Although I posted this awhile ago, I have thoroughly revised it and thought that it would be a good way to end the commentary on Jude. Hopefully it will at least make you think.
1. Jude started to write an epistle about our common “salvation” but switched his plan to writing his shorter epistle (Jude 3). I propose that this postponed work is the Epistle to the Hebrews.
2. I also propose that the epistle that Auctor wrote (ἐπέστειλα) in a “few words” is the one attributed to Jude, a short epistle (Heb 13:22). (Auctor is Latin for “author” and is simply my way of providing some personality to the unnamed author of Hebrews).
3. Could Auctor really be referring to his own epistle as “brief”? It is the third longest epistle in the NT, after Romans and 1 Corinthians. The suggestion that Auctor is referring to a different document than the one he is now sending them explains the mysterious καὶ at the beginning of his statement: καὶ γὰρ διὰ βραχέων ἐπέστειλα ὑμῖν (“For I also wrote to you an epistle with few words”). Translators have usually ignored this conjunction. The NIV and NET do have: “for in fact I have written to you quite briefly” - a translation for καὶ nowhere attested in BDAG or LN.
4. Furthermore, Auctor’s use in Heb 13:22 of the verb ἐπέστειλα (“I wrote you an epistle”) refers to a specific letter which he wrote. He did not use the word ἔγραψα (“I have written”), an epistolary aorist that NT employed when referring to their current writing: Rom. 15:15; 1 Cor. 5:11; 9:15; Gal. 6:11; Philemon 19, 21; 1 Pet. 5:12; 1 John 2:14, 21, 26; 5:13; 3 John 9; Jude 3 (!). This verb (ἐπέστειλα ) only occurs elsewhere in the NT in reference to the so-called Apostolic Letter (cf. Acts 15:20 with Acts 21:25). I believe Auctor used this specific word so that his readers would understand that he was referring to a previous letter (Jude) and not the written sermon that he is currently sending to them!
5. “Salvation” is mentioned as his desired subject in Jude 3. Hebrews deals much with the theme of “salvation.” The noun σωτηρία appears in Heb 1:14; 2:3; 2:10; 5:9; 6:9; 9:28; 11:7. The verb σῴζω appears in Heb 5:7; 7:25. The word group appears more often in Hebrews than in any other NT book (e.g., only 5 times in Romans).
6. Jude itself is also an “exhortation” (Jude 3) and is very similar to the hortatory thrust of Hebrews. The noun παρακλήσiς occurs in Heb. 6:18; 12:5; 13:22 (where it appears to be a self-description of the work). The verbal παρακαλῶ appears in Heb. 3:13; 10:25; 13:19, 22. The large number of hortatory subjunctives in Hebrews also illustrate its character as an “exhortation.” Only 2 Corinthians contains a larger number of examples of this word group, with the sense of the word there more as “encouragement” rather than as “exhortation.”
6. Both works are viewed by scholars as examples of an early Christian sermon. A sermon is here defined as a sustained exposition of Scripture (not occasional comments as are found in Pauline letters). This involves not only the citation of a text but an explanation of the text(s). This is quite obvious in Jude (5-19) and is characteristic of Hebrews throughout the work (see, e.g., 10:5-7).
7. Hebrews focuses on the exposition and application of two primary texts (Psa 110:1-4 and Hab. 2:4), with a number of secondary texts utilized along the way. Jude deals in the body of his sermon (5-19) with the citation and exposition of four main “texts” with a few secondary texts along the way. This pesher type of interpretation witnessed at Qumran is present in both books and seems to be peculiar to these two works among the NT writings
8. In addition to the use of canonical Jewish scripture, both books refer to events recorded in non-canonical writings (Hebrews 11:35-38; Jude 9, 14-15). Bauckham views them both as being in “the matrix of first century Palestinian Apocalyptic Jewish Christianity.”
9. Both books contain an extended benediction (Hebrews 13:20-21; Jude 24-25). Both of these benedictions include a prayer that God would “keep” their readers and that God would “equip” their readers. These are the only extended benedictions in the NT books that add such a prayer that is appropriate to the specific circumstances of their readers.
10. Each book shares a more elevated literary style compared to other books of the NT. This is a very general characteristic and when examined does not seem to be statistically significant. No one, however, mistakes the Greek style of Hebrews and Jude with the style of Paul or John.
11. Only the authors of Hebrews (Heb 11:5) and Jude (Jude 14) refer to Enoch and use him to make their point. Enoch’s name is also mentioned in the genealogy of Luke 3:37 which Bauckham argues was preserved by Jude and his brothers – per Julius Africanus/Eusebius.
12. The writer of Hebrews appears to be engaged in an itinerant ministry (Heb 13:23). This is at least consistent with what we know of the missionary labors of Jude (1 Cor. 9:5; Africanus/Eusebius).
13. One objection to the Jude authorship of Hebrews is that there exists no patristic tradition about Jude’s being the author. But no tradition at all existed about Apollos until Luther suggested it and a large number of writers today lean toward Apollos. The other possible objection is that Jude would not describe himself by the words of Heb 2:3: “It (salvation) was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard…” This verse has been one of my strongest arguments against Pauline authorship, and it is the argument that Ellingworth uses against Jude. But Jude (like brother James) was a non-believer in his older half-brother until after the resurrection, and he speaks of the “apostles” (“those who heard him”) as a group of which he was not a member (Jude 17). Perhaps, therefore, this is not an insuperable problem for Jude being Auctor – the author of the work sometimes called ΠΡΟΣ ΕΒΡΑΙΟΥΣ.
NOTE: I know of only two published articles that have advocated Jude’s authorship of Hebrews: A.M. Dubarle (Revue Biblique, 1939), and Edgar Cooper (Lutheran Church Review, 1917). Bauckham and Ellingworth refer to two unpublished papers by a “P.Y. Deshpande” and a “J.L. Gilmore.” I have been wanting to write one for years. Maybe someday!