JUDE, EPISTLE OF (ante), the author of which speaks of himself as Jude, the brother of James, is not found in the oldest Syriac version of the New Testament, and in the time of Eusebius was ranked among the books which, though received by the majority, were doubted by some. Clement of Alexandria cited it under Jude's name, as the pro duction of a,prophetic mind; Origen spoke of it as being full of heavenly grace; Ter tullian quoted it as Jude's work; in Jerome's day it was received among the Christian Scriptures as of divine authority, and it is found in the principal ancient catalogues of the New Testament books. The doubts spoken of concerning its canonical authority were owing partly to its brevity, which r6ndered it less likely to attract attention and secure a rapid circulation; and partly to its containing two statements which are 'not fully supported by any other known authority. The first has reference to between Michael the archangel and Satan about the body of Moses; and the second attributes to Enoch, the 7th from Adam, a prophecy concerning the final coming of the Lord. Some suppose that these statert.ents were taken from apocryphal books, and are therefore evidence that the writer of the epistle was not an inspired man. To this others reply that there is no evidence of any such quotations having been made, but that, from whatever source the statements were derived, all that the maintenance of. _Jude's inspiration requires is that they were true. On the question of their truth it has been said: (1) They have not been proved to be false. (2) Among the statements con tained in ancient Jewish books of various sorts many were doubtless true. (3) That the promise given to the apostles of guidance into all truth necessary to make them unerring witnesses for God and Christ would save them from historical errors, as easily and fully as from errors of doctrine and opinion to which they were constantly exposed. (4) That
the deportment attributed to Michael, appropriate even to an archangel, is supported also by Peter's affirmation concerning angels in general, and that the prophecy ascribed to Enoch is consistent with the analogy of Scripture truth.
The design of the epistle the writer himself clearly gives, saying that when thinking earnestly about writing to Christians, he perceived the absolute necessity of exhorting them to defend the truth, and to shun the errors of false and artful teachers who were striving to deceive the churches, turning the grace of God into an argument for a sinful life, and denying both God and Christ. To show that all such and their followers would be condemned, he reminds Christians that even those who had been delivered from Egypt were afterwards destroyed because of their unbelief, and that the angels who sinned were reserved to the same judgment as that which would come on the guilty cities of the plain. In like manner, he declares, would dreadful judgments be inflicted on those who were corrupting the faith and practice of the churches. He then exhorts all true Christians to remember that the coming of just such ungodly, evil, and hypo critical men had been foretold by the apostles of Christ; that they should not therefore be either surprised or disheartened, but on the contrary should for themselves be stead fast in the faith, secure in the love of God, and confident that through the mercy of Christ they would attain to eternal life; and for others should be at once compassionate towards the weak, and bold to snatch from destruction those that were ready to fall. The epistle closes with an acknowledgment of God's power to save, and an ascription to him of glory and praise.