John Russell

Part I: Opening

A simple summary of Jude’s letter could be, “What are we willing to fight for?” Jude starts out saying he intended to write a longer letter about the salvation believers share in Jesus but seems to have heard reports about what’s been happening in this church, and instead sends them a shorter, more direct memo addressing the problem. He specifically urges his audience to “contend for the faith” (v.3 — he identifies them as “dear friends,” a title he repeats two more times. While used often in the New Testament epistles, it is significant in that the adjective translated here as “dear” also means beloved, and is the same adjective God the Father used in relation to Jesus when he audibly spoke the words “my beloved son” at Christ’s baptism (Mark 1:11) and the transfiguration (Mark 9:7). It’s about as “dear” as the concept of “dear” or “beloved” can be).

Who is the author? “Jude” was a quite common name in Israel in New Testament times.

Definitely “top ten” in the list of most popular baby names for boys in this era. Variants include “Judah” (the Hebrew root) and “Judas” (the Greek derivative). Even if this man’s given name was “Jude” it is likely to have been pronounced “Judah,” as there really isn’t a “silent e” concept in Hebrew or Aramaic. The name itself means “God be praised.”

Chapter 9’s events bring us closer to the time frame we left in Chapter 6; Daniel identifies this episode takes place just as the Persians are assuming power over Babylon. In other words, this is happening at the same time as the events in Chapter 6 (probably shortly before the episode with the Lion’s den).

Chapter 8 provides the shift we talked of earlier, from the Aramaic in chapters 2 through 7, now going to back to Hebrew for the rest of the book. Like Chapter 7, the events of Chapter 8 precede what happens in Chapter 5, but verse 1 specifically puts this event two years after the events of Chapter 7.

Now we come to Chapter 7, which is also linked back to a previous chapter, Chapter 2. Before I get into the specifics of Chapters 7 through 12, I must present a disclaimer. These chapters, full of Daniel’s vision of the future, have been controversial for centuries. Most scholars see direct connections between a lot of the specifics of Daniel’s visions and historical events that occurred after Daniel’s lifetime, but before the time of Christ. However, especially for Chapters 11 and 12, it cannot be denied that Daniel is speaking of events that have not yet been fulfilled. I have read many books and watched countless videos where modern preachers and teachers try to connect Daniel’s visions to specific events that have occurred recently, as in my lifetime, or as occurring in world history today for things that are happening now (like, as we speak!).