Jude Series: Authorship of Jude

The author of the epistle of Jude identifies himself with the expression Ioudas Iēsou Christou doulos, adelphos de Iakōbou (Ἰούδας Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοῦλος, ἀδελφὸς δὲ Ἰακώβου), “From Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James.” (NET)

The name Ioudas(Ἰούδας), “Jude” is translated as “Judah,” “Judas” or “Jude” depending on the person to whom reference is made.

It was a very common Jewish name held in honor because of its namesake, Judah, one of the twelve sons of Israel.

Judah was the son of Jacob and Leah (Gen. 29:35) and his name means “I will praise the Lord.”

There are seven men mentioned in the Greek New Testament who bear the name of “Jude.”

One of these individuals was a physical or biological descendant of Jesus Christ (Luke 3:30) and one was the traitor of Jesus (Mark 3:19).

Another one of these individuals was the brother of James, who is also called Thaddaeus, who was one of the twelve apostles (Luke 6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13).

Another was a Galilean who incited the Jewish people to revolt against Rome and was killed by the Romans (Acts 5:37).

Acts 9:11 identifies a Jude who was a native of Damascus who demonstrated hospitality to the apostle Paul who was praying after the latter’s conversion.

Acts 15:22, 27 and 32 mention a Jude who served as an emissary of the church in Jerusalem who, along with Silas, bore the results of the church council to Antioch.

Lastly, Mark 6:3 mentions a Jude who was the brother of James and the half-brother of Jesus.

His brother James wrote the book which bears the latter’s name.

Now, the Jude who identifies himself in Jude 1 as the brother of James must be the brother of James who wrote one of the letters which appears in the Greek New Testament which bears his name and is an apostle of Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7; Gal. 1:19; 2:9, 12).

Consequently, James and Jude were half-brothers of Jesus (cf. Matt. 13:35; Mark 6:3).

As Gromacki states “If he had been the apostle, Judas Thaddaeus, he would have used that official title. If he had been one of the other possibilities, he would have further identified himself (e.g., Barsabbas, or, of Damascus). Since he indicated his relationship to James, he must have referred to the half-brother of Jesus who was the author of the Book of James.[1]He apparently did not consider himself to be a commissioned apostle (1, 17–18).”[2]

The Jude who wrote the epistle of Jude, like his brother James and other half-brothers of Jesus did not believe that the latter was the Christ and incarnate Son of God prior to His resurrection (Mark 6:3; John 7:3–8).

He evidently believed in Jesus as the incarnate Son of God as a result of the resurrection since he appears with his mother Mary, his brothers, and the other apostles in the upper room after the ascension of Christ (Acts 1:14).

Therefore, he must have been converted during the forty days of Christ’s post resurrection appearances.

Like his brother James, the Jude who penned the epistle of Jude does not identify himself.

Since we noted that he is not the brother of James, who is also called Thaddaeus, who was one of the twelve apostles, he was not an apostle like his brother James.

Many scholars and expositors of the epistle of Jude view this letter as a “pseudonymous” work.

The term “pseudonymity” refers to the practice of publishing one’s writings under a revered person’s name.

However, the epistle of Jude is not a “pseudonymous” letter since this practice was frowned upon by the early church.

In fact, the apostles like Paul would guarantee the authenticity of their letters to protect against forgeries or someone posing as them in a letter. (cf. 2 Thess. 3:17-18; Gal.; Col. 4:18).

Furthermore, Jude identifies himself as the author of this letter, which bears his name and there is no evidence whatsoever that this epistle is written by someone else.

Lastly, it was more likely that someone would pose as a well-known author like James, an apostle rather than Jude who was the younger brother of James and younger half-brother of Jesus and not an apostle.

The existence of the practice of pseudonymity in the ancient world is not disputed since it is well documented.

It was used in Greco-Roman cultures as a literary means of drawing on ancient authorities to address contemporary situations.

This process was accepted and understood and was not consider something that was deceptive.

However, this cannot be applied to Christianity.

Tertullian describes an elder who falsely had written under the name of Paul in an attempt to increase Paul’s fame because he loved him.

However, he was removed from his office (On Baptism).

The early church was very much concerned about receiving authentic Pauline epistles and would totally reject the practice of pseudonymity.

The early church was very concerned with problems of literary fraud and Paul was too as we can see in 2 Thessalonians 2:2 and Galatians 6:11.

