And the angels who kept not their principality but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains, unto the judgment of the great day.
αγγελους τε τους μη τηρησαντας την εαυτων αρχην αλλα απολιποντας το ιδιον οικητηριον εις κρισιν μεγαλης ημερας δεσμοις αιδιοις υπο ζοφον τετηρηκεν
13 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Those who received the honor of the angelic dignity, but through negligence did not remain in their original state, rejected the heavenly way of life given them by goodness. God has hidden them in punishment for the judgment, that is, for the condemnation of the great day. This is what the word “keeps” means. Therefore the Lord also says: “Depart into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Mt 25:41).
Question 11. What is the “beginning” of the angels who did not keep it, and what is the dwelling which they left? What are the “eternal bonds,” and what is the “darkness” under which they are kept? What will they suffer at the judgment of the great day?
The exact understanding of this will be preserved only by those equal to the Apostles in understanding. They have been taught directly by the Word of God the unerring knowledge of beings and the comprehension of the good and righteous path of wise Providence concerning beings.
They have in their mind no intervening wall that hinders them from the Word.
As for me, lowly and having many obstacles to the coming of the Word to me, I think the “beginning” of the Angels who did not keep it is the logos according to which they were created.
Or it is the natural authority for deification given to them by grace. Or it is the rank of their standing according to the dignity of grace.
Their “dwelling” is either heaven, or wisdom attained according to the natural property of providential goods, for dwelling in which they were created. For Scripture sometimes also calls wisdom a house (Prov 9:1).
Or their dwelling is the care, ἐπισχοπὴ, of the most pure Godhead, guarding the natural and acquired goods granted to them. When they rebelled, they lost this care.
The “eternal bonds” are their complete and constant immobility with regard to the good, effected voluntarily, κατὰ γνώμην. Because of this they in no way and never enjoy divine rest.
Or the bonds are the providential power of God, restraining their frenzy against us for the sake of our salvation, and not permitting their malice to lay snares for us.
The “darkness” is the complete and entire ignorance of divine grace. Having been thoroughly permeated with it by their own choice, γνωμικῶς ποιωθέντες, they were deprived of the blessed and all-luminous gift of pure light.
They squandered the noetic power granted to them by nature upon non-being.
What they will suffer on the fearful day of judgment is known only to the righteous Judge (2 Tim 4:8). He assigns to each the righteous recompense according to worth.
He determines the form of condemnation proportionate to evil and righteously pronounces the fitting sentence for endless ages by His good commands.
In the Russian translation ἀρχή is rendered “dignity.” In the Church Slavonic translation this word is rendered “principality.” But St. Maximus, judging from the following context, takes the original and direct meaning of the concept: “beginning.”
According to St. Maximus, the Angels, like all the rest of created being, possess a “logos,” that is, an inner meaning, idea, or principle of their existence.
Ἐπισχοπὴ is rendered by Eriugena as “protection,” protectio.
Κατὰ γνώμην is rendered by Eriugena as “intentionally, consciously,” per sententiam.
Γνωμικῶς ποιωθέντες literally means that the Angels were “qualitatively determined” by ignorance.
How can the demons, created by God, be evil? For the Good brings into being and lies at the foundation of good. Though, someone will say, they are called evil, this is not because they exist. They come from the Good and received a good essence. Rather, they are called evil insofar as they do not exist, having proved unable, as the Scriptures say, to keep their own dignity.
Indeed, Jude calls “chains” the loss of the honor in which the angels formerly dwelt, and the desire for insecure things, which captivated them and deprived them of the desire to turn back.
Who can comprehend God’s love for mankind, or who, by reasoning, can come to the truth? For the sake of truth He did not spare the angels who sinned. Yet for the sake of His love for mankind, He allowed publicans and harlots to enter His Kingdom.
They are being kept for falling into that last fire and into the eternal chains of darkness. And “He keeps” refers to the future, as Peter also wrote in 2 Pet 3:7-10.
In these words of the Apostle Jude, the Holy Spirit Himself informs those who hear about the judgment by which the prince of this world has been condemned.
“The angels who did not keep their own principality, but left their own dwelling.” As a dangerous example of rejection of God’s authority, the Apostle points to the evil angels.
They did not keep their principality, their subordination to authority, ἀρχή, or they did not retain the authority given them over others. They did not preserve their dignity, as it is rendered in the Russian translation.
In either case their pride is evident, as is their resistance to the will of God.
The departure of these angels from their own dwelling may be considered voluntary, and then it intensifies their sin. Or it may be involuntary, and then it was punishment for sin.
