Passage

Jude 6

"And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day." (Jude 6, NASB95)

Jude 6 is one of the few New Testament passages that names a specific historical sin by fallen angels and assigns them a specific present judicial state. The verse is part of Jude's triplet of paradigm judgments (the unbelieving wilderness generation in v. 5, the disobedient angels in v. 6, Sodom and Gomorrah in v. 7) used to warn his readers against the false teachers who have crept in among them. The verse is also one of two New Testament texts (with 2 Peter 2:4) that engage the Second Temple "Watchers" tradition reflected in 1 Enoch and that ground later Christian demonology.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"4. For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5. Now I desire to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not."

"6. And angels that kept not their own principality, but left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds under darkness unto the judgment of the great day."

"7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 8. Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities." (Jude 1:4-8, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"4. For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ. 5. Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe."

"6. Angels who didn’t keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day."

"7. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are shown as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 8. Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings." (Jude 1:4-8, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"4. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. 5. I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not."

"6. And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. ^{first estate: or, principality}"

"7. 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. ^{strange: Gr. other} 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities." (Jude 1:4-8, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"4. for there did come in unobserved certain men, long ago having been written beforehand to this judgment, impious, the grace of our God perverting to lasciviousness, and our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ, denying, 5. and to remind you I intend, you knowing once this, that the Lord, a people out of the land of Egypt having saved, again those who did not believe did destroy;"

"6. messengers also, those who did not keep their own principality, but did leave their proper dwelling, to a judgment of a great day, in bonds everlasting, under darkness He hath kept,"

"7. as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, in like manner to these, having given themselves to whoredom, and gone after other flesh, have been set before, an example, of fire age-during, justice suffering. 8. In like manner, nevertheless, those dreaming also the flesh indeed do defile, and lordship they put away, and dignities they speak evil of," (Jude 1:4-8, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jude, the brother of James and half-brother of Jesus.
Audience: an unnamed Christian congregation (probably Jewish-Christian) threatened by libertine false teachers who deny Christ's lordship.
Location: composition site unknown; the letter circulates among churches familiar with Jewish apocalyptic literature.
Time period: composed c. AD 65 to 80.

Theological reading

Jude is building a deliberately archetypal warning. He picks three historical episodes where God's people (or God's creatures) were saved or privileged and then judged for unbelief or rebellion: Israel in the wilderness (v. 5), the angels who left their domain (v. 6), and Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 7). Each is meant to read onto the present false teachers who, in vv. 8 to 16, are described as defiling the flesh, rejecting authority, and slandering glorious beings.

The specific angelic sin Jude has in mind is contested. The dominant patristic reading, going back through 2 Peter 2:4 and 1 Enoch, ties Jude 6 to Genesis 6:1 to 4: the "sons of God" took the daughters of men, abandoned their assigned heavenly arche (rule, principality, domain), and produced the Nephilim. Jude's diction supports this reading at two points. First, the angels "did not keep" (me teresantas) their own arche and "abandoned" their proper oiketerion (dwelling). The lexical pairing fits the Watchers mythology preserved in 1 Enoch 6 to 16, which Jude quotes directly later in the letter (v. 14 to 15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9). Second, Jude binds verse 6 to verse 7 by saying Sodom and Gomorrah, "in the same way as these" (ton homoion tropon toutois), pursued strange flesh. The natural antecedent of "these" is the angels of v. 6: angels crossing the species boundary downward is paralleled by humans seeking forbidden sexual unions.

The minority reading takes "did not keep their own domain" as the primordial pre-creation rebellion of Satan and his angels (Isa 14; Ezek 28; Rev 12), with no Genesis 6 link. This reading is awkward with Jude's diction (the "strange flesh" parallel) but avoids any canonical entanglement with 1 Enoch as a source of doctrine. Most modern conservative commentators land on the Genesis 6 / Watchers reading as the historically and lexically best fit, while still treating 1 Enoch as illustrative literature, not Scripture, on Jude's authority.

Either way, Jude makes a hard theological point: there exists a class of fallen angels presently held in "eternal bonds under darkness" who are not currently free to act in the world, awaiting the "judgment of the great day." Their case is not yet closed. This implies a distinction between bound angels (Jude 6, 2 Pet 2:4) and active demons (the New Testament exorcism narratives, Eph 6:12), and it sets a floor under the doctrine of final judgment: even fallen angels do not escape it.

Key words

G0746 - arche, "domain / principality / rule"; the angels' assigned sphere they abandoned.
G2920 - krisis, "judgment"; the great-day verdict awaiting them.
G5020 - tartaroo, the Greek verb "to cast into Tartarus" used in the parallel 2 Peter 2:4 for the same event.

Theological themes

Fallen angels. A clear NT teaching of a class of created spirits who rebelled and stand condemned.
Already-not-yet judgment. Their bonds are present; their sentencing is future.
Boundary crossing as cosmic sin. Leaving one's appointed arche parallels the false teachers' rejection of authority and the Sodomites' pursuit of strange flesh.
Use of Second Temple sources. Jude uses extracanonical material to illustrate canonical truth; he does not thereby canonize it.
Final accountability. Even angels face the great day; no creature is outside God's judgment.

Cross-references

2 Peter 2.4, the parallel passage that names Tartarus.
Genesis 6.1-4, the Sons of God / daughters of men episode that the Watchers tradition reads here.
Hebrews 2.14, on Christ's defeat of the devil through his death.
Revelation 20.10, the final judgment of Satan and his angels.

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.