PT-4 “Introduction to Jude”

 

EVENING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/28/2025 7:15 PM

 

Focus:  PT-4 “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.  I think that is very important to understand what a book in the Word of God is about before one takes the time to study it, and that is why I am taking the time to quote from John MacArthur’s commentaries introduction so we can best understand what we are about to study.  I have been doing some studying on this next to the last book of the Bible and the more that I look into it the more I can understand the importance of this letter, a letter that was written by our Lord’s step brother who came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave.  As I think about this I wonder how much his mother Mary had to do with this, along with the salvation of her son James too.  I guess that will be something that we may find out in heaven.

 

DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING

 

            “There is nothing in the epistle itself that indicates when it was written.  Those who deny that Jude wrote it usually date it in the second century.  In support of that late date, they argue that Jude 17 speaks of the apostolic age as long past.”  “17 But you, beloved, ought to remember the words that were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  “They also argue that the false teachers described in the epistle were second-century Gnostics.  But Jude 17 merely suggests that most of the apostles (perhaps all except John) were dead; it says nothing about how long ago they had died.  In fact, verse 18 implies that Jude’s readers had heard some of the apostles preach, so they could not have been dead very long.”  “18 that they were saying to you, "In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.’”  “Nor were the false teachers of Jude’s day second-century Gnostics (see the discussion under ‘Occasion’ below).  A second-century date is also difficult to harmonize with the early attestation to Jude in the writings of the church fathers (see ‘External Attestation’ above).

 

            “Others place Jude in the apostolic age (i.e., before the deaths of Peter and Paul), possibly as early as the midfifties of the first century.  But since Jude was probably written after 2 Peter (see ‘The Relation of Jude to 2 Peter’ below), it was not likely to have been written before Peter’s death (see ‘Date, Place of Writing, and Destination’ in the Introduction to 2 Peter in this volume).  Since Jude does not use the destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) as an illustration of God’s judgment of the ungodly, he probably wrote his epistle before that event.  The most likely date for Jude, then, is the period between Peter’s death and the destruction of Jerusalem (C. A. D. 68-70).

 

            “It is not known where Jude was when he penned this epistle.  Since his brother James headed the Jerusalem church, it is possible that though Jude traveled in his ministry, Jerusalem was his home base.  If that were the case, he may have written his epistle from there.” 

 

            Above MacArthur asks us to look at “Date, Place of Writing, and Destination” from 2 Peter’s introduction and so I will quote that here and then I want to look at one more small section before I stop this evening. 

 

DATE, PLACE OF WRITING, AND DESTINATION (2 PETER)

 

            “According to tradition, peter suffered martyrdom near the end of Nero’s persecution.  Because Nero died in A.D. 68, Peter’s death must have taken place before that time.  Second Peter appears to have been written shortly before the apostle’s death (1:14), perhaps in A.D. 67 or 68.  Peter does not say where he was when he wrote this epistle.  But since his death was imminent, and he was martyred in Rome, he probably wrote it while in prison there.  Unlike the first epistle, 2 Peter does not name its recipients.  However, since this was the second letter he had written them (3:1), they were likely the same people (or at least some of the same people) to whom 1 Peter was addressed, believers who lived in ‘Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia’ (1 Peter 1:1), provinces located in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).”

 

RECIPIENTS

 

            “The specific church or churches to which Jude addressed his epistle are not known.  In light of his choice of illustrations from the Old Testament and the Jewish apocrypha, his readers likely were predominantly Jewish believers.”

 

            There are two more parts to MacArthur’s introduction on Jude and so it looks like I will do one tomorrow, and one on Monday, Lord willing.

 

6/28/2025 7:48 PM