🔼The name Jude: Summary
- Meaning
- Praised, Let Him Be Praised
- Etymology
- From the verb ידה (yada), to praise.
🔼The name Jude in the Bible
There's only one Jude in the Bible, and he's the author of the Book of Jude. This book is not really a book but a very short letter. And Jude is not really a name; in Greek it's the same as Judas. For some reason early translators wanted to distinguish Jude from the other occurrences of the name Judas of the Bible (perhaps from the fear that people might mistake our Jude for Judas Iscariot), but that really makes not a lot of sense because there are six men named Judas mentioned in the Bible, one of which is the brother of Jesus and James.
🔼Etymology of the name Jude
The name Jude is the same as Judas, and that is the Hellenized version of the Hebrew name Judah. The name Judah in turn comes from the Hebrew verb ידה, meaning to praise:
הוד ידה
The related verbs ידה (yada), to praise, and הוד (hod), to be worthy of praise, conjugate into such similar forms that it's often not clear which verb in which tense is used. From the verb ידה (yada), to praise, come:
- The plural noun הידות (huyyedot), meaning songs of praise.
- The noun תודה (toda), meaning confession or praise.
From the verb הוד (hod), meaning to be praise-worthy, comes the noun הוד (hod), meaning splendor, majesty, vigor, glory or honor.
🔼Jude meaning
If we take the name Jude to have the same meaning as Judas and Judah, it would mean Praised or Let Him be Praised.