The very short letter of Jude, considered the ‘ brother of James ‘, could have been written by one of the brothers of Jesus. His tone and content are somewhat different from those of James, referring to the various Jewish myths. Its subject is the behavior of some people “ungodly “, “deceptive “who have entered the community, and it also suggests that the last day is imminent. He has few things to associate with the letter of James or even with the teachings of Jesus. According to these indications, it would also appear to be a counterfeit, perhaps of the same style as 2 Peter. Apart from the discomfort felt by Christianity to discover counterfeits among its biblical texts, these minor letters may seem unimportant
However, by emphasizing the fundamental differences between the teachings of Peter and Paul, they reveal a great deal. They try to show that Peter, the one appointed by Jesus to lead the disciples after his death and who had spent so much time in the personal company of Jesus, was simply mistaken. While Paul, on the other hand, who had never studied the teachings of Jesus, but claimed to have received his doctrine through an infusion of the Holy Spirit, was right, even if his fundamental principle-the impending second coming proved to be Incorrect. These letters also imply that Jesus lacked discernment by naming a person who had not understood him well.
From a more general point of view, they also underline what became evident to modern scholars in the twentieth century with the discovery of ancient Gnostic texts that divided early Christians into at least two main streams-the Pauline and the Gnostic. Therefore, in any assessment of the mystical side of the teachings of Jesus, the Gnostic current requires attention.
Revelations:
In the search for mysticism among the teachings of Jesus, there remains a New Testament document to consider: The obscure Book of Revelation.
Revelations belong to a category of Jewish literature that developed during the second and first centuries BCE, and has its antecedents in the earlier religious writings of the Babylonian and Persian periods. It was a form or a literary style, a medium of expression or an art, which lasted for several centuries, predominant in certain Judaic circles, as well as Christians and Gnostics. In these “revelations”, images, metaphor, allegory, symbolism, figures, colors and all these devices were used to convey the meaning of the author, who often wore a eschatological message. Sometimes the writing of Revelation could become a literary version of a cryptic crossword, where nothing meant exactly what it seemed.
The kind of revelation usually consists of a fictitious ascent into the celestial realms, usually in the company of an angel or other spiritual being. Sometimes the supposed recipient of revelation is one of the patriarchs of antiquity, thus adding an air of authenticity to the related events. Once in the Celestial realms, the writer is shown some things revealing both the structure and nature of the interior creation or about the physical events that will happen. It can also be instructed to do certain things or to send specific messages.
About these revelations, such as the Ascension of Isaiah and some of the literary tracts to promote a prophecy of impending disaster and the day of judgment, urging their readers to repent while there was still time.
Revelations with so-called prophecies of the future were invariably written after the event, an easy way to write prophecies! Some were even used for political and propaganda purposes.
None of these writers of revelation, however, was interested in the distant future. . Their horizons were circumscribed by their time and place. The attempt to read distant prophecies of the end of the world in such writings was however unwise, and was certainly not what the original author or authors had in mind.