JUDAS MACCABEUS. See JEWS, and JERUSALEM. JUDE, or JUDAS. There were two of this name among the twelve apostles—Judas, called also Lebbeus and Thaddæus (Matt. x. 4; Mark iii. 18), and also Judas Iscariot. Judas is the name of one of our Lord's brethren, but it is not agreed whether our Lord's brother is the same with the apostle of this name. Luke calls him Ἰωδαν Ἰακώβου, which in the English version is translated "Judas, the brother of James." The ellipsis, however, between Ἰωδαν and Ἰακώβου is supplied by the old Syriac translator with the word son, and not brother. Among our Lord's brethren are named James, Joseph, and Judas. If, with Helvidius among the ancients, and Kuinoel, Neander, and a few other modern commentators, we were to consider our Lord's brethren to be children of Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, we should be under the necessity of supposing that there was a James, a Joseph, and a Judas, who were uterine brothers of our Lord, together with the apostles James and Judas, who were children of Mary, the sister or cousin of the Virgin. If, however, the hypothesis of their being children of the Blessed Virgin be rejected, there remains for us only a choice between the two opinions, that our Lord's brethren were children of Joseph by a former wife (Escha, or Salome, according to an apocryphal tradition), which was the sentiment of the majority of the fathers (still received in the Oriental Church), and that adopted in the Western Church, and first broached by St Jerome, that the brethren of our Lord were his cousins, as being children of Mary, the wife of Cleophas, who must therefore be considered as the same with Alphæus. If we consider James, the brother of our Lord, to be a different person from James the son of Alphæus, and not one of the twelve, Jude, the brother of James, must consequently be placed in the same category; but if they are one and the same, Jude must be considered as the person who is numbered with our Lord's apostles. We are not informed as to the time of the vocation of the Apostle Jude to that dignity. Only one circumstance relating to him is recorded in the Gospels. Nor have we any account given of his proceedings after our Lord's resurrection, for the traditional notices which have been preserved of him rest on no very certain foundation. It has been asserted that he was sent to Edessa, to Abgarus, king of Osroene (Jerome Annot. in Matt.), and that he preached in Syria, Arabia, Mesopotamia, and Persia; in which latter country he suffered martyrdom (Lardner's Hist. of the Apostles). Jude the Apostle is commemorated in the Western church, together with the Apostle Simon (the name, also, of one of our Lord's brethren) on the 8th of October. There is an interesting account preserved by Hegesippus (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. iii. 20) concerning some of Jude's posterity:—"When Domitian," he observes, "inquired after David's posterity, some grandsons of Jude, called the Lord's brother, were brought into his presence. Being asked concerning their possessions and mode of life, they assured him that they had thirty-nine acres of land, the value of which was 9000 denarii, out of which they paid him taxes, and maintained themselves by the labour of their hands. The truth of this was confirmed by the hardness of their hands. Being asked concerning
Christ and the nature of his kingdom, they replied that it was not a kingdom of this world, but of a heavenly and angelic nature; that it would be manifested at the end of the world, when he would come in glory to judge the living and the dead, and render to every man according to his works. Having observed their humble condition and their harmless principles, he dismissed them with contempt, after which they ruled the churches, both as witnesses and relatives of the Lord.