Chapter One - Introduction
The Book of Jude contains much of what 2 Peter has already covered, so why another book? That is exactly what Martin Luther asked as he thought Jude was nothing more than an extract from 2 Peter.[1] Perhaps the best way to answer that question is to review the last several epistles beginning with the Book of James.
In James we learned that we will encounter many trials and temptations and he warned about worldly influence and the harsh reality of false teachers living among us. James said that our greatest defense would be ‘doers’ of God’s Word and not just be ‘hearers’ only. In other words, don’t just play the role of a Christian, live it! Our lives must give ‘external’ evidence to our faith, much like breathing gives evidence that our bodies are still alive.
Peter is the author of the next two epistles, in his first epistle Peter addresses the need for all of us to lead a Christian life even if it means we will be persecuted. For as we stand and live for our faith (never compromising), Peter says people will notice and will, at some point, ask about the hope that we have. Therefore, we need to be prepared to give them an answer, we need to think about our testimony before someone asks. In Peter’s second epistle he calls us to grow in Christ and to stay true to the Word. He warns us that we need to stay away from false teachers and be prepared to be mocked as these false teachers will attempt to make fun of God’s Word and to those that follow Jesus. Peter encourages us to live in holiness while we wait for His return.
John is the next epistle writer and in his first epistle he tells us that we need to remain in fellowship with God by obeying the Word of God, especially in demonstrating God’s love to others. His love should shine through us as we are Jesus’ ambassadors here on earth. John also warned about false teachers and intentional deceivers whom he called antichrists (not to be confused with the classic “end times” personality, he instead is referring to those that either attempt to persuade people to listen to a different gospel or consider themselves a replacement for Christ). In 2 John he demonstrated how these false teachers could and would attempt to take advantage of Christians, using hospitality as the example. John encourages us to inquire and learn about someone’s faith prior to letting someone teach or influence our families. In 3 John we learned that we need to choose wisely who we allow to teach us as we cannot blame “bad theology” on anyone else than ourselves.
We can see that there are a number of reoccurring themes in these ‘last’ epistles. The first thing we should note is that each epistle writer calls all believers to action (each author seems to be motivated by the deterioration or potential corruption of their respective local churches), we can’t escape the fact that we need to live our faith. Being a Christian is a 24 hour a day job, not just a Sunday morning moment in time. The second issue is that there are false teachers in the world that are very active in attempting to counter God’s Word and if we do not know the truth of Scripture we can easily be victims ourselves. The only way to know something is wrong or how to be obedient to God is to know the Bible and ‘filter’ everything in life through that knowledge.
By now you’re probably thinking did that answer why we need another epistle? What is so special about this last letter of the Bible? The Book of Jude will indeed reiterate and repeat much of what the last several epistles have already covered. This should not be a surprise as we have learned from Genesis to Revelation man has a problem of remembering what is important, namely God and His Word and we need to hear things repeatedly! In 2 Peter 3:1 he said, “This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder,” (ESV) Note the phrase, “by way of reminder,” This is similar to what we find in Jude 5, “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.” (ESV) and Jude 17, “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (ESV) We must remember!
Even though we may have already heard most of the basic truths found in Jude already, we will see them presented in a different way. Jude will provide a wonderful connection to the Old Testament as well as refer to some non-Biblical sources. This little book may be small compared to some other epistles but it is certainly not short in solid food (read 1 Corinthians 3:1-4 and Hebrews 5:11-14)
The book should actually be named, “Judas,” (the text contains the Greek word, ‘Loudas’) and since it was a common name during the time the New Testament was being written and the fact that the most famous (or infamous) Judas (Iscariot) was known as a traitor to the faith and a villain to the Gospel story, it was decided many years ago to use the shorten name of ‘Jude’ in most English Bibles. In Hebrew the name is also very familiar, “Judah,” meaning ‘praised’. We also know that the name was so common during Jesus’ day that two out of the 12 disciples were named ‘Judas’.
Who was this Judas? Unfortunately, we are not given enough evidence in the text to be absolutely sure. Besides the name of the author the only two clues include that he was a servant (Greek word ‘doulos’, found in verse 1) and that he was the brother of James (also from verse 1). Unfortunately, that doesn’t give us enough information to narrow the list down since there are a number of people in the Bible identified as ‘James’ who had brothers named ‘Judas’. Essentially there are three possibilities. Our first candidate would the brother of James the Apostle (see Luke 6:16, even though the words for ‘son’ or ‘brother’ are not found in the Greek text, most modern translations use ‘son’ instead of ‘brother’ as seen in the KJV, see also Acts 1:13). The next candidate for being the author is he would the blood brother of James (the author of the Book of James) which would make him the half-brother of Jesus (most scholars believe that if he would make that claim in his epistle that would bring too much attention to the writer and not the content). We know that Jesus’ family did not accept the claims of Jesus until after His resurrection (see Matthew 13:57; Mark 3:21 and Luke 7:5). Plus, there is an important clue in verse 17 where the author seems to be going out of his way to not be identified as one of the apostles. The third candidate is essentially, none of the above, some scholars propose that Jude was just a believer that was the brother of some unknown person named James, but that that is unlikely since the identification he used probably would have been well known by his intended readers (otherwise why mention the name). Most scholars today believe that the author of this epistle was indeed the brother of Jesus. Regardless of who wrote the book, we see that early church leaders and early commentators as well as current-day modern scholars that this book is legitimate and accepted by most plus it is less challenged by critics than both of the epistles of Peter.
Most scholars place the date of this book’s writing between 55-80 AD. If the author is indeed the brother of Jesus, it probably was written before 62 AD (the year of James’ death) as the text seems to imply that James was still alive. We see that the letter contains a greeting (verses 1-2); reason for writing (verses 3-4); a warning regarding pending judgment on the ungodly (verses 5-19); a call for believers to faith, love and mercy (verses 20-23) and a closing doxology (verses 24-25).
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[1] Luther, M. (1999). Luther’s works, vol. 35: Word and Sacrament I. (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald, & H. T. Lehmann, Eds.) (Vol. 35, p. 397). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.