Köstenberger writes “The view is common that Jude’s letter is pseudonymous, that it was written by someone other than Jude and attributed to him for some reason.[3]This practice was supposedly in keeping with the ancient convention of pseudonymity, according to which a literary work was attributed to a well-known personality in order to lend it credence and to enlarge its potential audience. But the obvious question is why anyone would have wanted to attribute a writing to a person as little known as Jude rather than to other disciples known much more widely.[4] In addition, Bauckham has convincingly argued for the “very considerable importance of the relatives of Jesus in the mission and leadership of the churches of Palestine in the first century,” and it should be unsurprising that the early church has preserved a work produced by one of Jesus’s relatives.[5]”[6]

Thomas Schreiner writes “The theory of pseudonymity, however, does not furnish a convincing explanation for attributing the work to Jude since the latter was not well known in early Christianity.[7]We would expect a pseudonymous writer to invest his writing with dignity by choosing someone other than the rather obscure Jude as the author. Nevertheless, some think that Jude was honored and well known in Palestinian Christianity.[8]But if one desired to select a famous person in Palestine, James would have been a better candidate, for even the author of Jude locates himself in relation to James. Furthermore, a pseudonymous author, if he desired to impress readers with his credentials, would have introduced himself as Jude the brother of Jesus.[9]The writer did not try to impress the reader with Jude’s relationship to Jesus but simply stated his relation to James. It is most likely, then, that the author was genuinely Jude the brother of James, both of whom were brothers of Jesus Christ.[10]”[11]

[1] See the section under James for a further discussion of Jude’s physical relationship to Jesus. [2] Gromacki, R. G. (1974). New Testament survey (pp. 385–386). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic. [3] On the phenomenon of pseudonymity, see the bibliographic references listed in fn 4 above. [4] So rightly Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus, 175, with reference to Farrar, Weiss, Zahn, Moffat, Wohlenberg, Cranfield, Green, and Guthrie; cf. Bauckham, “Account of Research,” 3,817–18. At times it is argued that the author of Jude was not Jude himself but rather a friend, student, or relative of Jude (B. Reicke, The Epistles of James, Peter and Jude, AB 37 [Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964]; J. Michl, Die katholischen Briefe, RNT 8/2, 2nd ed. [Regensburg, Germany: F. Pustet, 1968]; W. Grundmann, Der Brief des Judas und der Zweite Brief des Petrus, THNT 15 [Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter, 1974], 15–16) or that he belonged to a “circle of Judas” (G. Hollmann, Der Brief Judas und der Zweite Brief des Petrus, in Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments, vol. 2, ed. J. Weiss [Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1907], 572). The argument has also been advanced that the epithet “brother of James” served to lend authority to Jude’s letter (W. Schrage, Der Judasbrief, in Die “Katholischen” Briefe: Die Briefe des Jakobus, Petrus, Johannes und Judas, 11th ed., ed. H. Balz and W. Schrage, NTD 10 [Göttingen, Germany: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1973], 220). Yet these theories are far less plausible than the simpler assumption that Jude, the brother of James, was himself the author of the letter. [5] Bauckham, Jude and the Relatives of Jesus, 131. [6] Köstenberger, A. J., Kellum, L. S., & Quarles, C. L. (2016). The cradle, the cross, and the crown: an introduction to the new testament(p. 875). Nashville, TN: B&H Academic. [7] So J. W. C. Wand, The General Epistles of Peter and Jude, WC (London: Methuen, 1934), 188. A. Vögtle suggests that the author desired to counter the antinomianism of the opponents by appealing to the circle of the Lord’s brothers. Since James was already known to be dead, he selected Jude, who was still known at the end of the first century (Der Judasbrief, der 2 Petrusbrief, EKKNT [Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1994], 11). Such a view suggests that the author deliberately intended to deceive the readers. [8] Rowston, “Most Neglected Book,” 560. [9] Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 14; id., Relatives of Jesus, 176. [10] So also C. E. B. Cranfield, I and II Peter and Jude: Introduction and Commentary, TBC (London: SCM, 1960), 146–48 (a.d. 70–80); D. Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, 4th ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1990), 902–905; M. Green, The Second Epistle General of Peter and the General Epistle of Jude, 2d ed., TNTC (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 48–52. [11] Schreiner, T. R. (2003). 1, 2 Peter, Jude (Vol. 37, p. 406). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.