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Epistle of Jude


The Epistle of Jude, often shortened to Jude, is the next-to-last book of the New Testament and is attributed to Jude, the servant of Jesus and the brother of James the Just.

The letter of Jude was one of the disputed books of the Canon. Although its canonical status was contested, its authenticity was never doubted by the Early Church. The links between the Epistle and 2 Peter, its use of the Apocryphal Books, and its brevity raised concern. It is one of the shortest books/letters in the Bible, being only 25 verses long.

Jude urges his readers to defend the deposit of Christ's doctrine that had been closed by the time he wrote his epistle, and to remember the words of the apostles spoken somewhat before. He uses language similar to the second epistle of Peter to answer concerns that the Lord seemed to tarry, How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts...

Jude then asks the reader to recall how even after the Lord saved his own people out of the land of Egypt, he did not hesitate to destroy those who fell into unbelief, much as he punished the angels who fell from their original exalted status.

Jude quotes directly from the Book of Enoch, part of the scripture of the Ethiopian and Eritrean churches but rejected by other churches. He cites Enoch's prophecy that the Lord would come with many thousands of his saints to render judgement on the whole world. He also paraphrases (verse 9) an incident in a text that has been lost about Satan and Michael the Archangel quarreling over the body of Moses.

I. Salutation (1-3)

II. Occasion for the Letter (3-4)
  A. The change of Subject (3)
  B. The Reason for the Change: The Presence of Godless Apostates (4)

III. Warning against the False Teachers (5-16)
  A. Historical Examples of the Judgement of Apostates (5-7)
    1. Unbelieving Israel (5)
    2. Angels who fell (6)
    3. Sodom and Gomorrah (7)
  B. Description of the Apostates of Jude's Day (8-16)
    1. Their slanderous speech deplored (8-10)
    2. Their character graphically portrayed (11-13)
    3. Their destruction prophesied (14-16)


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