Who was Jude in the Bible?

The author of this short epistle introduces himself at the beginning as Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. There is only one Jude in the NT matching this description, one of the brothers of the Lord Jesus. The brothers of the Lord are mentioned by name in Matthew 13:55 and Mark 6:3: James, Joseph or Joses, Simon and Judas. The Lord's sisters are mentioned there as well but not by name. At first the brothers (and relatives) of the Lord did not believe in him (John 7:5; Mark 3:21). But after his ascension we do find them with the other disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14).

There is a person called Jude who is mentioned in Acts 1:13 (compare with John 14:22) is elsewhere called Thaddaeus or Lebbaeus and is not otherwise known (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18). In verse 17 of the Epistle of Jude the author distinguishes between himself and the apostles. This proves that the author cannot be the apostle Jude. James the brother of Jude is explicitly called the Lord’s brother in Gal. 1:19. After James, the apostle, had died as a martyr, Jude was one of the spiritual leaders in the assembly in Jerusalem (see notes on the Epistle of James, 1.c).

The author calls himself 'Judas, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.' Jude describes himself as a bondslave of Christ. His service in this letter would not be superficial but for the lasting benefit of the Lord's people. If, as is commonly deduced from the Biblical evidence. he is a half-brother of the Lord, he takes no advantage of this relationship when addressing his readers. The reference to the apostles seems to imply that the writer was not one of them, though modesty could have led him to write as he did. But the weighty issue of the day surely would have constrained him to assert the authority of his apostleship if he were one. The only Judas who elsewhere in the New Testament is said to have had a brother called James is Judas the brother of the Lord. James (Jacobus) was a half-brother of our Lord. (Matt. 13:55, Mark 6:3). While during His earthly life the brethren of the Lord Jesus did not believe on Him (Matt. 12:46ff. Mark 3:32ff, Luke 8:19ff & John 7:3-9), they are found among the disciples at the beginning of Acts (1:14) and James became a foremost leader in the assembly at Jerusalem (Acts 15:13, 21:18ff, Gal. 2:9).

Nothing certain is known of the writer of this epistle; beyond the description here given. He contents himself with two titles — "servant" (bondman) "of Jesus Christ, and brother of James." If the James referred to be "the Lord's brother," of whom Paul speaks (Gal. 1:19), rather than the apostle Judas, not Iscariot (John 14:22), who seems to have been the brother of James, the son of Alphaeus (Luke 6:16), then Jude also was, according to the flesh, a brother of the Lord. If so, what grace and humility are displayed in that he does not call attention to the fact. And what a lesson for all who take, or seek to take, a place amongst believers on the ground of human distinction or birth!

Nothing certain is known of the writer of this epistle; beyond the description here given. He contents himself with two titles - "servant" (bondman) "of Jesus Christ, and brother of James." If the James referred to be "the Lord's brother," of whom Paul speaks (Gal. 1:19), rather than the apostle Judas, not Iscariot (John 14:22), who seems to have been the brother of James, the son of Alphaeus (Luke 6:16), then Jude also was, according to the flesh, a brother of the Lord. If so, what grace and humility are displayed in that he does not call attention to the fact. And what a lesson for all who take, or seek to take, a place amongst believers on the ground of human distinction or birth!

We are not left in doubt who the writer is, for he mentions himself in the beginning of it. It is Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James. But who is this Jude or Judas? Among the disciples were two by the name of Judas. There was Judas Iscariot, who ended his miserable career, after he had become the instrument of the devil, by hanging. In John 14:22 we read, "Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?" The Spirit of God makes it plain that Judas Iscariot did not address Jesus by the name Lord, which expresses faith in His deity, but that there was another Judas in the apostolate who speaks here.

When we turn to the names of the twelve in Matthew 10:2-4, we find the name of Judas but once; it is the name of him who betrayed the Lord. The Judas whose words are recorded in the above passage in the Gospel of John, is called in Matthew 10:3 ... Lebbaeus whose surname was Thaddaeus." In Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13, his name is given as Judas of James; it must be noticed that the words in the authorized version "the brother" are in italics, which means that they are supplied by the translators. It is not so in the first verse of this epistle; here the writer calls himself "brother of James."

But there is still another Judas found in the Gospels. His name is recorded in Matthew 13:55. "is not this the carpenter's son? is not His mother called Mary? and His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" The James, the brother of the Lord mentioned in this passage, is the author of the Epistle of James. (See introduction to the Epistle of James). The question then arises, is the writer of the Epistle before us, the Apostle Judas of James, also called Lebbaeus, surnamed Thaddaeus, or is it Judas, the one who is called one of the Lord's brethren, and therefore the natural brother of James, the writer of the Epistle of James? Some maintain that Jude is the Apostle Judas, while others see in Jude the brother of James, as given in Matthew 13-55. We endorse the latter view. We give the reasons why the writer of this Epistle cannot be the Apostle Judas.

One of the apostles, brother of James. Luke 6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13. Called JUDE in Jude 1; and apparently the same as 'Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus.' Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18.

One of the brethren of the Lord. Matt. 13:55: called JUDA in Mark 6:3.

Judas — the brother of James. This apostle is also called Jude, Thaddeus, and Lebbeus. These different names have different shades of meaning, but the examination of such niceties comes not within the range of our "Short Papers." Judas was the son of Alpheus, and one of our Lord's kindred as we read in Matthew 13:55, "Is not His mother called Mary and His brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?"

Of the last of these, but one saying is preserved, his memorable inquiry of our Lord how He would manifest Himself to His disciples, and not unto the world (John 14:22), and it is he who has given us by the Holy Ghost that short but remarkable letter known as the Epistle of Jude.

Comparing Mark 6:7, where we read that the Lord sent out the twelve by two and two, with Luke 6:14-16, where the apostles are enumerated in pairs, we gather the significant fact that Judas Iscariot, the first apostate from Christ, was accompanied when they went forth on their mission, by Jude who was characteristically that prophet whose burden would be the Christian apostasy. And this is the more remarkable as while Simon is coupled with his brother Andrew, and James with his brother John, Jude is separated from his brother, James the less, with whom his name is always previously connected, to be associated with the Iscariot.

He calls himself "bondsman of Jesus Christ," and addresses "the called ones beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ," praying that mercy, peace, and love may be multiplied unto them. The words, Beloved in God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ," in this exordium, form the nearest approach we have in the Epistles to the introductory words of Paul to those to the church at Thessalonica which is addressed in each case as in God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ. Jude's Epistle is general in so far as it contemplates no particular assembly, and the word "mercy" implies that it is more individual than ecclesiastical. But it possesses distinct internal evidence that what obtained incipiently then in the house of God upon earth, and which in our day would characterise it, was looming prophetically before his soul, and he was inspired of the Spirit of God to portray it in the incomparably striking form in which it is presented to us in ten verses of the five and twenty that compose the Epistle. (Ver. 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19.) Probably nothing can be found in the compass of the whole word of God more profoundly solemn than the picture which the Holy Ghost gives in that half-score of verses, of persons figuring in the house of God and bearing the name of Christ. And that which imparts so terrible a character to such scriptures is the fact that they betoken the culmination of all iniquity beneath the eye of God; and the climax of every evil the world has witnessed, under the cloak of what professedly honours Christ our Lord. As we well know, the corruption of that which is best is the worst corruption of all, so we can readily understand that nothing could possibly be more obnoxious to the heart of our divine Master than that which the penetrating eye of Judas, not Iscariot, observed to have entered upon its development when he penned the impassioned strains which bear his name.

Jude or Judas, Lebbaeus, and Thaddaeus are the three names of the apostle who wrote the so called catholic Epistle (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18).