Jude (Gr. Saint, surnamed Thaddeus, or Lebbeus, one of the apostles, a relative of Jesus, probably a son of Alpheus and a brother of James the Less. No circumstances of his life are related. According to the traditions of the West, he preached and suffered martyrdom in Persia. According to eastern traditions, he labored in Arabia, Syria, and Palestine, and died in Edessa; or, according to others, visited Assyria also, and died in Phoenicia. He is commemorated in the western church on Oct. 8. The tradition of the church regarded him as the author of the Epistle of Jude, one of the canonical books of the New Testament; but some recent critics believe the apostle Jude Thaddeus to be different from Jude the brother of the Lord and of James the Less, and the latter Jude to have been the author of the epistle. The genuineness of the epistle was disputed as early as the time of Jerome, chiefly because it cites the two apocryphal books of "Enoch" and the " Assumption of Moses." Most critics, however, have maintained it. It is written with vehemence and fervor, seems to have been addressed to converted Jews in Asia Minor and beyond the Euphrates, and contends against Gnostic, Nicolaitan, and other dangerous doctrines.

Commentaries on the epistle have been written by Scharling (1841), Rampf (1854), Gardiner (Boston, 1856), Huther (2d ed., 1859), Wiesinger (1862), and Schott (1863).