Jude - Introduction

      Another question of some interest arises from a comparison of Jude with Second Peter. The reader will find that Jude 3-18 is almost identical with 2 Peter 1:5 2 Peter 2:1-18 . One or the other writer certainly had before him the work of the other. Critics are divided concerning which was the earlier writer, and reasons can be given for assigning the priority to each. It seems to me probable that the "Speaker's Commentary" is right in deciding in favor of Peter, and that Jude was written at a date not much later. It is probable that he found a part of Peter's epistle expressed his ideas so well that he modified it somewhat and inserted it in his letter. It is more likely that he would thus honor an apostolic letter of the renowned Peter than that Peter would borrow from him. On this hypothesis this epistle was written between A. D. 65 and 70, or shortly before the siege of Jerusalem. We have no data for determining where it is written, but there seems to be no doubt that, like the epistles of Peter and of James, it was primarily addressed to Jewish Christians. It contains a salutation with reasons for writing ( verse 4 ); then three examples of the punitive justice of God; following this is a particular account of the wicked ways of certain false teachers against which he would warn them; after this comes a concluding portion in which disciples are warned and exhorted, and the whole closes with one of the sublimest doxologies of the Bible.