Jude – Background and Skepticism
Jude is without question the book of the Bible of which I am the most
cautious. It’s not that I believe that
there is anything wrong with this book.
It is that translating this book is incredibly difficult. Under normal circumstances I can usually
translate a chapter of the Bible in 30 – 60 minutes. The single chapter of Jude took me 8 hours
alone. The reason that Jude takes so
long is both vocabulary as well as usage.
Jude contains a number of vocabulary terms that are unique to this book
and in truth we really aren’t completely sure what the terms mean. Jude also has a unique way of constructing
sentences – often leaving out seemingly key words at inopportune times. As I said, it isn’t that I think Jude
contains bad advice. I’m just not
personally convinced that our translations have Jude perfectly right. For these reasons I seldom if ever make a
theological case on content found only in Jude.
However, I find Jude to be a very useful book in substantiating claims
made elsewhere in God’s Word.
As far as Jude goes, the author identifies himself as Jude the
brother of James. There were two famous
James in the Bible. There is James the
brother of John, one of Jesus’ disciples.
There is James the brother of Jesus, who became significant in the church
after Jesus’ resurrection. It is most
likely that Jude is identifying with James the brother of Jesus since we hear
nothing of Jude being a brother of James and John. {I
acknowledge this is an argument by omission, which is a tenuous argument to
make.} That would make Jude a
half-brother of Jesus at the very least!
If this is true, it would explain why the Greek is difficult to
translate. It is not too difficult to
imagine that the son of a carpenter might not have the means to go to school and
learn proper Greek.
Slave
Jude identifies himself as a slave of Jesus Christ. I love this address – it is the most common
identifier in the Bible. What I love
about this is that James uses the same address to begin his letter. The brothers of Jesus thought Jesus was
insane while He was alive and doing ministry on the earth. But once they saw Him resurrected, they humbled
themselves and believed. Even the great authors
of the Bible made errors in their personal lives when it comes to discerning
the truth about Jesus Christ. Yet through
grace God allowed them to recover from such an error and even write a book of
the Bible! We see that it is not our
error that defines our relationship with God but rather our openness to
humbleness and truth in the presence of God.
Mistakes can be repented and forgiven, thanks be to God!
παρεισδύω and ἀσεβής
Jude uses two very harsh words when he speaks about the false
teachers in the midst of the recipients of this letter. The first word, pareisduo (Παρεισδύω), is a word that means “to sneak in with evil intent.” It is a word that comes out of legal
practice. It describes a person who uses
their speech to make flowing arguments designed to get people to believe
something that just isn’t true. Jude is
talking about people who entered the church with a silver tongue. Jude gives us a pretty good lesson here. Be careful of people who make smooth
arguments. Believe truth, not people who
can speak well.
The second word, asebes (ἀσεβής), is an equally telling
word. It describes a lifestyle that is
not concerned with religious practice.
Jude is talking about false teachers who came into the church and taught
that they could practice anything they want so long as they “believed” in
Christ. In other words, it’s the old “I
confess with my mouth but don’t practice what I claim to believe.”
Jude calls such people false teachers. He says that such people pervert what Christ
came to accomplish within humanity. As
the letter goes on, he compares such people to the angels who have fallen from
heaven! He says that people who live
like this blaspheme the holy ones. That’s
a high charge! You see, Jesus came to
change how we relate with the world rather than give us permission to relate in
whatever way we desire! We are not in
Christ to follow our own desires; we are in Christ to humble ourselves to the
will of God.
Perseverance
Jude ends this section of condemnation with a call to
persevere. He says that there will be
many who fall away. There will be those
who intentionally cause division. But we
are not to be that way. We are to pursue
the truth. We are to live in mercy and
love. We are to wait. Part of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is
relying upon Him and waiting for the time to be right.
Doxology
While I may be skeptical that we have the translation quite right,
I do have to confess that the book of Jude contains one of the most beautiful
doxologies in the Bible. Jude causes us
to focus on the fact that Jesus Christ is powerful enough to keep us from
sin. After 2,000 years of theology, this
seems like such a no-brainer. We make
such a statement without even thinking about it!
However, while we make such a statement with complete ease the truth
is that we find it impossible to live out such a statement in our life. We know Jesus is the only way. We confess Jesus is the only way. But we need to be reminded to focus upon this
fact daily. It is so easy to say. It is so difficult to live out.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment