Journal: Journal of Dispensational Theology
Volume: JODT 25:70 (Spring 2021)
Article: Did Angels "Ever" Cohabit?
Author: David E. Olander

JODT 25:70 (Spring 2021) p. 35

Did Angels Ever Cohabit?

David Olander

* David Olander, STM, Th.D., Ph.D., professor of biblical languages & theology, Tyndale Theological Seminary and Biblical Institute

There are various views concerning angelic cohabitation. The two main scriptures supporting these views are found in Genesis and Jude. This article is primarily concerned with Jude. For information on Genesis, please refer to the previous article, “Did Angels Cohabit,” Journal of Dispensational Theology 22 (Spring 2018): 43–63.

The Context Of Jude 1:5–7

Jude was encouraging and exhorting believers to contend earnestly for the faith. “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).

The believers were to contend earnestly1 for the faith2 because an ungodly element had surreptitiously wormed its way in and was changing His saving grace into complete decadence. “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:4). Jude was warning the believers about the apostates who had slipped into the fold relatively unnoticed.

JODT 25:70 (Spring 2021) p. 36

Jude 5–7 Is One Paragraph

Jude 1:5–7 in the Greek New Testament is one paragraph and in reality one unit of thought. Jude was warning of the current and continuing apostasy which believers were facing. He was also presenting God’s judgments on ungodly apostates.

There are three completely separate divine judgments on three separate apostate groups (1:5–7) yet they all go together. What they all have in common is God judged them all on the basis of their apostasy. Jude was warning the readers to contend for the faith as there was the danger/s of apostasy, primarily apostates who have ‘crept in unnoticed.’3 “Jude first warned his readers of the peril of apostasy by citing three examples from the past history of apostates who were destroyed (vv. ...