Introduction to

Jude

Author

The author is “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James” (v. 1). This James is almost certainly the man who became a prominent leader in the early church (Acts 15:13–21; 21:18; Gal 2:9) and wrote the NT letter of James. Since this James was also “the Lord’s brother” (Gal 1:19; see Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3), the Jude of v. 1 is “Judas,” the brother of Jesus mentioned in the Gospels (Matt 13:55; Mark 6:3). The witness of the early church confirms this conclusion, and arguments to the contrary are weak.

Date and Place

The letter cannot be dated after about AD 90, the latest we can realistically expect even a younger brother of Jesus to have lived. Jude and 2 Peter describe similar false teaching, suggesting that they were written at about the same time. We date 2 Peter to 63–65, so we should probably date Jude in the mid to late 60s. Nothing certain can be determined about the place of writing; we don’t know whether Jude stayed in Palestine all his life.

Addressees

Although people traditionally categorize the letter as a “general” one, Jude wrote to a definite church or group of churches. The readers were probably Jewish Christians, perhaps living in the midst of a Gentile culture.

Purpose

Jude writes because false teachers “have secretly slipped in among” his readers (v. 4). He condemns the false teachers for their wicked lifestyle: they are sexually immoral (vv. 4, 8), scornful of authority (vv. 8–10), and selfish (v. 12). They are “grumblers and faultfinders” who “follow their own evil desires” and “boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage” (v. 16).

Relation to 2 Peter

See Introduction to 2 Peter: Relation to Jude.

Key Issues

1. False teaching. Although people do not like to dwell on the negative, it is important to understand the following concerning false teachers: (a) they exist, (b) their teaching can be both attractive and dangerous, and (c) their condemnation is certain. Jude makes these points by associating the false teachers with sinners, rebels, and heretics in the OT and in Jewish tradition. We can expect people in every generation to defect from truth and morality. Today the church must guard vigilantly against the temptation to welcome heresy in the name of “tolerance.”

2. Canon. In addition to several possible allusions, Jude refers to two stories not taught in the Bible: the story of Michael’s dispute with the devil over Moses’ body in v. 9 (apparently from The Assumption of Moses, OT pseudepigrapha) and the prophecy of Enoch in vv. 14–15 (from 1 Enoch 1:9, a Jewish writing from the OT pseudepigrapha). Some wrongly conclude from this that the standard set of OT books (i.e., the OT “canon”) was not fixed in Jude’s day. Yet Jude cites neither of these books as “Scripture,” nor does he use traditional formulas to introduce them. He implies nothing about his view of the books in which the stories are found. He may cite them simply because they are well-known to his audience.

Outline

I. Greeting (1–2)

II. The Sin and Doom of Ungodly People (3–16)

III. A Call to Persevere (17–23)

IV. Doxology (24–25)