The Anselm Project Bible · The Crux Registry

Jude 5 — Jesus saved a people out of Egypt?

Jude 5 is read as Jesus in one reading and the Lord in another. The difference concerns who is named as saving a people from Egypt before the later destruction of unbelievers.

Ἰησοῦς
Iēsous — Jesus (delivered them from Egypt)
ὁ κύριος
ho kyrios — the Lord
The startling reading puts Jesus personally in the Exodus. Editors long ducked it; the newest critical text prints it.
IThe Reading

What the APB prints.

Now I want to remind you, though you once knew all things, that Jesus, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
Jude 1:5 (source numbering) · Anselm Project Bible
IIThe Witnesses

Every witness, on the record.

Nestle-Aland 28
NA28 · critical edition, 2012
ἸησοῦςJesus
NA28 adopted the harder reading, following weighty early witnesses. Nestle-Aland 28 (NA28; critical edition, 2012) prints Ἰησοῦς and describes it as the harder reading. SBLGNT apparatus (Faithlife, CC BY 4.0)
Westcott-Hort (1881)
WH · critical edition, 1881
κύριοςthe Lord
Westcott-Hort and Tregelles print “Lord”; the Byzantine text has “the Lord.” Westcott-Hort (1881) (WH; critical edition, 1881) prints κύριος; its row also notes that the Byzantine text has the Lord. SBLGNT apparatus (Faithlife, CC BY 4.0)
Codex Alexandrinus & Vaticanus
A B · manuscripts, 4th-5th century A.D.
Ἰησοῦς IēsousJesus
Both great codices, with the earliest papyrus of Jude (P72 reading “God Christ”), witness a christological subject here. Codex Alexandrinus & Vaticanus (A B; manuscripts, 4th-5th century A.D.) read Ἰησοῦς. NT Virtual Manuscript Room (INTF)
supports if “jesus”supports if “the lord”
IIIThe Blind Test

What a blind committee did here.

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. Whatever it did at this verse, it did on the language alone — and its record is public.

Committee recordaudit verdict: clean

The APB’s rendering of Jude 1:5 reads, “that Jesus, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.” In that translation, Jesus is the named subject of both the saving from Egypt and the afterward destruction.

IVThe Stakes

The case for each reading.

If “Jesus”

Reading A names Ἰησοῦς as the subject: Jesus saved a people out of Egypt and afterward destroyed those who did not believe. Nestle-Aland 28 (NA28; critical edition, 2012) prints this reading and characterizes it as the harder reading, following weighty early witnesses. Codex Alexandrinus & Vaticanus (A B; manuscripts, 4th-5th century A.D.) also support Ἰησοῦς. In the apparatus, the relevant line is “Ἰησοῦς NA28”.

The wording makes the reference especially direct: the person named in Jude 1:5 is Jesus. This is the basis for the claim that the verse personally places Jesus in the Exodus.

If “the Lord”

Reading B has ὁ κύριος, the Lord, as the subject of the saving from Egypt. Westcott-Hort (1881) (WH; critical edition, 1881) prints κύριος, and its witness note says that the Byzantine text has “the Lord.” The apparatus records both forms of this alternative: “κύριος WH Treg” and “ὁ κύριος NIV RP”.

This reading retains the Exodus reference while using the title the Lord rather than the name Jesus. The later clause remains part of the same verse: the one who saved a people is also said afterward to have destroyed those who did not believe.

The evidence supplied here preserves two subjects for the Exodus action: Ἰησοῦς and ὁ κύριος. The page does not settle between them. What changes is the name or title used in Jude 1:5; the verse still speaks of a people saved from Egypt and of later destruction for unbelief. No doctrinal conclusion is decided by this variant alone.

VThe Registry

More places where the manuscripts argue.

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. Nothing on this page declares a winner — the evidence is the point.

Weigh it yourself.

The registry doesn't tell you which reading is true. It puts every witness on one page, shows what a blind committee did with the same language, and leaves the verdict where it belongs — with the reader.