Jude Series: Recipients, Place of Destination, Origin and Date of Jude

The recipients of the epistle of Jude appear to be appear Jewish Christians which is suggested by the many references to Old Testament historical figures and events as well as the citing of Jewish Pseudepigraphic literature such as 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses.

These references would appeal to the Jewish Christian community’s frame of reference rather than the Gentile Christian community because they were brought up in the Old Testament Scriptures and were exposed to these Jewish intertestamental works.

Also, the reference to James in Jude 1, who was the brother of Jude and half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, would indicate that the recipients of the epistle of Jude were Jewish Christians since James was one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem.

Why else would Jude make a point of being the brother of James who was one of the three pillars of the church in Jerusalem?

Although the contents of the epistle of Jude do not identify the place of origin of the epistle of Jude, I believe that it was written to Jewish Christians living somewhere in Palestine.

This is indicated by the reference to James in Jude 1 who was the brother of Jude and one of the pillars of the church in Judaea.

Furthermore, we know from the New Testament that James like Jesus never left Palestine but in fact lived and died there.

This reference to James indicates that James was well-known to the recipients and that Jude was less known or possessed a higher authority than Jude.

Of course, we know that James was an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Lastly, as we noted earlier, there are many references to Old Testament historical figures and events as well as the citing of Jewish Pseudepigraphic literature such as 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses.

These references would appeal to the Jewish Christian community’s frame of reference rather than the Gentile Christian community because they were Jewish intertestamental works.

Despite the fact that the contents of the epistle of Jude do not identify its place of origin, I, as I noted previously, believe that it was written from somewhere in Palestine and as we will note just after the death of Jude’s brother James.

This is indicated by the same factors, which we noted to support the place of destination of this epistle.

First, the reference to James in Jude 1, who we noted was the brother of Jude and half-brother of the Lord, would indicate that the recipients of the epistle of Jude were Jewish Christians rather than Gentile since James was one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem.

Jude makes it a point of asserting that he is the brother of James, which would be meaningless, if the recipients of the letter were Gentile.

It would only make sense that Jude asserts he is the brother of James, if the recipients of the letter were Jewish Christians since James was one of the leaders of the Jewish Christian community.

Thirdly, as we also noted previously, we know from the New Testament that James like Jesus never left Palestine but in fact lived and died there.

This reference to James indicates that James was well-known to the recipients and that Jude was thus less known with James possessing higher authority than Jude because the former was an apostle.

Lastly, as we noted earlier, there are many references to Old Testament historical figures and events as well as the citing of Jewish pseudepigraphic literature such as 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses.

As we noted previously, these pseudepigraphic works would appeal to the frame of reference of the Jewish Christian community rather than the Gentile Christian community since they were Jewish intertestamental works.

I believe that the epistle of Jude was written between 62-66 A.D. just prior to the Jewish war with Rome between 66-70 A.D. and soon after the death of James.

This is indicated by the fact that though possible, yet unlikely, Jude would never have written this letter which bears his name if his brother James was still alive since as we noted, James was one of the pillars of the church in Jerusalem who died in 62 A.D.

When he was alive James who again was one of the apostles of Jesus was the spokesperson of the church at Jerusalem and in Judaea (Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; Gal 2:9, 12; 1 Cor 15:7).

If a problem, as in these Zealots infiltrating Christian meetings, James would have dealt with them.

Bateman writes that “Josephus recalls how the high priest Ananius (ca. AD 62) had James stoned to death.[1]Naturally, the death of James would have created a leadership void for the Judean churches. Jude’s letter may have been a means of filling that void (v. 3).[2]Thus on the one hand, the death of James (ca. AD 62) provides the terminus a quo for dating Jude. On the other hand, the terminous ad quemwould be the Judean war with Rome, a war that began in AD 66, since Eusebius notes that the Jewish believers fled to Pella due to the Zealot threat and conflicting messianic beliefs.[3] Consequently, Jude was written around the rising tension and rebellion of the Zealots leading up to the Jewish war against Rome in AD 66. Furthermore, the minority report presumes that Jude wrote his letter shortly after James’s death in AD 62 and just prior to the total outbreak of the Judean war with Rome in AD 66. So whenever the ‘godless’ (vv. 4, 15) and ‘these people’ (vv. 8, 12, 16, 19) appear in Jude, Jude is speaking against those who have joined the Zealot-led rebellion just before the outbreak of war in AD 66. Yet what evidence does the minority report offer to validate this perspective?[4]”[5]

[1] Ant. 20.9.1 §§200–204. Admittedly, no one knows exactly when James died or the circumstances surrounding his death. Eusebius tells of James being thrown from a pinnacle of the temple, stoned, then clubbed to death prior to the temple’s destruction in AD 70 (Hist. 2.23.4–25). See James C. VanderKam, From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests after the Exile (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004), 476–82; Herbert W. Bateman, “High Priests of the Herodian Period (37 B.C.E.–70 C.E.),” in Charts on the Book of Hebrews, Kregel Charts of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2012), 89–91. [2] Along with the leadership vacuum, hostility against Rome and pressure to join the Zealot revolt were mounting. Jude was eager to recall “our common deliverances” and “our shared safety” (τῆς κοινῆς ἡμῶν σωτηρίας) that the Jewish Christian community had experienced during the early beginnings of the church (v. 3a). Jude would have been an eyewitness to and even experienced the divine deliverances recorded in Acts (4:1–3, 19–23; 9:1–28; 12:1–17 [cf. Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 §§343–52]; 21:17–19 [cf. 1 Cor 16:1–4; 2 Cor 9:1–5, 12–15]). Who was better qualified than Jude to write a letter putting things into a positive perspective? [3] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.5. Cf. Mark 13:14–18; Luke 21:20–24; Acts 11:28. “It is extremely unlikely that Jewish Christians could have participated in the uprising against Rome,” says Hengel, and adds that the two eschatological movements (Christianity and Zealotism) were “firmly opposed to each other” (Hengel, The Zealots, 301). [4] Bateman IV., H. W. (2019). The Minority Report: A Different Assessment For Interpreting Jude, Part 2. Bibliotheca Sacra, 177(706), 197. [5] Bateman IV., H. W. (2019). The Minority Report: A Different Assessment For Interpreting Jude, Part 2. Bibliotheca Sacra, 177(706), 197.