Jude: contend for the faith

About the book

The letter opens, "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (Jude 1:1). This is not Judas Iscariot. The church has traditionally held him to be one of Jesus' brothers, named with "James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas" (Matthew 13:55): to call himself the brother of James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, was introduction enough. A brother who once did not believe (John 7:5) now calls himself the Lord's servant. How the churches understand ‘brother’ here is set out in the James lesson; the Catholic Church has often identified him with Jude Thaddeus, one of the Twelve (Luke 6:16, Matthew 10:3).

When he wrote is uncertain; the map under the Jesus tab sets the letter in the era of the church (c. AD 30–90), after 2 Peter and Hebrews. The Muratorian Fragment, usually dated to the late second century, counts Jude among the books the church receives The Muratorian Fragment, while Eusebius in the fourth century placed it among the books disputed, though received by many Eusebius, Church History 3.25. Some scholars think it was written later in Jude's name, since ‘the faith’ sounds like a settled body of teaching and the apostles' words are remembered as from the past (Jude 1:17). Many others, among them evangelicals, who stress the authority of Scripture and the telling of the gospel, hold that the Lord's brother wrote it: the letter is thoroughly Jewish, and a borrower of names would have chosen a better-known one.

How it unfolds

Key passages

Jude had meant to write about the salvation all believers share, but something more urgent pressed on him:

Beloved, … I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.

Jude 1:3

Certain false teachers had crept in who "turn the grace of our God into a license for immorality" (Jude 1:4), making grace an excuse to sin, and Jude recalls God's judgements in Israel's history. Yet this contending is no brawl. Matthew Henry says believers must contend for the faith "earnestly, not furiously" Matthew Henry, and Jude bids them build themselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit and keeping themselves "in the love of God" (Jude 1:20-21), and have mercy on those who doubt (Jude 1:22).

Jude also draws on Jewish writings outside Scripture. The prophecy of Enoch in verses 14–15 closely matches the opening chapter of 1 Enoch, a Jewish book written for the most part in the centuries before Christ. The archangel Michael's dispute with the devil over Moses' body (v. 9) stood, early writers such as Origen say, in the Assumption of Moses, whose ending is now lost. A biblical writer may quote a book that is not Scripture. In Athens Paul quoted Greek poets, "We are His offspring" (Acts 17:28), and he even called a Cretan poet "one of their own prophets" (Titus 1:12). Quoting a book does not make the whole book Scripture; the church has generally understood that the inspired writer took up a true word from it. John Wesley says Jude "might know this either from some ancient book, or tradition, or immediate revelation" Wesley.

Jude says that Enoch "prophesied" (Jude 1:14), and many scholars think he and his readers held 1 Enoch in high regard. In the early church Tertullian defended it, citing Jude among his reasons, while Jerome says many rejected Jude for quoting it. The book is not in the Hebrew Bible, nor in the Bibles of nearly all churches, but the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the ancient church of Ethiopia, includes it in its Old Testament.

The book and Christ

Jude's Christ is "our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:4). In verse 5 several ancient manuscripts, followed by the BSB, say that "Jesus had delivered His people out of the land of Egypt" (Jude 1:5); others read ‘the Lord’. Matthew Henry learns from Enoch's prophecy that "Christ's coming to judge was prophesied of, as early as the times before the flood" Matthew Henry. Believers await "the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life" (Jude 1:21), and the letter closes with glory to God through him:

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

Jude 1:24-25

Reading it

Twenty-five verses take five minutes. Read Jude and compare 2 Peter 2: the two are so close that many scholars think 2 Peter drew on Jude, and some the reverse (2 Peter). The stories Jude names come alive when read in the Old Testament: the unbelief in the wilderness in Numbers 14, Korah in Numbers 16. Then pray the closing doxology, and go on to Revelation.

Practice