Bilangan 24:16

24:16 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,

and who knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees a vision from the Almighty,

although falling flat on the ground with eyes open:

Yesaya 29:13

29:13 The sovereign master ¹  says,

“These people say they are loyal to me; ² 

they say wonderful things about me, ³ 

but they are not really loyal to me. ⁴ 

Their worship consists of

nothing but man-made ritual. ⁵ 

Yesaya 48:1

The Lord Appeals to the Exiles

48:1 Listen to this, O family of Jacob, ⁶ 

you who are called by the name ‘Israel,’

and are descended from Judah, ⁷ 

who take oaths in the name of the Lord,

and invoke ⁸  the God of Israel –

but not in an honest and just manner. ⁹ 

Yesaya 58:2

58:2 They seek me day after day;

they want to know my requirements, ¹⁰ 

like a nation that does what is right

and does not reject the law of their God.

They ask me for just decrees;

they want to be near God.

Yehezkiel 33:31

33:31 They come to you in crowds, ¹¹  and they sit in front of you as ¹²  my people. They hear your words, but do not obey ¹³  them. For they talk lustfully, ¹⁴  and their heart is set on ¹⁵  their own advantage. ¹⁶ 

Hosea 8:2-3

8:2 Israel cries out to me,

“My God, we acknowledge you!”

8:3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good;

so an enemy will pursue him.

Roma 2:18-24

2:18 and know his will ¹⁷  and approve the superior things because you receive instruction from the law, ¹⁸  2:19 and if you are convinced ¹⁹  that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 2:20 an educator of the senseless, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the essential features of knowledge and of the truth – 2:21 therefore ²⁰  you who teach someone else, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 2:22 You who tell others not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor ²¹  idols, do you rob temples? 2:23 You who boast in the law dishonor God by transgressing the law! 2:24 For just as it is written, “the name of God is being blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” ²² 

Roma 2:2

2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment is in accordance with truth ²³  against those who practice such things.

Titus 3:5-8

3:5 he saved us not by works of righteousness that we have done but on the basis of his mercy, through the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, 3:6 whom he poured out on us in full measure ²⁴  through Jesus Christ our Savior. 3:7 And so, ²⁵  since we have been justified by his grace, we become heirs with the confident expectation of eternal life.” ²⁶ 

Summary of the Letter

3:8 This saying ²⁷  is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on such truths, ²⁸  so that those who have placed their faith in God may be intent on engaging in good works. These things are good and beneficial for all people.

Yudas 1:4

1:4 For certain men ²⁹  have secretly slipped in among you ³⁰  – men who long ago ³¹  were marked out ³²  for the condemnation I am about to describe ³³  – ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil ³⁴  and who deny our only Master ³⁵  and Lord, ³⁶  Jesus Christ.

[29:13]  ¹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonai).

[29:13]  ² tn Heb “Because these people draw near to me with their mouth.”

[29:13]  ³ tn Heb “and with their lips they honor me.”

[29:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “but their heart is far from me.” The heart is viewed here as the seat of the will, from which genuine loyalty derives.

[29:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “their fear of me is a commandment of men that has been taught.”

[48:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “house of Jacob”; TEV, CEV “people of Israel.”

[48:1]  ⁷ tc The Hebrew text reads literally “and from the waters of Judah came out.” מִמֵּי (mimme) could be a corruption of מִמְּעֵי (mimmÿ’e, “from the inner parts of”; cf. NASB, NIV, NLT, NRSV) as suggested in the above translation. Some translations (ESV, NKJV) retain the MT reading because the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a, which corrects a similar form to “from inner parts of” in 39:7, does not do it here.

[48:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “cause to remember”; KJV, ASV “make mention of.”

[48:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “not in truth and not in righteousness.”

[58:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ways” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, TEV); NLT “my laws.”

[33:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “as people come.” Apparently this is an idiom indicating that they come in crowds. See D. I. Block, Ezekiel (NICOT), 2:264.

