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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Well, since I've been invited (thanks, Bill): It should surprise noone that things are more complicated than that. Here are the main persons contemporary with and aligned with Jesus who bear the name Judah/Jude/Judas: 1. A brother of Jesus, according to Matthew 13.55. Since Jacob/James is listed as another brother of Jesus, and since the author of the epistle of Jude calls himself brother of Jacob/James, this Judah/Judas/Jude has often been identified as the author of that epistle. 2. One of the apostles on Luke's list in Luke 6.16 and Acts 1.13 -- "Judas of Jacob/James," which the KJV takes to mean brother of Jacob/James, but RSV has "son of Jacob/James" (the Greek is completely ambiguous, although in a genealogical list, one would expect succession, thus "son of" -- but of course, this is not a genealogical list). Since this person does not appear on the lists in Matthew or Mark (see next item), but there is an otherwise little known "Thaddeus" (or Lebbaeus) in the same part of the listing, the harmonistic approach identifies this Judas with Thaddeus. 3. The apostle-betrayer, Judas Iscariot comes next on Luke's list and Matthew 10.4 and Mark 3.19 (see Acts 1.16). 4. All the lists include a "Thomas," but "Thomas" is more a nick-name (meaning "twin") than a proper name at the time, and other sources give this twin the name Judas, and even call him a "twin" of the Lord. So it may be that Thomas is the same as our #1 above, or not. I have to go now, but this is the basic outline of the problem. There are many side-roads, as you can imagine! We could include the author of Jude as a #5, for those who do not identify him with any of the above. Bob > > Jude may be the same person as Thaddeus in the gospels. This sounds > > very confusing, but this guy *doesn't* seem to be the same as the > > author of the epistle of Jude. > There were two apostles called Jude, or Judas: Judas Iscariot, who > betrayed Jesus, and this one, described as 'Judas, not Iscariot' at > John 42, and as the brother of James in Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. He may > be the same as the Thaddaeus of Matthew 10:3 and Mark 3:18; several of > the Apostles had two names. > The Letter of Jude claims to be "From Jude, servant of Jesus Christ and > brother of James" but I think few biblical scholars would identify its > author with the apostle Jude. For one thing, verse 17 reads 'But > remember, my friends, what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ told > you to expect' which would seem to indicate that the author himself was > not an apostle. The letter quotes from non-canonical texts - the > 'Assumption of Moses' at verse 9 and 'Enoch' at verses 14-15. No doubt > Dr Bob can tell us far more than I know about those texts. > > Bill. -- Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania 227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827 [log in to unmask] http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html