Jude, Introduction

I've decided our next bible study will be on the epistle of Jude, a nice short book. It's also fairly interesting.

Who wrote Jude? The book starts with "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James." Nobody actually knows who this Jude is and what he means by saying he is a brother of James. Is that a literal brother or a figurative brother? Also, is this one of the biblical James or some other James? My study bible speculates that it could be either 1.) the apostle "Judas son of James" in Luke 6:16. That would not be the Judas that was a traitor. 2.) or Judas the brother of Jesus and James, mentioned in Matthew 13:55. I don't think either one is feasible, because of the likely dates of authorship. However, the author may be intending that impression.

My personal speculation: Jude is a form of the Hebrew name Judah. Judah was one of the twelve sons  of Israel (Jacob). The tribe of Judah gave its name to the identity of the Jews. I believe it is possible  the author is identifying himself as a Jew. Throughout the Old and New Testament, names and their meanings often do double duty. They send a message to the reader. As I said when I went through the book of James, this also may have been what the author of James was intending to convey with his name, which is the Hebrew Jacob, the original name of Israel the patriarch of the Jews. One reason to think this is that there is no specific individual or congregational recipient of the letter. The letter is openly addressed to "those who have been called, who are loved by god the father and kept by Jesus Christ."

When was Jude written? The simple answer is nobody knows. It is speculated to have been written sometime before 96 CE, when it is supposedly quoted in the letter attributed to Clement of Rome. I have been having a hard time finding that quote. We may come across it later. I find the letter attributed to Clement to be quite problematic anyway. The next earliest  dates that Jude was quoted or  mentioned are from the mid  second century. The earliest existing fragments and manuscripts are from the 3rd/4th centuries. (Link and link) That would be from 100 to 200 years after it was originally written. There are no originals.

The book has been disputed because it quotes non canonical writings by "uninspired" authors. In fact both Jesus and Paul have been attributed as saying things that are quotes of extra-biblical works. It is important to remember that the canon of accepted works, both Old and New Testament, was determined by mere mortals with human criteria.   If Jude was a Jew, I would not find it surprising that he quote popular Jewish authors. I will find it unusual if Jude says his letter is the literal word of god or is inspired by the holy spirit. I'd bet anything that the author had no idea his letter would end up in "the bible." There now appears to have been dozens of christian letters, and writings of various kinds,  floating around that never made the cut.

One thing to consider is the possibility that Jude was a real letter of an early christian and that he actually represented teachings of the early church, whereas other writings  that have been deemed more authentic might not be. Maybe the canonical winners were just those books that fit the current theology/ideology of the 3rd/4th century church leadership in power. Maybe their theology was not the original theology of the original christian sect, but one that had evolved to become mainstream. This is something I also considered with the book of James. We will keep that in mind as we go through the book.

More to come.