Last week, we completed
our study of 2 Peter. Some scholars have suggested that if you read 2 Peter,
you have read Jude. Most of Jude’s polemic letter is found in 2 Peter 2,
altered and fitted within quite a different kind of letter. Some will say that there
is a direct literary dependence, with the direction going from Jude to 2 Peter
2. Others argue for separate voices, and that “Jude in particular is done a
disservice by being reduced to the level of a source for 2 Peter.”[i]
Jude wrote not simply nor primarily to attack his opponents, but to encourage
and exhort the “called” and “beloved” to struggle for the faith.
Jude’s style follows
the classical rhetoric of Cicero. First, Jude lays out his intention, the
topics, and then requests a hearing (vv. 1-3). Establishing a friendly status
with his audience through his greeting and a prayer for their future, he
proceeds to establish himself as one worthy of a serious hearing. Jude
introduces topics that he will develop in the next section.
“The bulk of the letter
(vv. 4-16) deals with the crisis provoking the letter, namely, an invasion of
the holy church by godless scoffers.”[ii]
Jude charges and convicts them using a “crime and punishment” pattern. In his
honor-shame culture, crimes must be punished after establishing charges. As
prosecutor, Jude charges evildoers with their crimes and proclaims judgment.
(Handout) If you look
at the two outlines, you can follow both the rhetoric style and the crime and
punishment pattern.
The early theologian,
Origen, said that Jude was a small letter filled with a vigorous vocabulary.
His letter contains 15 words found nowhere else in the New Testament. Another
22 are only rarely found in the NT. This suggests that Jude was educated in a literary
environment that contained more than Hebrew and Christian Scriptures.
Jude also employs a
pattern of triplets, a common feature in Scripture, to amplify by accumulation
and form a cadence of expectation. Boom! Boom!! Boom!!! Used repeatedly, the
prosecutor strengthens his case.
Authorship:
Unlike many of Paul’s letters, because this letter lacks hard evidence of the
author’s identity, we can only surmise it. Jude, calls himself the brother of
James, who is one of the brothers of the Lord (Mt 13:55), and a leader in the
early church. Although there is an apostle of the same name (Lk 6:16; Acts
1:13; Jn 14:22), Jude refers himself outside that group (v. 17). One hypothesis
is that after his brother, James, was executed in 62 A.D., Jude followed his
example and warned Jewish Christians against new threats to their faith.
We know from the letter
itself that the author was a man trained as a scribe who practices writing with
considerable sophistication. A Jewish Christian with blood ties to James and
Jesus, he sees himself as an orthodox guardian of tradition. He assumes that
his readers are familiar with all the sources he cites, canonical and
noncanonical alike. … More on this later.
Greeting (1-2)
1Jude, a servant
of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God
the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2May mercy, peace, and love be
multiplied to you.
Jude places himself on
the same level as the addressees. His use of the word “servant” does not claim
some title of honor, and is also used by Paul in Romans 1:1: “Paul, a servant
of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,” and
James in the opening of his letter: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
Again, Jude identifies
himself by his relationship with James, a prominent figure in the early church.
His readers are Jewish Christians personally familiar with James. The greeting
gives us a glimpse not into Greek Christianity (Philippians, Corinthians,
Thessalonians), but into Jewish Christianity.
Resist False
Teaching (3-4)
3Beloved,
although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found
it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once
for all delivered to the saints. 4For certain people have crept in
unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people,
who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and
Lord, Jesus Christ.
Jude reminds his
readers that what is at stake is nothing less than salvation itself. By using
the word - contend - we understand the gravity of the situation. The word is
used as an athletic metaphor – contenders. Paul often used the word contend and
other athletic metaphors.
Do you not know that in
a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as
to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.
They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that
will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do
not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make
it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be
disqualified for the prize. (1 Cor 9:24-27)
Fight the good fight of
the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about
which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Tim
6:12)
Why? Because in
athletic competition, there can only be one winner. Jude is confident that if
his readers contend for the prize by remaining faithful to the message of
salvation, they will carry off the prize.
Those who are trying to
take away the prize are most likely travelling missionaries who have “crept in
unnoticed.” If someone came to church and knew the routine, he could present
himself for communion as a church member. The reason it was so difficult for me
to join the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod as an ordained minister is that
the pastors charged with admitting men to ministry purposely made it so. They
want to make sure that they are admitting someone who will be faithful to the
teachings. Otherwise, you see from Jude the mess that occurs when you do not
create a system that admits and rejects.
