“The Angels who Sinned” (2 Pet. 2 & Jude 1)

From time to time throughout my ministry I have been compelled to acknowledge that I have taught incorrectly in the past, and to correct those errors. Well, here is another one.

I have taught that “the angels who sinned” mentioned in 2 Pet. 2:4 and Jude 1:6 were fallen heavenly messengers. This is the traditional interpretation found throughout Christianity. However, I have always been uneasy about this view for two reasons:

1. It seems to support the myth found in the apocryphal Book of Enoch concerning angels of God procreating children with human women. This is a perversion of the story in Genesis 6. For those interested in this aspect, please see my article at the following link: https://www.4windsfellowships.net/articles/Sons_of_God.pdf
2. Both Peter and Jude expected their audience to be familiar with the incident in question, and the resulting “incarceration” of the “angels who sinned,” set forth as an example. This is apparent because in both passages, the false teachers were being condemned to the same fate. Yet no such story is found in the Bible concerning sinning angels being incarcerated or punished.

I have also repeatedly stressed that the Hebrew and Greek words translated “angel” in the Bible simply mean “messenger,” that it can refer to either a heavenly messenger or a human one. For example, in Mal. 3:1 John the Baptist is the “messenger/angel” who would prepare the way for Christ. Yet Malachi also states that the Levitical priests were God’s “messengers/angels” to the people of Israel.

Malachi 2:7 (NASB) “For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.”

The fact is, there is indeed a story in the Old Testament which fits both Peter’s and Jude’s words perfectly. It is found in Numbers 16. A family of priests, sons of Korah along with other priests, rebelled against Moses, challenging his authority to lead Israel. They were not satisfied with their assigned rank, but wanted a higher one. The judgement God enacted upon them was this: 31 Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking all these words, that the ground split apart under them, 32 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with all their goods. 33 So they and all those with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly.” (Num. 16:31-33 NKJ).

When we do not impose the “fallen angels” myth upon either 2 Peter or Jude, but allow them to speak for themselves, it is easily apparent that both men had Numbers 16 in view when they wrote. Consequently, I have edited the footnotes for the Last Generation Version of these two passages to reflect this view. This should serve as a reminder for us all that we should never assume that all of the cobwebs of bad prior teaching have been expunged from our minds. We must always be open to considering new ideas. Below is the revised LGV of these two passages with footnotes.

2 Peter 2:1-9 (LGV) “Yet there also came false-prophets among the people, just as also there will be false-teachers among you, who will smuggle in destructive heresies, even disowning the One who purchased them,¹ bringing to themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow in their perverted ways through whom the Way² of Truth will be slandered. 3 And with greed, with crafted words, they will peddle you, unto whom the ancient judgment is not idle, and their destruction³ does not sleep. 4 For if God did not spare the sinning messengers,⁴ but having incarcerated them to caverns of gloom,⁵ having been reserved for judgment, 5 and [if God] did not spare the first world, but preserved Noah – the eighth, a proclaimer of justice, having brought the flood to the world of the ungodly, 6 and [if God] condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, incinerating them with a catastrophe, having made them a demonstration for those intending to be ungodly, 7 and [if God] rescued the just [man] Lot, being harassed under the licentious behavior of the wicked 8 (for that just one living among them, in watching and hearing from day to day, was tormenting his just soul with [their] lawless acts); 9 then the Master has observed how to rescue the godly ones out of trials, but to preserve the unjust ones for the day of judgment, being punished,…

Notice that Peter began this chapter indicating that just as there were “false-prophets among the people” (Israel) there would also be false teachers among the churches. Notice also that the first example “the sinning messengers” (the sons of Korah) were indeed “among the people” (Israel). In verse 10 Peter wrote of the false teachers: “They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,” which is exactly what the sons of Korah did against Moses. Also, “incarcerated them to caverns of gloom” is an apt description of what happened to them, being swallowed by the ground up alive. Now consider Jude’s account:

