Jude pointed to the Apostles of Jesus, telling his readers that they should look to the words, which they had preached or had written to them (Jude 1:17), that there would be mockers in the last time (Jude 1:18). The Greek word he used for spoken in verse-17 is proereo (G4280) and means to foretell; it refers to what was said before.[1] In the context of Jude’s epistle, the Apostles had mentioned the mockers to Jude’s readers at sometime in the past, and in doing so, they foretold that mockers would come in the last time, and they could have done so by word of mouth or through the written word.
Some scholars tell us that, because Jude mentions the Apostles in verse-17, but doesn’t claim to be among them, that he couldn’t have been the Apostle, Jude. Therefore, he must be Jude, the Lord’s half brother. I don’t believe this is a strong enough detail in this epistle to say Jude couldn’t have been one of the Twelve. We need to ask ourselves if Jude really intended to identify himself to his readers. He begins by saying he is Jude, however, Jude was not only a common name in the first century AD, it was also the name of two of the Twelve, but which one was he. He tells us he was the brother of James, who was one of the three leaders of the Twelve: Peter, Philip and James.[2] If he merely claimed he was one of the Twelve, he still would have had to have said he was the brother of James, and not the son of Simon the Zealot. That Jude (of Simon) would have been Judas Iscariot, a member of the Sicarii, which was a Jewish zealot splinter group in the first century AD.
Moreover, Jude, the Lord’s brother wasn’t a believer, until after Jesus’ resurrection (cp. John 7:5). Additionally, the Lord claimed the disciples, who would be his witnesses, would be of those who had been with him from the beginning (John 15:27). Therefore, I believe the evidence that the author of Jude’s epistle was one of the Twelve far outweighs the unpersuasive suggestion that Jude was too modest to say he was the Lord’s half-brother.
So, Jude told his readers they needed to contend for the faith that was once delivered to them (Jude 1:3) by the Apostles (verse-17), because “certain men crept in unawares” (Jude 1:4) who were mockers of things spiritual (cp. 2Peter 2:1; 3:3), whose coming in this, the last time (verse-18) of the Old Covenant age, was predicted (cp. Deuteronomy 31:28-29). Moses foretold they would be a perverse and crooked generation (Deuteronomy 32:5), which Jesus applied to the generation in which he lived (Matthew 16:4; 17:17; Luke 9:41), and to which Peter also said he preached (Acts 2:40). These, said Jude, are they who walk after their own impious desires, meaning those desires have nothing to do with the faith, which the Apostle claimed needed to be defended, because of those men who had crept in secretly to take advantage of the good will of believers (Jude 1:16).
The plan was to turn believers away from Christ (verse-4) and back to serving the Law. In other words, they excluded certain believers (Galatians 4:17) in order that they might draw those believers into fellowship with themselves, who were the false teachers, the separatists, i.e. the observers of the Law. They claimed that they alone, knew how the “gospel” should be preached (Galatians 1:6-9), and they, alone, served God, as he should be served (Jude 1:19). Thus, denying the power of Christ, who is in the believer, to lead him in the way he should go (Jude 1:4; cp. 2John 1:7). They are physically minded, bound up in the Law, and do not have the Sprit of God in them (Jude 1:19).
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[1] The Greek word is used by Jesus in the Olivet Prophecy (Matthew 24:25; Mark 13:23). It was used by Paul in his epistle to the Galatians (Galatians 1:9); he also used it in his epistles to the Corinthians, Romans and to the Hebrews. It was also used by Peter in 2Peter 3:2, and finally by Jude, here, in his epistle.
[2] See my earlier study: Jude, the Brother of James.
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