Hermeneutics Side by Side II

Jude 

1:1       

Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:

Initial Observations

This is written by a man named Jude, a form of the name Judah, as is Judas, and rather distinctive..  I don't know of any other uses of this form. So there should not be any confusion between this person and others. He has predecessors with this name that have good connotations and bad ones.

He claims to be a believer in Jesus, a Christian.

He claims to be a brother of James. Now there comes some confusion because James was a common name. There were two of prominence in the early church, 

     one of the Twelve original disciples, whose brother was John and father Zebedee, 

     and one who was the brother of Jesus, called "the Just," and now is bishop of Jerusalem as documented by the historians Josephus and Eusubius. 

He doesn't clarify which he is referring to, but it's generally accepted that he means "the" James, who was the leader of the church at the time.  The other James was killed by Herod (Acts 23:1-2, 19-23) in 44 AD.

This was written to fellow Christians, those who already are believers. This is vital to note. Assertions made and claims of can only be applied to Christians, not unbelievers and not Jews as a whole.

The word preserved caught my attention because it is translated so differently in the various versions. So next time, I'll look it up in the interlinear and see what there is to discover!