Jude Series: Jude 16-Five More Descriptions of the Jewish Zealots

Jude 16 These are grumblers who are fault-finders because for their own benefit, they are conducting their lives according to their own selfish desires. Also, their mouth speaks boastful words for the purpose of attempting to flatter a person for their own advantage. (Lecturer’s translation)

Jude 16 completes a section of the epistle of Jude which began in Jude 14.

It contains five more solemn descriptions of the unregenerate Jewish Zealots in Jude’s day and age in the first century A.D. who were attempting to persuade and seduce the citizens and the Christian community in Judaea to rebel against the Roman Empire with the pretext of ushering in the kingdom of God on earth.

Of course, this was in opposition to the teaching of the Old Testament as well as in opposition to the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles.

This teaching asserts that the Lord Himself would personally and violently destroy the Gentile nations who oppose Him at His Second Advent, which will result in His millennial reign on the earth (Dan. 2:45; Zech. 12; 14:1-7; Matt. 24:27-31; Rev. 19:11-20:3).

These descriptions along with others provided by the writer in Jude 8-13 serve as a warning to the Christian community in Judaea regarding these individuals.

Thus, this five-fold description of these Zealots is a very solemn warning to the Christian community in Judaea to avoid these individuals who were attempting to persuade them into joining their revolt, which was against the will of God.

The first of these descriptions asserts that they are grumblers.

The noun gongystēs (γογγυστής), “grumblers” is a hapax legomenon, which means that it only appears here in the Greek New Testament.

It is also an onomatopoetic word, which means a word whose sound resembles its meaning and was used of the cooing of doves.

The word was used of those who confer secretly, of those who discontentedly complain.

This word would appeal to the frame of reference of the Jewish Christian community in Judaea who were the recipients of this epistle since it would remind them of those in the Exodus generation who grumbled against Moses (Ex. 16-17; Num. 14:2; 16:41-40; 1 Cor. 10:10).

The apostle Paul in Philippians 2:14 prohibited members of the Philippian Christian community from entering into grumbling.

The noun gongystēs (γογγυστής), “grumblers” is another hapax legomenon and describes these unrepentant, unregenerate Jewish Zealots as those who have a habit of expressing excessive complaints and crying and whining especially in a low and indistinct voice because they are dissatisfied with their circumstances or place in life.

The historical context indicates that these individuals possessed the habit of expressing excessive complaints and crying and whining especially in a low and indistinct voice because they were dissatisfied with the Roman Empire occupying Judaea and ruling over it.

They were also dissatisfied with the Jewish authorities, both religious and civil, who submitted to the authority of Rome.

The second description asserts that they are fault-finders.

The noun mempsimoiros (μεμψίμοιρος), “fault-finders” describes these Zealots as possessing a tendency to constantly find fault with people because they are dissatisfied with their circumstances or place in life.

Thus, the historical context indicates that they possessed a tendency to constantly find fault with the Roman authorities and the Jewish authorities because they were dissatisfied with the Roman Empire occupying Judaea and ruling over it.

Again, they were also dissatisfied with the Jewish authorities, both religious and civil, who submitted to the authority of Rome.

The third description asserts that they, for their own benefit, conducted their lives according to their own selfish desires.

This description presents the reason for the first two descriptions.

Thus, these Zealots were grumblers who were fault-finders “because” they, for their own benefit, conducted their lives according to their own selfish desires.

The noun epithumia (ἐπιθυμία), “selfish desires” pertains to an in ordinate, self-indulgent desire for sinful activities and is used to describe these unregenerate Jewish Zealots.

Thus, this word signifies that these individuals are totally and completely governed by or enslaved to the various lust patterns of the sin nature because they are unregenerate.

This word does not speak of any particular evil desire such as sexual lust or greed but rather simply refers to an evil desire, which rejects the will of God.

The reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυτοῦ), “their own” is emphasizing that the sinful desires of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots are an expression of their selfish, self-centered nature.

The various manifestations of the sin nature would include sexual lust, power lust, approbation lust, social lust, monetary lust, materialism lust, inordinate ambition resulting in inordinate competition, revenge lust, criminal lust, chemical lust, crusader lust, and pleasure lust.

In regards to the pleasures of Satan’s cosmic system include sex, entertainment of various types, money and materialism.

These unregenerate Jewish Zealots manifested power, revenge, criminal and crusader lusts which was reflected in their actions in refusing to submit to the Roman civil authorities as well as both the Jewish religious and civil authorities.

At the heart of such lusts is the desire to live independently of the will of God, which is the essence of evil.

Their rejection of the teaching of the Old Testament, as well as the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles regarding His Second Advent which they taught would usher in the kingdom of God on earth was at the heart of their rebellion against Rome and the Jewish authorities.

These desires are evil because they are contrary to the perfect character and integrity of God and in disobedience to the will of the Father.

They are evil because they constitute living independently of God’s will.

These Zealots lived independently of God as manifested by their rejection of the Old Testament’s teaching regarding the Second Advent of the Messiah as well as by their rejection of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles with regards to this prophetic event.

The fourth description of these unregenerate Jewish Zealots who lived during the first century A.D. asserts that the mouth of these individuals spoke boastful words.

The fifth and final description presents the purpose of the fourth and asserts that they attempted to flatter a person for their own benefit or advantage.

Therefore, together, they are asserting that the mouth of these Zealots spoke boastful words “for the purpose of” attempting to flatter a person for their own benefit or advantage.

The adjective hyperogkos (ὑπέρογκος), “boastful” pertains to possessing an exaggerated and overinflated sense of self-importance or in other words, it is pertaining to excessive boasting.

Therefore, the words or speeches of these Jewish Zealots were boastful in the sense that their words or speeches demonstrated that they possessed an exaggerated and overinflated sense of self-importance.

In other words, their speeches were filled with excessive boasting.

The verb thaumazō (θαυμάζω), “for the purpose of attempting to flatter” describes these Zealots as those who would through their boastful speeches praise their audience in an exaggerated false manner and with an insincere purpose.

They flattered their audience in order to seduce and persuade them in joining them in their rebellion against Rome.

They used as a pretext the desire to bring in the kingdom of God on earth, which as we noted could only take place through Jesus Christ’s Second Advent.

We also noted that the noun ōpheleia (ὠφέλεια), “their own advantage” indicates that these Zealots flattered their audience for the express purpose of using them to fight against the Roman and Jewish civil authorities.

In other words, they were “users.”