Epistle Of Jude

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible

Jude, Epistle Of This short epistle is an earnest warning and appeal, couched in vivid and picturesque language, addressed to a church or a circle of churches which have become suddenly exposed to a mischievous attack of false teaching.

1. Contents

(1) Text . For its length Jude offers an unusual number of textual problems, the two most important of which are in   Judges 1:5 and   Judges 1:22-23 . Though the RV [Note: Revised Version.] is probably right in translating ‘Lord’ in   Judges 1:5 , many ancient authorities read ‘Jesus.’ Also, the position of ‘once’ is doubtful, some placing it in the following clause. In   Judges 1:22-23 editors differ as to whether there are two clauses or three. The RV [Note: Revised Version.] , following the Sinaitic, has three; and Weymouth also, who, however, follows A in his ‘resultant’ text based on a consensus of editorial opinion. But there is much in favour of a two-claused sentence beginning with either ‘have mercy’ or ‘refute.’

(2) Outline

(i.) Salutation,  Judges 1:1-2 . The letter opens moat appropriately with the prayer that mercy, peace, and love may increase among the readers, who are guarded by the love of God unto the day when Jesus Christ will appear.

(ii.) Occasion of the Epistle,  Judges 1:3-4 . With affectionate greeting Jude informs his readers that he was engaged upon an epistle setting forth the salvation held by all Christians Jews and Gentiles when he was surprised by news which showed him that their primary need was warning and exhortation; for the one gospel which has been entrusted to the keeping of the ‘saints’ had been endangered in their case by a surreptitious invasion of false teachers, who turned the gospel of grace into a plea for lust, thereby practically denying the lordship of Jesus Christ. It had long been foretold that the Church would be faced by this crisis through these persons. (This was a common expectation in the Apostolic age; see   2 Thessalonians 2:3 ,   1 Timothy 4:1 ,   2 Timothy 3:1 f.,   2 Timothy 4:3 ,   2 Peter 3:3 ,   Matthew 24:11-12 .)

(iii.) Warnings from history,  Matthew 24:5-7 . Versed as they are in Scripture, they should take warning from the judgments of God under the Old Covenant. His people were destroyed for a postasy, though they had lately been saved from Egypt. Even angels were visited with eternal punishment for breaking bounds, and for fornication like that for which afterwards the cities of the plain perished. These are all awful examples of the doom that awaits those guilty of apostasy and sensuality.

(iv.) Description of the invaders,  Matthew 24:8-16 . Boasting of their own knowledge through visions, these false teachers abandon themselves to sensuality, deny retribution, and scoff at the power of a spiritual world. Yet even Michael the archangel, when contending with Satan for the body of Moses, did not venture to dispute his function as Accuser, but left him and his blasphemies to a higher tribunal. But these persons, professing a knowledge of the spiritual realm of which they are really ignorant, have no other knowledge than that of sensual passion like the beasts, and are on their way to ruin. Sceptical like Cain, greedy inciters to lust like Balaam, rebellious like Korah, they are plunging into destruction. Would-be shepherds, they sacrilegiously pollute the love-feasts; delusive prophets, hopelessly dead in sin, shameless in their apostasy, theirs is the doom foretold by Enoch on the godless. They murmur against their fate, which they have brought upon themselves by lewdness, and they bluster, though on occasion they cringe for their own advantage.

(v.) The conduct of the Christian in this crisis,  Matthew 24:17-23 . The Church need not be surprised by this attack, since it was foretold by the Apostles as a sign of the end, but should resist the disintegrating influence of these essentially unspiritual persons. The unity of the Church is to be preserved by mutual edification in Divine truth, by prayer through the indwelling Spirit, by keeping within the range of Divine love, and by watching for the day when Christ will come in mercy as Judge. Waverers must be mercifully dealt with; even the sensual are not past hope, though the work of rescue is very dangerous.

(vi.) Doxology,  Matthew 24:24-25 . God alone, who can guard the waverer from stumbling, and can remove the stains of sin and perfect our salvation through Jesus Christ, is worthy of all glory.

