Cain, Balaam, Korah, and Images of Empty Danger

Three names, not a nickname for whoever lost the argument

Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. Cain, Balaam, and Korah supply overlapping patterns: murderous rivalry, corrupt gain, and revolt against God's order. Jude does not copy every scene from Genesis and Numbers onto the infiltrators, and he does not hand those names to readers as labels for unpopular people.

These figures belong to Israel's own Scriptures and warn the church from inside that story. They are not a portrait of Jews, and they are not a license to slander ordinary opponents by rhetorical association.

They sit at the love feast and feed only themselves

These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots. Whether 'spots' or hidden reefs, the image is danger inside shared meals. They shepherd themselves. They look like rain and harvest and deliver neither. 'Twice dead' is vivid speech, not a technical chronology of conversion and apostasy.

Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. Shame, instability, and reserved judgment complete the portrait. Impressive access to the table is not fruit. Still, these images belong to the infiltrators Jude has already described. They do not belong on anyone who merely disagrees.