Jude 1:3-11 (LGV) 3 Beloved, using all diligence to write to you about the common deliverance, I found it necessary to write urging you to contend for the Faith¹ having once for all been delivered to the holy ones.² 4 For some men have crept in secretly, having been prescribed³ long ago for this condemnation, irreverent [men], perverting the grace of our God into incontinence, disavowing the only Lord⁴ and Master of us, Jesus Anointed. 5 Yet I intend to remind you – you once having observed this – that Jesus,⁵ having delivered the people out of the land of Egypt, afterwards destroyed the unbelieving ones.⁶ 6 And the messengers,⁷ those not having maintained their own rank, but having abandoned their own dominion,⁸ He⁹ has reserved in enduring confinement under doom¹⁰ for judgment of the great Day. 7 Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in like manner to these [men],¹¹ having prostituted and having gone after strange flesh, display a specimen of permanent fire,¹² experiencing justice,¹³ 8 likewise also these [men], although dreamers, indeed defile the flesh, and repudiate sovereignty, and denounce dignitaries. 9 Yet, Michael the arch-messenger, when disputing with the Slanderer about the body of Moses,¹⁴ dared not to bring an allegation of blasphemy, but said, “May the Master rebuke you!”¹⁵ 10 But these [men] indeed blaspheme what they have not seen. And whatever they do understand, as naturally illogical creatures, in these things they are being corrupted. 11 Woe to them because they have gone in the way of Cain; and they rushed to the straying of Balaam’s bribery; and they were destroyed in the altercation of Korah.¹⁶

Notice the order: First in verse 5 Jesus saved the people out of Egypt, then destroyed the disobedient. Verse 6 seems to expand on this by referring to the incident in Numbers 16. Jude then defines their sin as “not having maintained their own rank, but having abandoned their own dominion.” This is precisely what the sons of Korah did as described in Numbers 16. It was the presumptuousness of those priests in challenging Moses’ authority that is then compared to the false teachers in Jude’s day. They “repudiate sovereignty, and denounce dignitaries” (vs. 8). Again, as in Peter, the condemnation fits perfectly with the fate of those presumptuous priests: “He has reserved in enduring confinement under doom for judgment of the great Day.” Notice that in verse 11 Jude compared the contemporary false teachers’ doom to “the altercation of Korah.”

What do you think?

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Footnotes for 2 Peter 2:

1 This statement disproves either Calvinism’s “limited atonement” or “perseverance of the saints.”

2 Acts 9:2

3 1 Thess. 5:3; 2 Thess. 1:7-10

4 The Levitical priests were called God’s “messengers” to Israel (Mal. 2:7).

5 The Levites, sons of Korah, rebelled against Moses’ authority. God caused the earth to swallow them up along with their households. Compare Jude 1:6,11.

Footnotes for Jude 1:

1 With the martyrdom of James (AD 62), followed by Paul (AD 66) and Peter (AD 67), and then the complete destruction of Jerusalem, a great vacuum in leadership was left. Into this vacuum stepped the false teachers that Paul (Acts 20:28-31; 2 Tim. 3:1 – 4:5) and Peter (2 Peter 2:1-22) warned were going to corrupt the Faith, particularly the doctrine of the Anointed. Jude had been part of the Jerusalem assembly, but had fled along with the remainder of that assembly when the Roman armies surrounded the city (Luke 21:20-24). It was likely in response to this emergency and Jude’s plea that John settled in Ephesus and wrote all of his books, seeking to support what Paul had previously taught concerning the Anointed.

2 This statement implies that the entire body of apostolic preaching was considered fixed, referred to as “the Faith.”

3 Literally, “pre-written”

4 The Majority Text adds “God” but all of the early copies omit it. If “God” it is taken as genuinely what Jude wrote, and if Sharp’s rule is correct, then the clause, τὸν μόνον δεσπότην θεὸν καὶ κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν χριστὸν, must be translated “the only Lord God and Master of us – Jesus Anointed,” making Jesus “the only Lord God” thereby excluding the Father from being “Lord God.” Therefore, either the addition of “God” here in later manuscripts is a corruption, or else Sharp’s first Rule is invalid.

