Koine Foundations

Translation by Matthew Jones
koinefoundations@gmail.com
Completed January 2026

Translation

¹ Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a bother of James.

To The Called, who are loved in the embrace of Father God and kept safe for Jesus Christ.

² May mercy and peace and love be yours in greater abundance.

³ Beloved, although I was making every effort to write to you about the salvation we have in common, I had no choice but to write to you instead, urging you to vigorously fight for the faith that was passed down once and for all times to God’s holy people. ⁴ For certain people have entered stealthily, whose condemnation was announced in writing long ago. Impious people who pervert the grace of our God into unrestrained sexual immorality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

⁵ So I want to remind you all who have full knowledge, that having once delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, the Lord later destroyed those who did not believe. ⁶ And the angels who did not stay within their assigned sphere of activity but abandoned their own dwelling-place, He has kept for the judgment of the Great Day, bound with eternal chains under gloomy darkness. ⁷ And how Sodom and Gomorrah, and in like manner the cities around them, because they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural relations, are displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

⁸ In spite of these cautionary examples, on the basis of dreams these people also defile the flesh, reject Lordship, and malign the angels. ⁹ But even the archangel Michael, when arguing about Moses’ body as he disputed with the Devil, did not presume to pronounce a judgment of slander, but said, “May the Lord rebuke you.” ¹⁰ But these people malign things they do not understand, yet are destroyed by the very things they understand instinctively like unreasoning animals.

¹¹ Woe to them! For they have walked Cain’s path; they have plunged into Balaam’s error to make money; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹² These are the ones who join you in feasting at your fellowship meals as hidden reefs, shamelessly shepherding only themselves. They are waterless clouds carried away by the wind; fruitless autumn trees, now completely dead since they were uprooted; ¹³ raging sea waves casting up the foam of their own shameful deeds; wandering stars for whom the blackest gloomy darkness is kept forever.

¹⁴ Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, also prophesied about these people, saying, “Look! The Lord has come with thousands upon thousands of His holy ones, ¹⁵ to deliver judgment against everyone, and to convict all the impious for all their impious acts which they did impiously, and for all the harsh words which impious sinners spoke against Him.”

¹⁶ These people are grumblers, malcontents, pursuing their own cravings. Their mouths speak bombastic words to curry favor in order to achieve their ends.

¹⁷ But you, beloved, remember what was spoken previously by the apostles of our Lord, Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Namely, they were saying to you that at the end of time there will be scoffers who are guided by their own cravings for impious things. ¹⁹ These are the people who are creating divisions – directed by natural impulses, devoid of the Spirit.

²⁰ But you, beloved, by building up yourselves on the foundation of your most holy faith and by praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait expectantly for the mercy of our Lord, Jesus Christ, resulting in eternal life. ²² And show mercy to those who are wavering. ²³ Save others by snatching them out of the fire. Show mercy to yet others with great caution, even though hating the under garment polluted from fleshly desires.

²⁴ Now to the One who can keep you from stumbling and present you unblemished before His glorious presence with jubilation; ²⁵ To the only God our Savior belong glory, majesty, power and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all the ages, in this age, and throughout all the ages to come. Amen!

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