Jesus in the Old Testament: The Red Sea Crossing

Jude is likely to be one of the brothers of Jesus.  He describes himself as the brother of St James in verse 1.

Jude v 1

Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and a brother of James.  To those who are called, loved by God the Father, and kept in Jesus Christ.

This would make him, also a brother of Jesus.  Clement of Rome (AD35-99) refers to him as a son of Joseph and a brother of the Lord. 

But some scholars think the Greek text in Jude 1 might mean 'Jude, son of James', which would make him a second generation Christian. In either case, this epistle is part of the Biblical canon in all Christian traditions.

The Epistle of Jude is an intriguing book.  It is one of the shortest ones in the Bible, with just one chapter.  It was probably written between AD 50 and AD 110.  Not only does it refer to Old Testament stories, but also quotes non-canonical texts, like 1 Enoch and the Testament of Moses.

The Epistle of Jude discusses the different groups coming into the church who are spreading false doctrine.  This text includes beautiful metaphors, like wandering stars, fruitless trees in Autumn and wild waves of the sea.

Jude v 12-13

These men are hidden reefsc in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted. They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.

Jude recalls incidents in the Old Testament to help encourage the early Christians to persevere in their faith.

Jesus in the Book of Jude

The 5th verse of Jude reminds Christians how the Lord delivered the Children of Israel from Egypt.  

Jude v 5

Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

In the earliest manuscripts we have, the word ‘Lord’ is replaced with Jesus.  Originally, the epistle likely read that Jesus delivered His people out of Egypt, not the ‘Lord’.

For many centuries, most translations of the Bible used the word 'Lord' in verse 5. But the oldest Jude texts suggest Jesus is the one brings the Children of Israel through the Red Sea.  This seems counterintuitive to the Modern Christian viewpoint, where Jesus doesn’t actively appear in the Old Testament. However, this doesn’t appear to be what the early Christians believed.

One counter argument is the name Jesus is the same as Joshua in the Old Testament.  And as Joshua was probably with Moses as they left Egypt, “he led his people out of Egypt”.

But the Anglo-Saxon chronicler and academic, Bede, viewed this text as:

“[He] is referring not to Jesus [Joshua] the son of Nun but to our Lord, showing first that he did not have his beginning at his birth from the holy virgin, as the heretics have wished, but existed as the eternal God for the salvation of all believers… For in Egypt he first so saved the humble who cried out to him from their affliction that he might afterward bring low the proud who murmured against him in the desert.”

Early Christians had a high Christology, meaning that they believed Jesus existed before His birth, He was not only involved in the formation of the Created Order, but held Creation together from the beginning.  And He led the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

Modern Christians, who believe Jesus was ‘just a man’ during His ministry, may struggle with the concept of the pre-incarnate Christ actively working in the Earth.

Exodus 14 v 30

That day the Lord saved Israel from the hands of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians lying dead on the shore.

But the Lord mentioned in this verse, according to Jude, is the pre-incarnate Jesus.  The Exodus was not just a symbolic connection to Christ and the plan for salvation of the World, but Jesus was actually freeing His people from Egypt.

He does this again at the Cross, but this time, on a cosmic scale.

Here is a great article looking at the whole issue.

https://www.affinity.org.uk/foundations/issue-75/issue-75-who-led-the-israelites-out-of-egypt/