After the brief description of his readers, Jude now conveys his greetings to them. The greeting formula that he uses varies somewhat from the traditional greeting in the New Testament; instead of the usual three elements of grace, mercy, and peace, Jude has mercy, peace, and love. Mercy is God’s compassion and kindness, of which his saving action through Jesus Christ is the best example. Peace is a popular word of greeting among Jews and denotes the total well-being that results from a close relationship with God. In many languages peace will be rendered idiomatically; for example, “have coolness and peacefulness.” Love may be interpreted as God’s love for all people which is made known through Jesus Christ, or as the love and concern of Christians for one another. It is quite tempting to take these terms in their fullest theological meaning; it must be remembered, however, that they are used here as elements of a greeting formula and must be translated to fit their function within such a formula.

Be multiplied to you is similar to the expression found in 1 Peter 1.2 and is a distinctive feature of Jewish prayers (compare Dan 4.1; 6.25). It conveys the hope that mercy, peace, and love will be bestowed to them continually and in abundance. (Note Phillips “May you ever experience more and more of mercy, peace and love!”)

Alternative translation models for this verse are as follows:

• May you ever experience more and more mercy, peace, and love from God.

Or:

• I pray that God will continue to be good to you, so that your well-being will increase, and that your love for one another will continue to grow.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Letter from Jude. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1993. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .