Jude (alternatively Judas or Judah; Ancient Greek: Ἰούδας) was one of the "brothers" of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is sometimes identified with Jude the Apostle.[1] Catholics hold that Jude was a cousin, but not literally the brother of Jesus, while the Eastern Orthodox hold that Jude is St. Joseph's son from a previous marriage (Jesus's step brother).[2] Jude is traditionally identified as the author of the Epistle of Jude, a short epistle which is reckoned among the seven general epistles of the New Testament placed after Paul's epistles and before the Book of Revelation and considered canonical by Christians[3][4], although modern scholars tend to reject his authorship of the epistle.[5]

"Brother of Jesus"

Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55 record the people of Nazareth saying of Jesus: "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Judas, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us?". Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestant groups believe that the "brothers of Jesus" are not biological children of Mary, but step-brothers or cousins, and that Mary remained a virgin her entire life. Some Protestants, including R. V. Tasker[6] and D. Hill,[7] generally relate these brothers and sisters to the Matthew 1:25 indication that Joseph "did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son" and the implication that Joseph and Mary had customary marital relations thereafter (simply put, Mary and Joseph had children but Mary conceived and birthed Jesus as a virgin). But K. Beyer points out that Greek ἕως οὗ ('until') after a negative "often has no implication at all about what happened after the limit of the 'until' was reached".[8]

Attribution of Jude

The Epistle of Jude has been attributed to him, on the basis of the heading "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1:1) where "brother of James" is taken as brother of James the brother of Jesus.

Clement of Alexandria who lived c. 150–215 AD wrote in his work "Comments on the Epistle of Jude" that Jude, the Epistle of Jude's author was a son of Joseph and a brother of the Lord (without specifying whether he is a son of Joseph by a previous marriage or of Joseph and Mary)

Descendants

Hegesippus, a 2nd-century Christian writer, mentions descendants of Jude living in the reign of Domitian (81-96). Eusebius relates in his Historia Ecclesiae (Book III, ch. 19–20):

But when this same Domitian had commanded that the descendants of David should be slain, an ancient tradition says that some of the heretics brought accusation against the descendants of Jude (said to have been a brother of the Saviour according to the flesh), on the ground that they were of the lineage of David and were related to Christ himself. Hegesippus relates these facts in the following words.

"Of the family of the Lord there were still living the grandchildren of Jude, who is said to have been the Lord's brother according to the flesh.
"Information was given that they belonged to the family of David, and they were brought to the Emperor Domitian by the Evocatus. For Domitian feared the coming of Christ as Herod also had feared it. And he asked them if they were descendants of David, and they confessed that they were. Then he asked them how much property they had, or how much money they owned. And both of them answered that they had only nine thousand denarii, half of which belonged to each of them;
and this property did not consist of silver, but of a piece of land which contained only thirty-nine acres, and from which they raised their taxes and supported themselves by their own labor."

Then they showed their hands, exhibiting the hardness of their bodies and the callousness produced upon their hands by continuous toil as evidence of their own labor. And when they were asked concerning Christ and his kingdom, of what sort it was and where and when it was to appear, they answered that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly and angelic one, which would appear at the end of the world, when he should come in glory to judge the quick and the dead, and to give unto every one according to his works. Upon hearing this, Domitian did not pass judgment against them, but, despising them as of no account, he let them go, and by a decree put a stop to the persecution of the Church.

But when they were released they ruled the churches because they were witnesses and were also relatives of the Lord. And peace being established, they lived until the time of Trajan. These things are related by Hegesippus.[21]

Eusebius also relates (in Book III, ch. 32,5f.), that they suffered martyrdom under the Emperor Trajan.

Epiphanius of Salamis, in his Panarion, mentions a Judah Kyriakos, great grandson of Jude, as last Jewish Bishop of Jerusalem, who was still living after the Bar Kokhba's revolt.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "St Jude".
  2. ↑ Bechtel, F. (1907). "The Brethren of the Lord". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Archived from the original on 2000-02-29. Retrieved 2006-09-17.
  3. ↑ Thomas Patrick Halton, On Illustrious Men, Volume 100 of Fathers of the Church: a new translation, CUA Press, 1999 p. 11
  4. ↑ See Richard Bauckham Archived 2023-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, Jerome Archived 2023-10-03 at the Wayback Machine and the Early Church Fathers Archived 2017-11-09 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ BDEhrman (2025-09-27). "Book of Jude: Who Wrote it? When? And Why? (part 1)". The Bart Ehrman Blog. Retrieved 2026-08-03.
  6. ↑ Tasker, R. V., The Gospel according to Saint Matthew (InterVarsity Press 1961), p. 36
  7. ↑ Hill D., The Gospel of Matthew, p80 (1972) Marshall, Morgan and Scott:London
  8. ↑ Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah Archived 2023-03-26 at the Wayback Machine (Doubleday 1999 ISBN 978-0-385-49447-2), p. 132
  9. ↑ of Alexandria, Clement. Comments on the Epistle of Jude. www.newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 6 September 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
  10. ↑ of Hierapolis, Papias. Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord. Fragment X. earlychristianwritings.com. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 10 September 2015.
  11. ↑ Lightfoot, J.B. (1865). "The Brethren of the Lord". philologos.org. Archived from the original on 2018-06-18. Retrieved 2016-05-31. The testimony of Papias is frequently quoted at the head of the patristic authorities, as favouring the view of Jerome. [...]. It is strange that able and intelligent critics should not have seen through a fabrication which is so manifestly spurious. [...] [T]he passage was written by a mediaeval namesake of the Bishop of Hierapolis, Papias [...] who lived in the 11th century.
  12. ↑ "Papias of Hierapolis". Archived from the original on 2015-11-16. Retrieved 2015-10-06.
  13. ↑ https://digital-beta.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN815335946&PHYSID=PHYS_0258&DMDID= Digitalisierte Sammlungen der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Werkansicht: Vocabularius(PPN815335946 - PHYS_0258 - Übersicht mit Inhaltsverzeichnis)]
  14. ↑ College, St. Epiphanius of Cyprus; translated by Young Richard Kim, Calvin (2014). Ancoratus 60:1. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-8132-2591-3. Retrieved 22 September 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ↑ Williams, translated by Frank (1994). The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis : Books II and III (Sects 47-80, De Fide) in Sect 78:9:6. Leiden: E.J. Brill. p. 607. ISBN 9789004098985. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  16. ↑ Williams, translated by Frank (2013). The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis (Second, revised ed.). Leiden [u.a.]: Brill. p. 36. ISBN 9789004228412. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
  17. ↑ John 14:22
  18. ↑ Commentary on John 14:22, Expositor's Bible Commentary CDROM, Zondervan, 1978
  19. ↑ Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to Saint John volume 2, Anchor Bible p. 641
  20. ↑ Thurston, Herbert (1913). "St. Thomas the Apostle" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  21. ↑ of Caesarea, Eusebius. CHURCH FATHERS: Church History, Book III (Eusebius). Archived from the original on 2 August 2017. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude,_brother_of_Jesus