What Does Jude 1:3 Mean?
Beloved, when I made all haste to write to you of our shared deliverance, I was bound to write to you, urging you to wrestle for the trust once handed over to the set-apart ones.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.THE KEY
The trust worth contending for is shared, already handed into the whole community’s care.
THE MEANING
You are inside a deliverance held in common, and the trust you lean your full weight on reaches you as something handed to the set-apart community. What is received remains exposed to conflict; this passage names strenuous contention as part of its shared life.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the assumption that trust is purely private: here it is common, handed to a community, and actively contested.
THE ROOT
κοινῆς
koinēs
GROWS FROM
κοινός
koinos
common, shared
The deliverance is shared across the community, not held as a private possession. The same word family gives κοινωνία (koinōnia), sharing in common: what is common is something people participate in together.
ALSO GROWS
koinōnia: sharing in common, participation
κοινωνία
It shows the communal dimension of Jude’s “common” deliverance.
koinōneō: to share, participate
κοινωνέω
It makes the shared quality active: people have a part in what is held in common.
παραδοθείσῃ
paradotheisē
GROWS FROM
δίδωμι
didōmi
to give, hand over
“handed over” in this verse is paradotheisē. The trust has reached the set-apart community through a completed handoff. Its shared life has a chain: what is received can be handed onward.
ALSO GROWS
paradidōmi: to hand over, deliver
παραδίδωμι
This is the word family behind Jude’s description of the trust being handed to the saints.
paradosis: something handed down, tradition
παράδοσις
It carries the same image of a teaching passed from one recipient to another.
ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι
epagōnizesthai
GROWS FROM
ἀγών
agōn
contest, struggle
“wrestle” in this verse is epagōnizesthai. The call to contend carries the force of entering a contest, not merely holding an opinion. The shared trust is received, yet its place in the community remains contested.
ALSO GROWS
agōnizomai: to strive, contend
ἀγωνίζομαι
It is the verb form that gives Jude’s appeal its sense of strenuous effort.
agōnistēs: competitor, contestant
ἀγωνιστής
It makes the contest image concrete: contending means entering the struggle.
THE PATTERN
A shared trust reaches the present through a chain of receiving and handing on.
And you shall sharpen them to your children, and speak of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk along the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.For I handed down to you first of all what I also took from another's hand, that the Anointed One died for our shortcomings according to the writings.And these things you heard from me among many witnesses, place beside steady people who will be able to teach others also.THE THREAD
For I handed down to you first of all what I also took from another's hand, that the Anointed One died for our shortcomings according to the writings.The Greek word translated “delivered” in both verses comes from the same word family meaning to hand over. Jude names the trust as handed to the set-apart community; Paul makes the handoff visible: he receives it, then passes it on.
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