The Epistle of Jude

The author identifies himself as "Jude, brother of James".  (v. 1).

Who are these people?

In the list of the apostles in Acts 1:13, there is a "Judas", but he is the "son of James.". From the list of Jesus' half-brothers, both James and Judas appears.  (Mark 6:3).  Based on this, we can infer that this means he is a half-brother of Jesus.

Interestingly, in the Epistle of James, the other half-brother of Jesus who writes in the New Testament does not identify himself as the half-brother of Jesus.  (contrast James 1:1)  Both James and Jude downplay that they were all raised together as brothers with Jesus.

I draw out two main principles from this very short book.

First, Jude is concerned about false teachers intermingling among the flock.  Specifically, these false teachers are (1) denying that Jesus is the one and only Sovereign Lord and (2) state that grace is a license for immorality.

Second, these people will be punished.

The Epistle of Jude contains some random and unexpected anecdotes.

First, in verses 14-15, it cites a non-canonical book, the Book of Enoch.  Why?  Who knows, it is strange.  Jesus cited a non-canonical book as well, the Wisdom of Solomon.

It also states that the archangel Michael disputed with the devil about what to do with Moses' body.  In Deuteronomy 34:6, it states that God buried Moses at a place where no Israelites knew.  Here in Jude, we find that the devil had other ideas.  Considering that the Israelites ended up worshiping the bronze snake that Moses had them make, they probably would have worshipped Moses' body.

Lastly, Jude says that we should be merciful to those who doubt.  (v.  22).   So, what is the difference between a person who doubts and a "false teacher"?  On one level, the difference is active teaching versus passive disagreeing.  But really, I don't think there really is an effective difference.  Either way, we should be merciful to them.


My prior text of August 2, 2011
Hey Jude

My reaction to the book of Jude:

The book seems to come of nowhere. I don't think Jude wrote any other books, plus this is one of the shortest at only 1 chapter. Yet, it is short and intense, dealing with eschatology and the ultimate victory of God over evil. It almost seems likes its primary focus is provide a prelude and segue from the rest of the Epistles to Revelations.