NOTE (D) ON JUDE THE LORD'S BROTHER. A few sentences, and but a few, must be added respecting the only other son of Joseph of whom we possess any information. This information consists of some uncertain conclusions based upon the short letter to which his name is prefixed, and of a single legend about his grandsons. Unlike the writings of Peter, the epistle of Jude is anything but autobiographical. Two or three phrases however occur in it which shed a glimmer of light upon the character and surroundings of its author. Thus, when he says "remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that they told you the impression is conveyed to the mind of a reader innocent of controversy that the writer was not himself an apostle.' We have however conceded the possibility of taking the words so as to include. him among the apostles, though by no means admitting him within the circle of the original Twelve. Especially would this be the case if, with one manuscript, we were to read "how that they told us." This latter view may seem preferable, as agreeing with his modest introduction of himself in the superscription of the epistle, where, instead of announcing his kinship with the Lord and independence of James, he accepts in both particulars the lowlier place, coming before the reader as "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James." The date of the letter cannot be determined with any degree of accuracy from the vague hints of time which it contains. It has been generally agreed that an origin should be assigned to it anterior to the fall of Jerusalem, while a comparison between it and the second epistle of Peter leads to the belief that here we have the free, primal outflow of ideas which have been condensed in the other and adapted to a somewhat different purpose. If the date be obscure, it cannot be said that the persons for whom the letter was composed are indicated with much greater definiteness. That they were Jews may be gathered from allusions to the canonical and apocryphal scriptures of that nation; that they were familiar with James the Just is also probable; but little more can be hazarded about them than that they lived amid a wicked populace, by whose communications their good morals were in danger of being corrupted. Already the mischief had begun to spread; the community addressed was like a ship that had sprung a leak, and between whose timbers the destructive waters were forcing a way; this epistle is a vehement appeal to the crew to man the pumps, conquer the peril and make the vessel secure. Nothing can exceed the trenchant denunciations with which St. Jude chastizes the invaders of the Church. They were men who had crept in subtilely like the serpent into Paradise, men who abused religious privilege, denying in life if not in word our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ, sunken rocks at the love-feasts, upon which all charity was like to be wrecked, dissatisfied grumblers and scoffing schismatics. The annals of the past are swept for parallels to their crime and types of their impending doom; in the attack upon them the vocabulary of invective seems to be exhausted; the epistle is the hundred and ninth psalm of the New Testament. The writer shews himself meantime aware that the rhetoric of accusation is a blade easily snapped or blunted, sharp though its first strokes may be. Accordingly he exhorts his readers to contend earnestly for the faith which had been once for all delivered to the saints, to recall the instructions they had received touching the common salvation, and jealously to keep their hearts in the love of God while working for the well-being of their neighbours. With such gentler admonitions as these, he commends them to Him who was able to keep them from falling, even to the only God our Saviour through Jesus Christ our Lord. The legend of Jude's grandsons' relates that the two young men were brought before the Emperor Domitian in answer to an inquiry he had been making about the posterity of David. When asked to give I Given by Hegesippus, in Eusebius, bk. iii. cap. 20. an account of the manner of their life and of the nature of Christ's kingdom, they showed him their hands, all furrowed and horny with labour, as proof that they lived by honest toil, telling him at the same time that the kingdom they looked for was not temporal but of a heavenly origin. Satisfied by this answer that no revolutionary design was to be apprehended from them, the suspicious tyrant dismissed them with contempt. They then being released presided over the churches in the double character of relations of the Lord and confessors of the faith. |