The New Testament · Hebrews and the Catholic Letters · Book 72 of 73
Prophecy in Jude
A short, urgent letter against intruders who had turned grace into license. Jude reaches for strange texts, an archangel disputing over Moses' body and a prophecy of Enoch, and for the apostles' warning of scoffers in the last time. Then he ends with one of the most beautiful doxologies in Scripture, to the one “who is able to keep you from stumbling.”
In progress: 4 passages so far
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The book at a glance
The letter comes from “Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ and brother of James” (verse 1), which tradition takes to mean Jude, one of the “brothers” of the Lord (Mark 6:3), brother of James of Jerusalem. Many modern scholars think it was written later in his name; others defend his authorship. Much of it reappears in 2 Peter 2, and most scholars think 2 Peter drew on Jude. The Church receives it as inspired Scripture either way. Its purpose is stated at the start: “to encourage you to contend for the faith that was once for all handed down to the holy ones” (verse 3).
Its prophecy is prophecy of judgment on the godless and a promise of mercy for the faithful. It is unusual because it draws on Jewish writings outside the Bible, the Assumption of Moses and 1 Enoch. The cards below explain what that does and does not mean.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
The passages
“Yet the archangel Michael, when he argued with the devil in a dispute over the body of Moses, did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him but said, ‘May the Lord rebuke you!’”
- Reading
- Scripture says only that Moses died and was buried, and that “to this day no one knows the place of his burial” (Deuteronomy 34:6). The NABRE note explains that Jude refers to a later account in the apocryphal Assumption of Moses, in which Michael, sent to bury Moses, is challenged by the devil over the body. Origen already named the source, which he calls the Ascension of Moses, a short work Jude mentions in his letter (On First Principles 3.2.1). The surviving text of that work breaks off before the scene, so the story is known only in part. Michael's words echo Zechariah 3:2, where the angel of the Lord rebukes the adversary in the same way.
- Why mystery
- Jude does not ask us to believe the details of the legend. He uses a story his readers knew to make one point, as the NABRE note says: if even an archangel would not revile the devil, but left judgment to God, how wrong it is for mere human beings to revile what they do not understand (verse 10).
- See also
- Michael's war with the dragon in Revelation 12:7–9; Daniel 12:1.
“Behold, the Lord has come with his countless holy ones to execute judgment on all…”
- Reading
- “Enoch, of the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied also about them” (verse 14). Enoch is the man who “walked with God, and he was no longer here, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24). The words Jude quotes are, as the NABRE note says, “cited from the apocryphal Book of Enoch 1:9.” The Lord comes with his holy ones, the angels, to judge the godless for their deeds and “for all the harsh words godless sinners have uttered against him” (verse 15). The same picture of the Lord coming with his holy ones appears in Zechariah 14:5 and Matthew 25:31.
- Note
- 1 Enoch is not in the Catholic canon, nor in the Jewish or Protestant canons; among the major churches only the Ethiopian Orthodox Church counts it as Scripture. Quoting a book does not make the whole book inspired, any more than Paul's quoting of Greek poets makes their poems Scripture (Acts 17:28; Titus 1:12). What is inspired is Jude's own letter, including his use of these words. St. Augustine discusses the point: the canonical Letter of Jude says that Enoch prophesied, yet the writings circulating under his name were not received into the canon, because their great age made them suspect and no one could be sure they were truly his (City of God 18.38).
- Why future
- The judgment Enoch announces is the Last Judgment, still to come (CCC 678–679).
“…for they told you, ‘In [the] last time there will be scoffers who will live according to their own godless desires.’”
- Reading
- “But you, beloved, remember the words spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 17). The NABRE note says this is the substance of much early Christian preaching rather than a quotation of any one text; compare Mark 13:22, Acts 20:30 and 2 Peter 3:3, which repeats the warning almost word for word (2 Peter 3:3–7).
- Why unfolding
- Jude sees the warning coming true in his own day: “These are the ones who cause divisions” (verse 19). The “last time” is the age of the Church (CCC 670), and scoffing at the faith has accompanied it throughout.
“To the one who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished and exultant, in the presence of his glory…”
- Reading
- After all the warnings Jude turns to his readers with tenderness: “But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God and wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (verses 20–21). The end they wait for is mercy. Then the doxology gives glory “to the only God, our savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord,” “from ages past, now, and for ages to come. Amen” (verse 25).
- Why future
- The promise is that God himself will present his people, unblemished and exultant, before his glory on the last day. It is the same hope as the wedding of the Lamb, whose bride is clothed in “bright, clean linen” (Revelation 19:8).
- For now
- We do not keep ourselves from stumbling; he is “able to keep you.” The last word of this letter, as of the Bible, is not fear but glory.
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: the intruders who “long ago were designated for this condemnation” (verse 4), the people saved from Egypt and the angels kept for the judgment of the great day (verses 5–7), Cain, Balaam and Korah (verse 11), and having mercy on those who waver (verses 22–23).
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