Jude Study
Core themes, fun facts and lessons.
Introduction
Summary of the message
It is our duty to defend the integrity of our faith against false teachers - whose faulty theology is evidenced in their anti-Spirit lifestyle, and their affinity for division. There is reserved a judgement for such people, and we are guaranteed of their judgement because we have examples like Cain, Sodom & Gomorrah.
In waiting for the coming of our Saviour, it is important to strengthen our conviction, pray with God’s help, and walk in love towards others; doing all we can to keep them from being polluted by heresy.
Authorship
It is traditionally held that the epistle of Jude (or Judah/Judas) was written by Jude, who was Jesus’ half brother (Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3). He is not to be confused with Judas Iscariot, or Judas the disciple (Luke 6:16, John 14:22).
Just like his siblings, Jude did not believe in Jesus during his earthly ministry, (Matthew 12:46, John 7:3-5, Mark 3:20-21, 1 Corinthians 9:5) but he had a change of heart after the resurrection, as he would most likely have been with his mother and other disciples of Jesus in the upper room (Acts 1:14).
Audience
This letter makes no mention of a particular Church and makes no explicit reference to the location of its intended recipient(s). However, we can confidently assert that the audience for this letter was a group of individuals who were well-versed in and highly regarded Jewish literature. The epistle is jam-packed with allusions to the Hebrew Bible as well as texts that were not recognised to be a part of the Hebrew Bible but were revered enough to be regarded as "credible" sources for the ideas they held.
Jude draws heavily from several parts of the Hebrew Bible; from ancient Israel to fallen angels, Sodom & Gomorrah, Cain (Genesis), Balaam (Numbers), selfish shepherds (Ezekiel 34), clouds without water (Proverbs 25:14), wild waves (Isaiah 57:20). His references to “kept in eternal bonds” (v. 6), Michael’s dispute over Moses’ body (v.9) and Enoch’s prophecy (v. 9) are sourced in Hebrew works - specifically 1 Enoch and Assumption of Moses - which are classified as Pseudepigrapha.
Situational context
Jude was writing “about our common salvation” but had to urgently write this to urge them to “contend earnestly for the faith” because certain people had infiltrated the church, “who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ”.
Jude carefully expressed his concerns with these false teachers' lifestyles; the evidence of their their appalling theology. He seemed to take “walking the talk” very seriously. This reminds us of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7. Their lifestyle was faulty, and it was rooted in their false theology.
Book Outline
- 1–2—Salutation
- 3–4—Introduction: Identifies intruders designated for judgment among the church
- 5–10—Three proofs from the tradition
- 5—Deliverance from Egypt
- 6—Angels or watchers
- 7—Sodom and Gomorrah
- 8—First summation: these dreamers defile, reject authority, and blaspheme
- 9—Example of judgment: Michael, the devil, and the body of Moses
- 10—Second summation: these people blaspheme, are destroyed
- 11–16—Three proofs from the tradition
- 11—Cain, Balaam, Korah
- 12–13—Third summation: blemishes on love, waterless clouds
- 14–15—Example of judgment: Enoch’s prophecy
- 16—Fourth summation: grumblers, malcontents, flatterers
- 17–23—Four exhortations to the faithful
- 17–19—Remember the words of the apostles
- 20—Build yourselves up and pray
- 21—Keep yourselves in the love of God
- 22–23—Have mercy of some, save others
Brosend, “Jude, A Rhetoric of Excess,” 292–305
Related Book
2 Peter
Two New Testament letters, Jude and 2 Peter, have a lot in common. Both letters, which caution against the perils of false teaching, are intended to Christians who are dealing with false teachers.
Even though Jude's epistle is shorter than Peter's, it condemns false teachers with equal vigour. Jude refers to them as "dreamers" who "pollute their own bodies, reject authority, and slander celestial beings" (Jude 8). On top of that, he likens them to "unreasoning animals" and "waterless springs and mists driven by a storm" (Jude 12). False teachers are condemned in 2 Peter as well, but the tone is more sobering. False teachers are, according to Peter, "twisting the Scriptures" and "denying the Master who bought them" (2 Peter 2:1). Furthermore, he issues a warning, stating that false teachers will "introduce destructive heresies" and that "many will follow their shameful ways" (2 Peter 2:1–2).
Jude and 2 Peter have different writing styles, but they both convey the same message: Christians need to be on the lookout for false teachers who can mislead them. Both letters exhort Christians to uphold the genuine faith and base their entire lives on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
In addition to their shared message, Jude and 2 Peter also share some similarities in their language and imagery.
Thematic Overlaps
Jude 4 | 2 Peter 2:1-3 |
For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. | But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
…and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. |
Jude 6 | 2 Peter 2:4 |
And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day, | For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; |
Jude 7 | 2 Peter 2:4 |
just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. | and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; |
Jude 8 | 2 Peter 2:10 |
Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. | and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, |
Jude 10 | 2 Peter 2:12 |
But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed. | But these, like unreasoning animals, born as creatures of instinct to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed, |
Jude 11 | 2 Peter 2:15 |
Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam, and perished in the rebellion of Korah. | forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; |
Jude 12 | 2 Peter 2:17 |
These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; | These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. |
Jude 16 | 2 Peter 2:18-19 |
These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. | For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. |
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