Lookahead:  These church sinners were actively rejecting Jesus’ gift and their hearts were hardening to the point of no return.  And yet Jude was still trying to reach this population segment.  In so doing, he was setting an example for us today—in terms of how we deal with difficult “church folk” who get on our last nerves.  I believe that we have an obligation to be like Jude and let them know that it’s time to get real with God. 

Although you are fully aware of this, I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt, He destroyed those who did not believe.  Jude 1:5

This is pretty heavy!  A few questions come to mind:

1.  Did Jesus Himself actually save the Israelites “out of the land of Egypt?”

2.  Then did Jesus Himself actually destroy the ones who sided with the Ten Spies?

3.  Is Jude cautioning the recipients of his epistle not to lapse into unbelieving behavior? Or is he targeting people who never believed in the first place?

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1. Jude’s reference to Jesus, instead of the Father, in the Old Testament context, is interesting.  The translations on Bible Hub aren’t unanimous in their usage of the name, Jesus—probably because the ancient manuscripts weren’t unanimous: 

Some Greek manuscripts read “Jesus,” and some read “the Lord.” There is even one manuscript that was obviously changed, and reads, “the God Christ.” The Aramaic texts read “God.” The weight of evidence is that “the Lord” was the original reading of the Greek texts. It is possible that an early scribe made a mistake and changed “the Lord” to “Jesus,” (early scribes often used abbreviations, and the abbreviation for “Lord” was KC and the abbreviation for Jesus was IC (both had lines over them). A scribe could have easily mistakenly substituted a “I” for a “K.”¹

The reading Ιησους (Iēsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 1241 1739 1881 2344 pc vg co Or1739mg)…

[Note:  these are names of centuries-old scrolls handwritten by scribes]

…the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange Κυριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεος (theos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”)…As difficult as the reading Ιησους (Jesus) is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate.²

The reading Κυριος (Lord) is found in manuscripts:  C*; Ψ; 436א; 945; 1505; 1611; 2138; 1067; 1175; 1292; 1409; 1735 (with Ιησους); 1844.³

Understanding the abbreviations that identify the ancient manuscripts is a science unto its own, but to highlight the salient points in the two preceding paragraphs: 

A = Codex Alexandrinus Manuscript, dated  ~400 to 440 A.D.

B = Codex Vaticanus Manuscript, dated ~300 to 324 A.D.

C = Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus Manuscript dated ~450 A.D.

א = Codex Sinaiticus Manuscript dated ~330 to 360 A.D.   

Codex Vaticanus is the oldest known manuscript and uses Iēsous v. Κυριος (Jesus v. LORD).  Codex Sinaiticus is next and was purported to use Κυριος (LORD). But, given the utterly phenomenal gift of a multi-million-volume www library at our fingertips, we can check it out for ourselves!  In my opinion, I think those corresponding Greek letters are smeared and illegible. See what you think:  http://www.codexsinaiticus.org/en/manuscript.aspx?book=58&chapter=1&lid=en&side=r&verse=5&zoomSlider=0

My opinion—we can safely say that “Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt” represents a valid translation.  There is a Jewish tradition that after Moses struck the rock and water gushed forth, that rock continued to travel with the Israelites from place to place, providing life-giving waters in the wilderness (called Miriam’s Well, in her honor).  Additionally, there is a Pauline reference implying that the Rock was actually the Rock of Offense, the Stone of Stumbling, and the Cornerstone Precious and Elect in Zion, i.e., Jesus Christ Himself (1 Corinthians 10:4).  So Jesus could have been with Moses throughout.  Another theory would be that Jude made this statement because he knew his brother/ extended family member/teacher to be God, so he used the trinitarian terms interchangeably. 

2. Did Jesus actually destroy the unbelievers?

The “destroy” word had several connotations in the Greek—apollumi:  to destroy i. e. to put out of the way entirely, abolish, put an end to, ruin, to render useless.  (Bible Hub)  So rather than the unpleasant mental image of Jesus slaying the Wilderness Boomers… metaphorically speaking, we could say that He made them of no effect.  And He can do the same to any heathenish faith wrecker who is trying to upend the beliefs, theology, and Jesus-seeking focus in a Christian community of believers. 

3. So now we re-ask the question—were these cautionary remarks aimed at in-process backsliders, or hypocrites who were hiding out in the church?

A certain segment of the population who were saved out of Egypt never believed.  They were referred to as “stiff-necked” and disobedient.  If they encountered any worldly trials, their default position was, we need to go back to Egypt, back into bondage—things weren’t so bad there.  This population segment didn’t believe God, and they didn’t accept His gifts—and God knew that this wasn’t going to change.  Side Note:  we need to remember that Moses also led a “mixed multitude” sub-group of people through the wilderness, so there were some genuine heathens “in the house.”  They may have been Egyptians and  “-ites” who probably had never fully been converted and were “blending in” until times got challenging. 

I believe that Jude is not merely trying to scare backsliding believers into church again.  He’s trying to reach a much tougher, much more hypocritical audience and is essentially saying, “wake up and smell the coffee—unbelievers/heathens don’t go to the promised land.” 

I further believe that we can reinforce this position by continuing to read the verses subsequent to Jude 1:5.  He next refers to rebellious angels, then sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah—and then he goes back to the bad elements in the church who are rejecting authority, defiling their bodies, etc.  These church sinners were actively rejecting Jesus’ gift and their hearts were hardening to the point of no return. 

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And yet Jude was still trying to reach this population segment.  In so doing, he was setting an example for us today—in terms of how we deal with these difficult “church folk” who get on our last nerves.  I believe that we have an obligation to be like Jude and let them know that it’s time to get real with God. 

As real v. fake believers, we need to understand that Jude wasn’t the only one given the double-edged honor of communicating this to the heathenish types (remember, legend has it that heathens in Edessa rejected the message and crucified him).  We have to get to the point where we care for these difficult people enough to tell them the truth about where they are headed if they keep rejecting Jesus. But this can be a challenge as these difficult church folk can be pretty repellant in the natural.  (Humorous sidenote:  A good friend of mine once told one visciously judgmental church goer, “You’re supposed to compel people to come in, not repel them.”)

Only the LOVE of Jesus and His power of forgiveness is going to get us there.  But once we’ve arrived at that point, we can think of the most difficult person we know—the primary purveyor of the most pain in our life experiences.  And we know with certainty that we would run into a burning building to save them—with Jesus at our side. 

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¹https://www.revisedenglishversion.com/Jude/chapter1/5

²Biblical Studies Press. (2006). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.

³https://theologicalmusings.wordpress.com/2006/06/03/who-saved-israel-from-egypt