The Jewish Annotated New Testament (126 page)

The elder seems to view himself and his audience as ethnically Jewish, since he differentiates his audience from the “Gentiles” (Gk “ton ethnikon”), translated “nonbelievers” in the NRSV, v. 7. Nevertheless, his identity and that of his community, as he understands it, rests
primarily in their shared belief
, as opposed to shared observance of distinctively Jewish ritual practices, which he does not mention. They are all “brothers” who “testify” to, “walk in,” and are “co-workers in” the same “truth” (3–4,8,12). The language of “truth” and “love” in 3 John warrants its association with the early communities who produced the Gospel of John and 1–2 John, though v. 7 suggests that it reflects an earlier stage in the Johannine community when its ethnically Jewish believers in Christ proselytized to Gentiles.

Although the NRSV translates “for the sake of the name” as “for the sake of Christ,” v. 7 (following most Christian commentators; see Acts 5.41; 1 Jn 2.12; 3.23; 5.13), some suggest that the phrase means “for the sake of the name [of God].” Underlying this construction may be the Jewish circumlocution “ha-Shem” (Heb for “the Name”) used infrequently for the name of God (the tetragrammaton) in the Tanakh (Lev 24.11; Deut 28.58), but very frequent in rabbinic texts (as in the Heb expression “kiddush ha-Shem,” [“sanctification of the Name”], in e.g.,
b. Avodah Zara
27b;
b. Sanh
. 74a, b). Thus, 3 John does not explicitly mention Jesus or the Christ.

Jonathan Brumberg-Kraus

¹
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.

²
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.
³
I was overjoyed when some of the friends
^*
arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth.
⁴
I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

⁵
Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends,
^a
even though they are strangers to you;
⁶
they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God;
⁷
for they began their journey for the sake of Christ,
^*
accepting no support from non-believers.
^*
8
Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.

⁹
I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority.
¹⁰
So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the friends,
^a
and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

¹¹
Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God.
¹²
Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him,
^*
and you know that our testimony is true.

¹³
I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink;
¹⁴
instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.

¹⁵
Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.

THE LETTER OF JUDE

AUTHOR AND DATE

This last letter of the New Testament claims to be written by Jude (or Judas) “brother of James.” Mark 3.6 lists both Judas and James as brothers of Jesus. By the second century, Judas Didymus Thomas (Didymus and Thomas mean “twin” in Greek and Aramaic, respectively) was associated with extra-canonical documents such as the
Gospel of Thomas
and
Acts of Thomas
(the latter sees him as Jesus’ twin brother; e.g., 11, 34, 45). By referring so obliquely to a Judas who may be Jesus’ brother, this letter’s author may have been attempting to reclaim the figure of Jude from other Christian groups who claimed his authority. Some scholars suggest that the epistle may actually have been written by Jesus’ brother in the 50s. Others insist that the letter is later (perhaps early second century) and pseudonymous; the reference (v. 17) to “the apostles” as established authorities suggests institutional hierarchies already in place.

CONTEXT

The letter warns of immoral “intruders” whose laxity challenges institutional authority. Echoes of Paul’s opponents in Corinth (see 1–2 Cor) and Gnostic libertine groups suggest ongoing conflicts over how to understand God’s gift of salvation from sin (“grace,” v. 4). Some Christians taught that, thanks to God’s salvation, they were no longer bound to earthly authority and morality. Thus they could not imperil their salvation by any action, since spiritually they were safe.

It is also possible that vague and stereotypical accusations of “licentiousness” rhetorically echo prophetic literature, which equated sexual license with impiety generally (see, in a well-known passage, Ezek 16).

CULTURAL INFLUENCES

The letter draws heavily on popular, late Second Temple Jewish cosmic narratives (e.g.,
1 Enoch
) to shape its understanding of the moral order of the universe. The Torah was elaborated in this period by creative narratives filling in the words and deeds of the patriarchs and great leaders of the Israelites (for instance, in
Jubilees
, which consists mostly of instructions to Moses from an angelic presence on the mountain at the time of the giving of the Torah). The author refers, for instance, to a story of the angel Michael and the devil battling over Moses’ corpse. Particularly the focus on angels as historical and moral agents (vv. 6,8–9) ties this letter to patterns of thought common among first-century Jews. The vast collection of stories known as
1 Enoch
, cited directly in v. 14, created an elaborate angelology and promoted apocalyptic expectations. This book interpreted the “sons of God” in Gen 6.2 as fallen angels whose interactions with humanity initiated a division between godly and godless humans, which would last until the end of the world. The author of Jude couples this Jewish apocalyptic worldview with the more stabilizing “predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 17), thereby linking it to Christian tradition. Nonetheless, the prophetic language and angelic outlook of this letter attach it closely, almost intimately, to the Jesus movement’s Jewish roots.

The author of 2 Peter used substantial portions of Jude, particularly the idea that present-day religious divisions are simply the latest act in a cosmic drama pitting the pious against their devious and immoral opponents. Jude and 2 Peter remain certain that, as in the past, present, and future, participants in this struggle will receive appropriate rewards and punishments.

Andrew S. Jacobs

¹
Jude,
^*
a servant
^*
of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, who are beloved
^*
in
^*
God the Father and kept safe for
^d
Jesus Christ:

²
May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.

³
Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.
⁴
For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
^*

⁵
Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all saved
^*
a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.
⁶
And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day.
⁷
Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,
^*
serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

⁸
Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.
^*
9
But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slander
^*
against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”
¹⁰
But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct.
¹¹
Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion.
¹²
These are blemishes
^*
on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.
^*
They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted;
¹³
wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.

¹⁴
It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is coming
^*
with ten thousands of his holy ones,
¹⁵
to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”
¹⁶
These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.

¹⁷
But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
¹⁸
for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.”
¹⁹
It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions.
²⁰
But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;
²¹
keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to
^*
eternal life.
²²
And have mercy on some who are wavering;
²³
save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.
^*