Jude

Three things are to be premised here in the usual manner: first, concerning the author of this Epistle; second, concerning its authority; third, concerning its argument.

As to the first, the author is Judas, not Iscariot, but of James, namely his brother; of James, I say, the Lesser, who was called the brother of the Lord, and who wrote the canonical Epistle. He had as his mother Mary of Alphaeus, or Cleophas, namely his wife; who is also called the mother of James, Mark xv, 40. She is also called the sister of the Blessed Virgin, and stood with her at the cross of Christ, John xix, 25, not that she was properly her sister and daughter of St. Joachim and St. Anne, as St. Jerome held against Helvidius; Theodoret, Luke vi; Bede and Anselm, Galatians 1, but sister in Hebrew phrase, that is, a kinswoman or cousin. This Mary of Alphaeus therefore had four sons, of whom three were chosen by Christ for the Apostolate, namely James, Judas and Simon; the fourth was Joseph, a competitor of Matthias, when the lot of the apostolate fell upon Matthias, Acts I. Hence these four are called the brothers of Christ, Matthew XIII, 55, not that they were sons of Joseph, the spouse of the Blessed Virgin, by another wife, and consequently stepsons of the Blessed Virgin and properly brothers of Christ, as the Nyssenus held, oration 2 On the Resurrection; Origen, Theophylactus and Euthymius in Matthew XIII; Clement of Alexandria here; Epiphanius, heresy 31; Chrysostom, oration On the Annunciation; Hilary, commentary 1 on Matthew; Ambrosiaster on Galatians cap. II; Oecumenius and Cajetan, Galatians I. Whence also the Arabic version has thus at the beginning of the Epistle: "Judas, son of Joseph the carpenter." For Joseph was celibate and a virgin, as St. Jerome transmits against Helvidius, Bede in John cap. II, Rupert in Matthew cap. 1, the Master in IV, dist. 30, cap. On the Blessed Mary, St. Thomas, III part., Question XXVIII, art. 3, ad 5, and others. See Canisius, lib. II On the Mother of God, cap. xiii; Suarez, III part., tom. II, disp. 5, sect. 4; Toledo in John, cap. II, annot. 18, and Salmeron, tom. III, tract. 23. They are therefore called brothers of Christ, that is, kinsmen, or relatives, just as their mother is called sister, that is, a kinswoman of the Blessed Virgin.

As to the etymology, Judas in Hebrew is the same as confession and praise, or confessor and praiser, namely of God and Christ. He appears to have received this name from Judah the most mighty and most celebrated of the sons of Jacob, Genesis cap. xlix, vers. 8. He, equally as his brother Simon, was surnamed Cananæus, as if sprung from Cana of Galilee, that is, Zealot, as testified by St. Jerome in cap. iv to Galatians, because he was zealous for the Lord, as St. Fulgentius says, serm. 9. Whence this voice of his full of love and zeal to Christ is recorded by St. John, xiv, 22: "Lord, why is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not to the world?" For this voice of his was stirred by those words of Christ going to death, full of the greatest love: "He that loveth me, shall be loved of my Father: and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Hence the same Judas was surnamed Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus, that is, lion-like, from לביא labi, that is, lion, or wise-hearted. For lion in Hebrew is called labi from לב leb, that is, heart, as if wise-hearted, or courageous, because from generosity and presence of mind undaunted. For the heart is the seat and symbol of fortitude; whence Aristomenes, who had astounded all Greece by a miracle of boldness, after death when dissected, was found to have a heart entirely covered with hair, as testified by Pliny lib. XI, cap. xxxvii. Again, Lebbaeus, that is, little heart: for it is likely that Lebbaeus is almost the same as Thaddaeus: for the Greek Matthew x, 3, and the Syriac thus have it: "Lebbaeus, who was surnamed Thaddaeus." Lebbaeus therefore is the same as little heart, from לב leb, that is, heart, as St. Jerome says in Matthew cap. x, as if to say, wonderfully cordial, benevolent, lovable; or wonderfully wise and prudent; for those who were very cautious and prudent were called little hearts, as Pliny says, lib. VII, cap. xxxi; and Festus: "Little heart," he says, "the ancients called from the heart one who was diligent and sharp." Whence Scipio Nasica, on account of prudence twice consul, was called Corculum, as Cicero says in Tusculan I.

