St. Simon and St. Jude (Oct 28)
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude. St. Simon and St. Jude are two of the Twelve about whom little is known. St. Simon is listed among the Twelve and is clearly distinguished from his name sake Simon Peter (Matthew 10). St. Jude is also called Thaddeus and is referred to as Judas not Iscariot in St. John’s Gospel to distinguish him from Jesus’ betrayer (John 14). It is said in St. John’s Gospel that St. Jude asked Jesus a question during the farewell discourse about why he would manifest himself to the disciples and not to the world. Jesus responded that the truth would be made known to them through the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit which would come upon them to guide and strengthen them in the faith of persecution and adversity. The world’s hatred (as we heard in today’s Gospel from that same farewell discourse in St. John) for Jesus would also be extended to his followers who would face persecution and death for their witness to the truth. They would not be able to accomplish this through their own strength but only by the grace of the Holy Spirit. In the Church, as we heard in today’s epistle to the Ephesians, there would be some who were apostles, others evangelists, or pastors and teachers, as there were many parts to one Body. The faithful witness of some would be remembered, while that of others would be known only to God. Hence, we know much about the most prominent among the Twelve, namely St. Peter and St. John, whereas about others such as St. Simon and St. Jude we know little more than their names.
There is also an epistle from St. Jude in the Canon of the New Testament. This is sometimes confused with the St. Jude among the Twelve whom we commemorate today, but in fact he refers to himself as the brother of James. The James that is referred to is not St. James, the son of Zebedee, the brother of St. John, but St. James, the brother of the Saviour, whose epistle is also included in the Canon. The brothers of Jesus are referred to in the Gospels as James and Joses and Judas and Simon and it is noted that they were sceptical about Jesus’ claims during his public ministry (John 7). However, after a resurrection appearance to St. James, he became the leader of the Church in Jerusalem and himself was martyred for the faith in 62. It appears that it is this St. James whom the epistle to St. Jude refers to as his brother.
Although this is not the same St. Jude as we are commemorating today, it is worth using this occasion to examine the epistle, as it is one of the lesser known writings in the New Testament and we rarely have occasion to refer to it. It is addressed from Jude, the brother of James. He writes to recall his hearers to the faith once delivered to the saints. He warns against those who have turned the grace of God into license, denying the only God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeals to past examples of those who were judged for their unbelief. The generation which had been rescued from slavery in Egypt died in the wilderness and had never entered the promised land. Those who had fallen into sexual immorality needed to remember what had happened to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were following the way of Cain and of Balaam and were living as brute beasts who were corrupting themselves by their behaviour, as trees without fruits. In contrast to this the faithful are to keep themselves in the love of God and avoid being corrupted by the false standards of the world.
It is often supposed that the epistle of St. Jude is little more than an inflammatory tract and represents a falling away into an inappropriate moralism that distorts the message of Jesus about God’s grace to the undeserving. In response it should be emphasised that Jesus’ reaching out to those who were seen as the “lesser breeds without the law” was not an indiscriminate endorsement of any kind of behaviour. It was rather a reflection of the fact that they were more willing than most of the self consciously pious to repent of their sins and follow him. Likewise, St. Paul warned in his epistles, most notably to the Corinthians, about those who turned their Christian liberty into license and thought they no longer needed to live in charity towards others. He also reminded the Corinthians about the generation who had experienced the exodus but had perished in the wilderness due to their unfaithfulness (1 Corinthians 10). In the letters to the Seven Churches in the book of Revelation St. John writes in terms similar to St. Jude about those who had fallen away into idolatry and sexual immorality (Revelation 2-3) and the epistle of St. John repeatedly denounces those who believed that they were beyond morality and love of neighbour.
Although there can be no certainty about who St. Jude addressed his epistle to it seems to fit best with Christians in Asia Minor who were falling into the same errors that St. John denounced in the book of Revelation. This was not the fully developed Gnosticism that was combated by St. Irenaeus in the second century, but an earlier and less developed anticipation of it among those who even in the apostolic age were claiming to have superior knowledge placing them above love of neighbour. It would seem best to place the epistle before the death of James in 62, since Jude refers to himself as the brother of James without any mention of James’ martyrdom, suggesting that James was still alive at the time of writing.
It is also worth noting in this context the similarities between the epistle of Jude and the second epistle of St. Peter. It was a puzzle to many in the early Church that the second epistle of St. Peter appears to have more in common with the epistle of Jude than with the first epistle of St. Peter. This led to hesitation for a long time about whether the second epistle of St. Peter should be included in the Canon of the New Testament. A solution to this problem may be found in the association between St. Peter and the brothers of the Lord which St. Paul refers to writing to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9) and that the epistle is said to be from “Simon Peter”, the name which St. Peter was referred to by St. James at the Council of the Church in Jerusalem (Acts 15). Whereas the first epistle of St. Peter was written from Rome to Christians in Asia Minor warning about likely persecution, the second epistle of St. Peter appears to be addressed to the same context as the epistle of St. Jude, namely the danger of turning the Gospel of free grace into an excuse for immorality. It may even be that St. Peter employed St. Jude to write on his behalf, since the epistle of Jude refers to being in the process of writing before breaking off to write a shorter and more urgent rebuke against the false teachers. The longer letter that was eventually produced may well be the second epistle of St. Peter, written under St. Peter’s authority with the aid of St. Jude.
Although there can be no certainty in this matter, the danger that existed in the apostolic age of corrupting the Gospel of God’s free grace for the undeserving into an excuse for immoral behaviour is still as relevant today as it was then. Let us pray that we will heed the solemn warnings of the epistle of St. Jude and the second epistle of St. Peter about this matter and not be corrupted by the false standards of the world.
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