He grew up in the same house as Jesus and did not believe in Him. Then he did, and he wrote one of the shortest and fiercest letters in the New Testament. Here is Jude, and what his letter does and does not mean.
Who was Jude in the Bible? Jude, or Judas in Greek, was one of the brothers of Jesus named in Mark 6:3, and the brother of James who led the Jerusalem church. He did not believe in Jesus during His ministry, came to faith after the resurrection, and wrote the Letter of Jude.
His letter warns a church about people twisting grace into an excuse for anything, quotes the Book of Enoch, and ends with one of the most beautiful blessings in Scripture: God is able to keep you from stumbling.
Jude is easy to skip. His letter is one page long and sits right before Revelation. But it answers questions people still ask, so let's take it in order.
The hometown crowd lists Jesus' brothers by name: James, Joseph, Judas and Simon, with sisters too. Judas is our Jude. The town knew the family and could not see past it.
“For even his own brothers did not believe in him.” Earlier, Mark 3:21 says His family went to take charge of Him because people were saying He was out of His mind.
After the resurrection, the same brothers are in the room praying with the apostles and Mary. Something happened between the Nazareth scene and this one, and that something was Jesus alive.
Paul mentions “the Lord’s brothers” traveling in ministry with their wives. Jude did not stay home with his new faith. He went out with it.
Read those four scenes together and you have Jude's testimony. He grew up with Jesus, watched the ministry from close range, and still thought his brother had gone too far. Being close to Jesus is not the same as trusting Him.
Scripture does not give us Jude's turning point. Paul says the risen Jesus appeared to James (1 Corinthians 15:7), and it is reasonable to think the resurrection turned the whole family around, but that is an inference, not a verse. At Sound of Heaven we read these brothers and sisters as younger children of Mary and Joseph, and we walk through the full list in how many siblings Jesus had, with the other side of that debate given its due in did Jesus have biological siblings.
Judas was a very common Jewish name, so there are several in the New Testament. This is not Judas Iscariot. He is also probably not the apostle Luke calls “Judas son of James” (Luke 6:16), who seems to be the one Matthew and Mark call Thaddaeus. Our Jude never calls himself an apostle, and in verse 17 he points his readers to “the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” as if they were a group he stood outside of. You can sort out the Twelve in the 12 disciples of Jesus.
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James, To those who have been called, who are loved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.”
Jude 1 · NIVHe could have opened with “brother of the Lord,” the strongest credential in the early church. Instead he calls himself a servant, just as James does in the letter covered in our book of James summary. Two men who once doubted Jesus introduced themselves as His servants, not His family.
Some scholars think someone later wrote in Jude's name, pointing to the letter's polished Greek. That is a serious view, but writers used secretaries, and a forger borrowing Jude's authority would almost certainly have called him the Lord's brother. The humble opening reads like the real man.
Jude tells us he sat down to write a warm letter about the salvation they shared. He ended up writing something else.
“I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”
Jude 3 to 4 · NIVThese were not outside critics. They were inside, sharing the love feasts (verse 12), with a theology of grace that said nothing you do matters. Jude calls that a denial of Jesus as Lord. Then he stacks up examples his readers knew by heart, starting with Israel, rescued from Egypt and still unbelieving in the wilderness (verse 5).
Jude borrows a story his readers knew from Jewish tradition about heavenly beings who “did not stay within their own position of authority” (ESV). His point is that even the highest place is no protection if you abandon it. He is using imagery his audience already owned, not handing us a history of demons.
Jude calls their end “eternal fire,” and those cities are not burning today. Eternal describes a destruction that is final, not a fire that never finishes. That is exactly how we read Gehenna. For a related piece, see whether Thaddeus was a disciple.
Envy, religion for profit and rebellion against God’s leaders. Balaam is the prophet who could be bought, and we tell his story in who is Balaam in the Bible.