2. Situation of the readers . The recipients of Jude may have belonged to one church or to a circle of churches in one district. They were evidently Gentiles, and of come standing (  Matthew 24:3;   Matthew 24:5 ). The Epistle affords very little evidence for the locality of the readers, but Syria or the Hellenistic cities of Palestine seem to suit the conditions. Syria would be a likely field for a distortion of the Pauline gospel of grace (  Matthew 24:4 ). Also, if Jude was the brother of James of Jerusalem, whose influences extended throughout Palestine and probably Syria (  Galatians 2:9;   Galatians 2:12 ), the address in   Galatians 2:1 is explained. Syria was a breeding-ground for those tendencies which developed into the Gnostic systems of the 2nd century. Even as early as 1 Cor. ideas similar to these were troubling the Church ( 1Co 5:10;   1 Corinthians 11:17 ff.), and when the Apocalypse was written the churches of Asia were distressed by the Nicolaitans and those who, like Balaam, led the Israelites into idolatrous fornication (  Revelation 2:2;   Revelation 2:6;   Revelation 2:14-15 ). In 3 Jn. there is further evidence of insubordination to Apostolic authority. New esoteric doctrine, fornication, and the assumption of prophetic power within the Church for the sake of personal aggrandizement, are features common to all. Jude differs in not mentioning idolatry. Possibly magic played no inconsiderable part in the practice of these libertines. We know that it met the gospel early in its progress (  Acts 8:9-24;   Acts 13:6-12;   Acts 19:18-19 ). There is, however, no trace in Jude of a highly elaborated speculative system like those of the 2nd cent. Gnosticism. These persons deny the gospel by their lives, a practical rather than an intellectual revolt against the truth. The inference from   Acts 19:5-7 is that these errorists would not refuse to acknowledge the OT as a source of instruction; being in this also unlike Gnostics of the 2nd century. The phenomenon, as it is found in Jude, is quite explicable in the last quarter of the 1st century.

3. Authorship . The author of this Epistle is very susceptible to literary influence, especially that of Paul. Compare   Judges 1:1 with 1Th 1:4 ,   2 Thessalonians 2:13;   Judges 1:10;   Judges 1:19 with   1 Corinthians 2:14;   Judges 1:20-21 with   Romans 5:5;   Romans 8:26 ,   Colossians 2:7;   Judges 1:24-25 with   Romans 16:25-27 ,   Colossians 1:22; and with the Pastoral Epistles frequently, e.g. ,   1 Timothy 1:3; 1Ti 1:17;   1 Timothy 5:24; 1Ti 6:5 ,   2 Timothy 3:6; 2Ti 3:8;   2 Timothy 3:13;   2 Timothy 4:3 f. His relation to 2Peter is so close that one probably borrowed from the other, though there is great diversity of opinion as to which. See Peter [Second Ep. of], 4. ( e ). Bigg suggests ‘that the errors denounced in both Epistles took their origin from Corinth, that the disorder was spreading, that St. Peter took alarm and wrote his Second Epistle, sending a copy to St. Jude with a warning of the urgency of the danger, and that St. Jude at once Issued a similar letter to the churches in which he was personally interested.’ Jude is also unique in the NT in his use of apocryphal writings the Assumption of Moses in   2 Timothy 4:9 , and the Book of Enoch in v. 6, 14, 15 almost in the same way as Scripture.

The Jude who writes cannot be the Apostle Judas ( Luke 6:16 ,   Acts 1:13 ), nor does he ever assume Apostolic authority. James (  Acts 1:1 ) must be the head of the Jerusalem Church, and the brother of our Lord. Jude probably called himself ‘servant’ and not ‘brother’ of Jesus Christ (  Matthew 13:55 ,   Mark 6:3 ), because he felt that his unbelief in Jesus in the days of His flesh did not make that term a title of honour, and he may have come to understand the truth that faith, not blood, constitutes true kinship with Christ. The difficulty of accounting for the choice of such a pseudonym, and the absence from the letter of any substantial improbability against the traditional view, make it reasonable to hold that Jude the brother of our Lord was the author. He may have written it between a.d. 75 and 80, probably before 81, for Hegesippus (170) states that Jude’s grandsons were small farmers in Palestine, and were brought before Domitian (81 96) and contemptuously dismissed.