Thaddaeus moreover is not so much derived from the Hebrew toda, that is, praise: for thus it would have been said Thoddaeus; as from the Syriac תד thad (the Hebrews say צד sad; whence God is called Saddai, that is, the breast of all goods); but the Syrians and Chaldeans often turn the Hebrew s into t, and for sad they say thad, for Saddaeus they say Thaddaeus, that is, breast, udder, as if to say, breasted, generous, sweet, merciful, kind, beneficent. Thus the Angel Caninius in Names of Hebrew of the New Testament, cap. XIII. Furthermore St. Jerome (or whoever is the author; for it is not St. Jerome) in Mark cap. vi, and from him Pagninus in Names of Hebrew interpreted, wish Lebbaeus to be said from the heart, as if a cultivator of the heart, who namely devoted himself uniquely to the purity, sanctity and perfection of the heart.

For which reason Jude was held in veneration and esteem by St. Bernard before the other Apostles; for the author of the Life of St. Bernard, book V, chapter II, relates that he received with wonderful devotion relics of St. Jude sent to him from Jerusalem, and so ordered them to be buried with him at his death and placed upon his breast, "assuredly," says the author of the Life, "with such faith and devotion that he might adhere to that same Apostle on the day of the common resurrection." Note: Jude in Hebrew includes all the letters of the name of the tetragram Jehova, and from this some think that on account of reverence for the name Jehova, as most sacred and ineffable among the Jews, he was called by the related name Thaddaeus instead of Jude. But this is a fable; for it is established that the name Jude was most commonly used among the Jews, and was even praised by God, Genesis chapter XLIX, verse 8. Moreover Eusebius, book I of the History, chapter XIII; Nicephorus, book II of the History, XL, and the Greeks in the Menology place two Thaddaei, namely one Apostle, that is this our Jude; the other who was one of the seventy disciples of Christ sent to Abgar. But others recognize only one Thaddaeus, namely Jude the Apostle. Thus St. Jerome in Matthew x, Bede in chapter 1 of Acts, Fulgentius, sermon 9. And the Latin Church commemorates only one Thaddaeus in the Martyrology and in the divine office.

According to these authorities it must be said that this Jude is that Thaddaeus who converted Abgar the king of Edessa and the Edessenes to the faith, as Eusebius relates at length in the place already cited, who also adds that this happened in the 43rd year of Christ, and that when Abgar offered to Jude gold both wrought and raw, Jude refused it and said: "If we have truly abandoned our own, how shall we accept what belongs to others?" which words indeed signify his pure, magnanimous and heavenly heart. See more in Eusebius. In the Apocalypse chapter xxi, 20, Jude is represented by chrysoprase: I have reviewed the reasons there.

Nicephorus, book II, chapter IV, the Roman Breviary of October 28, and others relate that St. Jude preached in Mesopotamia, Persia, Arabia, and Idumaea. Finally St. Jude crowned his noble apostolate with glorious martyrdom, and his sacred body, as well as that of his brother Simon, was brought to Rome and buried in the basilica of St. Peter, so that he whom he had uniquely honored in life, and whose sentiments from his epistle he had expressed in his own, might also be buried with him after death.

As to the second point, some formerly doubted the authority of this Epistle; indeed recently Cajetan held that this Epistle is of lesser authority than those which are certain sacred Scripture. Heretics, such as Luther, the Centuriators, Brentius, Kemnitius, consider it apocryphal. Their reasons are that its author cites the apocryphal book of Enoch, and the dispute of Michael with the devil over the body of Moses, which is found nowhere in Scripture; but I shall respond to these in their proper places. I say therefore: it is of faith that this Epistle is canonical Scripture. Thus the Council of Trent defines it, session IV, and the Council of Florence in the epistle of Pope Eugenius to the Armenians; the Roman Council under Damasus, the Council of Laodicea, chapter LVIII, and the Carthaginian Council, chapter XLVII. Hear St. Jerome, in the book On Ecclesiastical Writers, on Jude: "Jude," he says, "brother of James, left behind a small epistle, which is one of the seven Catholic epistles. And because in it he assumes testimony from the book of Enoch, which is apocryphal, it is rejected by many; nevertheless it has merited authority by antiquity and use; and is reckoned among the Holy Scriptures, and has most sacred authority."

Whence they cite it as canonical: St. Dionysius in On the Divine Names, chapter IV; Epiphanius, against the Gnostic heresy; Nazianzenus, in a Poem on Scripture; Didymus and Oecumenius here, St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, Ephrem, Origen and among the Latins St. Cornelius, St. Cyprian, Innocent I, Tertullian, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, Rufinus, Philastrius, Cassian, Prosper, Gelasius, Fulgentius, Alcimus, Primasius, St. Gregory, Bede, Rabanus, Remigius, Ado, Ansbertus, Angelomus and others, whom Jodocus Coccius cites at length in the Catholic Treasury, volume I, book VI, page 370, and Bellarmine, book I On the Word of God, chapter XVIII.

