Who Wrote the Letter?
The author of the letter identifies himself as, “Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and a brother of James” (1:1). This brief biographical description gives us some insight into who Jude was.
Jude was the brother of James. There was only one James in the early Christian church who could be simply referred to as James without any other designation. This was James the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and the half-brother of Jesus (see Galatians 1:19). This means that the Jude who wrote this letter was the half-brother of Jesus.
Mark 6:3 Then they scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas (Jude), and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him.
Jesus’ brothers did not believe in him until after his crucifixion and resurrection (see John 7:5; Acts 1:14). Perhaps, Jude’s unwillingness to identify himself as the brother of Jesus was due to his unbelief during Jesus’ ministry on earth.
Other than this, not much is known about Jude. There is a story from church history about Jude’s grandsons, who were brought before the Roman emperor Domitian for questioning. They were eventually released by the emperor, and became leaders in the Christian church.
When Was It Written?
It is difficult to date the letter of Jude because there is very literal internal evidence for dating the epistle. Some believe that the book of 2 Peter was influenced by the book of Jude. 2 Peter was probably written around A.D. 64-65. If 2 Peter is dependent on Jude, then Jude would have to have been written before A.D. 64. However, it is not clear that Jude was written before 2 Peter.
Jude does not mention the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) in his letter, so it is probable that the epistle was written before this time. This would mean that Jude was written in the mid to late 60s.
Who Was Jude’s Audience?
Jude is often grouped together with the “General Epistles” of the New Testament. These letters are called general because the intended recipients of the letters are not identified as they are in Paul’s letters.
Although Jude doesn’t identify his audience, we can gather that they were a specific group of Christians who were dealing with false teachers. Jude also includes numerous references to the Old Testament and other Jewish literature. This tells us that Jude was probably writing to largely Jewish Christians.
