General letter, sometimes referred to using the term catholic epistle. The last of the epistles in the New Testament. The twenty-sixth book of the New Testament, and the sixty-fifth book of the Bible.
Author: Jude, the brother of James. Most likely, this is the half-brother of Jesus (Jude 1:1; Matthew 13:55).
Audience: Jude is written to a general audience, rather than to a specific congregation or person. According to the text itself, concern over apostasy changed the writer’s intent. Rather than writing about common salvation, he felt led to warn fellow believers about false teachers and ungodly doctrines. The reliance on references to Old Testament ideas suggests that Jude wrote to Jewish Christians, or to well-informed Gentile believers.
Date: Somewhere between AD 67 and 80. Jude and 2 Peter share common themes, so scholars are split on which came earlier, and whether or not one drew inspiration from the other. Peter refers to widespread apostasy as something which “would” happen, while Jude describes it as something which “is” happening. For that reason, most believe it was written later.