Jude Series: Jude 12-Three Metaphors to Describe Jewish Zealots

Jude 12 These people are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm—shepherds who feed only themselves. They are clouds without rain, blown along by the wind; autumn trees, without fruit and uprooted—twice dead. (NIV)

Jude 12 These are like dangerous reefs at your love feasts. Those who for their own selfish interests regularly feast together with all of you without reverence. Those who care only for themselves. These are like waterless clouds, which are carried away by winds. These are like autumnal trees, which are without fruit, which have died twice, which have been uprooted. (Lecturer’s translation)

Like Jude 4, 8, 10 and 11, Jude 12 is describing the unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude’s day and age in the first century A.D. who were rebelling against Rome in order to bring in the kingdom of God on earth.

Jude 12 is a solemn warning to the Christian community in Judaea to avoid these individuals who were attempting to persuade them into joining their revolt, which is against the will of God.

The noun agapē (ἀγάπη), “love feasts” pertains to a communal meal in which the members of the Christian community expressed the love of God when interacting with each other.

In other words, it was a time in which the members of the Christian community experienced fellowship with one another through the study of the Word of God and observing the Lord’s Supper.

During this meal, they also received instruction with regards to the love of God.

This meal culminated in the observance of the Lord’s Supper.

In Jude 12, the noun spilas (σπιλάς), “dangerous reefs” is equating these unregenerate Jewish Zealots to a submerged ridge of a rock or coral near the surface of the water.

Thus, it is a figurative extension of a submerged ridge of a rock or coral near the surface of the water, which is thus an unrecognized source of danger for those in a vessel traveling on the surface of the water.

Therefore, this first metaphor is used to describe these individuals as those who will wreck or destroy the spiritual lives of individuals in the Christian community in Judaea because they will cause them to rebel against the Lord Jesus Christ.

The majority of the commentators and most English translations take σπιλάς to be here equivalent to σπίλος, meaning ‘blot, blemish, spot.’

This is supported mainly by 2 Pet 2:13 (σπίλοι), and Jude’s own use of the verb σπιλοῦν (“to defile”) in v 23.

But this meaning of σπιλάς, which presumably arose by confusion with σπίλος, is extremely rare (apparently only one known instance: the Orphic book Lithaca 614, from the fourth century a.d.).

In view of Jude’s good command of Greek vocabulary it is not likely that he simply confused the two words.

The second description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude 12 develops the first metaphor and describes these individuals as those who for their own selfish interests were feasting together with members of the Christian community in Judaea without reverence for the sanctity of their love feasts.

This second description reveals that these individuals were not only eating with members of the Christian community in Judaea during their love feasts but also that they did so without reverence for the sanctity of their love feasts since they did not honor and respect the Lord Jesus Christ.

The implication is that these individuals did not regard the sanctity of the Lord’s Supper or the instruction in the gospel which the Christian community was receiving during these love feasts.

This description also makes clear that these unregenerate Jewish Zealots were selfish individuals who did not desire to worship Jesus Christ but rather desired to persuade members of the Christian community to join them in their revolt against the Roman Empire.

The implication is that they were only attending the love of feasts of the Christian community in Judaea as a pretext to persuade them to join them in their rebellion against Rome.

The third description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude 12 also further develops the first metaphor.

It describes them as caring only for themselves, which makes explicit the previous description in that it asserts emphatically that they cared only for themselves and did not care to worship Jesus Christ or serve the Christian community in Judaea.

They wanted only to serve themselves by persuading this community to join them in their revolt against Rome.

The implication is that the Christian community was unaware or ignorant of the fact that these Zealots were attending their love feasts but only caring for themselves and not them or the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fourth description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude 12 presents the second metaphor and describes these individuals as waterless clouds.

This description indicates that these rebellious individuals appeared to be Christians who worshipped Jesus Christ but did not just like waterless clouds, which appear to have water droplets in them but do not.

They appear to be Christians but do not possess the Spirit of God who pours the love of God in the hearts of a believer through the communication of the Word of God (cf. Rom. 5:5), which is needed in order to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fifth description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude 12 further develops the second metaphor and describes these unregenerate Jewish Zealots as being carried away by winds.

It is figuratively describing these individuals as being carried away by the lies of Satan and his kingdom so as not to worship Jesus Christ as their Savior and King.

It is describing these unregenerate Jewish Zealots as being carried away from worshipping Jesus Christ as their Savior and King by the lies of Satan and his cosmic system just like clouds which are carried by the wind.

The sixth description presents the third and final metaphor and describes these unregenerate Jewish Zealots as being like autumnal trees.

The seventh description develops the sixth and makes explicit what is implied by the sixth.

Together, they teach that like autumnal trees, which are longer bearing fruit, these individuals were not bearing fruit, which is a metaphorical reference to the fact that unregenerate Jewish Zealots did not bear fruit to God.

In the gospels, unregenerate Israel is described as being like a fig tree that does not bear fruit (cf. Matt. 21:19; Luke 13:6-9).

Thus, the parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13:6-8 and Jesus cursing a barren fig tree in Matthew 21:18-22 would serve as a condemnation to these unregenerate Jewish Zealots who did not bear fruit to God because of their rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as their Savior and King.

The eighth description develops the third metaphor further and describes these Jewish Zealots as having died twice, which is an idiom for being dead spiritually twice.

This means that these Jewish Zealots were dead spiritually and will experience after their physical death the perpetuation of this spiritual death in the eternal lake of fire which is described in Revelation 20:5 as “the second death.”

Thus, this description of these individuals prophesying that they will suffer eternal condemnation since these individuals were still physically alive when Jude wrote this epistle.

However, if they repent by changing their attitude toward Jesus Christ and trust in Him as their Savior and King, they will be delivered from eternal condemnation in the lake of fire.

Lastly, the ninth and final description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots further develops the third metaphor and describes them as having been uprooted.

It is describing them as being uprooted like a tree uprooted from the ground including its roots.

This is another figurative reference to these individuals being spiritually dead who will eventually suffer after their physical death the second death in the lake of fire if they don’t repent by trusting in Jesus Christ as their Savior.