Few writings of this compass afford more copious evidence of date in their literary affinities. The references to Enoch (principally ver. 14 seq. = _Eth. En._ i. 9, but cf. F. H. Chase, _s.v._ "Jude" in Hastings's _Dict. Bible_) and the _Assumption of Moses_ (v. 9) have more a geographical than a chronological bearing, the stricter canon of Palestine excluding these apocryphal books of 90 B.C. to A.D. 40; but the Pauline writings are freely employed, especially 1 Cor. x. 1-13, Rom. xvi. 25 seq., and probably Eph. and Col. Moreover, the author explicitly refers to the apostolic age as already past, and to the fulfilment of the Pauline prediction (1 Tim. iv. 1 sqq.) of the advent of heresy (v. 17 seq.). The Pauline doctrine of "grace" has been perverted to lasciviousness, as by the heretics whom Polycarp opposes (_Ep. Polyc._ vii.), and this doctrine is taught for "hire" (vv. 11, 12, 16; cf. 1 Tim. vi. 5). The unworthy "shepherds" (v. 12; cf. Ezek. xxxiv. 8; John x. 12 seq.) live at the expense of their flocks, polluting the "love-feasts," corrupting the true disciples. According to Clement of Alexandria this was written prophetically to apply to the Carpocratians, an antinomian Gnostic sect of _c._ 150; but hyper-Paulinists had given occasion to similar complaints already in Rev. ii. 14, 20 (95). Thus Paulinism and its perversion alike are in the past. As regards the undeniable contact of _Didache_ ii. 7 with Jude 22 seq. (cf. _Didache_, iv. 1, Jude 8) priority cannot be determined; and the use of 1 John iii. 12 in Jude 11 is doubtful. On the other hand, practically the whole of Jude is taken up into 2 Pet., the author merely avoiding, so far as he discovers them, the quotations from apocryphal writings, and prefixing and affixing sections of his own to refute the heretical eschatology. On the priority of Jude see especially against Spitta _Zur Gesch. u. Litt. d. Urchristenthums_, ii. 409-411, F. H. Chase, _loc. cit._ p. 803. (On 2 Pet. see PETER EPISTLES OF.) Unfortunately, the date of 2 Pet. cannot be determined as earlier than late in the second century, so that we are thrown back upon internal evidence for the inferior limit. The treatment of the heresy as the anti-Christ who precedes "the last hour" (v. 18), reminds us of 1 John ii. 18, but it is indicative of conditions somewhat less advanced that the heretics have not yet "gone out from" the church. The treatment of the apostolic age as past, and the deposit of the faith as a _regula fidei_ (cf. Ign. _ad Trall._ ix.), the presence of antinomian Gnosticism, denying the doctrine of lordship and "glories" (v. 8), with "discriminations" between "psychic" and "pneumatic" (v. 19), strongly oppose a date earlier than 100.