[33:31]  ¹² tn The word “as” is supplied in the translation.

[33:31]  ¹³ tn Heb “do.”

[33:31]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “They do lust with their mouths.”

[33:31]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “goes after.”

[33:31]  ¹⁶ tn The present translation understands the term often used for “unjust gain” in a wider sense, following M. Greenberg, who also notes that the LXX uses a term which can describe either sexual or ritual pollution. See M. Greenberg, Ezekiel (AB), 2:687.

[2:18]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “the will.”

[2:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “because of being instructed out of the law.”

[2:19]  ¹⁹ tn This verb is parallel to the verbs in vv. 17-18a, so it shares the conditional meaning even though the word “if” is not repeated.

[2:21]  ²⁰ tn The structure of vv. 21-24 is difficult. Some take these verses as the apodosis of the conditional clauses (protases) in vv. 17-20; others see vv. 17-20 as an instance of anacoluthon (a broken off or incomplete construction).

[2:22]  ²¹ tn Or “detest.”

[2:24]  ²² sn A quotation from Isa 52:5.

[2:2]  ²³ tn Or “based on truth.”

[3:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “on us richly.”

[3:7]  ²⁵ tn This is the conclusion of a single, skillfully composed sentence in Greek encompassing Titus 3:4-7. Showing the goal of God’s merciful salvation, v. 7 begins literally, “in order that, being justified…we might become heirs…”

[3:7]  ²⁶ tn Grk “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

[3:8]  ²⁷ sn This saying (Grk “the saying”) refers to the preceding citation (Titus 3:4-7). See 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11 for other occurrences of this phrase.

[3:8]  ²⁸ tn Grk “concerning these things.”

[1:4]  ²⁹ tn Grk “people.” However, if Jude is indeed arguing that Peter’s prophecy about false teachers has come true, these are most likely men in the original historical and cultural setting. See discussion of this point in the note on the phrase “these men” in 2 Pet 2:12.

[1:4]  ³⁰ tn “Among you” is not in the Greek text, but is obviously implied.

[1:4]  sn The infiltration referred to by the phrase slipped in among you was predicted by Peter (2 Pet 2:1), Paul (e.g., Acts 20:29-30), and OT prophets.

[1:4]  ³¹ tn Or “in the past.” The adverb πάλαι (palai) can refer to either, though the meaning “long ago” is more common.

[1:4]  ³² tn Grk “written about.”

[1:4]  ³³ tn Grk “for this condemnation.” τοῦτο (touto) is almost surely a kataphoric demonstrative pronoun, pointing to what follows in vv. 5-18. Otherwise, the condemnation is only implied (in v. 3b) or is merely a statement of their sinfulness (“ungodly” in v. 4b), not a judgment of it.

[1:4]  ³⁴ tn Grk “debauchery.” This is the same word Peter uses to predict what the false teachers will be like (2 Pet 2:2, 7, 18).

[1:4]  sn Turned the grace of our God into a license for evil. One of the implications that the gospel in the apostolic period was truly a gospel of grace was the fact that the enemies of the gospel could pervert it into license. If it were a gospel of works, no such abuse could be imagined. Along these lines, note Rom 6:1 – “Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase?” This question could not have even been asked had the gospel been one of works. But grace is easily misunderstood by those who would abuse it.

[1:4]  ³⁵ tc Most later witnesses (P Ψ Ï sy) have θεόν (qeon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despothn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despoth") was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (Ì^72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 1241 1739 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.

[1:4]  sn The Greek term for Master (δεσπότης, despoths) is the same term the author of 2 Peter used (2 Pet 2:1) to describe his Lord when he prophesied about these false teachers. Since δεσπότης is used only ten times in the NT, the verbal connection between these two books at this juncture is striking. This is especially so since both Peter and Jude speak of these false teachers as denying the Master (both using the same verb). The basic difference is that Peter is looking to the future, while Jude is arguing that these false teachers are here now.

[1:4]  ³⁶ tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1