✝
← Bible
ARCBLIVREKJVVBL

Judas 1

ARC · Chapter 1/1

1Judas, servo de Jesus Christo, e irmão de Thiago, aos chamados, sanctificados pelo Deus Pae, e conservados por Jesus Christo:

2Misericordia, e paz, e caridade vos sejam multiplicadas.

3Amados, procurando eu escrever-vos com toda a diligencia ácerca da salvação commum, tive por necessidade escrever-vos, e exhortar-vos a batalhar pela fé que uma vez foi entregue aos sanctos.

4Porque se introduziram alguns, que já d'antes estavam escriptos para este mesmo juizo, homens impios, que convertem em dissolução a graça de Deus, e negam a Deus, unico dominador e Senhor nosso, Jesus Christo.

5Porém quero lembrar-vos, como a quem já uma vez soube isto, que, havendo o Senhor salvo um povo, tirando-o da terra do Egypto, destruiu depois os que não creram;

6E aos anjos que não guardaram a sua origem, mas deixaram a sua propria habitação, reservou debaixo da escuridão, e em prisões eternas até ao juizo d'aquelle grande dia;

7Como Sodoma e Gomorrah, e as cidades circumvisinhas, que, havendo fornicado como aquelles, e ido após outra carne, foram postas por exemplo, soffrendo a pena do fogo eterno.

8E comtudo tambem estes, similhantemente adormecidos, contaminam a carne, e rejeitam a dominação, e vituperam as dignidades.

9Porém o archanjo Miguel, quando contendia com o diabo, e disputava a respeito do corpo de Moysés, não ousou pronunciar juizo de maldição contra elle; porém disse: O Senhor te reprehenda.

10Porém estes dizem mal do que não sabem; e o que naturalmente conhecem, como animaes irracionaes, n'isso se corrompem.

11Ai d'elles! porque entraram pelo caminho de Caim, e foram levados pelo engano do galardão de Balaão, e pereceram pela contradicção de Coré.

12Estes são manchas em vossas festas de caridade, banqueteando comvosco, e apascentando-se a si mesmos sem temor: são nuvens sem agua, levadas dos ventos de uma a outra parte: são como arvores murchas, infructiferas, duas vezes mortas, desarreigadas;

13Ondas impetuosas do mar, que escumam as suas mesmas abominações: estrellas errantes, para os quaes está eternamente reservada a escuridão das trevas.

14E d'estes prophetizou tambem Enoch, o setimo depois de Adão, dizendo: Eis que é vindo o Senhor com milhares de seus sanctos;

15Para fazer juizo contra todos e castigar d'entre elles todos os impios, por todas as suas obras de impiedade, que impiamente commetteram, e por todas as duras palavras que os impios peccadores disseram contra elle.

16Estes são murmuradores, queixosos da sua sorte, andando segundo as suas concupiscencias, e cuja bocca falla coisas mui arrogantes, admirando as pessoas por causa do proveito.

17Mas vós, amados, lembrae-vos das palavras que vos foram preditas pelos apostolos de nosso Senhor Jesus Christo:

18Como vos diziam que no ultimo tempo haveria escarnecedores que andariam segundo as suas impias concupiscencias.

19Estes são os que se separam a si mesmos, sensuaes, que não teem o Espirito.

20Mas vós, amados, edificando-vos a vós mesmos sobre a vossa sanctissima fé, orando no Espirito Sancto,

21Conservae-vos a vós mesmos na caridade de Deus, esperando a misericordia de nosso Senhor Jesus Christo para a vida eterna.

22E apiedae-vos de alguns que estão duvidosos;

23Mas salvae os outros por temor, e arrebatae-os do fogo, aborrecendo até a roupa manchada da carne.

24Ora, áquelle que é poderoso para vos guardar de tropeçar, e apresentar-vos irreprehensiveis, com alegria, perante a sua gloria,

25Ao unico Deus, Salvador nosso, por Jesus Christo, nosso Senhor, seja gloria e magestade, dominio e poder, antes de todos os seculos, agora, e para todo o sempre. Amen.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jude urges Christians to contend earnestly for the faith in the face of infiltrators who twist the grace of God into a license for immorality, citing historical examples of judgment such as Sodom and Gomorrah and Korah's rebellion. He closes with one of the best-known doxologies in the New Testament, exalting God's power to keep the faithful from stumbling.

Explanation

Jude, identified as the brother of James (and therefore also a half-brother of Jesus), writes with urgency in the face of false teachers who were distorting the message of grace to justify immorality, a real problem threatening the early Christian communities. He draws on striking references from the Old Testament and Jewish tradition — the fallen angels, Sodom and Gomorrah, Cain, Balaam, and Korah's rebellion against Moses — as historical warnings of what happens when God's authority and holiness are despised. The letter is notable for directly quoting a work called 1 Enoch, a book respected in Jewish circles of the time but not part of the biblical canon, showing how biblical authors sometimes drew on cultural references familiar to their audience. The practical application for today is to remain watchful against teaching that uses God's grace as an excuse for destructive behavior, while trusting in God's power to keep the faithful to the end.

