13. Who Was Jude
The identity of the author of the epistle of Jude has often puzzled students of the New Testament. The epistle itself simply calls him "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James" (Jude 1:1). But who was this Jude and what can we learn from his identity?
First, we should realize that the name Jude is just a shortened form of the Jewish name Judah – or, as it was written in Greek, Judas. So it is not difficult to see why modern translations of the Bible call the author of this epistle "Jude" rather than "Judas" in order to differentiate him from Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus.
Some have thought that this righteous Jude was the same person as the other individual called Judas in the lists of the twelve disciples. Although the King James Version calls that apostle "Judas the brother of James" in Luke 6:16, this is based on a mistranslation. The word "brother" does not appear in the Greek of the verse and virtually all other translations call this individual "the son of James," as the expression should be rendered.
Another idea is that Jude was one of the original twelve disciples of Jesus – the one called Thomas. The reason for this is interesting. The Gospel of John calls him "Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve" (John 20:24) and a few early Christian manuscripts actually refer to Thomas as "Didymus Judas Thomas." But while this might seem like a reasonable possibility for the identity of Jude, it is an unlikely one for a number of reasons.
The letter of Jude itself suggests that Jude was neither the apostle called Judas or the one called Thomas. If Jude had been one of the original disciples, there would be no reason why he would not have introduced himself in his letter as the apostle Jude. Even more importantly, the author of Jude specifically does not include himself with the apostles when he wrote: "But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold" (Jude 1:17) – which we can contrast with the nearly identical statement of Peter (who does call himself an apostle) when he says:
… be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior" (2 Peter 3:2 NKJV). It is much more likely that when Jude writes simply that he is "a brother of James," he is referring to James the half-brother of Jesus and author of the epistle of James. This identification has the weight of a great deal of Christian tradition and of scripture itself behind it. Matthew 13:55 records the names of two of the brothers of Jesus as James and Judas, and very early Christian writings state that Jude was that same Judas, the brother of Christ.
Neither of these brothers of Jesus – James and Judas – was among the original disciples who became apostles, and the New Testament tells us, in fact, that they rejected Jesus and his teachings (John 7:5; Matthew 13:57; Mark 3:21; etc.). It was only after the resurrection that Jesus' half-brothers came to believe and then became important members of the early Church, with James becoming the virtual leader of the Jerusalem Christians (Galatians 1:18-19). In stark contrast to the Judas (Iscariot) who appeared to accept Christ's teaching at the beginning, but who betrayed him at the end, the Judas who wrote our book of Jude may have rejected Christ at first yet eventually, like James, he became a fervent believer and upholder of the truth.
In writing to many people he did not know personally, it is inconceivable that the author of the epistle of Jude would simply say he was "Jude the brother of James" unless everyone knew which Jude and which James – the brothers of Jesus – that would be. This puts the first verse of Jude in clear perspective and provides one of the most impressive examples of deep humility in the whole New Testament.
Jude was one of the most important people in the early Church, yet his description of himself as simply "the brother of James" is an amazingly humble one. How many people, if they had been the brother of Jesus, would not have introduced themselves that way?
Yet humility was one of the greatest traits of Jesus (Philippians 2:7) and one which Jude and the other brothers of Jesus had witnessed frequently.
Jude knew that Jesus had described himself as a servant (Matthew 20:28), and in describing himself not as the "brother of Jesus," but as "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:1), Jude begins his letter by stressing that first and foremost he was simply the servant of a servant. This may not tell us what made Jude important, but it tells us exactly who he was.