A lot of fear gets built on verse 6, so be clear. Jude describes those angels as kept in chains and darkness, confined, not roaming. Nothing in the letter says they became demons, and we do not read demons as fallen beings with personalities. The whole case is in are demons fallen angels. And verse 7 shows that God's judgment ends in destruction, which is why we teach that the wicked perish rather than suffer forever, as explained in what the Bible says about Gehenna.
Jude is not afraid of grace. He is afraid of people using grace as a permission slip, and he loves the church too much to stay quiet about it.
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Manage My Giving"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."2 Corinthians 9:7
This part surprises people. In verses 14 and 15 Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch, and in verse 9 he tells of the archangel Michael disputing with the devil over the body of Moses. Neither is in the Old Testament.
The Enoch quote comes from 1 Enoch, a Jewish apocalyptic collection well known in Jude's day. In R. H. Charles's translation, 1 Enoch 1:9 says the Lord “cometh with ten thousands” of his holy ones “to execute judgement upon all.”
“Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: ‘See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness…’”
Jude 14 to 15 · NIVThat is a direct quotation. The Michael story is different. Origen, writing in the third century, said it came from a work he called the Ascension of Moses, and the surviving Latin text of the Testament of Moses breaks off before its ending, which is likely where the scene sat. So “likely from the Assumption of Moses” is the honest way to say it.
One camp says Jude quoted Enoch, so Enoch must be Scripture and was hidden from us. The other camp is embarrassed and pretends Jude was not really quoting it. Both are wrong.
Jude quoted a line he believed was true, from a book his readers respected, to make a point about his own day. Paul does the same with Greek poets in Acts 17:28 and Titus 1:12, and nobody adds those poets to the Bible.
Jude is Scripture. 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses are not. Quoting a book affirms the line you quote, not everything in the book, and apart from the Ethiopian church with Enoch, neither synagogue nor church received them as Scripture. That is our position, and we hold it without fear of these books. They are windows into how Jude's first readers thought.
It cuts the other way too. Using Enoch does not make Jude less inspired, because the Bible was never dropped from the sky. God spoke through real people who used the books and stories of their world. We read all of it through Jesus, and Jude's point in the Michael story is one Jesus would affirm: even an archangel refused to slander and simply said “The Lord rebuke you” (verse 9). The full background of the book is in what is the Book of Enoch, and Michael himself is covered in angels mentioned in the Bible.
Where does Jude's story about Michael and the body of Moses most likely come from?
Deuteronomy 34 says God buried Moses and no one knows where, but it has no dispute. The Enoch quote is verses 14 and 15. Origen tied the Michael story to the Ascension of Moses, whose ending is now lost.
“But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, ‘In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.’”
Jude 17 to 18 · NIV“They said to you.” The apostles had warned these very readers that scoffers would come in the last times, and Jude says, in effect, here they are. The last times were the days his readers were living in, the closing years of the old covenant age before Jerusalem fell in AD 70.
That is how the whole New Testament uses the language. Jesus told His hearers that “this generation” would see the things He described (Matthew 24:34), and we walk through it in the Olivet Discourse. When Jude applies Enoch's “the Lord is coming” to the false teachers of his own congregations, he is not forecasting our century. He is telling first-century believers that the judgment Jesus promised on that age was near.
Unbelief during the ministry (John 7:5), then prayer in the upper room after the resurrection (Acts 1:14).
The historian Josephus records that the high priest had James, the brother of Jesus, stoned in Jerusalem.
Many scholars place the letter here. It never mentions the fall of Jerusalem, though that is an argument from silence and the date is debated.
Rome destroys Jerusalem and the temple, the covenantal climax the apostles had warned about.
Hegesippus, preserved by Eusebius, says the emperor Domitian questioned “the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord’s brother according to the flesh,” and let them go after seeing their calloused farmer's hands. It is tradition, not Scripture, but it rings true to a working family.
False teachers have shown up in every century, and we cover how to spot them in what the Bible says about false prophets. But Jude's scoffers were a sign of his own generation's last times, and that age has closed.
Jude does not end with a list of enemies. He ends with instructions for ordinary believers, and they are gentle.