Fun facts

  • Jude 1:14-15 directly quotes the apocryphal book of 1 Enoch as though it were a genuine prophecy, making it one of the only instances in the New Testament where a text outside the traditional Jewish canon is quoted by name, something theologians have debated for centuries.
  • The dispute between the archangel Michael and the devil over the body of Moses (verse 9) does not appear anywhere else in the Bible; it reflects an extrabiblical Jewish tradition that Jude also weaves into his argument.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Judas 1:1Sets the scene for the letter: Jude, brother of James, writes a short, hard-hitting letter warning against false teachers who had slipped into the church, addressed to Christians who are ‘called,’ sanctified, and kept by God.
  2. Judas 1:2A simple opening greeting, gathering mercy, peace, and love, before the letter shifts into the harsher tone that dominates the rest of it.
  3. Judas 1:3Jude explains that he had intended to write about salvation in general, but changed his plan on learning of an urgent problem: he asks readers to ‘earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,’ as the King James wording puts it, against those who were distorting it.
  4. Judas 1:4Explains the reason for the urgency: ungodly people had slipped into the community, using God's grace as an excuse to live without moral limits, and denying the authority of Jesus Christ.
  5. Judas 1:5Begins a list of biblical examples of judgment: even the people God saved out of Egypt were destroyed afterward for unbelief — a warning that belonging to God's people does not shield anyone from judgment for disobedience.
  6. Judas 1:6The reference to angels ‘which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation’ describes a Jewish tradition about heavenly beings who rebelled, which some scholars connect to a specific reading of Genesis 6 about the ‘sons of God’ and the ‘daughters of men’ — a passage the Bible itself never explains in detail, and which has produced very different interpretations.
  7. Judas 1:7Sodom and Gomorrah, cities destroyed according to Genesis 19, serve here as a historical example of judgment on behavior considered immoral, cited as a warning to the letter's readers.
  8. Judas 1:8After citing the previous examples (the fallen angels, Sodom), Jude applies the comparison to the false teachers: they too defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of higher spiritual beings.
  9. Judas 1:9The episode of the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over ‘the body of Moses’ is not recorded in any book of the Bible — it is a reference to a Jewish tradition circulating outside the biblical canon, possibly tied to a text called the Assumption of Moses. The letter cites this tradition freely, without treating it as Scripture, much as writers today might cite a well-known legend to make a point.
  10. Judas 1:10Contrasts the arrogance of these false teachers with the humility of the archangel Michael in the previous verse: they speak evil of things they do not even understand, and in the things they do understand by instinct, they behave like irrational animals, only corrupting themselves.
  11. Judas 1:11The reference packs three Old Testament examples into a single verse: the ‘way of Cain,’ who killed his brother, in Genesis 4; the ‘error of Balaam’ for reward, the prophet who let himself be driven by payment, in Numbers; and the ‘gainsaying of Core’ (Korah), who rebelled against Moses's leadership, in Numbers 16 — three different forms of rebellion against God used as a warning.
  12. Judas 1:12Uses harsh images from nature to describe these false teachers: spots at the church's love feasts, clouds without water that promise rain but never deliver, fruitless and rootless trees, practically dead twice over.
  13. Judas 1:13The images continue: raging waves of the sea that only foam out their own shame, and wandering stars — a reference to celestial bodies with no fixed path — for whom blackness of darkness is reserved forever.
  14. Judas 1:14The claim that ‘Enoch, the seventh from Adam’ prophesied about this judgment comes, quite precisely, from a book called 1 Enoch, which is not part of the Hebrew biblical canon or of most Christian traditions — it is one of the rare cases in the New Testament where a text outside the Bible is quoted directly as prophecy, something that has sparked discussion among scholars about how to treat this citation.
  15. Judas 1:15Continues the quotation from the book of Enoch begun in the previous verse: it describes the final judgment coming on all the ungodly, both for their deeds and for the harsh words spoken against God.
  16. Judas 1:16Lists more traits of these false teachers: they complain about their own situation, follow their own desires, speak with arrogance, and flatter important people purely out of self-interest.
  17. Judas 1:17Shifts tone, asking readers to remember the warnings the apostles of Jesus themselves had already given about this kind of people.
  18. Judas 1:18Recalls the content of that apostolic warning: in the last times, mockers would appear, living according to their own ungodly desires — exactly what Jude is describing.
  19. Judas 1:19Describes the practical effect of these false teachers on the community: they cause divisions, live on a merely natural level with no real spiritual life, and, according to the text, do not even have the Spirit of God.
  20. Judas 1:20Shifts from warning to positive instruction: asks readers to build themselves up in their own faith and pray guided by the Holy Spirit, in contrast to the Spirit-less false teachers.
  21. Judas 1:21Continues the positive instruction: stay within the love of God, patiently waiting for the mercy of Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.
  22. Judas 1:22Calls for special care toward those in the community who are doubting: have compassion on them instead of simply rejecting them.
  23. Judas 1:23The instruction to save some by ‘pulling them out of the fire,’ but carefully, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh, describes a balance between rescuing someone drifting from the faith and not being contaminated by that person's own practices in the process.
  24. Judas 1:24Begins the closing doxology, one of the most beautiful in the New Testament: only God has the power to keep believers from stumbling, and to present them faultless, full of joy, before His own glory.
  25. Judas 1:25Closes the letter, and this entire verse-by-verse collection of explanations, with a solemn doxology: glory, majesty, dominion, and power to the only God, Savior through Jesus Christ, before all time, now and forever.

Chapters

1

Our apps

Our apps →

Bible in Stories

The Bible told as a story, with audio and videos.

📱 Get the app

World in Stories

True stories of humanity that sound made up.

App StoreGoogle Play

Feito! Pequenas Vitórias

A light daily routine for people who lose track of the day.

App StoreGoogle Play