Animals (2226) (zoon from zao = to live, breathe - zoe = life) is a living creature, the exact phrase that reverberates through the unfolding of the book of the Revelation. Jude also uses zoon figuratively in reference to the ungodly who have crept in unnoticed and turn the grace of God into licentiousness (Jude 1:4) (See Animal) Some of the definitions of animal in the English dictionary present a good picture of these false teachers... a human being considered chiefly as physical or nonrational; a brutish person; of or relating to the physical needs or desires; carnal; sensual; a very cruel, violent, or uncivilized person. Vine writes that... The English “animal” is the equivalent, stressing the fact of life as the characteristic feature There are 23 uses of zoon in the NT -- Heb 13:11; 2Pe 2:12; Jude 1:10; Re 4:6 - see discussion of 4 Living Creatures in Revelation, Re 4:7, 8; 5:6, 8, 11, 14; 6:1, 3, 5, 6, 7; 7:11; 14:3; 15:7; 19:4) There are 14 uses of zoon in the Septuagint (LXX) -- Ge 1:21; Job 38:14; Ps. 68:10; 104:25; 145:16; Ezek 1:5, 13, 15, 19, 20, 22; 3:13; 10:15, 20; 47:9; Da 4:12; Hab 3:2 These false teachers act like instinct driven animals, guided not by true intelligence (they cannot even think rightly) but by their irrational cravings and passions. Rather than following reason and revelation, the false teachers are guided only by their ignorance and their instinctual sinful passions that come from their unredeemed totally depraved flesh. They are ultimate religious hypocrites who profess to have deep religious insights when in reality their natural sense and cravings guide them rather than spiritual truths (cp "form of godliness" 2Ti 3:5-note) . Like wild (and even domesticated) animals, these spiritual masqueraders react only to present circumstances, without giving thought to the consequences of their actions (cp the principle of sowing wickedness -- Ga 6:7, 8, Job 4:8, Pr 22:8, Jer 12:13, Ho 8:7, 10:13, 2Pe 2:12,19 Rev 22:11, cp Jn 8:34, Pr 5:22, Je 2:19). Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. —Samuel Smiles Matthew Henry - Men, under the power of sin, are so far from observing divine revelation that they do not exercise reason, nor act according to the direction thereof. They walk by sight, and not by faith, and judge of things according to their senses; as these represent things pleasant and agreeable, so they must be approved and esteemed. Brute-creatures follow the instinct of their sensitive appetite, and sinful man follows the inclination of his carnal mind; these refuse to employ the understanding and reason God has given them, and so are ignorant of what they might and ought to know. Strachan says of these false teachers that Their chief characteristic is that they are ‘alive,’ (Ed: But see Ep 2:1-note, Ep 2:2-note, Ep 2:3-note) and have no sense of the moral issues of life. Like animals, they exist to be taken and destroyed. Sin will take you further than you ever intended to stray. It will keep you longer than you ever intended to stay. And it will cost you more than you ever dreamed you would pay. BORN AS CREATURES OF INSTINCT TO BE CAPTURED AND KILLED REVILING WHERE THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE: gegennemena (RPPNPN) phusika eis alosin kai phthoran en ois agnoousin (3PPAI) blasphemountes (PAPMPN) : Born (1080) (gennao) is used chiefly of men begetting children and here is used figuratively to identify these false teachers as the product of nature alone and thus governed by their base appetites and passions. Gennao is perfect tense picturing their continuing state after birth as "mere animals" (Thayer). They were no better than animals. They lived and spoke from mere instinct (i.e., from sinful human nature).