What Does Jude 1:7 Mean?
Just as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in like manner, poured themselves out in fornication and went away after other flesh, lie before you as a display, bearing the penalty of the fire of the age.
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
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.THE KEY
Jude sets these cities before you as a displayed example of judgment, and names its fire with the language of the age or ages.
THE MEANING
The verse places these cities before you as an example: their pursuit of what Jude calls “other flesh” and the judgment named with it remain a warning in the present. The Greek word rendered “eternal” also carries the language of the age or ages, holding enduring consequence and age-language together.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a severe example is safely remote: Jude sets it before the reader as a warning now.
THE ROOT
ἑτέρας
heteras
GROWS FROM
ἑτερ-
heter-
other, different; another of a different kind
“other flesh” in this verse is heteras. The Greek word names what is different or other, while “strange” can suggest something merely bizarre or unfamiliar. The phrase marks the flesh as other, leaving its precise boundary to the verse’s context.
ALSO GROWS
heteros: another; different
ἕτερος
This basic form shows the sense carried by “strange” here: other or different.
heterodidaskaleō: teach a different doctrine
ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω
This compound uses the same “different” word-family, showing how the root marks a departure or difference in kind.
αἰωνίου
aiōniou
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
age, an extended span or order of time
“fire of the age” in this verse is aiōniou. The English “eternal” carries the idea of enduring duration; the Greek also carries the language of the age or ages. Here that wording gives the fire an age-related weight without reducing the verse’s severity.
ALSO GROWS
aiōn: age; an extended span or order of time
αἰών
This noun is the seed of the adjective used for the fire, making the word’s age-language visible.
aiōnios: age-related; pertaining to an age or ages, often rendered eternal or everlasting
αἰώνιος
This is the adjective in the verse, connecting the fire directly to the language of the ages.
δεῖγμα
deigma
GROWS FROM
δεικ-
deik-
show, point out
“lie before you as a display” in this verse is deigma. An example is something shown. Jude’s word belongs to the family of showing and pointing out, so the cities are presented as a visible case before the reader, not merely named as an idea.
ALSO GROWS
deiknymi: show; point out
δείκνυμι
This verb gives the root’s basic action and clarifies why an example is something displayed.
deigmatizō: expose publicly; make an example
δειγματίζω
This related word carries the sense of public display, sharpening the force of the cities being set forth as an example.
THE PATTERN
A displayed outcome turns a named community’s fate into a warning for the reader now.
Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have been as Sodom, and we would have been like Gomorrah.Now all these things happened to them as imprints, and they were written to set our minds, for the ends of the ages have come upon us.THE THREAD
And these go away into the punishment of the ages, but the aligned into the life of the ages.Jude’s αἰωνίου (aiōniou) and Matthew’s αἰώνιον (aiōnion) are forms of αἰώνιος (aiōnios), the same age-related word. Matthew places it beside both punishment and life, revealing the shared time-language across the two outcomes.
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