Lessons On Jude (Series) Part 1 Series

THE BOOK OF JUDE

Jude is concerned with apostasy. Even in his day, the church was already being infiltrated by religious Quislings, men who posed as servants of God but who were actually enemies of the cross of Christ. Jude’s purpose is to expose these traitors and to describe their ultimate doom.

PROLOGUE

Authorship. In the normal manner, this author identifies himself in the salutation as Jude, the brother of James. This means that he was also the brother of our Lord (*Mt 13:55 ; **Mk 6:3). He preferred not to mention the family relationship to Jesus directly; perhaps the mention of James, who was a leading figure in the church in Jerusalem, was enough to give weight to his identity. His boast, like that of Peter and Paul, was that he was a “slave” of Jesus Christ.

*(Mt 13:55: “Is not this the carpenter’s son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?” Two of these brothers, James and Judas (Jude) wrote New Testament epistles and played an important role in the early church.

**(Mk. 6.3) “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.”

At one time, Jude was listed as a disputed book; this means only that there were some who did not accept it. However, external evidence for this book is strong. It was quoted by several early church Fathers (Polycarp, Clement of Rome, etc.), and is listed in the second-century Muratorian Canon.

The outstanding reason for disputing the authenticity of Jude in ancient and modern times has been the fact that Jude quotes from the apocryphal Enoch, evidently accepting that he is the seventh from Adam. Another problem is the amount of duplication from II Peter, although there could have been a common oral or written source behind both. There is no real reason for not accepting the traditional canonical status of Jude.

Occasion and purpose. Jude, like Peter, writes to encourage believers to continue to hold to the faith against the diabolical attack of false teachers. The Old Testament Scriptures and the common apostolic preaching are the authorities which predict both the presence and the doom of the scoffers. His letter has the stated purpose of encouraging his readers to contend for the faith (vs. 3). The letter assumes an existing danger of apostasy into immorality and deep sin because of the influence of shrewd and greedy teachers. Jude writes to correct this.

Date and place of writing. Whether before or after II Peter, Jude is at least in the same general period. There is the possibility that both draw heavily from a contemporary oral or written source which is no longer existent. The fact that Jude is more definite in his reference to the false teachers as a present reality to his readers (vs. 4) suggests that he wrote after Peter when the problem had more fully developed.

No hint of who the readers are is given in the book, except that they are perhaps in the Palestine area so that they will know who James (vs. 1) is; they may be Jews or Gentiles. The date must then lie somewhere between about A.D. 65 and 80, perhaps A.D. 67–68. The place of writing is not indicated but quite likely is Jerusalem.

Characteristics. The book is characterized by the strongest apocalyptic condemnation of the ungodly and immoral false teachers. Jude, like Peter, refers to the Old Testament to prove his point about the judgment of God upon sin; unlike Peter, he freely refers also to the apocryphal works that were current. Of all New Testament writers, Jude is more noted for this, but he is not alone in doing it. Matthew, Paul, and the writer of Hebrews all do things with quotations which require strained explanations if we judge their literary practices by twentieth century western standards. The book is definitely in character with the other apostolic writings and there is no reason not to accept it as authoritative today.

OUTLINE

I. Introduction. 1–2.

II. Occasion of the Epistle. 3–4.

A. Change of the Purpose. 3.

B. Purpose of the Change. 4

III. The Apostate Past. 5–7.

A. Israelite Apostasy. 5.

B. Angelic Apostasy. 6.

C. Pagan Apostasy. 7.

IV. The *Apostate Present. 8–16.

A. Activity of the Apostates. 8–10.

B. Warning of the Apostates. 11–16.

V. Exhortations Against Apostates. 17–23.

A. Exhortation by the Apostles. 17–19.

B. Exhortation by Warning. 20–21.

C. Exhortation by Example. 22–23.

VI. Conclusion. 24–25.

*(Apostate) somebody who renounces a belief or allegiance.

Scripture

1 Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: