But, beloved, remember ye the words
which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus. How that they told
you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own
ungodly lusts. (Jude 17-18)
On
the issue of whether this is evidence for a late date of Jude, Armitage writes:
If Jude’s author knew that his
addresses were in a position to remember first-hand the prophecies of the
apostles, there would be no need to identify the person(s) who made them. Even
if, as Frey and Paulsen argue, the words ρηματων, προειρημενων and ελεγον in vv. 17-18
indicate that the knowledge (of the apostles’ prediction) was transmitted
orally, one cannot say when. Importantly, as Bauckham points out, v. 17
does not present the apostles themselves as belonging to the past, only their
prediction. (Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter, 114) In favour of Bauckham’s
argument is that αποσστολος need not necessarily connote one of
the Twelve: it could just as well be another missionary or person sent by them.
Indeed, behind it is the Jewish institution of the שליח, an authoritative
messenger acting on another’s authority. Bauckham’s argument, particularly his Pauline
parallel, seems stronger here, although the matter is not without doubt.
Witherington is probably right in thinking
that Jude did not consider himself an apostle, but rather as a servant of the
Lord, noting that he had not seen his brother raised from the dead, although 1
Cor. 15.7 says that Jesus appeared to James and then to ‘all the apostles’, and
1 Cor. 9.5 distinguishes between the brothers of the Lord and the ‘other
apostles’, i.e. other than Paul and Peter. (Witherington, Letters and Homilies
for Jewish Christians, 628) Bauckham considers that the ‘apostles’ in v. 17
are not all of the apostles, but those apostles who founded the church(es) to
whom Jude writes. (Bauckham, Jude, 2 Peter 105) We cannot be sure.
It is important when considering this
verse to recall that the early Church saw itself as living in the end times,
the eschatological age, wen the predictions and promises of God and God’s
messengers would be fulfilled. (Witherington, Letters, 629)
In similar manner to Jude, 1 Enoch,
referred to in Jude 14, proclaims God’s judgment against humanity, but leaves
room for the salvation of his ‘holy ones’. (Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A
Commentary on the Book of Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108, 149) And similarly to
Jude, 1 Enoch evidences religious conflict between those of the author’s
persuasion and others whose false and deceitful teaching leads others astray. (Nickelsburg,
1 Enoch 1, 427) Even so, the prophecy of the apostles stands as an
antithesis to the prophecy of Enoch, in that eschatological destruction for the
scornful teachers is not inevitable. There would seem to be rhetorical
parallels in the use of pesher language in each case to enforce internal solidarity
against heretical interlopers. (Chris Armitage, From Qumran to Jude: A History
of Social Crisis at Qumran and in Early Jewish Christianity [Sheffield:
Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2023], 107-8)