Jude
Why refer to three different historical incidents like this that happened thousands of years earlier - Genesis 19 (Sodom), Genesis 3 (Cain), Numbers 22-24 (Balaam), Numbers 16 (Korah)? What’s the point?
…Jude assumes that the readers know these stories! Is that not amazing! This was the first century! No books in anyone’s homes. No Bibles available. No story tapes. Just oral instruction. And he assumed that they would know: What is “the way of Cain” and “the error of Balaam” and “the rebellion of Korah”? Do you know? Isn’t this astonishing! He expects them to know. It makes me think that our standards of Bible knowledge in the church today are too low.
The Value of Learning History: A Lesson from Jude by John Piper
Very sobering.
hear, hear!
Just to be fair (and to play the devil’s advocate a bit) . . . Jude also mentions the archangel Michael contending with the devil over the body of Moses (vs. 9) and a prophecy from Enoch (vss. 14-15) which are not accounts in our Protestant Bibles, but apparently references to books outside the canon as we see it.Clement of Alexandria and Origen attribute the dispute between Michael and the devil to a book called The Assumption of Moses . . . which is mostly lost to us today (we have only fragments).And the prophecy of Enoch seems to be a direct citation of the Jewish apocryphal work, The Book of Enoch . . . although there is some scholarly disagreement concerning the dating of this work and whether Jude is quoting it or some other document.Regardless, I wonder if Piper would use the same argument to tell us our standards of knowledge concerning non-canonical works is too low?
Thanks for the insights stuart.
Jeff