Jude 1:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the angels which kept not, &c.— St. Peter, 2nd Epistle, 2 Peter 2:4 speaks of the angels that sinned; St. Jude gives it as an account of their sin, that they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation. This account of the angels' sin is recorded only in this passage of sacred writ. The very same difference may be observed in setting forth the example of Sodom and Gomorrha; which is common to both epistles. St. Peter speaks only of their judgment, and of their being made an example to sinners: St. Jude adds an account of their crime, and, though the images and ideas are the same, yet the turn of expression is very different. Instead of their first estate (αρχην), Dr. Heylin, after Cudworth, renders it their principality. Instead of their own habitation, some would understand the word οικητηριον in the same sense wherein it is used 2 Corinthians 5:2 for the vestment of glory wherewith the saints are clothed in the future state. Hence it was, very probably, that Dr. Cudworth was led to interpret it of the celestial body of the angels, which they changed when they fell, for an airy and obscure one. However, be this as it may, St. Jude might design to intimate, either that they left the peculiar Presence, which was their proper habitation; orthat they lost their glory with their innocence, as all of them did. OEcumenius says, "They left the honour of the angelic dignity." By this instance St. Jude designed to condemn the pride and apostacy of those false teachers and corrupt Christians.