The Epistle was written in Greek; for although St. Jude preached in Persia, he nevertheless wrote this Epistle, as it were encyclical and universal, to the faithful everywhere, both Jews and Gentiles scattered throughout the whole world, and therefore not in Persian, but in Greek, because the Greek language was then most common and most widely spread. Moreover, Origen in chapter XIII of Matthew asserts that this Epistle is indeed of few words, but full of the efficacy of heavenly grace. It is therefore fertile by its very brevity, and like a pearl, which under a small mass includes the sum of many sestertii, which St. Hilary said of Holy Scripture, canon 6 in Matthew. For this brief Epistle establishes many things dogmatically, namely the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the incarnation and redemption of Christ, the distinction of good angels from evil, and their zeal for the salvation of men, finally faith and fear of the future judgment. Ethically it teaches the avoidance of luxury, blasphemy, disobedience, pride, avarice, hatred, deceit, flattery, respect of persons; and constancy in vocation, faith, prayer, charity, the conversion of those who err, the persecution of heretics, doxology and praise of God. Therefore, what St. Bartholomew said, as testified by St. Dionysius, chapter 1 of the Mystical Theology: "That theology is great and very small; and the Gospel is broad and great, and again compendious," you may truly say the same of this Epistle, namely that it is brief and long: brief in words, long in meaning, so that it is rare for one not to be blinded in reading it, as St. Jerome says to Paulinus.

This Epistle exists in Syriac, not in the royal Bibles, but separately, which our Etzelius translated into Latin; it exists also in Arabic, which someone of heterodox faith translated into Latin.

As to the third point, the argument of the Epistle is to refute heresies already born at that time, of Simon Magus, the Nicolaitans and Cerinthus, and soon to be born from these, of the Gnostics, Ebion, Menander, Basilides, Saturninus, Valentinus, Marcion and the like. Thus St. Epiphanius in the heresy of the Gnostics, after recounting their lusts, says that the Holy Spirit through Jude foretold of them: "Whatsoever things naturally, as dumb beasts, they know, in these they are corrupted." He therefore graphically depicts the wicked morals of the heretics, and teaches that they are to be avoided as seducers and pests, and that one must persist constantly in the faith received, lest there befall them what befell the Hebrews, the Sodomites and the angels apostatizing from God, who all miserably perished. Thus St. Athanasius in the Synopsis, Oecumenius and others. For Jude taught in Asia Minor, where the school of Simon Magus flourished, against which St. Paul likewise wrote the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, to which Jude here refers. But he especially attacks the doctrine of Simon teaching that his faith alone (which was heresy and perfidy) suffices for salvation without good works, and of the Gnostics teaching that there is no sin except infidelity, but all things are indifferent, namely good to those using them well, evil to those using them badly, and therefore it is permitted with impunity to indulge in revelries and lusts; whence he sharply censures the savage and infamous lusts of the Simonians and Gnostics, and hurls against them the sharp judgment of God foretold by Enoch. Wherefore St. Ephrem, volume 1, sermon on those who entice souls to impurity, when there is nothing evil, recites this entire Epistle of St. Jude, and turns it against them. This Epistle is therefore a perpetual invective, as it were, against heretics, and those blasphemous and lustful. First, after prefixing a greeting, he exhorts the faithful to contend manfully against them for their vocation and faith, because they themselves are apostates, like the Sodomites and angels rebellious to God, and with them destined to perish and will perish.

Then, verse 8, he accuses their lusts, rebellions, blasphemies and curses, whereas Michael, though having a just cause, did not dare to curse Satan. Third, verse 11, he compares them to Cain, Balaam, Core the seditious, and calls them clouds without water, autumn trees, waves of the fierce sea, wandering stars, of which Enoch prophesied, threatening them with the sharp judgments of God, since they are murmurers, full of concupiscences, proud, avaricious. Fourth, verse 17, he exhorts that, steadfastly adhering to the faith and doctrine of the Apostles, they resist the heretics. Finally, verse 20, he exhorts the faithful to prayer, charity, mercy and zeal for souls, that they may bring back to the faith those seduced by heretics; to chastity, that they may present themselves spotless before the tribunal of the judge Christ. And at last a doxology closes the Epistle, saying: "To God alone, our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and power before all ages, and now, and for all ages of ages. Amen."

Among the ancients, Didymus and Clement of Alexandria wrote on this Epistle; but they exist briefly in the Library of the Holy Fathers; many of the moderns, most recently our Justinianus and Lorinus. I likewise shall be brief after my manner, especially because I have said most of what is to be said here in II Peter, II.