5 Jude likely had Judges 2:1-4 in mind, where the “Messenger of Yahweh” claimed to have delivered the people out of Egypt, thus identifying Yahweh’s Messenger as Jesus. The Majority Text has ὁ κύριος (the Master). But the latest scholarly editions of the Greek New Testament have “Jesus.” This reading is based primarily on two of the oldest (4^th cent.) uncial manuscripts, Alexandrinus & Vaticanus, but also many others. The very oldest surviving copy of Jude is the 2^nd cent. papyrus fragment, p72, which has “God Christ,” thus agreeing in sense that Jude was referring to the Son rather than to the Father. The 5th cent. Latin Vulgate also has “Iesus,” the result of translating even older extinct Greek copies into Latin and standardizing the Old Latin text. Yet despite the textual variants, even if ὁ κύριος (the Lord/Master) is what Jude wrote, he was referring to the Son and not the Father because in the previous verse he referred to Jesus as “the only Lord and Master [κύριος] of us,” showing his use of the word κύριος (Lord/Master) for the Son. This is also consistent throughout the epistle, where κύριος (Lord/Master) is found four more times in reference to Jesus. (vss. 4,14,17,21,25). 1 Cor. 10:4,9 also places “Christ” in the wilderness with Israel. The following English translations also have “Jesus” here: CSV, DRV, ESV, LSB, LEB, NET, NLT, NRSVue. The New English Translation (NET) has the following footnote for this reading: “The reading ᾽Ιησοῦς (Iesous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel. However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 1241 1739 1881 2344 pc vg co Or1739mg), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (theos, “God”) for ᾽Ιησοῦς (though p72 has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [theos Christos, “God Christ”] for ᾽Ιησοῦς). In addition to the evidence supplied in NA27 for this reading, note also 88 322 323 424c 665 915 2298 eth Cyr Hier Bede. As difficult as the reading ᾽Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. Jud 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate.”

6 1 Cor. 10:4,9

7 The Levitical priests were God’s “messengers” to the people (Mal. 2:7).

8 This is a reference to the Levites, sons of Korah, who rose up against Moses to challenge his authority (Num. 16). Note that the “altercation of Korah” is again mentioned in vs. 11.

9 “He” refers back to “Jesus” who first delivered the people out of Egypt, but afterwards destroyed the disobedient.

10 The earth opened and swallowed up the rebellious “messengers” (Num. 16:25-34).

11 Jude repeatedly uses the term “these” (vss. 7,8,12,16,19,) to refer back to the apostate teachers he was warning about mentioned in vs. 4. “These” does not refer to the fallen angels mentioned in the previous verse.

12 δεῖγμα πυρὸς αἰωνίου is translated in the KJV as “an example … of everlasting fire.” Yet, the Greek word δεῖγμα means a specimen (of the same thing) and not merely a representation. Thus, the fire that fell on Sodom and Gomorrah was indeed πυρὸς αἰωνίου. This shows that αἰωνίου which is rendered “eternal” in the KJV does not mean that the fire burns forever, but that the effects of the fire are permanent. Sodom and Gomorrah were completely obliterated so that absolutely nothing remained.

13 2 Pet. 2:6 makes it clear that the complete annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah is the pattern for what will befall the ungodly.

14 The “body of Moses” is not a reference to Moses’ corpse. The word “body” here is σῶμα (soma) and usually refers to a living body. (The word πτῶμα {ptoma} refers to a dead body). The “body of Moses” here is apparently in contrast to “the body of Christ,” that is those under the Law of Moses vs. those under the Law of Christ. Hebrews 3:1-6 similarly contrasts the “household of Moses” with the “household of the Anointed.”

15 Zech. 3:1-5 is the basis for this statement. Jude has identified the “messenger of the Lord” in that passage as Michael. The entire passage is an allegory. In the vision Joshua the high priest’s robes were filthy (representing the Law, the Levitical priesthood, and “the body of Moses”). The robes were filthy because the Mosaic Covenant could never take away sin (Heb. 10:1-4). These filthy priestly robes were then removed and replaced with clean robes (representing the New Covenant, the Melchizedek priesthood, and “the body of Christ”). It is also no coincidence that the high priest’s name was “Joshua” (Heb. “Yeshua,” Gk. Iesous), named after Moses’ successor, and that the Messiah was given the same name.

16 Vs. 6