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Who is the Author?
The book of Jude begins, “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James.” Most scholars agree that the author meant Jude and James the brothers of Jesus. Jesus had younger brothers who took positions of prominence in early Christianity. In the early 40s CE, James (or “Jacob”) assumed leadership of the Jerusalem church. After Jesus’s ascension, the other brothers of Jesus, according to 1 Cor 9:5, may have spread out from Palestine into the Jewish diaspora as missionaries. Jude seems to have been a missionary to a predominantly Jewish Christian community in the Roman Empire. Though he did not have the same authority or influence as his brother James, Jude (or “Judas”/“Judah”) was still held in high regard among the early church, and his letter gained acceptance as early as the second century. There is a possibility that the letter is pseudepigraphal (that is, written by someone else using Jude’s name),but the arguments for pseudepigraphy rely on the thesis that Jude shows institutional traits and combats Gnostic doctrines—elements characteristic of second-century Christianity (that is, after Jude’s death). Neither “early catholic” nor anti-Gnostic elements are present in the text.1 Rather, the letter contains Jewish exegetical tactics and apocalyptic beliefs that would be in keeping with those of one of Jesus’s brother.