BibleProject

The Letter of Jude Q+R (E7) — Are Jesus’ brothers his half-brothers or cousins? What are the love-meals that Jude mentions? And what did the early Church believe about spiritual beings procreating? In this episode, Tim and Jon respond to your questions from the Letter of Jude series. Thank you to our audience for your thoughtful contributions to this episode!

The Letter of Jude E6 — In the final nine verses of his letter, Jude transitions from warning about corrupt members to instructing the faithful. In so many words, he encourages them to keep pressing on as the living temple of God’s Spirit and love. Jude also guides them in how to care for the doubting and deceived in their community, while taking necessary caution for their own holiness. And he concludes with confidence in God’s ability to protect the Church and make them stand as blameless priests, all to the praise, honor, and majesty of God. In this episode, Jon and Tim finish our series in this short but powerful letter.

The Letter of Jude E5 — In verses 11-16, Jude continues warning his Jewish messianic audience about deceptive, immoral people infiltrating their house churches. He compares them to three characters from the Hebrew Bible—Cain, Balaam, and Korah—who choose rebellion for themselves and lead others astray. Next, he compares the corrupt church members to a series of images from Scripture, including selfish shepherds, rainless clouds, and wandering stars. In this episode, Jon and Tim continue exploring Jude’s dense prose, where he seamlessly weaves together allusions to the Hebrew Bible and Second-Temple period literature into a piercing critique of imposters within a community of disciples.

The Letter of Jude E4 — In verses 5-7, Jude warns a Jewish Messianic community about a group of people in their midst who live without moral restraint and reject Jesus’ authority. After comparing them to a series of human and angelic rebels in the Hebrew Bible, Jude then calls out the corrupt church members in verses 8-10 as ones who “slander the glorious-ones,” referring to angels. What is Jude talking about, and why would slandering spiritual beings be considered offensive? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore the Hebrew Bible and Second-Temple period apocryphal literature to understand the unique role and revered status of angels among 1st-century Jewish people.

The Letter of Jude E3 — After the letter’s opening appeal, Jude (or Judah) begins warning corrupt members of a Jewish messianic church community who cast off restraint and live openly immoral lives. He does so with an ancient rhetorical technique found in both the Hebrew Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jude shares three stories of rebellion in the Hebrew Bible: the spies fearful of the promised land in Numbers 13-14, the “sons of God” in Genesis 6, and the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. Then he draws comparisons to the corrupt church members, promising they’ll receive the same judgment. Why does Jude write this way about the moral crisis in a church? What is he trying to communicate? In this episode, Jon and Tim explore verses 5-8, unpacking the dense biblical references and what they would have meant to Jude and his audience.