I would conclude these remarks on the Letter of Judge by sharing with my readers that Jude is distinctive in several different ways. It is the only New Testament (NT) document that clearly echoes non-biblical Jewish sources. For example, Verses 6, 14-15 refer to 1 Enoch, a clearly Jewish document not included in the Jewish Bible. Verse 9 refers to the archangel Michael and Satan disputing about the burial of Moses, which may come from another non-biblical Jewish text.

Finally, it is the most judgmental and really condemnatory of all the NT documents. Of course these themes are found in other places in the NT, but even Revelation is not as consistently judgmental and clearly condemnatory. Perhaps we should be grateful that it was not written by the brother of Jesus and James.

The Letters of John

After considering the Letter of Jude, I would, in presenting this chronological approach to the NT, present remarks on 1 John. Three letter are attributed to “John” in the NT. The first is the most substantial and important. Five chapters long, it emphasizes love as much as any document in the NT. The other two are less than a page long and are among the shortest documents in Christian scripture.

Who wrote these letters is unknown, even though they are attributed to John the Evangelist. A true consensus of mainstream biblical scholars agree that the author was neither the John who was one of   Jesus’ twelve disciples nor the same person who wrote the gospel of John. The author’s name could have been “John”, even if not one of the twelve. Or it could have been someone writing in the name of “John.”

There are strong similarities between 1 John and the gospel of John, but also differences. The clear similarities are best explained not by common authorship, but by supposing a “Johannine community” – that is a community (and probably communities) out of which both the gospel and the letters of John came.

There is no consensus about whether the author of 1 John also wrote 2 and 3 John. Some scholars think so, but some don’t. But all agree that 2 and 3 John came out of the same early Christian milieu as the gospel and 1 John.

The three letters that bear the name of John are short and easy to read. I would suggest that you pick up your NT and read them.