In this brief letter, Jude, following a very carefully created structure, launches into an attack against false teaching and teachers. The letter arises from a report of false teachers. While many have compared this letter with 2 Peter we see that the emphasis Peter puts on the end times is lacking in Jude. This may indicate that Jude came first or that they simply have different interests.
Who is the author? There are several people known as “Jude” or “Judas” in the New Testament. This author identifies himself as the “brother of the Lord,” thus indicating he may well have been the brother mentioned in mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55. Carson and Moo find the arguments against this individual being the author to be weak, so conclude that Jude the brother of Jesus wrote the letter. This decision puts the date of Jude earlier than we would expect if the person were not a brother of Jesus, thus leaving us with a date no later than the late 60s. This is consistent with a relationship between this letter and 2 Peter.
Recent scholarship has focused on the rhetorical nature of Jude, identifying among other features a strong structure of an exordium, a narratio, a probatio, and a peroratio. Some have also observed the repeated patterns of threes in Jude’s arguments. In any case, this is a careful and sophisticated letter. Yet the letter has largely been neglected, perhaps because of its negative message. Jude spends more time discussing what is wrong than giving answers. Yet we all need to know what is wrong with our world, and Jude helps us in this.
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