What does the Bible mean when it uses the phrase "brute beast"
English: Peresopnytsia Gospels. 1556-1561. Miniature of Saint Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.” ( Jude 1:10 ) Both Jude and Peter use essentially the same terms when they speak of people who are like “brute beasts” ( 2 Peter 2:12 ). Both use the qualifying adjective “natural” to draw a precise distinction between those who are only alive physically and those who have been given eternal life by the Spirit of God . Prior to being twice-born, all men are “by nature the children of wrath” ( Ephesians 2:3 ) and have not yet been given “the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” ( 2 Peter 1:4 ). Such “natural” people are “sensual, having not the Spirit” ( Jude 1:19 ) and therefore cannot receive “the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because