Jude, epistle of

Placed in the NT between the epistles of John and Rev. Although traditionally ascribed to Judas, one of the brothers of Jesus (Mark 6:3), the epistle is more likely to have come from the next generation, who are exhorted to remember the words of the apostles (Jude 17). The letter has none of the usual greetings to particular individuals and belongs to the group sometimes known as the ‘catholic’ or ‘general’ epistles. The heretics who are condemned may have been Gnostics [[➝ Gnosticism]], who regarded themselves as free from moral constraints (verse 4). Typological warnings to them are taken from the OT and from 1 Enoch and the Assumption of Moses (non-canonical writings). Jude was probably written in Palestine by a Christian of Jewish background before 70 CE and was available to the writer of 2 Pet. 2.