Did you know there are some books in the Bible that receive less attention than others? We all know the Gospel of John and the Book of Romans. But have you heard of the Book of Jude? Did you even know there was a book in the Bible named Jude? There sure is. It is a short book so you might have missed it. Only 1 chapter, 25 verses. That’s all. Who is Jude? What kind of name is Jude? (Hint: Paul McCartney did not name the Beatles song released in 1968 after him.) More importantly, what do we know about him?
Before I begin, may I get one thing off my chest? In my opinion, the book is incorrectly named. There should not be a Book of Jude in our Bibles, but a Book of Judas, because that is what it says in the Greek. If our Bible were true to the text, this book in the Bible would say The Book of Judas.
In the 1st century, many parents named their sons Judas, in much the same way many parents name their sons Noah, or their daughters Emma, in our country today. The reason why Judas was a very popular name was because the fourth son of Jacob was named Judah, and the tribe of Judah was the most powerful and the most important among the twelve tribes, and Judas is the Greek equivalent of Judah in the Hebrew. The region of Judea got its name after Judah too. Everywhere in the New Testament, the Greek word, “Judas,” is translated Judas, Judah or Judea, depending on the context. Everywhere, that is, with the exception of one place—Jude 1. If you searched the whole English Bible, the word, “Jude,” appears only once. So the question is why is the Book of Jude not named the Book of Judas? Stay with me, and I will come back to this question a little later.
Just how common is the name Judas, you ask? In the New Testament, the name Judas is mentioned 45 times, sometimes referring to the Judah tribe, the region of Judea, or the son of Jacob. By now, you should not be surprised if I were to tell you there is no shortage of persons in the Bible named Judas. It is possible any one of them was the author of the Book of Jude, some more than others.
Luke 3:30
...the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim...
Acts 5:37
After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the census and drew away some people after him; he too perished, and all those who followed him were scattered.
Acts 9:11
And the Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying..."
Acts 15:22
Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas—Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren...
The name Judas is so common that even though Jesus had twelve disciples, there were two named Judas. The more famous of the two was Judas Iscariot, and if you recall, he was the one who betrayed Jesus. He could not have possibly been the author of the Book of Jude because we all know by the time the letter was written, he had already hung himself, and had fallen over a cliff, and his insides split open. The less famous of the two disciples named Judas appears in these verses.
Acts 1:13 When they had entered the city, they went up to the upper room where they were staying; that is, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. John 14:22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us and not to the world?”
It is entirely possible that this Judas was the author of the Book of Jude. What makes it difficult to accept, however, is that it says in the Greek text in Luke 6:16 that this Judas was a son of James when in Jude 1, it says that he was a brother of James.
Which brings me to believe that Jude is the brother of James, the half brother of Jesus.
Matthew 13:55
“Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?"
Mark 6:3
“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him.
James was the leader in the church of Jerusalem according to Galatians 2:9, and a very important figure at the Council of Jerusalem. He was a witness of the resurrection and the one who wrote the Book of James. Because everyone in the early church knew him, wherever his name appeared in the New Testament, he needed no qualification. In James 1:1, it says only, “James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” If indeed Jude was Judas, the brother of James and Jesus (and I do believe he was), and if the genealogy in Matthew 13:55 is chronologically accurate, he was probably the youngest or second youngest among Jesus’ brothers. Jude may have been as young as 20 years old when Jesus died.
At the end of the day, scholars say the book was named, “The Book of Jude,” and not, “The Book of Judas,” so that readers would not mistake the author for Judas Iscariot. I agree a title, “The Book of Judas (not Iscariot),” would look strange. I still would like to know who was the person (or persons) who first suggested to the English Bible community the book ought to be renamed. Not only that, but after they agreed to rename the book, it is interesting to me why they chose the word, “Jude,” when they could have chosen any other English word.
The Book of Jude will never be as well known as the Gospel of John or the Book of Romans. It gets less attention than many other books in the Bible. But even though it is dwarfed by other books, it isn’t and shouldn’t be any less significant than other books, because it is in our Bibles. Because it is in our Bibles, we must know it, we must meditate on it, and we must be changed by it. God put the Book of Jude in our Bibles because he has something he wants to say to us.