Author: Uri Brito

Jude comes in very Hebraic form. In fact some of the language Jude uses echoes much of what is found in Hebrews 6 & 10. There are warnings to deliver men from the edge of death ( Jude 23) as Hebrews does. One of the questions raised in such occasions is whether Jude’s warnings like Hebrews are sent to Christians or whether it is merely hypothetical. If hypothetical, the warning itself serves little purpose. If, in some way, a covenant member cannot lose his status, the warnings of Jude and Hebrews and other places are null and void.

These warnings are given so we should not drift away. The idea behind a warning implies that some of you may let something slip from your grasp without realizing it; like a ring on your finger. This is why the author says that some will doubt the message of Jesus, and we are going to have to help some people by snatching them from fire. We will have to look at them and say, “Hey, this about your deliverance; you are being led astray by zealots and rebellious people. Don’t neglect such a great salvation.”

Perhaps it is helpful to stop here and make two observations on biblical warnings, so the message of Jude is not misunderstood. The first observation is that this is a covenant warning to God’s covenant members. This is not a warning to those outside the church. Those outside the church already neglect such great salvation. This is a real warning to those members who are covenanted to Christ. They have the benefits of Christ as Judas did, but yet some of them abandon the faith.

The second observation is that we do not need to compromise our convictions to believe this. Those elect to eternal life “cannot be separated from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.” We affirm both of those realities. We need to fit the Bible into our theology, not our theology into the Bible.

These are real warnings to the people of God. You may have grown up in the Church, you may have been baptized into the Church, you may have received the benefits of the Church as a covenant member, but the question for you today is: “Are you slipping away, are you drifting far apart from the Church and her Messiah, are you neglecting the message of salvation, are you affirming Yahweh in your life, are you living as one who has been marked by the waters of baptism? Are you building yourself up in the most holy faith, keeping yourselves in God’s love? Take heed! Listen and cling to Jesus!

Everything Jude tells us in the opening two verses is everything we need for the rest of our lives. Strange lessons and symbolic ideas will fill your hearts with wonder as you read Jude, and may this wonder keep you from stumbling, so that mercy, love and peace be multiplied to you as we embark in this journey into Jude.

Richard Bauckham in 1983 put Jude scholarship back on the map. According to Peter Davids in his Theology of Jude, Bauckham wrote to an audience already familiar with apocalyptic literature during the twentieth century and there was enough material by then to make various conclusions about Jude’s context. Once his commentary was produced a host of others came into the scene (252).

The dating of Jude has always proved complex. Bauckham dates him late in the first century creating a myriad of complications. Among them is the tricky business of whether Jude was addressing present concerns, future concerns, like Gnostics in the second-century, or catholic concerns of the church in general. In my estimation, late dating offers more problems than solutions.

For Davids, the addressees are familiar with Second-Temple literature since Jude seems to assume much in the letter. He further asserts that Jude’s concerns are primary of a Second Temple source and that his details cannot be all traced to Old Testament literature (259). For Jude, his assumptions are that his rhetoric will be persuasive for those whom he addresses. After all, these are people who “meet around meals” (Jude 12), so that a certain familiarity is expected fro moral tradition.

A favorable element of this Theology of Jude is that Davids breaks any consensus that Jude is directly speaking against false teachers. In fact, Jude “never refers those he critiques as teachers.” (260) There are references to the way they speak, but this can be applied generally to other groups as well. The focus for Jude seems to be on their behavior, even “verbal grumbling” (260), and not their teaching necessarily.

If this is the case, the reader will have to contend for another interpretation of whom Jude was rebuking and warning against. The “false-teacher” narrative is all too common, especially in the context of “contending for the faith.” Some commentators assume that Jude picks up similar motifs in Peter’s writing and continue in that trajectory, but what seems more evident is that Jude is addressing a different concern altogether. Davids offers no alternative, except to say that Jude is addressing the “others.” Namely, those who do not share Jude’s sympathies for the cause of Messiah.

Jude is a real letter. Scholarship throughout the last 100 years seek find alternatives to Jude’s authorship as a way of consenting to modern impulse to deny the legitimacy of Jude. Yet, as Bauckham articulates clearly that Jude’s credentials are more than sufficient to fit this “epistolary sermon.” In fact, Jude seems to be deeply grounded in Jewishness. Though it may be shaped like a homily (not uncommon in the ancient world), it has the shape of a letter though it may have been read as a homily to a congregation.

