19a

These are: Jude referred again here to the fake Christians whom he mentioned frequently throughout his letter (Jude’s use of the word These to refer to the fake Christians is a characteristic of the central section of his letter (verses 5–19), the section containing every midrash he used. Jude 19 is the last verse of this section, and it is also the last time that Jude specifically used These as a way to introduce the application part of a text-application pair in a midrash.) (4, 8a, 10–13, 14b, 16a). Here he stated that they fulfilled the prophecy in 18b–d. You may need to make this connection clear in your translation. For example:

Now they are here, and they are the ones who… (New Living Translation (2004 Revision))
-or-
And now these people are already making you turn against each other. (Contemporary English Version)

the ones who cause divisions: The true believers to whom Jude was writing were supposed to be united. The fake Christians, through their sinful behavior and false teaching, were causing these believers to divide into opposing groups/factions. Other ways to translate this include:

the people who are causing divisions among you
-or-
the ones who are causing you not to be united.
-or-
the people who are creating factions

19b

who are worldly: The Berean Standard Bible clause, who are worldly, translates one word in Greek. This word may be translated literally as “natural.” In this context its meaning (Jude used other phrases with a similar meaning. For example, “follow their own desires” (verse 16 in God’s Word) and “who…follow after their own ungodly desires” (verse 18 in Berean Standard Bible).) is similar to the expression “instinctively” in 10c. In that verse these fake Christians were described as being like unreasoning animals. They did what seemed right to them naturally, as determined by their own sinful natures.

These people were not motivated by love for the Lord or led by the Holy Spirit (19c). Instead, they were controlled by their own natural desires. Other ways to translate this include:

who are controlled by their natural desires (Good News Translation)
-or-
whose thoughts are only of this world (New Century Version)
-or-
who follow mere natural instincts (New International Version (2011 Revision))

19c

and devoid of the Spirit: The fake Christians only cared about their natural desires. They did not have the Spirit to show them a better way to think and live. (In verse 19 Jude ended his description of the people against whom he wrote so strongly from verse 4 through verse 19. As he closed the portion of his letter dealing with these people, he left no doubt that they were not true Christians. Even though these people had infiltrated the church and mixed with the true believers, they did not really love God or desire to submit to him. They did not really believe in Jesus Christ or trust him to save them. They did not have the Holy Spirit. For this reason, these Notes have referred to them as fake Christians.)

Here, the Spirit refers to the Holy Spirit. In some languages, it may be necessary to make this explicit. For example:

the Holy Spirit
-or-
God’s Spirit

If you make this explicit, it is recommended that you use your key term for the Holy Spirit. This will match 20c, where Jude referred to the Spirit as “the Holy Spirit.”

Ways to translate 19c include:

they do not have the Holy Spirit.
-or-
the Holy Spirit does not live in them.
-or-
the Holy Spirit does not guide them.

© 2007 by SIL International®

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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.