Introduction to Jude

Authorship: Jude

1. Traditional view
   1. Verse 1: “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.”
   2. Jude was one of the brothers of Jesus. In the Gospels he is referred to as Judas (= Jude) along with James, Joseph/Joses, and Simon (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3).
2. Pseudonymous view
   1. The Greek style is too good to have been written by a Jew from Galilee.
   2. The letter reflects a later perspective when the apostolic tradition has been well established and can be looked back on:
      1. Verse 3: “The faith once for all delivered to the saints.”
      2. Verse 17: “Remember the predictions of the apostles.”
3. But there are good arguments against this.
   1. The educated Greek style can be explained by use of a secretary.
   2. The notion of an established apostolic tradition is not late but emerged at the outset of the post-resurrection church (1 Cor 15:3; cp. “the faith,” Gal 1:23).
   3. The reference in v 3 to another letter he was planning to write on “our common salvation” but that he had to put on hold in order to write this more urgent, shorter letter. Is this too a fiction? But why would a pseudonymous letter create the fiction of another letter that was never written?
   4. Why adopt obscure “Jude” as a pseudonym?
   5. Why does the author fail to note that Jude was the “brother of our Lord”? That is what you would expect if this were a writer was falsely assuming a well-known name. Instead, he humbly calls himself “brother of James.”

Date of Jude

The date of this epistle is hard to establish, but two main windows:

1. If 2P borrowed from Jude, then 50s to early 60s.
2. If Jude borrowed from 2P, then mid-to-late 60s.

Parallels between 2 Peter and Jude

1. There seems to be a literary relationship between these two letters.
   1. Shared words and phrases not found elsewhere in NT:
      1. ἄλογα ζῷα (2P2:12, J10) = “irrational animals”
      2. ἐμπαῖκται (2P3:3, J18) = “scoffers”
      3. ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους (2P2:17, J13) = “the gloom of utter darkness”
      4. συνευωχέομαι (2P2:13, J12) = “feast together with”
      5. ὑπέρογκα (2P2:18, J16) = “loud boastful words”
   2. Same concepts, mostly in same order.
2. Possible explanations:
   1. Both relied on a common document—possible but speculative.
   2. Jude borrowed from Peter.
      1. Church fathers held this view, based on Peter being an apostle.
      2. It would make more sense for a non-apostle to borrow from an apostle than vice versa.
      3. Jude 17-18 seems to be a quotation of 2 Peter 3:3.
   3. Peter borrowed from Jude.
      1. 2 Peter is longer than Jude, so it looks like an expansion of Jude.
      2. If 2 Peter already existed, why would someone edit it down to make a shorter version (Jude)?

The false teachers of 2 Peter and Jude

1. They are professing Christians:
   1. 2P2:20: They escaped the corruption through a kind of knowledge of Christ.
   2. 2P2:1; J4: They creep in unnoticed among the people.
   3. J12: They eat with the church in its love feasts.
2. They are antinomians:
   1. J4: They pervert God’s grace into a license for sin.
   2. 2P2:1; J4: They deny (ἀρνέομαι) the Master who bought them.
3. But how so, if they are professing Christians?
   1. They profess Christ but they deny that Christ “bought” (ἀγοράζω) them and has authority over them as their Master and Lord (Granville Sharp Rule).
   2. Same word δεσπότης used of masters who have absolute authority over slaves (1 Tim 6:1; Titus 2:9; 1 Pet 2:18).
   3. Cp. Titus 1:16: “They profess to know God, but they deny (ἀρνέομαι) him by their actions.”
   4. 2P2:19: They promise their followers freedom from all moral restraints.
   5. 2P3:17: “The error of lawless men” (ἡ τῶν ἀθέσμων πλάνη).
4. Some specific manifestations of their antinomianism:
   1. 2P2:10; J8: They despise authority.
   2. 2P2:3, 14-15; J11: They are motivated by greed (πλεονεξία).
   3. 2P2:2, 10, 14; J7: They indulge in sexual immorality.
5. Eschatological skepticism (emphasized more in 2P than in J):
   1. J17-18; 2P3:2-4: Scoffers: “Where is the promise of his coming?”
   2. It is this that motivates their antinomianism: “Scoffers, following their ungodly passions” (J18).
   3. 2P2:18; J16: They are loud-mouthed boasters.
   4. J12: They have no fear of eschatological judgment: “without fear.”
6. God will surely punish them:
   1. 2P2:3; J4: Long ago they were destined for condemnation.
   2. 2P2:4-9, J5-7: God will punish them, just as he punished those who were rebellious before (the unbelieving Israelites, the fallen angels, the flood generation, the wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah).
   3. 2P2:17, J13: “For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.”
7. We should keep an eye out for them and be on guard against them.
   1. 2P3:17; J3, 20-21: Maintain your stability.
   2. J22-23: We should also try to rescue their followers.
   3. J24: God is able to keep us from stumbling.