If you read Jude 5 in the ESV, you’ll read: “Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” That verse jumped out at me recently in my devotions. I had never seen that before and I was startled. To think that the Bible actually says Jesus saved Israel out of Egypt is a great case for a historical-redemptive reading of Scripture. Not that such a reading can’t be done, but Jude’s depiction of Jesus as the Deliverer is not only a picture of the Triune God, but also of an NT reading of the OT.

But last night, I shared this fact and someone read from the NIV which didn’t use the name Jesus, but used ‘Lord’ which seemed to contradict the ESV. In fact, every translation uses ‘Lord’ instead of ‘Jesus.’ On further research, it seems that the name ‘Jesus’ has manuscript support (A; B; 33; 81; 1241; 1739; 1881; 2344). When I was in seminary, there were a few factors that one used to lead to a choice in textual variants: 1) Reliability of manuscripts, 2) Difficult reading. It seems Iesous (Jesus) is the more difficult reading than Kurios (Lord) and both have strong manuscript support. Theological Musings has a great article on the subject.

Finally, because context is king, whether it is Lord or Jesus, the previous verse seems to lead the reader to think that it should still refer to Jesus since Jude writes in verse 4: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt…”

Wow, Jesus as Deliverer of Israel from Egypt. That would be enough to make an orthodox Jew pretty upset, but for the Christian, it is remarkable.