Bible Commentaries
Jude

Although Jude is a tiny book with only 25 verses, it is a very important book. Professor Thomas R. Schreiner says of it, "Some of the most beautiful statements about God's sustaining grace are found in Jude."^(F1) The preacher and writer Fred Craddock comments, "Jude has literary grace. It is written in a style dignified and at times poetic."^(F2)

We might wonder just who the "Jude" is (Gk. Judah), the one named as the writer of this very short letter. He identifies himself in the first verse as the brother of James. Many commentators are quite certain that this could only be a reference to James, the brother of Jesus and the leader of the Jerusalem church. That would make Jude one of the four brothers (half-brothers) of Jesus (Matthew 13:55; Mark 6:3). Over the centuries there seems to have been a great deal of confusion as writers traditionally have identified this Jude as one of the original disciples of Jesus. This disciple is sometimes called "Judas of James" (Luke 6:16), "Judas son of James" (Acts 1:13), or he was possibly even nicknamed "Lebbaeus, (NKJ)" or "Thaddeus" (Matthew 10:3). Such a connection seems most unlikely.

We know from scripture that during the time of Jesus and his disciples, the brothers of Jesus did not believe in him (Mark 3:21; John 7:5). After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to James, and we see possibly all of Jesus' brothers at the Pentecost prayer meeting (Acts 1:14). Later in 1 Corinthians 9:5, we see them as itinerant missionaries.^(F3) Jude identifies himself not as a brother of Jesus, but simply as a servant or slave of Jesus. James in his book (James 1:1) identifies himself in exactly the same way. This seems to be a mark of great humility among Jesus' brethren. Certainly, any false writer would have wasted no time in identifying himself as Jesus' brother.

Other big questions about this little book cannot be answered. We do not know for sure to whom it was written, or from where it was written. It seems to have been written to a specific church, but at the same time its content was broad enough that the book came to be included in the "catholic" or "general" epistles that went out to all the churches. We cannot be sure about its date. Because much of its material is duplicated in Second Peter it would seem that the little book would have a similar date, of around AD 64-65. It was no doubt written before Peter's death around AD 65.^(F4)

Unlike Second Peter, Jude had a good deal of acceptance by the early church and was listed as "scripture" by the ancient Muratorian Canon. It was also accepted by the early church fathers, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria and Origen.^(F5)

The clear purpose of the book was to warn the believers against some itinerant teachers who were spreading a form of early Gnosticism among the churches. Such teachers appear in several New Testament books like those of Timothy, Titus, Colossians and Second Peter.