Jude, The Transgression Of Angels

Jude 6 And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;

Jude continues with his reminders in verse 6. The first reminder he brought up was disobedient Israel in the days of Moses. He begins verse 6 with the conjunction, “and.” Conjunctions connect one thought with another, and so, like unfaithful Israel, we find ourselves considering the unfaithful angels. Not all of them, mind you, because we know Satan’s kingdom persists for the time being, Matthew 12:26, Ephesians 2:2.

Which angels, then, does Jude refer to? Here we must go back to Genesis, specifically chapter 6, and a highly divisive and contentious passage. The chronicler of Genesis states, “the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose,” Genesis 6:2. Who are these sons of God? Genesis 6:1 tells us that they were not human. The verse clearly states, “Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them.” The Tanakh and the Septuagint stand in agreement with the translation, though the phraseology differs. In fact, the Tanakh renders, “sons of God,” as, “the divine beings.” The daughters in question came from mortal men multiplying across the face of the earth, according to verse 1. The sons of God are contrasted with the daughters of men, having different origins. If there was any question as to who is meant by the sons of God in Scripture, Job settles the matter. In Job 1:6 we read, “Now there came a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.” Job 2:1 reiterates this spiritual reality of the angels coming before the Lord periodically to answer for their actions, even Satan. These sons of God in Job 38:7 are also described as morning stars, having existed prior to humanity. 

Nehemiah records that, “You (God) made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their host…the host of heaven worships You,” Nehemiah 9:6. One of the reasons man is commanded not to worship the physical host of heaven in Scripture (see Deuteronomy 4:19) is because the stars represent the majesty of the angelic order; mighty but unworthy of worship, which belongs to God alone. We know from Revelation that at least one angel (Abaddon) is referred to as a “star fallen from heaven,” Revelation 9:1. The overwhelming consensus appears to indict the angels that interacted with men in such a way as being who Jude currently refers to. Naturalistic explanations of this passage fall short of conveying what is being related. The giants, both pre and post-Flood, hail from this strange union of angelic and human parentage, Genesis 6:4.

It is said of these specific angels that they did not keep their proper (or “own,” NKJV footnote) domain. Their domain was Heaven serving God; but we must conclude that these angels were a part of Satan’s kingdom, who chose to defect after Lucifer led them astray and went about corrupting mankind by having unnatural relations with them, resulting in the giants, or the Nephilim, or Anakim, or any other of the numerous names Scripture attributes to them. Further, Jude writes that they left their native abode (house, habitat), and for this transgression they have been especially afflicted with God’s judgment. God reserved them for judgment, just like the false teachers in Jude’s day were marked out for a specific condemnation, Jude 4. Peter, whom Jude’s letter bears some stylistic similarities to, has something to say about these angels, shedding further light. He writes, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment…then the Lord knows how…to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,” 2 Peter 2:4, 9, NASB. Peter speaks of these angels being “reserved” as well, explaining that they were thrust into Hell, into pits of darkness which suggests the shaft of the abyss mentioned in Revelation chapter 9. The shaft seems to be a vertical passage that bisects Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise from Hell and descends into the deepest reaches of the earth, where there is only darkness. Like Hell and fallen mankind, however, the shaft of the abyss is a holding cell before the evil angels are cast into the prison of the Lake of Fire, prepared (or reserved) for the Devil and his angels, Matthew 25:41.

They will be released from their chains to be judged at the Great Day, and cast into the Lake of Fire, which is the ultimate fate of Satan and his fallen kindred. For now their sin of violating this bizarre taboo and siring the giants with human women brought on them a judgment that removed them from the earth and the risk of influencing mankind any further. This next and more horrifying example is held up by Jude as the second reminder of what ultimate fate awaits the false teachers who choose to deny the Lord and abuse the grace of God using the name of Christ.