Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.  Jude 3

The saints – It all begins with the date of this letter.  For some time, scholars have argued about the date of Jude.  Those who believe it must be later than the apostolic age suggest, on this basis, that the letter is pseudepigrapha, written by someone who wanted the work to appear important and therefore named the author as Jude, a brother of Yeshua.  But much of their supposed evidence is mere speculation.  The conservative view, that Jude did in fact write this letter sometime around 65AD, seems the most plausible and carries the most historical witnesses.  So, let’s suppose that Jude did write this before the Second Temple destruction in 70AD.  How does that help us understand what he is saying?

Jude deals with a problem already acknowledged in Corinth.  Certain religious people infiltrated the assembly and attempted to subvert the common understanding of the message.  In an explosion of metaphors and allusions, Jude condemns these people.  But notice who he is trying to protect.  He calls his audience “the saints.”  Actually, the Greek is tois hagiois, the holy ones.  Who would have been called “the holy ones” in the time before the destruction of the Second Temple?  It certainly would not have been “Christians” since that term wasn’t even in use yet.  From Paul’s letters, we know that Jude would have included the followers of the Way, a “so-called sect of Judaism.”  Notice what else Jude says about these people.  They have been the recipients of the faith which was “once for all” delivered.  We know that first century Messianic Jews and God-fearing Gentiles held a common code of conduct with all other Jews.  The only difference between these believers and the rest of the Jewish population was the claim that Yeshua was the Messiah, not that the common faith had been replaced.  So, if Jude says that the faith was delivered once for all to the saints, then he must include everyone who had heard Torah.  How else can we understand this verse in light of what we know about the Messianic community before 70AD?

Notice what Jude does not say.  He doesn’t say, “Contend for the Messianic status of Yeshua.”  He doesn’t say, “Evangelize and convert Jews.”  He doesn’t say, “Preach a message of pure grace.”  He says that the “common salvation” is tied to a faith that has already been delivered to the holy ones.  In other words, those who are practicing the one way, the way of Torah – those who would be called tois hagiois in the Messianic congregations – are those whose behavior establishes their claim to be citizens of the Kingdom.  That’s how you know who they are.  And that’s why Jude can go on to list behaviors which mark the detractors as the opposition.  In order to use behavior as a measuring stick, there must be a prior commitment to a common code.  And, of course, there was – a code that had not changed for sixteen centuries.

Topical Index:  saints, hagios, Torah, Jude 3