“But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.”
Jude 20 to 21 · NIVPraying in the Spirit fits what we believe about the gifts being active today, including the prayer we describe in praying in tongues. Then verse 22: “Be merciful to those who doubt.”
That line hits differently when you remember who wrote it. Jude was the doubter once. Contending for the faith and being kind to people with questions were never opposites for him.
Believers are “kept for Jesus Christ.” The verb is tēreō, to keep, guard or watch over.
The same verb twice. The angels did not keep their position, so they are kept for judgment. What you refuse to keep ends up keeping you.
“Keep yourselves in God’s love.” Tēreō again, now as a command. You stay where the love is.
A different word, phylassō, to guard, the way a sentry guards a gate. God is the one “able to keep you from stumbling.”
Maybe you love Jesus and the people closest to you think you have gone too far, the way Jesus' own brothers once did. That can be lonely, especially around a holiday table.
Jude's story is hope for you. The brother who wanted to take Jesus home ended up writing Scripture. Keep loving, keep praying, and let Jesus do the convincing. If you would like someone to pray with you for your family, our prayer team would be glad to, and help my unbelief is a good read for anyone still wrestling.
Jude's story starts with a brother who could not believe and ends with a servant who could not stop talking about Jesus. His letter is sharp, but he gives his last words to the One who holds the church together.
“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy”
Jude 24 · NIVAnd the last verse gives all the glory to the only God our Savior “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” That is where Jude lands, and it is where we land. Your standing does not rest on how tightly you hold on. It rests on the Jesus who is able to keep you. The Kingdom is not a future waiting room. Jesus reigns now, and He is presenting His people with great joy today, doubters included.
If you want to see what we teach about Scripture, the Spirit and the Kingdom, read what we believe, browse more articles and Bible studies, or plan your visit to Deer Park and pray with us this Sunday.
Jude was a brother of Jesus who doubted, believed after the resurrection, called himself a servant instead of a relative, and wrote a short letter urging the church to guard grace, show mercy, and trust the God who keeps us from stumbling.
Tell us who is on your heart, and someone at Sound of Heaven will stand with you in prayer for them.
Jude, called Judas in Greek, was one of the brothers of Jesus named in Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, and the brother of James who led the church in Jerusalem. During Jesus' ministry his brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5), but after the resurrection they were praying with the apostles (Acts 1:14). Jude later traveled in ministry and wrote the Letter of Jude, a short, urgent letter warning a church about false teachers and urging believers to build each other up, pray in the Spirit and show mercy.
Yes. Mark 6:3 names Jesus' brothers as James, Joseph, Judas and Simon, and the writer of the letter calls himself a brother of James. At Sound of Heaven we read these brothers as younger children of Mary and Joseph, which makes Jude a half brother of Jesus. Catholic and Orthodox Christians read it differently, and we respect them. Either way, Jude chose to introduce himself as a servant of Jesus Christ rather than as His brother.
No to Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus. The apostle Luke calls Judas son of James, often identified with Thaddaeus, is probably a different man too. The writer of the letter never calls himself an apostle, and in verse 17 he points his readers to what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ had told them, as if they were a group he stood outside of. The best reading is that he is Judas the brother of Jesus.
Jude 14 and 15 quote 1 Enoch 1:9 almost word for word, because it was a book his Jewish Christian readers knew and respected. Quoting a line affirms that line, not the whole book. Paul quotes Greek poets in Acts 17:28 and Titus 1:12 without making them Scripture. Jude's story about Michael and the body of Moses in verse 9 likely comes from another Jewish writing, the Assumption of Moses. Jude is Scripture. Those books are not, though they help us hear his letter the way his first readers did.
Contend for the faith, because people have slipped into the church who turn grace into a license for immorality and deny Jesus as Lord. He uses familiar examples, like Cain, Balaam and Korah, to show where walking away from God leads. Then he tells believers to build themselves up in faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep themselves in God's love and be merciful to those who doubt. He closes by praising the God who is able to keep us from stumbling.