Jude

1. SALUTATION (1–2)

The salutation is brief, identifying the author (1a) and then identifying the recipients as people who have been “called,” “loved,” and “kept” by God the Father and Jesus Christ (1b). There is no criticism of these “dear friends” (v. 3) stated anywhere in the letter.

2. LETTER BODY (3–23)

A. Opening: Reason for writing (3–4). While about to write in another vein, Jude has received information that means he must instead exhort the community he addresses to “contend for the faith” (3), which will be defined in verses 22–23 as holding fast to what they are committed to and rescuing those who are deceived (i.e., the others and any they have influenced). The reason this is necessary is that these others have entered the congregation and are presently functioning within the community (v. 12). Jude makes two related charges: they pervert grace into “sensuality” and they thereby deny “Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord” (4). In other words, living in disobedience to Jesus is a form of apostasy.

B. Main discussion: Denunciation of the intruding teachers (5–16). In the main section of the letter body, the author denounces the others, using groups-of-three illustrations originally from the OT but now read through the lens of Second Temple Jewish literature.

5–7. The first group is the people saved in the exodus (5), the angels of Gn 6:1–8 (6), and Sodom and Gomorrah (7). Two of the three were once saved or had a dwelling with God, while all three were finally destroyed. The Gn 6 story (read through the lens of 1 Enoch) and Sodom are put last because each refers to sexual relations across a forbidden boundary. The others in the community are apparently crossing some type of sexual boundary, doing things that were not approved of even in the culture surrounding the believing community (perhaps like the man in 1 Co 5:1).

8–10. These “dreamers” (possibly indicating the source of their revelation) not only cross such boundaries but they also “reject authority,” slandering the good angels, perhaps those who were thought to have brought the law (and thereby ethical rules) to Moses (8). Unlike the archangel Michael, who in the Testament of Moses argues respectfully with the devil over whether or not Moses deserved burial (the devil accused Moses of having been a murderer in Egypt) and who leaves judgment to God (9), these others, lacking the propriety of Michael, are like animals in that they do not understand what they slander (10). They are also like animals in that they follow their instincts, not realizing that these impulses will in the end destroy them.

11. This gives way to the second group of three: Cain, Balaam, and Korah. This woe oracle sounds like it was pulled out of OT prophecy. While the first and last of the group were rebels, all three were viewed in Jewish tradition as having taught evil. There is a crescendo in the descriptions: “gone the way of,” “plunged into . . . error,” “have perished in.” Only the spiritually suicidal would emulate them.

12–13. These others are a part of the local community of believers, for they participate in the Lord’s Supper, which in that period was a full meal, a “love feast” (12a). Yet they are a defilement of that meal. Furthermore, they are there for their own gain, not for worship or building up others. Thus they are like Balaam or like the shepherds of Ezk 34:2. Four images create a vivid warning about them: (1) waterless clouds and (2) fruitless autumn trees indicate they promise much but do not deliver (12b); (3) waves seem impressive, but these stir up “shame”; and (4) stars (believed by ancients to be angelic powers) that are wandering rather than in their proper courses (which parallels the clouds being “carried along”) are doomed (13). Such stars will be destroyed, as was the case with the angels of Gn 6:1–8.

Jude quotes not only from the OT but also from extrabiblical literature to drive home the case against false teachers. Furthermore, the way he refers to even the OT stories shows that he is influenced by how these stories were retold in Second Temple literature.

14–16. The message of destruction is underlined by the quotation from 1 Enoch 1:9 (14b–15). Here we find the only quotation of a “scripture” in the whole work, and it is the quotation of a “prophecy” that Jude attributes to Enoch (14a). Although we now know the quotation as part of 1 Enoch, for Jude it is simply an authoritative prophecy that he knows is appropriate for his topic, and he cites it as freely as he might have cited other prophets such as Isaiah or Jeremiah.

The point of the prophecy is straightforward: final judgment is coming. Those for whom this judgment is a danger include not just the “sinners” named in the prophecy (15) but also the others in the community, who are accused of grumbling (cf. Jms 5:9), being driven by their desires, and buttering up others (16).

C. Conclusion: Response of the believers (17–23). The final section of the letter counsels the readers what to do about this situation. It is here that Jude surprises the modern reader the most, for he does not instruct them to throw the others out.

17–19. First, the “dear friends” (17) are not to be surprised but rather to remember apostolic predictions (which were not passed down beyond that age, for they are not found elsewhere in the NT or church tradition) that this rejection of Jesus’s morality is precisely what would happen “in the end time” (18). Such people are members of the community of believers in which they cause divisions, but in fact they are totally of this age, living “according to their own ungodly desires” and “not having the Spirit” (19).

20–21. Second, in contrast to such people, the dear friends are to strengthen themselves in their holy commitment and to pray in the Spirit (which they clearly have and which the others, who do not have it, claim is leading them; 20), and especially they are to look expectantly toward the final judgment, when they will receive mercy from “our Lord Jesus Christ” (21). Thus they are to keep on being faithful as they have been doing.

22–23. Third, they are to rescue everyone they can from the false teaching, exercising mercy rather than judgment yet being careful that in the process they themselves are not sucked in. There is not a word about attacking and expelling the others who have come into the community; rather, the faithful are to live the truth themselves and rescue those trapped in desire.

“God our Savior” (Jd 25) is an unusual expression for God, although his saving acts are frequently celebrated throughout Scripture. The phrase also occurs in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tm 1:1; 2:3; Ti 1:3; 2:10; 3:4).

3. BENEDICTION (24–25)

The benediction is an elaborate blessing of God, who is first described as the one who can keep the readers stable and bring them successfully to his presence (24). This should relieve any fear that may have been engendered by this letter, including fear of being contaminated in the course of trying to rescue the others. Thus, he is “God our Savior” (25). This salvation is through Jesus Christ our Lord, for the believer (unlike the others) lives under the lordship of Jesus, and it is only in this way that he or she is related to “God our Savior.” Finally, the benediction culminates in ascribing eternal honor and authority to this God, as would be fitting in the court of such a king.