EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/27/2025 10:05 PM
Focus: PT-3
“Introduction to Jude”
I explained in yesterday evening’s SD that I am pretty
much starting over in the book of Jude as when I ordered the commentary from
John MacArthur on 2 Peter that Jude was included in the book, and since I had
studied Jude using Dr. Warren Wiersbe’s commentary about 12 years ago I decided
to use MacArthur’s commentary to help me better understand this second to last
chapter in the New Testament.
In this evening’s SD I want to continue to quote from
John MacArthur’s commentary’s introduction to the book of Jude.
AUTHOR
“The New Testament lists eight men named Judas (‘Jude’ is
an English form of the Greek word ‘Judas,’ which translates the Hebrew name
‘Judah’). The name was extremely
popular, both because of Judah, the founder of the tribe of Judah, and because
of Judas, the hero of the Maccabean revolt against the Greek ruler Antiochus
Epiphanes in the second century B. C. Of
the eight mentioned in the New Testament, only two are associated with a man
named James (v. 1) and hence plausible candidates to have written this
epistle: the apostle Jude, and Jude the
half brother of the Lord. The apostle
Jude can be ruled out, since he was the son,
not the brother of James (Luke
6:16; Acts 1:13; the KJV translation ‘Judas the brother of James’ in those two
verses is incorrect [the NASB correctly renders the same Greek construction ‘James
the son of Alphaeus’ in keeping with normal Greek usage]). Further, if Judas the son of James were the
author, he would have identified himself as an apostle, since he was one. The writer of Jude, however, distinguished
himself from the apostles (v. 17).
“The James with whom Jude identified himself was the
Lord’s brother (Gal. 1:19), the head of the Jerusalem church and author of the
epistle of James. After the martyrdom of
the apostle James (Acts 12:2) there was no other James in the early church who
could be referred to simply by name without further qualification. Thus Jude is the only New Testament writer
who identifies himself by family relationship.
“Ironically, the man who penned the sharpest condemnation
of apostates in Scripture shares the same name as the most notorious of all
apostates, Judas Iscariot. That may help explain why nearly all modern
English translations use ‘Jude’ instead of ‘Judas’ in this epistle.
“Jude’s deep humility is reflected in the fact that he,
like his brother James (James 1:1), referred to himself as a ‘bond-servant of
Jesus Christ’ (v. 1) rather than ‘the brother of Jesus.’ Like his other brothers (including James),
Jude did not believe in the deity and messiahship of Jesus until after the
Resurrection (John 7:5; Acts 1:14; cf. 1 Cor. 15:7, where ‘James’ may be the
Lord’s half brother). After the resurrection, Jesus’ relationships with His
siblings changed from brother to Lord and Messiah (cf. Mark 3:32-35; John 2:4).
“Little is known about Jude apart from this epistle. According to 1 Corinthians 9:5 he was married
and had an itinerant ministry as an evangelist.
Church history relates the story (possibly legendary) of how Jude’s
grandsons were brought before the Roman emperor Domitian. The emperor questioned their loyalty because
they were descendants of the Davidic royal line. But upon learning that they were simple
farmers, the emperor contemptuously dismissed them (Eusebius Ecclesiastical History, 3. 19-20). Apart from that account, tradition is silent
regarding Jude.
“Some critics deny that Jude the brother of James wrote
this epistle, claiming there is internal evidence that the book dates from
after his lifetime. But that is not the
case (see the discussion under ‘Date and Place of Writing’ below). It is highly unlikely that a forger would
write a book impersonating a relatively unknown figure such as Jude; pseudepigraphic
works were attributed to well-known apostles, such as Peter or Paul. Nor would a forger pretending to be Jude have
failed to identify himself as the Lord’s brother.
“Other unbelieving critics insist that the Greek of the
epistle is too good for a simple Galilean peasant to have composed it. But as noted in the introduction to 2 Peter,
Galilee was near the predominantly Gentile region known as the Decapolis, which
was east and south of the Sea of Galilee.
There is also evidence that Greek was commonly spoken throughout
Palestine in the first century, (cf. Robert L. Thomas and Stanley N. Gundry,
‘The Languages Jesus Spoke,’ in A Harmony
of the Gospels [Chicago: Moody, 1978], 309-12). Thus, dogmatic presumptions regarding Jude’s
competency in Greek (or lack thereof) are simply unwarranted. It is also possible that Jude worked with an
amanuensis, as Peter did when he wrote 1 Peter (1 Peter 5:12).
“Still others, especially in the early church, questioned
Jude’s use of apocryphal material (1 Enoch
and possibly the assumption of Moses). But the mere fact that Jude cited those works
does not imply that he endorsed everything in them. Paul quoted Greek poets (Acts 17:28; 1 Cor.
15:33; Titus 1:12) and alluded to extrabiblical Jewish tradition (1 Cor. 10:4;
2 Tim. 3:8). Yet he obviously did not
endorse everything in those works; neither did he consider them to be inspired
Scripture. Jude, like Paul, cited the
familiar apocryphal works by way of illustration. There is no indication that he regarded them
as divinely inspired.”
Lord willing, we will look at “Date And Place of Writing”
in tomorrow evening’s SD.
6/27/2025 10:51 PM
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