“Those who have crept
in deny the Lord Jesus (v. 4) by refusing to live under his rule. Although the
opponents do not see themselves as rejecting Christianity, Jude describes their
way of life as denying the order established by the Lord”[iii]
Think for a moment how
ordered and balanced Jude’s Church and world are. Everything must be in perfect
balance for proper operation. Something that does not belong upsets the
balance. Someone who does not belong upsets the balance. So, when people creep
in unnoticed, at first you may not notice that the balance is out of sync, but
eventually you notice that these individuals are akin to terrorists worthy of
condemnation, which is what follows.
God Destroys the
Unfaithful (5-7)
5Now I want to
remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out
of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6And
the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left
their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness
until the judgment of the great day— 7just as Sodom and Gomorrah and
the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued
unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal
fire.
“I want to remind you”
or “I wish you to remember” marks the beginning of the argument from ancient
examples. Jude uses it here and in v. 17. It is a reminder to recall what they
have already learned from the apostles, and that their faith is not deficient. Jude’s
readers are practicing and learned members of the church.
He then begins to
employ his use of triplets: unfaithful people in the wilderness, rebellious
angels and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
First example: “Among
these there was not one of those listed by Moses and Aaron the priest, who had
listed the people of Israel in the wilderness of Sinai. For the Lord had said
of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them was left, except
Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun.” (Numbers 26:64-65)
Second example: “When
man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the
sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as
their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in
man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were
on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to
the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men
who were of old, the men of renown.” (Gen. 6:1-4)
Third example: “The
Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of
the cities, and what grew on the ground.” (Gen 19:24-25)
These 3 well-known
examples appear frequently in the Bible and in other Jewish writings of the
period. Because of their catechesis, Jude’s readers would have been familiar
with them, as well as how God’s mercy and wrath go together. (See Sirach
16:11-23.)
The reason Jude uses
the example of the wilderness generation is to point out that “those who have
been saved by God can still be condemned if they are unfaithful.”[iv]
The fallen angels lust
for women was popular in Jewish lore and commonly cited for their fall from
heaven. They lusted after creatures that were not right for them to have. Likewise,
the story of Sodom and Gomorrah exhibits a similar passion, homosexual
activity. By choosing these familiar examples and the punishment involved
grabbed his readers’ attention. Today, we are struck with horror when we read
of brutal attacks on children or the elderly. These evoke cries for the death
penalty or worse, cries of outrage.
God Condemns the
Rebellious (8-13)
8Yet in like
manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject
authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. 9But when the archangel
Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he
did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke
you.” 10But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and
they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand
instinctively. 11Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and
abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in
Korah’s rebellion. 12These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as
they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless
clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead,
uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own
shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved
forever.
False teachers (v. 8)
committed “these sins because they defile the flesh, reject authority, and
blaspheme angels.”[v]
Referring to them as dreamers, it could be that these people claimed some sort
of divine inspiration for their teaching.
Jude must have relied
upon a story that does not exist today because if you read the Testament of
Moses, you will not find this dispute. The point of the story is that Michael
the Archangel did not take upon himself the authority to exercise divine
judgment. He left it to God. The quote is from Zechariah 3:2.
Satan knew and deserved
punishment. Jude’s opponents blaspheme what they do not know. Jude likens them
to unreasoning animals, reminding readers that if they act like animals, they
will be destroyed like animals. The verse prepares readers for the woe
to follow.
Jude arranges the next
set of triplets – Cain, Balaam and Korah – in ascending order. If you have ever
seen the Burma Shave signs, you know they make sense only in a set order. Here,
the order is (1) walking on a road, (2) abandoning oneself to error, (3)
perishing in a rebellion. Cain was the archetype of jealousy and envy. He
denies that God judges. Balaam’s sin was greed, and he was rebuked by his
donkey. (Num 22) Korah typified ambition, envy and challenge to the established
order. For the schism he created, he was swallowed up. (Num 16:1-35)
What was Jude’s point?
These false teachers, who crept in unnoticed and took part in the Lord’s
Supper, are like Cain, Balaam and Korah, in that they do not fear God, are
greedy and selfish, and are creating a schism. They are upsetting the good
order of the community, the Church. Hence, Jude’s description of them in vv.
12-13.
Enoch Predicted
Their Destruction (14-16)
14It was also
about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the
Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute
judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of
ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the
harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16These
are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are
loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.
