Alternative Leaders in the "Epistle of Jude". A Historical Reading

Abstract

The Epistle of Jude, a Christian writing from the beginning of the second century AD, includes a harsh criticism of certain members of the community who are exercising a growing influence. Although these characters have been interpreted as disorganized and licentious believers, even with a gnostic tint, our proposal seeks to understand the Epistle of Jude as representative of a Christianism in conflict with the emerging local hierarchy. This hypothesis is based on an analysis of the terms with which the author refers to his opponents and which will be confronted to those used in The Ascension of Isaiah and the letters of Ignatius of Antioch. The Ascension of Isaiah, a document that also comes from the area of Syria, agrees in many aspects with the Epistle in question; Ignatius highlights the episcopal leadership and describes the hierarchs of the community with certain features which would explicitly oppose to those proposed in the Epistle of Jude