The Agape[1] (Feasts)
What exactly did Jude have in mind when he wrote, “These men are blemishes at your love feasts, eating with you without the slightest qualm – shepherds who feed only themselves” (NIV Jude 12)? In particular what did he mean by “love feasts”?
This blog series will attempt to examine these and related questions. However as some of the necessary backdrop to our discussion we should first make a rough survey of what we later find in the early christian writings, and in other relevant texts.
By way of introduction, a suggestion of this blog series will be that even thought there is a connection between Jude 12 and later christian writings, the connection is not as substantial as almost universally assumed and that far too much is read into the meaning of “en tais agapais”. There is quite an oddity to what Jude wrote and this oddity deserves considerable attention.
[1] The Greek “agape” has a long “e” but is commonly written as in this heading.
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