Note here that this Epistle is very similar to the Second Epistle of St. Peter, chapter II, and therefore has many of the same, or nearly the same, sentences with it. Wherefore either St. Peter took these from St. Jude, as Salmeron wishes, to confirm his sayings; or certainly Jude received them from St. Peter, as Baronius wishes, in the year of Christ 68, Adam Sasbout, Lorinus, Hugo, Thomas Anglicus and Primaticeius here, who the three last think for this reason this Epistle is in the Biblical order the last, because it was published last (except the Epistle of St. John), and therefore after the death of St. Peter, who wrote his second Epistle a little before his death in the year of Christ 68. Which if true, it must be said that St. Jude with his brother Simon the Canaanite met death not in the year of Christ 64, as Tuphrius wishes in the Chronicle, but after St. Peter and after the year of Christ 68. Furthermore, so that you may see the harmony and consonance of St. Peter and St. Jude, take the same sentences of each digested through parallels.

Parallels of the Same Sentences of St. Peter's Epistle II and St. Jude

I. (II Peter) Chapter II, verse 1. "There shall be false teachers among you, who shall bring in sects of perdition." And verse 3. "Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not." (Jude) Verse 4. "Certain men have crept in unawares (who were written of long ago unto this judgment) ungodly men."

II. (II Peter) "And denying the Lord who bought them." (Jude) "Denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ."

III. (II Peter) Verse 2. "And many shall follow their riotousness, through whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of." (Jude) "Turning the grace of our God into riotousness."

IV. (II Peter) Verse 4. "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to hell, to be tormented, to be reserved unto judgment." (Jude) Verse 6. "And the angels who kept not their principality, but forsook their own habitation, he hath reserved under darkness in everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great day."

V. (II Peter) Verse 6. "And reducing the cities of the Sodomites and of the Gomorrhites into ashes, condemned them to be overthrown, making them an example unto those that should afterwards act ungodly." (Jude) Verse 7. "As Sodom and Gomorrha, and the neighbouring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire."

VI. (II Peter) Verse 10. "But chiefly them who walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government." (Jude) Verse 8. "In like manner these men also defile the flesh, and despise dominion."

VII. (II Peter) "Sects (δόξας) they fear not to bring in, blaspheming." (Jude) "They blaspheme majesty (δόξαν)."

VIII. (II Peter) Verse 11. "Whereas angels, who are greater in strength and power, bring not against themselves a railing judgment." (Jude) Verse 9. "When Michael the Archangel, disputing with the devil, contended about the body of Moses, he durst not bring against him the judgment of railing, but said: The Lord command thee."

IX. (II Peter) Verse 12. "But these men, etc., blaspheming those things which they know not, shall perish in their corruption." (Jude) Verse 10. "But these men blaspheme whatever things they know not; and those things which they naturally know, like dumb beasts, in these they are corrupted."

X. (II Peter) Verse 13. "Stains and blemishes, rioting in their own delights, feasting together." (Jude) Verse 12. "These are spots in your feasts, feasting together without fear, feeding themselves."

XI. (II Peter) Verse 14. "Having eyes full of adultery and of sin that ceaseth not;" and verse 3. "And through covetousness shall with feigned words make merchandise of you." (Jude) Verse 16. "Admiring persons for the sake of gain."

XII. (II Peter) Verse 15. "Following the way of Balaam of Bosor, who loved the wages of iniquity." (Jude) Verse 11. "They have rushed greedily after the error of Balaam for reward."

XIII. (II Peter) Verse 17. "These are fountains without water, and clouds tossed about by whirlwinds, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved." (Jude) Verses 12 and 13. "Clouds without water, which are carried about by winds, etc., to whom the storm of darkness is reserved for ever."

XIV. (II Peter) Verse 18. "For speaking proud words of vanity, they allure by the desires of carnal riotousness." (Jude) Verse 16. "Walking according to their desires, and their mouth speaketh proud things."

XV. (II Peter) Chapter III, verses 1 and 2. "Dearly beloved, etc., be mindful of those words which I have spoken before, etc., and of the Apostles, the precepts of the Lord and Saviour." (Jude) Verse 17. "But you, beloved, be mindful of the words which have been spoken before by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ."

XVI. (II Peter) Verse 3. "This first understanding, that in the last days there shall come deceivers, walking according to their own desires." (Jude) Verse 18. "Who told you, that in the last time there should be mockers, walking according to their own desires in impieties."

XVII. (II Peter) Verse 11. "What manner of people ought you to be in holy conversations and in godliness, expecting and hasting unto the coming of the day of the Lord." (Jude) Verse 21. "Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto life everlasting."

XVIII. (II Peter) Vers. 18. "To him be glory both now and unto the day of eternity. Amen." (Jude) Vers. 25. "To God alone our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion and power before all ages, and now, and unto all ages of ages. Amen."