Editing Epistle of Jude (section)

==Authorship==
The epistle introduces itself with a simple claim of authorship: "Jude, a servant of [[Jesus]] Christ and brother of James".<ref>{{bibleverse|Jude|1|NRSV}}: [[New Revised Standard Version]] (NRSV)</ref> "James" is generally taken to mean [[James, brother of Jesus]], a prominent leader in the early church. Introductions would typically refer to a father in the era, so the use of a brother suggests that this would only be done if the brother was famous within the community. Little is known about Jude himself. As the brother of James, it has traditionally meant Jude was also a [[Brothers of Jesus|brother of Jesus]], since James is described as being the brother of Jesus. This is why [[Clement of Alexandria]] (c.&nbsp;150–215 AD) wrote in his work "Comments on the Epistle of Jude" that Jude, the author, was a son of Joseph and a brother of Jesus.<ref>"Jude wrote the Catholic Epistle, the brother of the sons of Joseph, and very religious, while knowing the near relationship of the Lord, yet did not say that he himself was His brother. But what said he? "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ,"—of Him as Lord; but "the brother of James." For this is true; he was His brother, (the son) of Joseph."{{cite book|last1=of Alexandria|first1=Clement|title=Comments on the Epistle of Jude|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0211.htm|access-date=24 September 2015}}</ref>  However, there is a dispute as to whether "brother" means someone who has the same father and mother, or a half-brother, cousin, or more distant familial relationship. This dispute over the true meaning of "brother" grew as the [[Virgin birth of Jesus|doctrine of the Virgin Birth]] evolved.<ref>Jocelyn Rhys, ''Shaken Creeds: The Virgin Birth Doctrine: A Study of Its Origin'', Kessinger Publishing (reprint), 2003 [1922] {{ISBN|0-7661-7988-5}}, pp 3–53</ref><ref>Chester, A and Martin, RP (1994), 'The Theology of the Letters of James, Peter and Jude', CUP, p.65</ref>{{sfn|Bauckham|1983|pp=13-16}}  For example, [[Saint Jerome]] believed that not only Mary but also Joseph were virgins their entire lives, and thus James and by extension Jude were cousins.<ref name=Ehrman2015>{{cite web|url=https://ehrmanblog.org/the-virgin-birth-and-jesus-brothers/|title=The Virgin Birth and Jesus' Brothers|last=Ehrman|first=Bart|authorlink=Bart Ehrman|date=January 3, 2015|website=The Bart Ehrman Blog: The History & Literature of Early Christianity|access-date=18 February 2024}}</ref>

Outside the book of Jude, a "Jude" is mentioned five times in the New Testament: three times as [[Jude the Apostle]],<ref>{{bibleverse|Luke|6:16|9}}, {{bibleverse|Acts|1:13|9}}, {{bibleverse|John|14:22|9}}</ref> and twice as [[Jude, brother of Jesus|Jude the brother of Jesus]]<ref>{{bibleverse|Matthew|13:55|9}}, {{bibleverse|Mark|6:3|9}}</ref> (aside from references to [[Judas Iscariot]] and [[Judah (son of Jacob)]]). Debate continues as to whether the author of the epistle is the apostle, the brother of Jesus, both, or neither. Scholars have argued that since the author of the letter has not identified himself as an apostle and also refers to the apostles as a third party, he cannot be identified with Jude the Apostle. Other scholars have drawn the opposite conclusion, which is that, as an apostle, he would not have made a claim of apostleship on his own behalf.{{sfn|Bauckham|1983|pp=13-16}}  Scholars who have defended the authorship of the brother of James as plausible include [[Richard Bauckham]].<ref name=Bauckham2015>{{cite book|last=Bauckham|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Bauckham|title=Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church|year=2015|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|location=|isbn=978-1474230469}}</ref>

