Verse 11: Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah.
Jude pronounces a woe upon these false teachers. It is a phrase that is rarely if ever verbalized today in our time. It is as if Jude is saying: “Little do they know the eternal consequences of their wickedness—how great they will suffer.” This woe contained three examples from the Old Testament of hatred, greed and pride.
First, jealousy was what initiated the way of Cain—the course of action he chose. His jealousy provoked anger and hatred towards his brother because Abel’s sacrifice to God was acceptable and his was not. Therefore he murdered Abel without remorse. His lack of remorse is evidenced by his lie when confronted by the Lord:
Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9)
Just as Cain rejected God’s required mode of sacrifice, these men, who Jude is referring to, have rejected God’s acceptable directives of faith and practice, demonstrating their hatred and envy for the righteous recipients of Jude’s letter and endeavoring to confuse them with false teachings.
Secondly, greed was the error of Balaam. Dr. C.I. Scofield stated that Balaam “was the typical hireling prophet, anxious only to make a market of his gift.”1 For a fee he would prophesy by omens, divination and soothsaying (Numbers 22:7; 24:1; Joshua 13:22). In Numbers 22-24 he developed a plan for Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel, luring them into idolatry and immorality so that God would judge them. Balaam’s plan backfired: instead “God turned the curse into a blessing” (Deuteronomy 23:5; Nehemiah 13:2).
Jude asserts that these men—these apostates—have rushed headlong into this same error. The idea of their rushing headlong expresses a reckless and unrestrained pursuit of their objective of seducing God’s people with false teachings to lead them astray and bring about their spiritual defeat.
Thirdly, pride was the motivating factor of the rebellion of Korah. One thing must be clarified: this was not an armed rebellion. The Greek word for rebellion is literally “to speak against,”2 for that is exactly what Korah did. He spoke out against “the authority of Moses as God’s chosen spokesman.”3 He claimed that Moses led them out of Egypt, “a land flowing with milk and honey” (Numbers 16:13), and had not brought them “into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards” (Numbers 16:14).
Note carefully Korah’s irrational logic: he took the truth concerning the land God promised to Israel, “a good and spacious land...a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8) and exchanged that truth with Egypt, a land Korah characterized as flowing with milk and honey. This is the same thing that Jude stated in verse 4 about certain persons who twist and distort God’s truth, turning “the grace of God into licentiousness.”
Also, Jude maintains that not only have they gone the way of Cain and rushed into the error of Balaam, but they have perished in the rebellion of Korah. There is historical evidence concerning how Korah perished:
And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, and their households, and all the men who belonged to Korah with their possessions. (Numbers 16:32)
But the text seems to imply that these false teachers have already perished. However, this is a rare usage in the Greek, employing a tense that stresses the certainty of a future event as if it had already occurred.4 It is a fact that these men—these apostates—will receive their just punishment as Jude will describe in the coming verses.
Closing Consideration
What these men were doing in Jude’s day is still practiced predominantly today by the twisting of God’s truth—manipulating individual believers and entire churches. We must not disregard the fact that we Christians are undeniably intertwined in a battle of cosmic proportions. It is precisely what the Apostle Paul asserted when he wrote:
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12) [emphasis added]
These men were being influenced by the “spiritual forces of wickedness”—and the same is true today. These men today are the “savage wolves” that Paul warned would “come in among you, not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29). Jude, having written most likely a decade after the Apostle Paul’s death, is now affirming Paul’s warning to the early Church.
For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain. (Titus 1:10–11) [emphasis added]
This is the real face of the apostates among Christianity today. Nearly 4 decades ago, Dr. Francis Schaeffer rightly lamented about the lack of concern among Christians concerning false teachers:
Very few have taken a strong and courageous stand against the world spirit of this age as it destroys our culture and the Christian ethos that once shaped our country.5
The fact that there has been a dearth of sound doctrinal teachings within the Christian Church is the reason for this apathy. The writer to the Hebrews correctly explains that we “have become dull of hearing” (Hebrews 5:11), for this had been predicted by Paul to Timothy:
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:3–4) [emphasis added]
The “feel good about myself and my prosperity” messages should be the first to be silenced. Those who have a voice within the community of believers need to step up and speak out against this destructive trend within Christianity today: the diluting and corruption of God’s truth—God’s authoritative Word to His people.
[1] Scofield, C. I. (1945). The Scofield Study Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, p.1319 note.
[2] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.127.
[3] Scofield, p. 1329 note.
[4] Wallace, D. B. (1996). Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics - Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Zondervan Publishing House and Galaxie Software, pp. 563-564.
[5] Schaeffer, Francis A. (1985). The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 4.310.
© 2023 David M. Rossi