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Jude describes opponents as acting like irrational creatures, using language similar to the Wisdom of Solomon, highlighting a Jewish tradition that contrasts human reason with animal instinct to describe sinful behavior.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Wisdom of Solomon 11:15
Deuterocanon
13 For when they heard that through their own punishments the others benefited, they recognized the Lord. 14 For him who long before was thrown out and exposed they stopped mocking. In the end of what happened, they marveled, having thirsted in another manner than the righteous. 15 But in return for the senseless imaginings of their unrighteousness, by which they were led astray to worship irrational reptiles and wretched vermin, you sent upon them a multitude of irrational creatures to punish them, 16 that they might learn that by what things a man sins, by these he is punished.
Date: 50 BCE – 50 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Jude 1:10
New Testament
8 Yet these men, as a result of their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and insult the glorious ones. 9 But even when Michael the archangel was arguing with the devil and debating with him concerning Moses’ body, he did not dare to bring a slanderous judgment, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you!” 10 But these men do not understand the things they slander, and they are being destroyed by the very things that, like irrational animals, they instinctively comprehend. 11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, and because of greed have abandoned themselves to Balaam’s error; hence, they will certainly perish in Korah’s rebellion. 12 These men are dangerous reefs at your love feasts, feasting without reverence, feeding only themselves. They are waterless clouds, carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit—twice dead, uprooted; 13 wild sea waves, spewing out the foam of their shame; wayward stars for whom the utter depths of eternal darkness have been reserved.
Date: 60–80 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... this is a standard phrase (Wisdom of Solomon 11:15; 4 Maccabees 14:14, 18; Josephus, C. Apion 2.213; Ant. 10.262) for the animals as contrasted with human rationality. (Compare Xenophon, Cyropaed. 2.3.9, quoted by Mayor and Windisch, for a similar comparison between what men and beasts know [ἐπιστάνται] by instinct [φύσει].) For the comparison of sin with the behavior of animals, compare 4 Ezra; 8:29–30 ..."
Richard Bauckham, Word Biblical Commentary: Jude-2 Peter (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983), 63.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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