The Book of Jude

I. Title

          The title comes from the name of the author. Jude is the early English equivalent of Judah; the spelling Jude dates from a time when the final "e" in English was pronounced, the same as it is today in German. Jude, Judah, and Judas are all variations of the same name (Ioudas -- Greek; Yehudah -- Hebrew).

II. Author and Setting

          The author of the letter is Jude, based on 1:1:

          Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James,
          To those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ:

          Jude claims to be the brother of James (1:1), which presents the best clue for identifying who this Jude might be. After James the son of Zebedee was martyred by Herod Agrippa I (c. AD 44 -- cf. Acts 12:2), the only James well enough known in the early church would be James of Jerusalem, whom Paul identified as "the Lord's brother" (Galatians 1:19).
          Therefore, Jude is apparently also a half-brother of Jesus, otherwise unmentioned in the New Testament.
          Based on 2 Peter's apparent dependence upon Jude, a date of composition between AD 60 and 65 seems reasonable.

III. An Outline of Jude

I. Introduction 1:1-4
II. False teachers 1:5-16
III. Perseverance 1:17-23
IV. Conclusion 1:24-25

Questions on Jude

1. What pseudopigraphic works does Jude quote from?
2. What does Jude say about false teachers?
3. Explain verse 6. Who are these angels? How do they relate to the angels in 2 Peter 2:4?