Jude 1:1-2
Servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James
The two things he could claim, family and apostleship, are both left out. What he keeps is a job title and a relation to his own brother.
People of the Bible
Jude
Meant to write about salvation and had to write about something else instead.
Also called Judas, brother of James
He opens by naming himself the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, which is the only introduction he gives. He is one of the brothers listed at Nazareth, and like James he does not claim the family relation as authority. Twenty-five verses is the whole letter, the shortest book in the New Testament except for the two short letters of John, and it is written in a hurry by a man who says so.
Scroll down to the storyThe movements, in the order the text gives them.
The story of Jude
- 01
- 02
Jude 1:3
It was needful for me to write
He states the letter he meant to send and the reason he did not. Earnestly contend is the verb of a wrestler, not of a debater.
- 03
Jude 1:5-11
Clouds they are without water
The warning is carried by images rather than arguments: rainless clouds, fruitless trees twice dead, raging waves foaming out their own shame, wandering stars.
- 04
Jude 1:24-25
Able to keep you from falling
After twenty-three verses about falling, the closing is about being kept. To present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Why it matters
The second sentence is the key to it. When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. The letter he planned is not the letter that exists. What he writes instead is a warning about men crept in unawares, illustrated with everything he can reach: Egypt, the angels that kept not their first estate, Sodom, Cain, Balaam, Korah, clouds without water, wandering stars. It ends with the most quoted blessing in English: now unto him that is able to keep you from falling.
1 song
The music
Every song in the catalogue whose passage falls inside these chapters.