4. External testimony . In the age of the Apostolic Fathers the only witness to Jude is the Didache , and that is so faint as to count for little. By the beginning of the 3rd cent. it was well known in the west, being included in the Muratorian Fragment ( c [Note: circa, about.] . 200), commented upon by Clement of Alexandria, and accepted by Origen and by Tertullian. Ensebius places it among the ‘disputed’ books, saying that it had little early recognition. It is absent from the Peshitta version. The quotations from apocryphal writings hindered its acceptance, but the early silence, on the assumption of its genuineness, is to be accounted for chiefly by its brevity and its comparative unimportance.

R. A. Falconer.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

Written by Jude the brother of James, and apparently the same person as the apostle JUDAS, q.v. The Epistle is addressed to "the called ones, beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ." Apostasy had set in, and the saints are exhorted to contend for the faith divinely delivered. Ungodly ones had crept in, who abused the grace of God, and denied their only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.

Three instances are produced to show how apostasy had been punished:

1. Some of those saved out of Egypt were yet destroyed.

2 . Fallen angels are kept in eternal chains for judgement.

3. Sodom and Gomorrha, which lie under the abiding effect of the judgement on them. Then the railers are put to shame by the conduct of Michael the archangel, who when rightly contending with Satan about the body of Moses did not rail against him, but said, "The Lord rebuke thee."

Three stages of departure from the way of truth are mentioned, with a woe upon those who are found in them:

1. The way of Cain — man's nature and will, and hatred of God's people: cf.   1 John 3:12 .

2. The error of Balaam for reward — ecclesiastical corruption: cf. Rev . 2:14.

3. The gainsaying of Core — opposition to the royalty and priesthood of Christ: cf.  Numbers 16 : Such were doubly dead, by nature and apostasy, and are reserved for eternal darkness.

Enoch prophesied of the judgement on the ungodly when the Lord comes with His holy myriads. See ENOCH. The saints had been warned against some who separated themselves, as being superior to others, whereas they were only natural men, and had not the Spirit. The saints were to build up themselves on their most holy faith; and by prayer in the Holy Spirit to keep themselves experimentally in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. They were to try to save others. The Epistle closes with a full ascription of praise to Him who is able to keep His saints from stumbling and set them with exultation blameless before His glory.

Easton's Bible Dictionary

 Jude 1:1 Matthew 10:3 Mark 3:18

There is nothing very definite to determine the time and place at which it was written. It was apparently written in the later period of the apostolic age, for when it was written there were persons still alive who had heard the apostles preach (ver. 17). It may thus have been written about A.D. 66 or 70, and apparently in Palestine.

The epistle is addressed to Christians in general (ver. 1), and its design is to put them on their guard against the misleading efforts of a certain class of errorists to which they were exposed. The style of the epistle is that of an "impassioned invective, in the impetuous whirlwind of which the writer is hurried along, collecting example after example of divine vengeance on the ungodly; heaping epithet upon epithet, and piling image upon image, and, as it were, labouring for words and images strong enough to depict the polluted character of the licentious apostates against whom he is warning the Church; returning again and again to the subject, as though all language was insufficient to give an adequate idea of their profligacy, and to express his burning hatred of their perversion of the doctrines of the gospel."

The striking resemblance this epistle bears to 2Peter suggests the idea that the author of the one had seen the epistle of the other.

The doxology with which the epistle concludes is regarded as the finest in the New Testament.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

An epistle in the New Testament, of which Judas, the brother of James, was the author; written to some unknown community in the primitive Church, in which a spirit of antinomian libertinism had arisen, and the members of which are denounced as denying the sovereign authority of the Church's Head by the practical disobedience and scorn of the laws of His kingdom. For the drift and modern uses of this epistle see Ruskin's "Fors Clavigera," chaps. lxvi. and lxvii., where it is shown that the enemies of the faith in Jude's day are its real enemies in ours.