Although the epistle claims to have been written by St. Jude the Apostle, "a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James" (1:1), the author's identity is uncertain. The cultivated Greek style is notable for numerous figures of speech and references to both the Old and New Testaments and to other sources. References to apocryphal literature, however, may have contributed to a 3rd-century dispute about the letter's authenticity, but its canonical status in the early church is nonetheless well attested. The letter was probably composed, at an unknown place, during the first quarter of the 2nd century and before the Second Letter of Peter, which draws upon it. It is the 26th book of the New Testament canon.