Quoting Enoch’s
prophecy about the end time and God’s judgment on all who oppose him serves to
remind the readers that it was part of God’s plan from the beginning to judge
the wicked.
The charges against
them involve deeds and speech. Grumbling (v. 16) like the rebellious Israelites
(v. 5) and Korah (v. 11), they follow their own passions or sinful desires.
How damaging is speech?
Remember the
Warning of the Apostles (17-19)
17But you must
remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18They
said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own
ungodly passions.” 19It is these who cause divisions, worldly
people, devoid of the Spirit.
Even if the readers may
not be familiar with Enoch, they are familiar with the apostles. Scoffers
ignore all the precepts of the law. Proverbs 9:7-8 reads, “Whoever corrects a scoffer gets
himself abuse, and he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury. Do not reprove a
scoffer, or he will hate you; reprove a wise man, and he will love you.”
Scoffers also create
divisions. These particular scoffers cannot be Christians, as they claim,
because they are greedy, worldly, spirit-less, divisive persons.
Build Up Your
Faith (20-23)
20But you,
beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy
Spirit, 21keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy
of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 22And have
mercy on those who doubt; 23save others by snatching them out of the
fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the
flesh.
Contrast the behavior
of the scoffers to that of true believers. By encouraging Christians to build
up the community, Jude employs his triplet mentioning the Three Persons of the
Holy Trinity. By promoting holiness, Jude seeks to combat false teaching.
Finally, he encourages Christians to practice mercy rather than hate.
Doxology
24Now to him who
is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the
presence of his glory with great joy, 25to the only God, our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority,
before all time and now and forever. Amen.
Only God’s grace can
keep us from stumbling. Praise God.
Jude’s use of
noncanonical literature, that is, writings outside the Bible, has been a
problem. As a book that is included in the New Testament, should we argue that
he should have known not to cite these sources? On the other hand, should we
argue that because Jude is the inspired Word of God, 1 Enoch and the Assumption
of Moses, must have been inspired? 1st century Jews agreed
unanimously that “the Law and the Prophets” were inspired and canonical, but
not the other Writings.
The lack of a fixed
canon at the time Jude was written is not the answer to our question. All we
can say is that the author felt free to draw from the wide collection of
Israelite and Christian traditions, and is not confined to a collection of
written books ever deemed canonical by any group. In short, canonicity may have
never entered the writer’s mind.
The introduction to
Jude from the Jerusalem Bible suggests that although Jude employs two
apocryphal sources (Book of Enoch in vv. 6 and 14, and Assumption of Moses in
v. 9), which prompted hesitation in being accepted into the canon, bear in mind
that quoting contemporary Jewish writings is hardly equivalent to recognizing
their inspiration.
Discussion and Reflection Questions
In
the printings of the Small Catechism during Luther’s lifetime, a woodcut and a
Bible reference accompanied each commandment. The woodcut and reference for the
Eighth was the story of Susanna from Daniel 13, where two prominent elders and
judges falsely accuse the lovely Susanna of adultery because she rebuffed their
advances. Luther and his colleagues chose not to include Daniel 13 into the Old
Testament, but saw the value of this lesson.
In
Jude 14, a non-canonical Jewish text from 1 Enoch is quoted as prophecy. What
impact does this have on our understanding of canon and Scripture?
The late scholar, Raymond Brown wrote,
“Today most would not appreciate or find germane its argumentation from
Israelite tradition about the angels who sinned with women, Michael’s battle
over the body of Moses, Sodom, Balaam, and Korah. We owe Jude reverence as a
book of Sacred Scripture, but its applicability to ordinary life remains a
formidable difficulty. It is interesting to note that in the three-year
liturgical lectionary in use in the Roman Catholic and other prominent
churches, a lectionary that covers a very large portion of Scripture, Jude is
never read on any of the 156 Sundays, and on only one weekday (where vv. 17,
20-25, scarcely the heart of the letter, form the perciope.)”[vi]
What unique message does the church miss
by not reading Jude?
[i]
Luke Timothy Johnson, The Writings of the New Testament, Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 2010. p. 438.
[ii]
Jerome H. Neyrey, 2 Peter, Jude, New York: Doubleday, 1993. p. 24.
[iii]
Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, Jude, Louisville: John Knox Press, 1995. p. 148.
[vi]
Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, New York: Doubleday,
1997. pp. 759-760.
