Friday, June 27, 2025

PT-3 “Introduction to Jude”

 

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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