Adoption Into The Canon
ADOPTION INTO THE CANON
There are apparently traces of this letter in Clement of Rome, Hermas, Polycarp, Barnabas and perhaps the Didache, although none is so definite that we can say with certainty that the writer was citing Jude as sacred Scripture. Jude is mentioned in the Muratorian Canon along with two epistles of John, and some critics think that the way the sentence is worded implies doubts about whether these books should be included. But the canon cites them after some books that are excluded and speaks of them in such a way as to indicate a contrast; on a straightforward reading of the canon, they are included. 5 The letter is cited by writers such as Tertullian and Clement of Alexandria, so that with Rome, Africa, and Egypt using the book, it apparently had wide acceptance around A.D. 200. After that it seems to have waned in popularity, but Origen uses it (though he implies that some people did not), and Eusebius classes it among the disputed books. But it won its way and was accepted except by the Syriac Canon (which also excluded the other Catholic Epistles and Revelation). Those who had doubts apparently were influenced by the fact that the author made use of Apocryphal books: some in the early church were sure that no canonical writer would do this. But in time it was seen that this is no sufficient reason for doubts, and acceptance became universal.