The reason for the strong and urgent call to contend for the faith in verse 3 is now given in this verse. It is signaled by the connective For, which in this context means one of three things:
1. “I am writing you because…”;
2. “I am doing this (that is, asking you to contend for the faith) because…”;
3. “It (the faith) is in danger because…” (see New English Bible).
The faith is in danger because some people have been causing problems within the Christian community. Jude does not identify who these people are; however, the context suggests that these ungodly persons are somehow distorting the Christian message, both in their teachings and in their actions. Good News Translation understands these people to be primarily teachers, hence its heading for this section is “False Teachers.” It is possible to make the application more general than this, referring to “ungodly people” (the New International Version [New International Version] has in its heading “godless men”).
There are two possible ways of handling this lack of identification in translation: The translator can leave all possibilities open, for example, by retaining “some ungodly people” in the translation, but then identify these people as teachers in the section heading. Or the translator can identify these people as teachers in the translation itself as, for example, “some godless teachers.” As always, the decision will depend on the intended audience; sufficient information should be included in the translation to make it understandable to those who will read it.
Even though Jude does not directly identify these godless people, he does mention four accusations against them.
1. First of all, they are intruders who have secretly gained admission to the church. The Greek verb here means “to sneak in under false pretenses,” “to slip in unnoticed,” “to slip in stealthily,” “to infiltrate.” This does not mean that these people are not members of the church; they probably are members, but they have become so by sinister means, not by legitimate means. It is as if they have smuggled themselves into the Christian community. The meaning and impact of the Greek verb is captured in some translations such as New English Bible “wormed their way in,” and Phillips “surreptitiously entered the Church.” The verb is in the aorist tense but with a perfect force; that is, while it is aorist in form, it is perfect in meaning. This means that, while these people sneaked in at some time in the past, the effect of their action is still felt very strongly in the church.
2. Secondly, these people were long ago designated for … condemnation. This clause is difficult to analyze and presents many potential problems for translators. Long ago refers to a period of time in the distant past, although the text offers no clear clue as to when this actually occurred. This word may also be expressed as “in older times,” “years that are gone,” or “many generations ago.” The word translated designated is literally “wrote beforehand,” hence Good News Translation “predicted.” The text does not say from whom or from where this prediction comes, but there are at least three possibilities. (a) This may be an allusion to the book of 1 Enoch (see the description in the comments on verse 6). (b) This may refer to the predictions of the apostles (see verses 17-18 and comments). (c) The reference here may be to the Old Testament in general, which contains many statements regarding the punishment of false prophets. This also fits the use of long ago, which, as we have seen, usually denotes a long interval of time. This seems to be the most likely interpretation and is reflected in Good News Translation, which identifies the source of the predictions as “the Scriptures” (so also New English Bible, “the very men whom Scripture long ago marked down for the doom they have incurred”). The Scriptures may also be expressed as “the holy writings.”
The expression this condemnation is strange, since this marks the condemnation as old information, whereas Jude has just begun his letter and has not as yet mentioned anything about condemnation. Here again, there are three possibilities: (a) This may be a reference to verse 3b, where Jude mentions fighting for the faith, and where he perhaps assumes the certain and imminent defeat of the godless. This is reading too much into verse 3b, however. (b) This may look forward to the condemnation of the people mentioned in verse 15; however, this seems to be too remote to establish any clear connections. (c) This condemnation may refer to the punishment that is mentioned in verses 5-7.
In view of the difficulty of determining what this refers to, it is possible and even advisable to restructure the clause and introduce condemnation as new information; for example, “the condemnation they will receive,” or “the punishment that God will bestow on them,” or “that God will punish them.” (See Good News Translation “the condemnation they have received,” Knox “destined thus to incur condemnation.”)
3. Thirdly, these people are ungodly persons who pervert the grace of … God. The word ungodly means “impious,” “godless.” It is a favorite word of Jude; he uses it six times, in various forms but always with the same meaning. It should, however, be noted that the Book of Enoch from which Jude quotes also uses this same word, and perhaps Jude’s use of the word is directly influenced by the Greek translation of the Book of Enoch.
In wisdom literature (for example, in the Book of Proverbs) “ungodliness” has two basic elements: irreverence toward God and unrighteous or evil conduct as a result of such an attitude. It is related to lawlessness, or utter disregard for the law, which results in a person doing anything he or she wants to do. This word then is a very appropriate description of the people whose wickedness and lawless actions are mentioned by Jude in the latter part of his letter (see verses 15 and 18). Some ways of translating ungodly persons are: “people who disobey God,” “people who have no use for God,” or “people who are not faithful to God.”
It should be noted that in Good News Translation “godless” has been moved to the first part of the verse, and it thus functions as a general description of these people (so also Knox “Godless men”). This adjustment makes it possible to identify immediately who these people are, and eliminates the translation problem created by the indefinite some.
The ungodliness of these people is manifested in the fact that they pervert the grace of our God. The word translated pervert also means “change,” “alter” (Good News Translation “distort”), that is, make something into what it is not. Licentiousness, on the other hand, translates a word that stands generally for sensuality or immorality but which refers in particular to sexual indulgence, hence “immoral ways” (Good News Translation), “evil sexual practices,” or “indecent conduct.”
But what does the whole expression pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness mean? There are two ways to understand the preposition into. First, it can express purpose or intention. This makes possible a translation such as “who pervert the grace of our God, in order that they can do immoral things,” or as in Good News Translation “distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways.” Secondly, it can express result. This means that their perversion of the grace of God results in their engaging in immoral acts. Of these two possibilities the first seems more likely, and it is echoed in Good News Translation and in some other translations.
