---
title: Jude 3
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jude-3/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/jude-3.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Jude 3
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Jude 3

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Beloved, although I made every effort to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt it necessary to write and urge you to contend earnestly for the faith entrusted once for all to the saints.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "Beloved ones, although I was making every effort to write you about the salvation we hold in common, I found it necessary to write you to urge you to put up a hard fight for the faith that was once for all time delivered to the holy ones."

## JW Usage

Witnesses are taught that the Governing Body is the modern channel through which Jehovah continues to clarify and apply the faith. New light, fresh understanding, and revised teachings are presented as part of the ongoing work of contending for the faith. The "once for all time delivered" phrase is acknowledged but read in a way compatible with continuing organisational development of doctrine.

## Protestant Usage

The Greek "hapax paradotheisē" — "once for all delivered" — is emphatic and decisive. The apostolic deposit was delivered singularly, completely, and finally. There is no second delivery and no later body with authority to expand it. Pair with 2 Thessalonians 2:5 (Paul reminds them his oral teaching matched his letters) and 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (Scripture makes the man of God "fully competent, completely equipped for every good work"). The Watchtower cannot name a single apostolic oral tradition it has preserved from the first century that is not already in the New Testament. That silence is the answer. New light replacing old light is not "contending for the faith once for all delivered" — it is the opposite. Jude commands us to fight for what was given. He does not commission anyone to add to it.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Paradosis — What Paul Actually Preserved](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/paradosis-traditions-2thess215.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:15 — 'Hold the traditions... by word or by letter' [Authority]
- [The Apostasia Watchtower Thesis](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/apostasia-watchtower-thesis.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:3 / 2:15 — The Antidote Was Tradition, Not a Future Restorer [Authority]
- [Paradosis Is Mandatory When Paul's, Forbidden When Anyone Else's](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/paradosis-only-watchtower-canon.md) — 2 Thessalonians 2:15 — The Watchtower's Selective Tradition Rule [Authority]