Bible Dictionaries
Jude, Epistle of Saint

1910 New Catholic Dictionary

When rising heresies endangered the faith of the Hebrew Christian communities, the Apostle Jude, with the surname Thaddeus (Matthew 10), the brother of James the Less (Luke 6) and one of the "brethren of the Lord" (Matthew 13), addressed to them his "Catholic Epistle" as a warning against the false prophets. With picturesque forcefulness the author expresses a wealth of practical doctrine in this singularly brief document. The illustrations are mostly drawn from the Old Testament and, what is remarkable, from the Jewish apocalyptic literature, i.e.,The Assumption of Moses (verse 9) and the Book of Enoch (verse 14). The historical proofs of divine punishment (5-7) are a prophetic assurance that a like punishment is awaiting the depraved teachers. Hence the readers must be faithful to the teaching of the Apostles. The Epistle was most probably written in Jerusalem after the death of its first bishop, James, to whose authority the author makes appeal in verse 1, and before the destruction of the city, hence about 65 AD.

Bibliography Information
Entry for 'Jude, Epistle of Saint'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ncd/​j/jude-epistle-of-saint.html. 1910.