John Calvin Commentary Jude 1:8

"Yet in like manner these also in their dreamings defile the flesh, and set at nought dominion, and rail at dignities." — Jude 1:8 (ASV)

Likewise also these. This comparison is not to be pressed too strictly, as though he compared those whom he mentions in all things to Sodomites, or to the fallen angels, or to the unbelieving people. He only shows that they were vessels of wrath appointed to destruction, and that they could not escape the hand of God, but that He would at some time or another make them examples of His vengeance. For his design was to terrify the godly to whom he was writing, lest they should entangle themselves in their society.

But he begins here more clearly to describe these impostors. And he says first, that they polluted their flesh as it were by dreaming. By these words, he denotes their stupid effrontery, as though he had said that they abandoned themselves to all kinds of filth, which even the most wicked abhor, unless sleep had taken away their shame and consciousness. It is, then, a metaphorical way of speaking, by which he intimates that they were so dull and stupid as to give themselves up without any shame to every kind of baseness.

A contrast is to be noticed: when he says that they defiled or polluted the flesh, he means that they degraded what was less excellent, and yet they despised as disgraceful what is considered especially excellent among mankind.

It appears from the second clause that they were seditious men, who sought anarchy so that, being freed from the fear of the laws, they might sin more freely. But these two things are nearly always connected: those who abandon themselves to iniquity also wish to abolish all order.

Though, indeed, their chief object is to be free from every yoke, yet it appears from the words of Jude that they were accustomed to speak insolently and reproachfully of magistrates. They are like the fanatics of the present day, who not only grumble because they are restrained by the authority of magistrates, but furiously declaim against all government. They say that the power of the sword is profane and opposed to godliness; in short, they superciliously reject from the Church of God all kings and all magistrates.

Dignities or glories are orders or ranks eminent in power or honor.