BIBLE REVIEW - THE BOOK OF JUDE

Thomas Hardy’s bleak novel Jude The Obscure draws its name from this easily forgotten New Testament tract. Jude was allegedly the younger brother to James and Jesus. The Bible’s own clear statement of the existence of siblings for Christ is a thorn in the side (pun intended) for those who believe in the immaculate conception and virgin birth It might be argued that the brothers are step-brothers born to Joseph, or that Mary was allowed to have sex with Joseph after Jesus’s somewhat questionable origin was completed.

Jude’s short epistle is a standard rant and warning to the faithful against false teachings by some early Christian ministers, heavily mimicking, and plagiarizing the letters of Peter & John if they were not actually mining Jude frothier material.

Told in a single chapter, the letter addresses recently converted Christians throughout the World. Jude immediately lambastes false teachings, and warns everyone of what God tends to do when his patience wears out, with reminders of how opponents to Abraham were slaughtered, a reminder of the fates of Sodom & Gomorrah, and how even winged and mighty angels who breach the rules can end up in chains of punishment. (A reference to the un-named hoards of the fallen Lucifer perhaps).

This is brimstone and fire threat to us not to transgress, and sets aside the notion of Jesus meek and mild for a reminder of God in all his Old Testament fury. It sets out unwittingly the schizoid nature of a God who hasn’t mellowed with age.

Jude warns Christians of ending up believing in the words of the false prophets, who can be very convincing unless closely challenged. He sees them as mockers and blasphemers.

Jude offers no practical solution to the schismic divides caused by teachers with varied theological notions. He merely calls on the true faithful to pray, maintain faith in Christ & God, and not to stray. He is in effect content to leave it to God to deal with the false ministers and their brethren. His letter shows that even in such infancy Christians were starting to fight among themselves over the direction their church should go, and the meanings behind its central scriptures.

The brevity of the text, its references and borrowings from other texts, the identification of Jude as a brother to Jesus, citations from the Apocrypha and 2 Peter, all make this work unpopular. Jude is not believed to be the apostle Jude and certainly not Judas. Jude was a common name in those days and the author refers to the apostles in the third person too.

This is the Bible’s penultimate book, coming right before the prophesy of the end of the World – Revelations.

The full text of the Epistle Of Jude http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jude&version=NIV;

Arthur Chappell.

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