Jude 1:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The words which were spoken before of the apostles, &c.— Many eminent writers believe that the apostles hada meeting upon the great case of the new false teachers, and that they gave jointly, by common consent and deliberation, precepts proper to the occasion, to be communicated to all churches. No single apostle would or could, in this case, call the common injunction his commandment; but would certainly call it, in the language of St. Peter, the commandment of the apostles of our Lord. St. Paul was an apostle, yet was it no disparagement to him to carry the decree of the council of Jerusalem to the churches of his plantation; and, in writing or speaking, he could not but have called it the decree of the apostles. The case might be the same here. We have some evidence to shew that this was the case. That there was a tradition at least in the church, is evident from the Apostolical Constitutions; in which there is mention made of a meeting of the apostles upon the very account of these false teachers, so particularly described by St. Peter and St. Jude. In Book 6: ch. 13 these false teachers are described to be such as fight against Christ and Moses, pretending at the same time to value both: and thus the false teachers, as described both in St. Peter's and St. Jude's Epistles, communicated with the church, while they corrupted its faith. They were spots in the church's feasts, Jude 1:12. They are ordered to be expelled in the Apostolical Constitutions, that the lambs might be preserved sound and without spot. They are represented in the Apostolical Constitutions as the false Christians, and false prophets foretold in the gospel, blaspheming God, and trampling his Son under foot; which agrees exactly with St. Jude's account, that they had been foretold of by the apostles,—that they denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ, Jude 1:4 and 2 Peter 2:1. At this meeting, it is said, instructions were given, to be communicated to all churches by their respective apostles and bishops. There were probably then many circular letters sent upon this occasion: the second Epistle of St. Peter, and St. Jude's Epistle, may have been of this sort; and being drawn up on the same occasion, and upon the same instructions, it is no wonder that they are so similar in their expressions. There are in the epistles themselves some marks which seem to confirm the foregoing account. The veryword commandment used by St. Peter, when he makes mention of the apostles' authority, points out some particular and distinguished precept: for he does not seem to refer to the general preaching or doctrines of the apostles; but to some special command, or form of doctrine, relating to the false teachers. But to come nearer our point, the agreement of the two epistles in the description of the false teachers,—it is to be observed, that both St. Peter and St. Jude profess to write as reminding their churches of things with which they had before been acquainted (Jude 1:5 and 2 Peter 3:2.). St. Jude says expressly, that the very subject of this letter had once already been known unto them; "I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this," &c. The Greek word used here, is the same we met with before, "the faith once delivered;" and the words, "though ye once knew this," are relative to the same matter; and it appears that the warning against the false teachers, and the prophetic description of them, were sent to the churches, together with the commandment. It appears likewise, that both St. Peter and St. Jude wrote their epistles after this commandment had been delivered to the several churches; for they write to them reminding them of what they had before received. This being the case, it is most probable that both St. Jude and St.Peter wrote from the common plan communicated to the churches, anddrew their description of the false teachers from the same source, but still under the infallible direction of the Holy Spirit of God.