The message seems to be very fitting for a specific situation. It’s not a catholic letter in the sense that it applies to all churches in all cases, though the implication is that, but rather it is addressing a particular issue; one which Jude’s hearers were dealing with in their day. There is a localized audience in mind when he pens these words.

Whoever Jude is addressing merits his distinct attention. We should not assume that the shortness of the letter implies Jude is taking the matter at hand less seriously, rather he can throw an effective punch with a few sober words.

It is also crucial to understand that the harsh argument in the middle of the book is not the center of Jude’s argument, rather it prepares for the real argument which is the central appeal in verses 20-23. This is not a hate-filled missive but a genuine attempt to call the hearers to understand their time in redemptive history and see that they are living in apocalyptic times filled with danger for the days of judgment are near.

It’s not often that I make my translations available to the public, but I’d like to do so more often as a way of putting some of my scholarship out there, but more importantly as a ministry to anyone who finds interest in exegetical studies. Of course, in the process I run the risk of making mistakes, which by now in my pastoral ministry I’ve grown accustomed. I took two years of Koine Greek in College and two more in seminary which gives me a subtle advantage in this process. But alas, twelve years later can make a man rusty and dusty in the ancient language. Here’s my humble attempt to touch base with that needed process of translation. I will aim for a fairly literal translation while taking some liberty with dynamic renderings. My main pulpit translation is the English Standard Version which I cherish.

Jude

(Salutation)

1:1 Ἰούδας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰακώβου, τοῖς ἐν θεῷ πατρὶ ἠγαπημένοις καὶ Ἰησοῦ Χριστῷ τετηρημένοις κλητοῖς·

1:2 ἔλεος ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ ἀγάπη πληθυνθείη.

(Judgment on False Teachers)

1:3 Ἀγαπητοί, πᾶσαν σπουδὴν ποιούμενος γράφειν ὑμῖν περὶ τῆς κοινῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας ἀνάγκην ἔσχον γράψαι ὑμῖν παρακαλῶν ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι τῇ ἅπαξ παραδοθείσῃ τοῖς ἁγίοις πίστει.

Translation: Jude, bond-servant of Jesus Christ, brother of James, to those called and loved in God the Father, preserved for Jesus Christ. May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

Beloved, although I was eager to write to you about our shared salvation, I found it necessary to write to you appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.

-Jude 1:1-3

Notes:

*Jude is the brother of James which makes him the half-brother of Jesus. He was one of the twelve apostles. His name is also translated in some places as Judas or Judah and means “he shall be praised.”

*Opening verses establish his credentials as one under the authority and an eye-witness to the risen Messiah.

* κλητοῖς· adjective normal dative masculine plural no degree from κλητός – speaks of one who has accepted a calling or an invitation to become a guest or member of a select group.

*There is difference between Byzantine and Nestle-Aland here in understanding “loved” and “sanctified.” There is some overlap in language. The KJV does not include that the saints were loved, but that they were sanctified by God the Father. The ideas are quite similar since to be loved is to be set aside for a purpose. I am following the Nestle-Aland for various reasons. The idea of love is communicated in verse 2.

*I chose “preserve” for τετηρημένοις since the idea behind the language is that someone is keeping a watchful care over an inferior. In this case, God’s people are being preserved for a particular function.

*Verse 2 is pretty straightforward. Some translations like the NAS begin with “may” as a kind of initial benediction, but the KJV is more literal in its rendering.

*Verse 3 is the expression of purpose: to contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints.

*Ἀγαπητοί is a term of endearment. It still relates to introductory remarks. Jude is addressing from a point of love.

*κοινῆς has this sense of a shared mission.

*ἀνάγκην is singular, thus “it was necessary to me” or “I found it necessary.”

*παρακαλῶν implies an exhortation, a deep appeal to get someone to do something of great significance.

*ἐπαγωνίζεσθαι is in the infinitive present middle stressing a call to “fight for” something greater than yourself; there is an athletic imagery involved.