Jude on the attack: A comparative analysis of the Epistle of Jude, Jewish judgment oracles and Greco-Roman invective

In the growing field of Jude studies, the epistle is repeatedly referred to as an invective, a polemic, and an attack speech. Commentators also note Jude’s dependence on both Jewish and Greco-Roman sources. The challenge, as Frey comments, ‘is to render more specifically what the Jewish and Hellenistic elements of Jude’s position are,’ and in this case, how they relate to the harsh nature of the discourse. A more in-depth study, then, is required to discover precisely how, where, and why Jude borrows from these contemporary genres. In what follows, I make a detailed survey of Greco-Roman invectives and Jewish judgment oracles with the aim of comparing and contrasting them to the epistle of Jude. By examining the structure, aims, themes, and style of these texts, I will show to what degree Jude has been influenced by Greco-Roman invective and Jewish judgment oracles in the composition of this brief but detailed letter. In the end, I will argue that Jude has constructed a ‘Jewish invective.’ His epistle is a polemical text which takes the form (structure, aims, and style) of a typical Greco-Roman invective but is filled with Jewish content (themes and allusions), drawing on Israel’s heritage for the benefit of his primarily Jewish-Christian audience.