This leads us to a discussion of the meaning of the expression the grace of … God. “Grace” is one of those biblical words that has a variety of meanings. In the New Testament one of its primary meanings is the undeserved love of God, that is, God’s love for people even though they don’t deserve to be loved. Taken in this sense it means that the godless people are using God’s gracious love as an excuse for engaging in sinful and immoral actions. They seem to think that, since God loves people so much that he forgives them of their sins, people can commit as many sins as they like, for the more they sin the more God loves them. The clause can then be translated thus: “who distort the message about God’s love and use it as an excuse for their immoral behavior.” Another possibility is to interpret grace as referring to the Christian message, or to the Christian faith in general, and therefore having the same meaning as faith in verse 3. By their words and deeds these people have distorted the Christian message and have used it as an excuse for their utter disregard of acceptable Christian conduct. The clause can then be restructured as follows: “who distort the message of the Christian faith so that they can do evil sexual things.” Either one is possible, but the first alternative seems more appropriate.
4. Finally, these people are indicted for denying Jesus Christ himself. While it is possible to take this as a further description of ungodliness, it is more likely that this is another characteristic of the people themselves. The word deny also means “disown,” “repudiate,” “reject.” The text does not say how this denial is brought about; it is clear from the whole letter, however, that this denial is in both word and deed.
The word translated Master is a term used for the owner of household slaves (see, for example, 2 Peter 2.1; also Matt 10.25; Mark 13.27; Luke 13.25). In the present context Master indicates that Christians are owned by Christ and submit to his rule. The word only emphasizes the fact that Christians know only one Master, and that this Master tolerates no rival. The intimate relationship between Christians and their Master is indicated by the pronoun our, which here should be understood as inclusive, referring to both Jude and his readers.
Lord is one of the prominent titles used of Jesus in the New Testament. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint, usually abbreviated LXX), “Lord” is the word used to translate the personal name of God (YHWH or Yahweh). In addressing Jesus as “Lord” Christians are elevating him to the level of God and indicating that they can give to Jesus the same loyalty that they give to God. It is also possible that the term Lord is used here with the Greek background in mind (that is, “Master,” “owner,” or “one who commands”). Since it can be assumed that many of Jude’s readers are non-Jews, then they would understand the term “Lord” in this manner. The terms Master and Lord here seem to be almost synonymous in meaning. Translators should look for two synonyms in the receptor language. For example, alternative translation models in English for our only Master and Lord are “our only Leader and Commander” or “our only Chief and Ruler.”
For Jesus Christ see comments on Jude 1.1.
As indicated by the footnote of Revised Standard Version, there are two ways of reading this part of verse 4. This is due to the order of words in the Greek text, which is translated literally in the Revised Standard Version footnote: “the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ.” The question is, does this expression refer to two entities or to one? In other words, is Master different from Lord, or do both titles refer to Jesus Christ? Some commentaries take the first of these alternatives, with Master referring to God, and Lord referring to Jesus Christ. They justify this by the following reasons:
1. The order of the Greek text favors such an interpretation.
2. The word “only” is used in the Old Testament to refer to God, and this usage is also found in Jude 25. It is therefore probable that this is the usage here also.
3. The word for “Master” is used of God in the Bible rather than of Jesus Christ (for example, Luke 2.29; Acts 4.24; Rev 6.10).
4. In similar formulas in Jude, both God and Jesus Christ are normally included (see, for example, verses 1, 21, 25).
Arguments for the other alternative include the following:
1. The Greek definite article is present only before Master, which seems to suggest that both Master and Lord refer to the same person. It must be noted, however, that this argument is not really decisive, since the article is often omitted before “God” or “Lord,” and its omission before Lord here may be simply a formal feature of the Greek and nothing else.
2. In 2 Peter 2.1, where Jude 4 is quoted, “Master” clearly refers to Jesus Christ. While this is not decisive in the sense that 2 Peter cannot be used to determine the meaning in Jude, it nevertheless does show that an early reader of Jude understood the term Master as referring to Christ.
3. Considering the structure of the whole expression, it seems much more natural to take both Master and Lord as parallels and therefore as titles referring to the only person mentioned, namely Jesus Christ.
A careful consideration of the evidence leads to the conclusion that the second of these alternatives is preferable, that is, that Master and Lord both refer to one person, namely, Jesus Christ.
Two other things need to be mentioned that are of relevance to translation. First, we should notice the difference between Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation in the ordering of events. Revised Standard Version retains the order of the Greek text, whereas Good News Bible restructures the Greek text in order to achieve a more natural translation into English. In much the same way translators should try to come up with the most natural translation in their language, even though this means changing the order of the Greek text. Secondly, the whole verse is one complicated sentence in the Greek; this is retained in RSV, whereas Good News Bible has broken it into two sentences. Here again, for many languages translators should divide the sentence into two or more sentences, depending on the requirements of their language and the needs of the intended audience.
Taking into consideration the whole discussion of this verse, here are three possible translation models:
• I am writing to you because certain godless people (or, people who disobey God) who teach false doctrines have slipped in among us without our noticing them. These are people whom God said many generations ago in the holy scriptures (or, writings) that he would punish. They distort the Christian message (about God’s love, or favor) in order to have an excuse for doing evil sexual practices. They also reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord (or, Chief and Ruler).
Or:
• I am asking you to defend the Christian faith because certain godless people who teach false doctrines have….
Or:
• The Christian faith is in danger because certain godless people …
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from Jude. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .