Jude the Apostle () was one of the Apostles in the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus (; ; ) and is also variously called Judas Thaddaeus, Jude Thaddaeus, Judas son of James, Judas of James, Jude of James, or Lebbaeus. He is sometimes identified with Jude, the brother of Jesus, but is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus prior to his crucifixion. Catholic writer Michal Hunt suggests that Judas Thaddaeus became known as Jude after early translators of the New Testament from Greek into English sought to distinguish him from Judas Iscariot and subsequently abbreviated his forename. Most versions of the New Testament in languages other than English and French refer to Judas and Jude by the same name.
The Armenian Apostolic Church honors Thaddeus along with Saint Bartholomew as its patron saints. In the Catholic Church, he is the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes.
Jude Thaddeus is commonly depicted with a club. He is also often shown in icons with a flame around his head. This represents his presence at Pentecost, when he received the Holy Spirit with the other apostles. Another common attribute is Jude holding an image of Jesus, known as the Image of Edessa. In some instances, he may be shown with a scroll or a book (the Epistle of Jude) or holding a carpenter's rule.
Identity New Testament Jude is clearly distinguished from Judas Iscariot, another apostle and later the betrayer of Jesus. Both Jude and Judas are translations of the name in the New Testament, which in turn is a Greek variant of Judah, a Hebrew language name which was common among Jews at the time. In most Bibles in languages other than English and French, Jude and Judas are referred to by the same name.
Aside from Judas Iscariot, the New Testament mentions Jude or Judas six times, in four different contexts: "Judas (or Jude) of James", explicitly listed as one of the twelve apostles ( and ); "Judas, (not Judas Iscariot)", apparently an apostle (as he was present at the Last Supper) (); the brother of Jesus (, ); the writer of the Epistle of Jude, who identifies himself as "the brother of James" ().
Protestants generally believe 1 and 2 to be one person,Commentary on John 14:22, Expositor's Bible Commentary CDROM, Zondervan, 1978 although theologian Raymond Brown saw the identification as uncertain.Brown, Raymond E., The Gospel According to Saint John volume 2, p. 641.
Brother of James or son of James Translations into English from the original Greek of the New Testament vary in their rendering of Luke 6:16 and Acts 1:13. A literal translation of the references to Jude in these passages gives "Judas of James" (), as in Young's Literal Translation of the Bible, but scholars differ on whether this means "Jude/Judas, brother of James" or "Jude/Judas, son of James". The King James version calls him "Judas the brother of James" and the Douay-Rheims version calls him "Jude the brother of James", making him the same person as the writer of the Epistle of Jude, who identifies himself as "Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James" (Jude 1:1).
Most modern translations (including the New International Version, Revised Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version), identify him as "Judas the son of James", and not the same person as the author of the Epistle of Jude. Protestant scholar Darrell L. Bock writes that it must mean "son" not "brother", because when "brother" is intended, the Greek word for 'brother' () is present.Darrell L. Bock, Luke, volume 1, 1:1–9:50, (Baker Books, 1994), p. 546 Bock also says that means he was not the brother of Jesus. Additionally the use of the genitive case of "James" () in Greek, usually signifies or implies the person's father to be distinguished from his homonyms.
Opinion is divided on whether Jude/Judas the apostle was also Jude, brother of Jesus, the traditional author of the Epistle of Jude.Neyrey, Jerome H., 2 Peter, Jude, Anchor Bible Reference Library, Doubleday, 1993. p.44-45. Generally, Catholics believe the two Judes are the same person.
According to the surviving fragments of the work Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord of the Apostolic Father Papias of Hierapolis, who lived , Mary the wife of Cleophas or Alphaeus would be the mother of Judas the brother of Jesus that Papias identifies with Thaddeus:
However, the above fragment is properly attributed by J.B. Lightfoot to a different Papias, an 11th century Latin lexicographer. The quotation is found in this Papias' .https://digital-beta.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN815335946&PHYSID=PHYS_0258&DMDID= Digitalisierte Sammlungen der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Werkansicht: Vocabularius(PPN815335946 - PHYS_0258 - Übersicht mit Inhaltsverzeichnis)]
Possible identity with Thaddeus
In the apostolic lists at and , Jude is omitted, but there is a Thaddeus (or in some manuscripts of Matthew 10:3, "Lebbaeus who was surnamed Thaddaeus", as in the King James Version) listed in his place. This has led many Christians since early times to harmonize the lists by positing a "Jude Thaddeus", known by either name. This is made plausible by the fact that a number of New Testament figures have multiple names (such as Simon Peter and Joseph Barnabas). It has been argued that the name "Judas" was tarnished by Judas Iscariot and for this reason Mark and Matthew referred to him by an alternative name.For instance Otto Harpan, in "The Apostle" (Sands, 1962), quoted at
Some Biblical scholars reject this theory, however.Pesch, Rudolf. "Simon-Petrus. Geschichte und geschichtliche Bedeutung der ersten Juengers Jesu Christ", Paepste und Papsttum 15, Hiersmann, 1980. p.36. They have proposed alternative theories to explain the discrepancy: an unrecorded replacement of one for the other during the ministry of Jesus because of apostasy or death;Meier, John P., A Marginal Jew volume 3, pp 130–133, 200 ("Christian imagination was quick to harmonize and produce Jude Thaddeus, a conflation that has no basis in reality.") the possibility that "twelve" was a symbolic number and an estimation;Sanders, E.P., Jesus and Judaism, Fortress Press, 1985. . p.102 or simply that the names were not recorded perfectly by the early church.Fitzmyer, Joseph, The Gospel according to Luke: Introduction, translation, and notes, Volume 2, The Anchor Bible, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1981–1985. . p.619-620
Thaddeus, one of the twelve apostles, is often indistinguishable from Thaddeus of Edessa, whom Eastern Christianity considers as one of the Seventy disciples.
In some Latin manuscripts of Matthew 10:3, Thaddeus is called Judas the Zealot.
In other manuscripts According to the Golden Legend, which is a collection of hagiographies compiled by Jacobus de Voragine in the thirteenth century:
In the same work, Simon Cananean and Judas Thaddeus are described as siblings of James the Less and sons of Mary of Clopas, who was married to Alpheus.
The Epistle of Saint Jude was traditionally attributed to the Apostle Jude, and is a short piece. Some statues of Saint Jude include the letter (such as the statue of Saint Jude by Adam Kossowski in Faversham, Kent).
Tradition and legend
Tradition holds that Jude preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia and Libya. He is also said to have visited Beirut and Edessa, though the emissary of the latter mission is also identified as Addai of Edessa, one of the seventy disciples. The 14th-century writer Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos makes Jude the bridegroom at the wedding at Cana. The legend reports that Jude was born into a Jewish family in Paneas, a town in the Galilee later rebuilt during the Roman period and renamed Caesarea Philippi.
In all probability, he spoke both Greek and Aramaic, like almost all of his contemporaries in that area, and was a farmer by trade.Richard Bauckham The Relatives of Jesus Themelios Volume 21 (2)pp.18–21 1996 According to the legend, Jude was the son of Clopas and Mary of Clopas, sister of Mary, mother of Jesus.
Although Gregory the Illuminator is credited as the "Apostle to the Armenians", when he baptized King Tiridates III of Armenia in 301, converting the Armenians, the Apostles Jude and Bartholomew are traditionally believed to have been the first to bring Christianity to Armenia, and are therefore venerated as the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Linked to this tradition is the Monastery of Saint Thaddeus (now in northern Iran) and Saint Bartholomew Monastery (now in southeastern Turkey), which were both constructed in what was then Armenia. On October 4, 2015, Garegin II, the Catholicos of All Armenians, consecrated Saint Thaddeus Church, Masis, Armenia. The construction site of the church was chosen by Vazgen I, the Catholicos of All Armenians, in 1991, and the ground-blessing service was held that same year.
Death and remains
According to the hagiographic tradition of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Thaddeus suffered martyrdom in AD 66 in Armenia by the order of Armenia's King Sanatruk, along with Bartholomew the Apostle and Saint Santoukhd. According to this tradition, his tomb is located at the Monastery of Saint Thaddeus in Qareh Kelisa, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran.
A different tradition holds that Jude suffered martyrdom about 65 AD in Beirut, in the Roman province of Syria during the 1st century in Lebanon together with the apostle Simon the Zealot, with whom he is usually connected. The axe that he is often shown holding in pictures symbolizes the way in which he was killed. Their acts and martyrdom were recorded in an Acts of Simon and Jude that was among the collection of passions and legends traditionally associated with the legendary Abdias, bishop of Babylon, and said to have been translated into Latin by his disciple Tropaeus Africanus, according to the Golden Legend account of the saints.
According to one account, Jude's body was brought from Beirut to Rome and placed in a crypt in St. Peter's Basilica which is visited by many devotees. His bones are in the left transept of St. Peter's Basilica under the main altar of St. Joseph, in one tomb with the remains of the apostle Simon the Zealot. These were moved here on 27 December 1665. An arm was removed from St. Jude's remains centuries ago and placed in a wooden reliquary carved in the shape of an upright arm imparting a blessing. From September 2023 to May 2024, the arm of Saint Jude Thaddeus went on a pilgrimage in the United States, making stops in 100 cities.
According to another popular tradition, the remains of Jude were preserved in an Armenian monastery on an island in the northern part of Issyk-Kul Lake in Kyrgyzstan at least until the mid-15th century.
A plain ossuary marked with the inscription "Judas Thaddaeus" (Ιουδας Θαδδαιου) was found in Kefar Barukh, Jezreel Valley, alongside fragments of four uninscribed ossuaries. The site was dated by lamps and other pottery to no later than the early second century.Prausnitz M. and Rahmani L.Y. (1967). Jewish Burial Caves of the Early Second Century CE at Kfar Baruch. In Me'eretz Kishon: The Book of the 'Emek. Kishon County Council, Tel Adashim. 309–312.
Iconography