A reason to doubt that a relative of Jesus wrote the book is that they are unlikely to have been literate.<ref name=Reicke1964/> Jesus's family were common laborers from [[Aramaic]]-speaking Galilee, and literary composition skills were overwhelmingly concentrated in the elite in antiquity. Few knew how to read, fewer how to write, and fewer still how to write complicated literary treatises. Jesus himself may have been able to read, presumably in Hebrew, but he was also exceptional and the star of the family. Even if somehow Jude had learned a little of how to read Hebrew, the epistle is written in excellent, complicated Koine Greek, with knowledge of common forms of rhetoric and argument of the era, as well as seeming knowledge of the scriptures in Hebrew. All this would be exceptional for a countryside Galilean. Scholars who support the authorship of Jude generally assume that he must have embarked upon extensive travel and missionary work among [[Hellenized Jews]] to master Greek as the author did. Ultimately, it is impossible to know more details of Jude's life for sure. One early Christian tradition states that Jude's grandchildren were brought before Emperor [[Domitian]] and interrogated; in the story, they defended themselves as not rebels and mere poor laborers eking out what they could from a single patch of land. While the story is clearly apocryphal – Roman emperors did not generally interrogate Galilean peasants – it does suggest that early Christians remembered Jude's family as lower-class laborers, not literate elites.<ref name=Ehrman2012>{{cite book|last=Ehrman|first=Bart|author-link=Bart Ehrman|year=2012|title=Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=297–305|isbn=9780199928033}}</ref>

If the Jude writing the letter was not Jude the Apostle mentioned in the gospels, then he was possibly an unknown Christian who happened to share the name and coincidentally also had a brother named James. A final possibility is that the epistle is [[pseudepigrapha]] – that the author intentionally hinted to readers that it was from the more famous Jude, but only as a false attribution to give the letter more authority.<ref name=Ehrman2012/><ref name=Reicke1964>{{harvnb|Reicke|1964|pp=189–192}}.</ref>

===Date===
The date of composition is not known, but is loosely speculated to be between the years 50 and 110.  If the epistle was written by the Jude mentioned in the gospels, that would place it sometime in the early apostolic age of {{circa|50&ndash;70}} before [[Siege of Jerusalem (70 CE)|the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem]]; if the letter reflects "early catholicism" and the beginnings of an organized church, then a date of the last decade of the first century or the early second century ({{circa|90&ndash;110}}) is indicated; and if the letter is an attack on [[Gnosticism]], then a much later date is indicated, perhaps around 150 AD.<ref>{{harvnb|Neyrey|1993|pp=29–31}}.</ref><ref>''[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/03d/0265-0339,_Eusebius_Caesariensis,_Historia_ecclesiastica_%5BSchaff%5D,_EN.pdf Historia Ecclesiastica]'', translated by Arthur Cushman McGiffert. See footnote on p. 203 by McGiffert.</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Perry|first=Peter S.|chapter=Jude|pages=513–516|title=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Books of the Bible |date=2011|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=9780195377378}}</ref>  Scholars who consider the letter a [[pseudonym]]ous work generally favor the later dates due to the letter's references to the [[Apostles in the New Testament|apostles]] (as if they lived in the past)<ref>{{bibleverse|Jude|1:17-18|NRSV|Jude 17–18}}</ref> and to an authoritative tradition,<ref>{{bibleverse|Jude|1:3|NRSV|Jude 3}}</ref> and because of its competent Greek style.<ref name=NAB>{{cite web|url=http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/jude/jude.htm|publisher=[[United States Conference of Catholic Bishops]]|title=Jude|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110428095357/https://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/jude/jude.htm|archive-date=2011-04-28}}</ref><ref name="perrin">{{cite book |last1=Perrin |first1=Norman |author-link=Norman Perrin |last2=Duling |first2=Dennis C. |date=1982 |orig-date=1974 |title=The New Testament: An Introduction |edition=Second |publisher=Harcourt Brace Jovanovich |pages=379–381 |isbn=}}</ref>{{sfn|Bauckham|1983|pp=13-16}} [[Bo Reicke]] suggests around 90 AD; Heikki Räisänen concurs and believes that it may have been written at the end of the first century.<ref name=Reicke1964/><ref>Heikki Räisänen, The Rise of Christian Beliefs: The Thought World of Early Christians, p. 66. "The Epistle of Jude is another letter written in the name of a brother of Jesus, perhaps toward the end of the first century. It consists of a vicious attack against some other Christians."</ref> [[Bart Ehrman]] also agrees that toward the end of the first century is the most likely, due to use of certain terminology in ways similar to the [[pastoral epistles]] that match a late first century date.<ref name=Ehrman2012/>