Letters to the Church: A Survey of Hebrews and the General Epistles by Jobes Karen H

Author:Jobes, Karen H. [Jobes, Karen H.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780310494799
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2011-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Jude in a woodcut by Johann Christoph Weigel, 1695.

Courtesy of the Pitts Theology Library, Candler School of Theology, Emory University

Although there is little in the content of the book that can be reliably used to date it, there is also nothing that compels the conclusion that it is pseudonymous. The most solid position is a date within the lifetime of Jesus’ brother Jude, AD 80 at the latest. If 2 Peter borrows material from Jude’s letter and if the apostle Peter is the author of that letter, then Jude would have been written not later than the mid-60s, since Peter was martyred in AD 65/66 during Nero’s reign.

TO WHOM DID JUDE WRITE?

Every author assumes certain shared knowledge with his or her readers, knowledge that begins with the decision in which language to write. Correspondence to a person or group implies the most specific shared knowledge because of the author’s intent to communicate, not to anyone who happens to read it, but to the specific people he or she has in mind. Identifying the original audience of the biblical writings that lack a specific address usually involves making inferences based on what shared knowledge is assumed by the content of the book.

The fact that Jude is composed in Greek of a fairly advanced style and vocabulary implies that the original readers, who may have read it aloud to Christian assemblies, had good proficiency in Greek. It may imply that Jude himself was highly capable in Greek or only that he employed an amanuensis. If Jude himself wrote this letter as a Palestinian Jew whose native language was Aramaic, this letter would count as evidence for the proficient knowledge and use of Greek by Jews even within Roman Palestine, adding to increasing evidence that Greek was used throughout Palestine, even in Jerusalem, in the first century. Josephus mentions that both freemen and even slaves could acquire skill in Greek in Palestine if they so desired.6

Notable thinkers who left their legacy through their writings in Greek, such as Josephus, Theodorus the rhetorician, Meleager the poet, and Philodemus the philosopher, all came from Galilee, and so this was clearly not a region of complete illiteracy.7 While there is still room for debate about the proficiency and scope of Greek language in first-century Palestine, there is mounting evidence that many of its people were bilingual at least and quite possibly trilingual.8 Aramaic would have been the native language, Hebrew the religious and sacred language, and Greek the language of commerce and civic affairs. It is no longer permissible to dismiss the family and twelve disciples of Jesus as necessarily incapable of writing the Greek found in the New Testament books.

Even Slaves Could Learn Greek in First-Century Palestine

“But I labored hard to steep myself in Greek prose … after having gained a knowledge of Greek grammar; but the constant use of my native tongue hindered my achieving precision in pronunciation. For our people do not welcome those who have mastered the speech of many nations …

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.