were destitute of the Spirit of God. Twice dead ; that is, entirely, thoroughly, and really dead in trespasses and sins, notwithstanding their pretensions to religion and godliness; or the sense may be, that they were not only liable to a corporeal death, common to them with all mankind, but also to an eternal one, or to the death both of soul and body in hell. Homer calls those diyaneiv , twice dead, that go to hell alive: or rather the sense is this, that they were dead in sin by nature, as all men are, and again having made a profession of religion, were now become dead to that profession; and so were twice dead, once as they were born, and a second time as they had apostatized: plucked up by the roots ; either by separating themselves from the churches, where they had been externally planted; or by the act of the church in cutting them off, and casting them out; or by the judgment of God upon them.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-16 - False teachers are dreamers; they greatly defile and grievously woun the soul. These teachers are of a disturbed mind and a seditiou spirit; forgetting that the powers that be, are ordained of God, R 13:1. As to the contest about the body of Moses, it appears that Sata wished to make the place of his burial known to the Israelites, i order to tempt them to worship him, but he was prevented, and vente his rage in desperate blasphemy. This should remind all who disput never to bring railing charges. Also learn hence, that we ought to defend those whom God owns. It is hard, if not impossible, to find an enemies to the Christian religion, who did not, and do not, live in open or secret contradiction to the principles of natural religion Such are here compared to brute beasts, though they often boast of themselves as the wisest of mankind. They corrupt themselves in the things most open and plain. The fault lies, not in their understandings, but in their depraved wills, and their disordere appetites and affections. It is a great reproach, though unjust to religion, when those who profess it are opposed to it in heart an life. The Lord will remedy this in his time and way; not in men's blin way of plucking up the wheat with the tares. It is sad when men begi in the Spirit, and end in the flesh. Twice dead; they had been onc dead in their natural, fallen state; but now they are dead again by the evident proofs of their hypocrisy. Dead trees, why cumber they the ground! Away with them to the fire. Raging waves are a terror to sailing passengers; but when they get into port, the noise and terro are ended. False teachers are to expect the worst punishments in thi world and in that to come. They glare like meteors, or falling stars and then sink into the blackness of darkness for ever. We have n mention of the prophecy of Enoch in any other part or place of Scripture; yet one plain text of Scripture, proves any point we are to believe. We find from this, that Christ's coming to judge wa prophesied of, as early as the times before the flood. The Lord cometh what a glorious time will that be! Notice how often the word "ungodly is repeated. Many now do not at all refer to the terms godly, or ungodly, unless it be to mock at even the words; but it is not so in the language taught us by the Holy Ghost. Hard speeches of one another especially if ill-grounded, will certainly come into account at the da of judgment. These evil men and seducers are angry at every thing tha happens, and never pleased with their own state and condition. Their will and their fancy, are their only rule and law. Those who pleas their sinful appetites, are most prone to yield to ungovernabl passions. The men of God, from the beginning of the world, have declared the doom denounced on them. Such let us avoid. We are to follow men only as they follow Christ. (Jud 1:17-23)
Greek Textus Receptus
ουτοι 3778 εισιν 1526 5748 εν 1722 ταις 3588 αγαπαις 26 υμων 5216 σπιλαδες 4694 συνευωχουμενοι 4910 5740 {2: υμιν 5213 } αφοβως 870 εαυτους 1438 ποιμαινοντες 4165 5723 νεφελαι 3507 ανυδροι 504 υπο 5259 ανεμων 417 περιφερομεναι 4064 5746 δενδρα 1186 φθινοπωρινα 5352 ακαρπα 175 δις 1364 αποθανοντα 599 5631 εκριζωθεντα 1610 5685
Vincent's NT Word Studies
12. Spots (spiladev). Only here in New Testament. So rendered in A.V., because understood as kindred to spiloi (2 Pet. ii. 13); but rightly, as Rev., hidden rocks. So Homer, ("Odyssey," iii., 298), "the waves dashed the ship against the rocks (spiladessin)." See on deceivings, 2 Peter ii. 13. These men were no longer mere blots, but elements of danger and wreck.
When they feast with you. See on 2 Pet. ii. 13.
Feeding (poimainontev). See on 1 Pet. v. 2. Lit., shepherding themselves; and so Rev., shepherds that feed themselves; further their own schemes and lusts instead of tending the flock of God. Compare Isa. lvi. 11.
Without fear (afobwv). Of such judgments as visited Ananias and Sapphira. Possibly, as Lumby suggests, implying a rebuke to the Christian congregations for having suffered such practices.
Clouds without water. Compare 2 Pet. ii. 17, springs without water. As clouds which seem to be charged with refreshing showers, but are born past (paraferomenai) and yield no rain.
Whose fruit withereth (fqinopwrina). From fqinw or fqiw, to waste away, pine, and ojpwra, autumn. Hence, literally, pertaining to the late autumn, and rightly rendered by Rev., autumn (trees). The A.V. is entirely wrong. Wyc., harvest trees. Tynd., trees without fruit at gathering-time. Twice dead. Not only the apparent death of winter, but a real death; so that it only remains to pluck them up by the roots.
