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Topic:
The Book Of Jude -- A Brief Overview
The author of the book of Jude was "Judas, the brother of
James" the Less (Jude 1:1), called also Lebbaeus (Matt. 10:3) and
Thaddaeus (Mark 3:18). The genuineness of this epistle was early
questioned, and doubts regarding it were revived at the time of the
Reformation; but the evidences in support of its claims are complete. It
has all the marks of having proceeded from the writer whose name it
bears. There is nothing very definite to determine the time and place at
which it was written. It was apparently written in the later period of
the apostolic age, for when it was written there were persons still
alive who had heard the apostles preach (ver. 17). It may thus have been
written about A.D. 66 or 70, and apparently in Palestine. The epistle is
addressed to Christians in general (ver. 1), and its design is to put
them on their guard against the misleading efforts of a certain class of
errorists to which they were exposed. The style of the epistle is that
of an "impassioned invective, in the impetuous whirlwind of which
the writer is hurried along, collecting example after example of divine
vengeance on the ungodly; heaping epithet upon epithet, and piling image
upon image, and, as it were, labouring for words and images strong
enough to depict the polluted character of the licentious apostates
against whom he is warning the Church; returning again and again to the
subject, as though all language was insufficient to give an adequate
idea of their profligacy, and to express his burning hatred of their
perversion of the doctrines of the gospel." The striking
resemblance this epistle bears to 2 Peter suggests the idea that the
author of the one had seen the epistle of the other. The doxology with
which the epistle concludes is regarded as the finest in the New
Testament.
From: Easton's Bible Dictionary. Fair Use. Presented for educational
purposes only.
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