Jude 3c-The Christian Faith Was Delivered Once and Never Again for the Benefit of the Saints

Jude 3 Beloved, although I have prepared myself with utter diligence to communicate in writing for the benefit of each one of you regarding our common salvation, I have entered into the state of being compelled to communicate in writing for the purpose of exhorting and encouraging each and every one of you at this particular time to make it your habit of exerting intense effort for your own benefit on behalf of the faith, which has been delivered once and never again for the benefit of the saints. (Lecturer’s translation)

This verse is composed of a concessive clause, which asserts that although Jude was in a state having prepared himself with utter diligence to write for the benefit of the recipients of this epistle regarding their common salvation, he came under compulsion to write for the purpose of exhorting and encouraging each of them to make it their habit of exerting intense effort for their own benefit on behalf of the faith which has been delivered once and never again for the benefit of the saints.

This concessive clause implies that Jude being compelled to write for the purpose of exhorting and encouraging the recipients of this epistle to make it their habit of exerting intense effort on behalf of the Christian faith is true in spite of the fact that he prepared with utter diligence to write to them concerning their common salvation.

Jude describes the Christian faith in Jude 3 as having been delivered once and never again for the benefit of the saints.

In this statement, the verb paradidomi is expressing the idea that the Christian faith, i.e., the gospel originating from and about the Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father being formally communicated by the Spirit to the apostles and now appears in the Greek New Testament.

The passive voice of this verb paradidomi is interesting and means that the subject receives the action of the verb from either an expressed or unexpressed agency.

Here the subject is the Christian faith, i.e., the gospel originating from and about the Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

The unexpressed but implied agency is the Holy Spirit who communicated to the apostles the good news that Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father delivered the entire human race from eternal condemnation, enslavement to the sin nature, Satan and his cosmic system, spiritual and physical death, personal sins and condemnation from the Law.

Therefore, the passive voice of this verb indicates the Christian faith, i.e., the gospel originating from and about the Lord Jesus Christ and the deliverance His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father provided all of sinful humanity received the action of being communicated by the Holy Spirit to the apostles who in turn communicated it to the Christian community and the rest of the world.

The verb paradidomi is modified by the adverb of degree hapax (ἅπαξ), which literally means “once” since the word pertains to a single occurrence. a single occurrence to the exclusion of any other similar occurrence.[1]

The word pertains to a single unique decisive occurrence in human history.

Here it emphasizes that the Christian faith, i.e., the gospel originating from and about the Lord Jesus Christ and the deliverance His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father provided all of sinful humanity was communicated by the Holy Spirit to the apostles “once and never again.”

The implication is that no corrections or supplements will be tolerated as well as the perfection and completion of the Christian faith, i.e. the gospel originating from and about the Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

This word hapax implies the Christian faith is “finished,” “unalterable,” “permanent,” “final” and “normative.”

Therefore, we could translate hapax with the phrase “once and never again.”

The Christian faith is described as having been delivered once and never again for the benefit of the saints because Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand, which provided salvation for all of sinful humanity, has been accomplished in history.

Thus, it is finished, unalterable, permanent, final and normative.

The term hagios (ἅγιος), “the saints” describes church age believers from the perspective that they have been sanctified or set apart through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification in order to order serve God exclusively.

This word is related to sanctification which is the direct result of the baptism of the Spirit and is a reminder to the Christian community in Judaea as to what God has done for them through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at their justification and it denotes His viewpoint of them.

It summarizes the doctrine of positional truth and the justified sinner’s union and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.

Therefore, it speaks of the believer’s intimate, eternally secure position because of their union and identification with Christ.

So therefore, this concessive clause in Jude 3 indicates that Jude initially had determined to teach and remind the Christian community in Judaea regarding their so great salvation which was accomplished through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.

However, he felt compelled to exhort and encourage them through the contents of this epistle to exert intense effort on behalf of the Christian faith.

The contents of Jude 4-23 make clear that he felt the need to shift gears because those whom he describes in these verses posed a serious threat to the Christian community in Judaea.

As we noted in our introduction to this study of the epistle of Jude, most scholars believe that Jude was very concerned about false teachers and their heterodox teaching.

However, as we noted, nowhere does Jude tell the recipients of this letter to reject false teachers and their heterodox teaching.

I am in agreement with Herbert Bateman IV who asserts that the individuals who Jude condemns in this epistle are the Zealots or Sicarii who revolted against the Roman Empire and were attempting to persuade the Christian community to join in this revolt.

Thus, in this letter, Jude wants the Jewish Christian community in Judaea to obey the governmental authorities and reject this rebellion against Rome led by these Zealots since it would not be justified civil disobedience.

In other words, to rebel against Rome would be to reject God’s will for their lives.

As we established, Jude was written soon after the death of James and just prior to the Jews war with Rome in 66-70 A.D. and thus Jude was written somewhere between 62-66 A.D.

During the mid-60s the relationship between Rome and Judaea was deteriorating rapidly.

The Zealots or Sicarii they were called, were leading the revolt against Rome and were attempting to seduce Judaeans to rebel against Rome including attempting to persuade the Christian community to join the movement.

When Jude was written, this Judaean revolt led by the Zealots was moving into the cities of Caesarea as well as Jerusalem and stretched out into the desert regions of Judaea including the hill country as well as Samaria and Galilee.

Therefore, the epistle of Jude was attempting to prevent the Jewish Christian community in Judaean from being seduced into taking part in this Zealot led revolt against Rome.

[1] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains(electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 608). New York: United Bible Societies.