Jude 5: Jesus saved a people out of Egypt?
Jude 5 is transmitted with Jesus in one reading and the Lord in another as the one who saved a people out of Egypt. The difference concerns how the subject of the Exodus is named.
The APB text at this verse
The manuscripts, editions, and versions
The committee record at this verse
The APB's translation committee works blind: it is never told it is translating the Bible, never given a book name or a verse number, and it never sees the witnesses above. Since revision 3.5, the places where the manuscripts disagree are decided before translation by three readers, Grok 4.3, GPT-6 Astra, and Claude Fable 5.1, who see the readings and the witnesses by age and class but never a reference or a manuscript name. Whatever was done at this verse was done on the language and the evidence alone, and the record is public.
Jude 1:5: a reading other than the base text adopted.
“The base text reads ὑμᾶς ὅτι ὁ κύριος; the committee adopted ὑμᾶς πάντα, ὅτι on the evidence of the copies. The evidence is genuinely against the default: it is late and secondary on both the missing πάντα and the added ὁ κύριος. The real choice is between the early wordings with and without ὑμᾶς and with or without κύριος. The committee judged ὑμᾶς πάντα, ὅτι most likely, but the early copies are evenly divided on ὑμᾶς, so another reader should weigh whether the shorter πάντα, ὅτι is preferable.”
“The base text reads ὑμᾶς ἅπαξ. The copies also carry ἅπαξ ὑμᾶς [early greek manuscript tradition], ἅπαξ [early greek manuscript tradition], ὑμᾶς [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The evidence favors the default only modestly. Another reader would be warranted because the early support for ἅπαξ is comparatively strong.”
“The base text reads πάντα. The copies also carry τοῦτο [later majority tradition]; the committee kept the base text. The early and independent attestation of πάντα outweighs the later single tradition of τοῦτο, and the internal evidence favors the harder reading.”
“The base text reads Ἰησοῦς. The copies also carry κύριος [early greek manuscript tradition], ὁ κύριος [early greek manuscript tradition; later majority tradition], ὁ κύριος ἅπαξ [early greek manuscript tradition]; the committee kept the base text. Retain the default. External evidence does not decisively distinguish the early readings, while the tendency to smooth a difficult identification favors Ἰησοῦς.”
APB 3.5 adopted a reading other than the base text for part of Jude 1:5, producing its printed wording beginning, Now I wish to remind you, though you already know all this. For the subject of the Exodus, the committee kept Ἰησοῦς. Its decision records: “External evidence does not decisively distinguish the early readings, while the tendency to smooth a difficult identification favors Ἰησοῦς.” The three readers made this decision blind to manuscript names, book name, and reference.
The argument for each reading
If “Jesus”
Reading A is Ἰησοῦς, rendered Jesus. NA28 reads Ἰησοῦς, and Codex Alexandrinus & Vaticanus also support this form. The NA28 witness description says that it adopted the harder reading while following weighty early witnesses. The committee’s textual note likewise treats a difficult identification as relevant: it says that a tendency to smooth that identification favors Ἰησοῦς. With this reading, the printed wording of Jude 1:5 says that Jesus had once saved a people out of Egypt and subsequently destroyed those who did not believe. The evidence described in the packet still includes early alternatives, so the identification remains a textual question rather than a settled conclusion.
If “the Lord”
Reading B names the Lord, given in the stated reading as ὁ κύριος. Westcott-Hort reads κύριος, and its witness row reports that Tregelles prints Lord and that the Byzantine text has the Lord. The apparatus preserves several Lord forms: κύριος, ὁ κύριος, and ὁ κύριος ἅπαξ. This range shows that the Lord wording has a substantial place in the transmitted text, including forms described in the committee note as early Greek manuscript tradition. The committee note says that external evidence does not decisively distinguish the early readings, leaving room to weigh the Lord forms alongside Ἰησοῦς.
The packet leaves uncertainty because early readings are not decisively separated by the external evidence. This variant changes whether Jude 1:5 explicitly names Jesus or the Lord as the Exodus deliverer; it does not remove the verse’s account of saving a people and later destroying unbelievers. No doctrinal conclusion is settled by this single variation. Most doctrines rest on many passages, while this crux asks how this verse’s subject was transmitted.
Common questions
Does Jude 5 say Jesus or the Lord saved people from Egypt?
The packet records both: Ἰησοῦς, Jesus, in reading A, and ὁ κύριος, the Lord, in reading B. The apparatus also has the form κύριος.
Which critical edition prints Jesus in Jude 1:5?
NA28 reads Ἰησοῦς. Westcott-Hort reads κύριος, while the apparatus also records ὁ κύριος in NIV, RP, and NA27.
What did the blind committee print at Jude 1:5?
Its printed text says that after Jesus had once saved a people out of the land of Egypt, he subsequently destroyed those who did not believe.
Related entries
Witness readings for critical editions are quoted from the SBLGNT apparatus (CC BY 4.0); Hebrew text from the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible). Readings of ancient manuscripts and versions are cited as published scholarly fact with their sources linked above. The page does not declare which reading is original.
The registry gives no verdict
The registry does not say which reading is original. Each page lists the witnesses, shows what the committee did with the same text, and leaves the judgment to the reader.