The Letter of Jude

Intruders. "Certain intruders have stolen in among you" (v. 4). They took part in the community's meals, called "love-feasts" (v. 12), and yet they lived immoral lives, despised authority and caused divisions (vv. 8, 19). Their error was to "pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness" (v. 4). Benedict XVI sums up the concern in these terms: people who use God's grace as an excuse for immoral conduct and who corrupt others with unacceptable teachings.

A Jewish Christian world. Jude thinks in the examples of the Hebrew Bible: Israel in the desert (v. 5), Sodom and Gomorrah (v. 7), Cain, Balaam and Korah (v. 11). He also uses Jewish books outside the canon. The dispute of Michael over the body of Moses (v. 9) was linked by St Clement of Alexandria and Origen, as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes, with a work called the Assumption of Moses. And verses 14 to 15 follow the book of 1 Enoch.

Quoting is not canonising. St Jerome tells us that many rejected Jude because it quotes the apocryphal Enoch, and that "by age and use it has gained authority" (Illustrious Men 4). Tertullian went the other way and used Jude to defend Enoch (The Apparel of Women 1.3). Jude's use of these books does not make them part of the Catholic canon. Paul too quotes pagan poets (Acts 17:28). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church keeps Enoch in its Bible; the Catholic canon, defined at Trent, does not include it.

Jude's family. Hegesippus, quoted by Eusebius (Church History 3.19 to 20), tells of the grandsons of Jude. They were brought before the Emperor Domitian, as relatives of Christ of David's line. They showed him their workers' hands and said that the kingdom of Christ was heavenly. He let them go. Afterwards, it says, they led churches, as witnesses and relatives of the Lord.

The Church's tradition. Trent (1546) lists "one of Jude the apostle". Benedict XVI, in his audience on Simon and Jude (11 October 2006), speaks of the letter as "attributed to Jude Thaddaeus".

• Which Jude? There are several Judes in the New Testament. This one is not Judas Iscariot. Luke names "Judas son of James" among the Twelve (Lk 6:16; Acts 1:13); Mark and Matthew have Thaddaeus in the same place (Mk 3:18; Mt 10:3). Tradition takes them as one man. At the Last Supper he asks Jesus a question, marked by John as "not Iscariot" (Jn 14:22).
• "Brother of James". This is most naturally James of Jerusalem, himself called "the Lord's brother" (Gal 1:19). So Jude would be the Judas named with him in Mk 6:3 and Mt 13:55. The Church has always understood these "brothers" as close relations of Jesus and not as other children of the Virgin Mary (Catechism 500). Jude's own modesty is worth noticing: he calls himself only a servant of Jesus Christ.

Early witness. An ancient Roman list, the Muratorian Fragment, accepts it. Tertullian, St Clement of Alexandria and Origen all know it. Eusebius notes that "not many of the ancients have mentioned it" (Church History 2.23) and lists it among the disputed books (3.25), though St Athanasius includes it in 367. Parts of the Syriac-speaking Church accepted it late: the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the Peshitta lacks it.

A scholarly note. Traditionally by Jude Thaddeus, Apostle and relative of the Lord. Many Catholic commentators of an earlier age took this identification as most probable, as the Catholic Encyclopedia says. Today, some scholars distinguish the Lord's relative from the Apostle, pointing to verse 17, where the writer seems to look back on "the apostles". Others think that a later disciple wrote in his name. These questions do not touch the letter's place as inspired Scripture (Dei Verbum 11). 2 Peter 2 and Jude have much in common, and most scholars, and the Catholic Encyclopedia, think that 2 Peter used Jude.

St Jude in devotion. According to tradition he preached and died a martyr, with St Simon, and they are honoured together on 28 October in the Latin Church. Because the name was so like that of Iscariot, some say he was neglected, and that this is how he became a patron of desperate causes. That is a popular explanation and not history.

• The faith is a gift to guard. It was "once for all entrusted to the saints" (v. 3). The Catechism cites this for the Church's unbreakable hold on the faith (93, 171) and for the People of God (785). This does not exclude growth in understanding (Dei Verbum 8). It rules out exchanging it for something else.
• Grace is no licence. God's mercy is real and it changes us; to treat it as permission to sin is to deny the Lord (v. 4).
• Judgment is real, and so is mercy. Jude's examples are serious (vv. 5 to 7, 14 to 15). His reading of them is part of the warning. We leave the judgment of each person to the justice and mercy of God (Catechism 1861).
• Restraint, even with the devil. The archangel Michael did not dare to slander, and he only said, "The Lord rebuke you!" (v. 9). Jude's point is that those who insult everything are less than an archangel.
• Build, pray, keep, look. The positive program is in four verbs: "build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord" (vv. 20 to 21). The Trinity is in these lines: Spirit, Father and Son.
• Mercy with those in danger. "Have mercy on some who are wavering; save others by snatching them out of the fire" (vv. 22 to 23). After all the strong language, this is the goal: rescue. What is hated is the stained tunic, and never the person.
• God keeps us. Those who are called are "kept safe for Jesus Christ" (v. 1), and God can "keep you from falling" (v. 24). Our guarding of the faith rests on God's guarding of us. Perseverance is itself his grace (Catechism 2016).

Strong language today. Benedict XVI notes that we no longer use such polemic. Yet, he says, it reminds us to protect the core of Christian identity. The dialogue that the Second Vatican Council rightly encouraged must not make us neglect the essentials of the faith, which call for strength, clarity and courage. Jude's images are aimed at conduct within the community. They are not for use against those of other faiths or churches. Korah, Cain and the others are examples from Scripture for all of us, and they are no comment on the Jewish people.

• Master and Lord. "Our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (v. 4). For a monotheist Jew who knew the Scriptures, those are astonishing words to use of a man he may have known at home.
• Keeper. Believers are "kept safe for Jesus Christ" (v. 1).
• Mercy to come. We "look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ" (v. 21). The judge of the last day is the one whose mercy we await.
• The way to the Father. All glory goes to the only God "through Jesus Christ our Lord" (v. 25). The Church prays in the same way to this day.

The Catechism cites verse 3 at 93, 171 and 785, and verses 24 to 25 at 2641, where it speaks of the hymns of the first Christians.

Benedict XVI gave a catechesis on Simon the Cananaean and Jude Thaddaeus on 11 October 2006. He calls the closing doxology one of the most beautiful passages, and he sees in it a faith lived to the full, expressed in moral integrity, joy, trust and praise.

The Fathers, in substance. St Jerome records that the letter won its place "by age and use". St Clement of Alexandria commented on it among the disputed books (Eusebius, Church History 6.14).

In the liturgy.

• Latin. Never on a Sunday; read on a weekday of the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time in Year II. On the feast of Saints Simon and Jude the readings are of the Apostles and not from this letter.
• Syro-Malabar. In the 2026 to 2027 calendar we examined: Jude 8 to 13 on the Fifth Wednesday of the Great Fast.
• Syro-Malankara. We did not find it among the readings of the Qurbono in the 2026 to 2027 calendar we examined, which does not cover every weekday.

It takes five minutes. Start at the end: read verses 20 to 25 first, and learn the doxology. Then read from verse 1, knowing where Jude is going. Look up the stories he mentions: Num 14; Gen 19; Gen 4; Num 22 to 24; Num 16. Then read 2 Peter 2 beside it. Finish with the doxology again.