Jude’s Law
to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 1:25 NIV
Only – Jude wrote this letter toward the end of the first century CE. By then Messianic assemblies were established in many cities of the Mediterranean world. Jude’s language shows that he expected his readers to understand the Greek of the LXX and Hebrew. In addition, Jude’s religious material included several documents not in the modern canon. Jude’s themes are about some members of the assembly who are departing from the traditional faith and teaching others to do the same. Amazingly, despite the warnings, Jude offers no direct action against these dissenters. Instead, he concentrates on the integrity of the faithful. This is important because the way some verses in Jude are translated would lead us to believe that Jude embraced theological constructs that came much, much later. Peter Davids makes the point: “The danger in reading the NT is that we will read our present culture and history back into the text.”[1] What does this mean? We must read Jude as a letter written to the early followers of the Jewish Messiah. We should avoid words like “church” or “Christian,” since these sorts of terms did not exist yet. We must also be careful not to adopt or imply Christian doctrines in our exegesis. In particular, the King James version of this verse was based on a less accurate text. As a result, the verse was translated as if it referred to Jesus as God. Here’s what KJV renders:
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
You can immediately see that “the only wise God” has been changed in modern texts. In addition, modern texts add “through Jesus Christ our Lord.” With these changes, it seems clear that Jude considers God to be the real savior, and “Jesus” to be a separate important but not divine figure. The only God is savior. The Messiah is Lord. They are not the same.
In the few preceding verses, translators have also taken the liberty of treating en pneumati ‘agio as if it refers to the Holy Spirit, another theological insertion rather than translation. The Trinitarian doctrine is very powerful; so powerful that it forces alterations in the text. Fortunately, we have an historical record of how these changes were implemented. But even if we didn’t have such a record, we might have challenged the translator’s treatment anyway. After all, Jude is Hebrew. He thinks like a first century Jew, not a tenth century Christian. His ideas of faith, tradition, foundation, holiness, spirit, breath, and God are all derived from Torah. He has a law that guides his spiritual writing. The law is the revelation from God to Moses. Everything else must be in alignment with that.
Jude is usually discussed because of the questions it raises about canonization. Those are interesting, to be sure, but I don’t think they are the real issue. The real issue is the modified translations of Jude in order to force it to be Christian. This little letter introduces a very big problem for all the New Testament documents. Peter Davids is right. We must absolutely resist the tendency to read the text as if it were written from our perspective. Once that change begins, it will be very hard to read the text as anything other than Jews embracing Gentiles in the Messianic Jewish world.
Topical Index: only, wise, savior, Messiah, Holy Spirit, Trinity, translation, Jude 1:25
[1] Peter H. Davids, The Letters of 2 Peter and Jude (The Pillar New Testament Commentary), Eerdmans, 2006, p. 3.
“We must absolutely resist the tendency to read the text as if it were written from our perspective. Once that change begins, it will be very hard to read the text as anything other than Jews embracing Gentiles in the Messianic Jewish world.“
Indeed! But let’s also not lose sight that the Tanach (OT) is Israel’s testimony that bears witness to the relationship between YHVH and Israel in their life experiences. And while that preserved written testimony of faith is “profitable” and “God-breathed,” it, too, was not written as a presentation of a systematic theology… (that includes “Torah).”
Clearly the Jewish perspective allows for this realization more so than does what has come to be present day Christianity, and Israel’s “rooting” in election by faith is that life by which “all Israel,” all the living branches, are sustained and nourished “through the root of the olive tree’s richness.” Nevertheless, “all Israel” must be vigilant to resist the tendency to read the text as if it were written to serve the purposes either of “tradition” or systematics.