Epistle of Jude

It condemns in fierce terms certain people the author sees as a threat to the early Christian community, but describes these opponents only vaguely.

The epistle introduces itself with a simple claim of authorship: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James" (NRSV).

[4][5][6] For example, Saint Jerome believed that not only Mary but also Joseph were virgins their entire lives, and thus James and by extension Jude were cousins.

[11] Jesus's family were common laborers from Aramaic-speaking Galilee, and literary composition skills were overwhelmingly concentrated in the elite in antiquity.

Scholars who support the authorship of Jude generally assume that he must have embarked upon extensive travel and missionary work among Hellenized Jews to master Greek as the author did.

One early Christian tradition states that Jude's grandchildren were brought before Emperor Domitian and interrogated; in the story, they defended themselves as not rebels and mere poor laborers eking out what they could from a single patch of land.

While the story is clearly apocryphal – Roman emperors did not generally interrogate Galilean peasants – it does suggest that early Christians remembered Jude's family as lower-class laborers, not literate elites.

[18][19][6] Bo Reicke suggests around 90 AD; Heikki Räisänen concurs and believes that it may have been written at the end of the first century.

Continuing the analogy from Israel's history, he says that the false teachers have followed in the way of Cain, have rushed after reward into the error of Balaam, and have perished in the rebellion of Korach.

He describes in vivid terms the opponents he warns of, calling them "clouds without rain", "trees without fruit", "foaming waves of the sea", and "wandering stars".

The epistle concludes with a doxology, which is considered by Peter H. Davids to be one of the highest in quality contained in the Bible.

While addressed to the Christian Church as a whole, the references to Old Testament figures such as Michael, Cain, and Korah's sons, the Book of Enoch, and the invocation of James as head of the church of Jerusalem suggests a Jewish Christian main audience that would be familiar with Enochian literature and revere James.

The most specific verse describing the opponents is verse 8: In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings.Reject "authority" (κυριότητα, kyriotēta; alternate translations include "dominion" or "lordship") could mean several things.

[42] Another possibility is that this specifically referred to rejecting the authority of Jesus or God, which would agree with verse 4 and be reinforcing the claim that these opponents are not true Christians.

[43] "Heap abuse on celestial beings" is also a relevant statement, as it stands in some tension with the works of Paul the Apostle as well as the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Proposed evidence in support of this includes that in verse 19, the opponents are called "worldly" (psychikoi), a term also used in relation to Gnosticism in other literature.

Richard Bauckham, arguing against such a connection, writes that "If [Jude]'s polemic is really aimed against Gnosticism it is singularly inept.

[54][55] The classical theologian Origen, as well as Clement of Alexandria, Didymus the Blind, and others, attributes this reference to the non-canonical Assumption of Moses.

[57][58] Some scholars disagree; James Charlesworth argues that the Assumption of Moses never contained any such content, and other ancient Church writers supported a different origin.

An alternative explanation is that Jude quotes the Book of Enoch aware that verses 14–15 are an expansion of the words of Moses from Deuteronomy 33:2.

[64] It is largely accepted by scholars that the author of the Epistle of Jude was familiar with the Book of Enoch and was influenced by it in thought and diction.

[65] The reference to fallen angels suggests the possibility the author was familiar with related literature to Enoch such as the Book of Jubilees and 2 Baruch as well.

One author wrote "Only its benediction may be familiar to an average churchgoer" and that "New Testament theologians have ignored the book".