Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 06:1 (NA 1996)
Article: The Eschatology of the Epistle of Jude and Its Rhetorical and Social Functions
Author: Robert L. Webb

BBR 6:1 (1996) p. 139

The Eschatology of the Epistle
of Jude and Its Rhetorical
and Social Functions1

Robert L. Webb

Regina, Saskatchewan

Jude’s eschatology is oriented around the twin poles of eschatological salvation and judgment with the latter being more prominent. Judgment in Jude includes not only past and future judgment but present judgment as well. Allusions to past judgment highlight the punishment aspect of the judicial process while references to future and present judgment highlight laying charges and producing a guilty verdict. The rhetorical function of Jude’s eschatology is: (1) to convince his readers also to engage in judgment: to pronounce the intruders guilty of ungodliness, and (2) to reassure his readers that they themselves will not be judged but instead are being guarded by God. The social function of Jude’s eschatology is to bring about a separation between the original community and the intruders. These two functions address both the external threat of the intruders themselves and the internal threat of their negative impact on the readers’ ethics, theology, and unity.

Key words: Jude, eschatology, judgment, rhetoric

1. Introduction

The epistle of Jude suffers from being among the most neglected books of the New Testament.2 It has also frequently been seriously misunderstood when attention has been paid to it. For example, it has been misunderstood by being characterized as a product of “early catholicism.”3 In his superb commentary on Jude, Richard Bauckham has countered this view quite convincingly, arguing that Jude should

BBR 6:1 (1996) p. 140

not be viewed as a product of early catholicism, but rather as having arisen within apocalyptic Jewish Christianity. Not only does the epistle manifest a strong Jewish character, it has been significantly influenced by Jewish apocalyptic texts. Bauckham observes that Jude “does not assert apocalyptic eschatology against denials of it (as Paul in 1 Cor 15 does, and as 2 Pet 3 does). Jude’s apocalyptic is not at all self-conscious. It is the world-view within which he naturally thinks and which he takes it for granted his readers accept.”4

A second way in which Jude has been misunderstood is by being pejoratively characterized as concerned almost exclusively with harsh judgment. J. N. D. Kelly describes modern readers as being “put off by Jude’s almost unrelievedly denunciatory tone.�...