Their being kept in eternal bonds under darkness is the state opposite to that in which the evil angels were before the fall. It is a state alien to light, joy, and freedom.
“Who did not keep their own dignity,” more precisely, “their principality,” in Slavonic. This means their original high, ruling place in the world, in comparison with other creations of God.
They were those “who, having received the honor of angelic dignity, did not remain in their original state because of negligence. They rejected the heavenly way of life given them by goodness” (Theophylact).
“Having left their own dwelling”: this means heaven, the higher realm of the world illumined by spiritual light. From it the fallen angels fell away. Since the fall they abide in Tartarus under darkness; see the note on 2 Pet 2:4.
“Of the great day”: that is, of the last day of judgment. It is great both because of the deeds that will be accomplished in it and because of its duration, for it will be the day of eternity (cf. 2 Pet 3:10 and note, and parallels).
“And the angels who did not keep their own dignity,” in what precisely the fall of the evil angels consisted the Lord left as a mystery.
By analogy with our fall, one may only suppose that some commandment was given to them also, against which they resisted.
“but left their own dwelling,” that is, were deprived of it, or were cast out, like our first parents from the Paradise of delight.
“He keeps in eternal bonds, under darkness.” These are metaphors expressing the grievous moral state of the fallen spirits. The bonds are the restraint of the evil will that strains toward the destruction of mankind. The darkness is alienation from God.
He keeps them “for the judgment of the great day” (Jude 6). This last expression must be understood literally. It directly indicates the eternal destruction of the demons.
There was and is no possibility of salvation for them, because their falling away from God was and remains conscious and irrevocable. It is not like ours, which occurs through weakness, enticement, and with repentance.
The examples are not given in historical order, but in the order that comes closer to Christians. Then the other two examples are presented.
They strikingly prove how the Lord punished even the higher spirits for contempt of their station, and how whole cities and regions were destroyed for sins against nature.
The same fate is threatened to all who corrupt their body by sinful life and who, in proud madness, deny every authority in general and every order of rank in particular.
This denial begins with the authority of the Lord and of the Angels, and ends with human authority in the pastors and teachers of the Church. Diotrephes, for example, slandered them (cf. 2 Pet 2:4; 3 Jn 1:9-10).
The Apostle calls the day of the universal judgment “great” in verse 6 because of the greatness of the events of that day. He also does so because endless eternity will begin with that day (cf. 2 Pet 2:9).
Was the fallen angel free? Certainly.
In Scripture, wherever angels are spoken of, they are spoken of in such a way that one cannot fail to see that the speaker recognizes them as free.
It is also said that God did not spare the angels who sinned. If He did not spare them, He recognized them as sinning voluntarily.
They are also called disobedient. Therefore they had the freedom to obey.
The angels who kept their rank are also free to fall. Yet they will not wish to do this because of the abundance of goods they have tasted from obedience to the will of God.
The fallen ones are called those who did not keep their rank and did not obey. Therefore a definite will of God and a definite direction of deeds had clearly been declared to them, just as to Adam in Paradise.
What it was is nowhere evident.
In the angels who fell away from God, another example of God’s punishment is indicated. The Lord “keeps them for the judgment of the great day in eternal bonds under darkness.”
This means that they are in the condition of criminals shut in prison and bound in chains. Since angels are bodiless spirits, this expression of course cannot be understood literally.
Imprisonment in a place of darkness means that the fallen spirits are deprived of the joy of communion with the Lord. They are deprived of the vision of His face, which is the source of spiritual gladness, according to what is said: “You will gladden him with joy before Your face” (Ps 20:7).
The eternal bonds laid upon the fallen spirits mean that they are deprived of freedom of action. It is true that, by God’s permission, they still fill the air and have the ability to catch people in their snares.
But even prisoners are not deprived of every freedom. Sometimes they are let out into the street and other places for exercise and work, yet their fetters are not removed.
The fate of the evil spirits is the heavier because their position before the fall was higher. Principality belonged to them.
As beings near to God, they took part in the governance of the world, and they “did not keep” this principality.
They were, as it were, members of the household of the heavenly Father, living in His bright mansions. But they left their dwelling, despising it through pride.
They wished to become equal to God in power and authority, and for this they were justly punished.
They are tormented even now. But the final judgment upon them will be accomplished on the great day (Mt 25:41), that is, on the day of the Second Coming of Christ.
Then they will be condemned to burn in the eternal fire prepared for them from eternity. They will feel sufferings as tormenting as those endured by those cast into fire.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 22 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS