than edifying, with the exception of the beginning and end (vv. 1, 2 and 20-25). This is no doubt to be explained by what is stated of the purport of the letter in ver. 3. It was called out by a sudden emergency, to guard against an immediate pressing danger, and was substituted for a treatise περὶ τῆς κοινῆς σωτηρίας which Jude had hoped to send (ver. 3), and which would probably have been more in the tone and spirit of vv. 20 f.
The Epistle of Jude was recognised as canonical in the Third Council of Carthage, Α.Ρ. 397 (Westcott on the Canon, p. 566), with which agree Jerome (Westcott, p. 580) and Augustine (De Doctr. Christiana, ii. 12). Jerome, however (De vir. 11. iv.), mentions that, owing to the use made of the apocryphal Enoch, the epistle of Jude a plerisque reicitur. So Eusebius Η.Ε. ti. 23, “ Not many old writers have mentioned the Epistle of James, nor yet the Epistle of Jude, which is also one of the seven so-called Catholic Epistles, though we know that these have been publicly used with the rest in most churches.” Jb. iii. 25, ‘‘Among the controverted books, which are nevertheless well known and recognised by most, we class the Epistle circulated under the name of James and that of Jude.” Cyril ot Jerusalem (d. 386 Α.Ρ.) acknowledged both Jude and 2 P. In Asia Minor both Jude and 2 P. were recognised as canonical by Grégory Naz. (d. ο. 391). In Alexandria Didymus (d. 394) wrote comments on the Catholic Epistles, especially defending Jude from the attacks made upon him as having made use of apocryphal books. Athanasius (d. 373) in his list of the books of the N.T. “agrees exactly with our own Canon ’”’ (Westcott, p. 520). Origen (In Matt. x. 17) says of Jude ἔγραψεν ἐπιστολήν, ὀλιγόστιχον µέν, πεπληρωμένην δὲ τῶν τῆς οὐρανίου χάριτος ἐρρωμένων λόγων. In the same treatise (xvii. 30) he quotes Jude 6, adding words which signify that it was not universally received, εἰ δὲ καὶ τὴν ᾿Ιούδα πρόσοιτό τις ἐπιστολήν. Clement of Alexandria com- mented on Jude in his Hypotyposes (Εις. H.E. vi. 14)—the comment is still extant in the Latin translation—and quotes him by name (Paed. ili. 44, 45) with commendation, διδασκαλικώτατα ἐκτίθεται τὰς εἰκόνας τῶν κρινοµένων. Ἠε quotes him again Strom. iii. 11, and, without naming him, in Strom. vi. 65. Tertullian (De Cult. Fem. 3) says ‘ Enoch apud Judam apostolum testimonium possidet”. It appears in the Muratorian Canon (ο. 170 Α.Ρ.), ‘‘ Epistola sane Judae et superscripti Johannis duae in catholicis habentur”. Theophilus of Antioch (ad Autol. ii. 15) seems to allude to Jude 13 in the words quoted in my note on that verse. Athenagoras (c. 180) speaks (§ 24, p. 130 Otto) of the fallen angels in a manner which suggests acquaintance with