Yudas 1:20-21

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹  1:21 maintain ²  yourselves in the love of God, while anticipating ³  the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that brings eternal life. ⁴ 

Yudas 1:24

Final Blessing

1:24 Now to the one who is able to keep you from falling, ⁵  and to cause you to stand, rejoicing, ⁶  without blemish ⁷  before his glorious presence, ⁸ 

[1:20]  ¹ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.

[1:21]  ² tn Or “keep.”

[1:21]  ³ tn Or “waiting for.”

[1:21]  ⁴ tn Grk “unto eternal life.”

[1:24]  ⁵ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “free from falling” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ⁶ tn Grk “with rejoicing.” The prepositional clause is placed after “his glorious presence” in Greek, but most likely goes with “cause you to stand.”

[1:24]  ⁷ tn The construction in Greek is a double accusative object-complement. “You” is the object and “without blemish” is the adjectival complement.

[1:24]  ⁸ tn Or “in the presence of his glory,” “before his glory.”