From the early Church Fathers to now.
8 Patristic · 2 Orthodox
“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James: to them that are beloved in God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called.”
“Jude, who wrote the Catholic Epistle, the brother of the sons of Joseph, and very religious, while knowing the near relationship of the Lord, yet did not say that he himself was His brother. But what said he? "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ,"— of Him as Lord; but "the brother of James." For this is true; he was His brother, (the son) of Joseph.”
“And depreciating the whole of what appeared to be His nearest kindred, they said, "Is not His mother called Mary? And His brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us?" [Matthew 13:55-56] They thought, then, that He was the son of Joseph and Mary. But some say, basing it on a tradition in the Gospel according to Peter, as it is entitled, or "The Book of James," that the brethren of Jesus were sons of Joseph by a former wife, whom he married before Mary. Now those who say so wish to preserve the honour of Mary in virginity to the end, so that that body of hers which was appointed to minister to the Word which said, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," [Luke 1:35] might not know intercourse with a man after that the Holy Ghost came into her and the power from on high overshadowed her. And I think it in harmony with reason that Jesus was the first-fruit among men of the purity which consists in chastity, and Mary among women; for it were not pious to ascribe to any other than to her the first-fruit of virginity. And James is he whom Paul says in the Epistle to the Galatians that he saw, "But other of the Apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother." [Galatians 1:19] And to so great a reputation among the people for righteousness did this James rise, that Flavius Josephus, who wrote the "Antiquities of the Jews" in twenty books, when wishing to exhibit the cause why the people suffered so great misfortunes that even the temple was razed to the ground, said, that these things happened to them in accordance with the wrath of God in consequence of the things which they had dared to do against James the brother of Jesus who is called Christ. And the wonderful thing is, that, though he did not accept Jesus as Christ, he yet gave testimony that the righteousness of James was so great; and he says that the people thought that they had suffered these things because of James. And Jude, who wrote a letter of few lines, it is true, but filled with the healthful words of heavenly grace, said in the preface, "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James." [Jude 1]”
“When Domitian ordered that those of the race of David be slain, an ancient story holds that some of the heretics accused the grandchildren of Jude (the brother of the Savior, according to the flesh), on the ground that they really were of the family of David and were related to Christ himself. Hegesippus makes this quite clear.”
“Hegesippus says that other descendants of one of the so-called brothers of the Lord, Jude by name, lived until the reign of Trajan [98-117], after giving testimony of their faith in Christ in the time of Domitian [81-96].”
“Jude the brother of James, left a short epistle which is reckoned among the seven catholic epistles, and because in it he quotes from the apocryphal Book of Enoch it is rejected by many. Nevertheless by age and use it has gained authority and is reckoned among the Holy Scriptures.”
“Jude does his utmost to make sure that nobody confuses him with Judas Iscariot, which is why he confesses that he is Christ's servant and James's brother. Note how he also says that the Father chooses us, Jesus keeps us and the Holy Spirit calls us.”
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, etc. Jude the apostle, whom Matthew and Mark call Thaddeus in the Gospel, writes against the same corruptors of the faith whom both Peter and John condemn in their Epistles.”
“In my opinion, it was sufficient for this apostle, as proof of his dignity, after having called himself a servant of Christ, to also point to his kinship with James. For James was praised by all for his virtue. This circumstance was bound to earn this apostle greater trust from his listeners regarding the teaching of the word, since it is doubtful that one who shared in birth and blood would prove to be very far in character from the one with whom he shared kinship, especially one who serves the same Master Christ and bears the burden of servitude equally with his blood relative.”
“The Lord said: "No one can come to Me unless My Father draws him" (John 6:44). This blessed man shows that now this word has been justified. For he says that those loved by the Father are preserved by Jesus Christ, which is why he also calls them called, since they did not come of their own accord, but were drawn and called by the Father.”
“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and called for Jesus Christ: may mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. It was satisfactory for this present apostle, I say, to the splendor of glory, that Jude was celebrated as a servant of Christ even by James. Indeed, since James was extolled by all for his great virtue, it resulted that he was more easily received by the listeners into the doctrine of the discourse, because the relationship of birth and blood did not seem at all foreign to the morals of the one with whom he shared kinship: and especially if, living under one Lord Christ, Jude proposed to bear the yoke of servitude equally with his brother.”
The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.