John, Epistles Of
John Epistles Of
I. The First Epistle
1. Contents.-It is not easy to summarize the contents of the First Epistle. The aphoristic meditations of this mystic writer are strung together in such fashion that they almost defy analysis. The most successful attempt is that of T. Hring (Gedankengang und Grundgedanke des 1ten Johannesbriefs, in Theol. Abhandlungen C. von Weizscker gewidmet, Freiburg i. B., 1892). If we cut off the first four verses, which are clearly an introduction, and also 1Jn 5:13-21, which form a final summary, the main body of the Epistle gives us a triple presentation of two leading ideas. The ethical thesis, Without walking in light, more specially defined as love of the brethren, there can be no fellowship with God, is developed in the sections 1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:17, 1Jn 2:28(?)1Jn 3:24, 1Jn 4:7-21. The christological thesis, Beware of those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, is similarly developed in 1Jn 2:18-27, 1Jn 4:1-6, 1Jn 5:1(? 5)Joh 5:5-12. In the first presentation (1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:27) the two theses are stated without any indication of their mutual connexion; in the second (1Jn 2:26 to 1Jn 4:6) they are again presented in the same order, but the verses (1Jn 3:23-24) which form the transition from the one to the other are so worded as to bring out clearly the intimate connexion which the author finds between them (his command is that we should believe, and love as he commanded); in the third (1Jn 4:7 to 1Jn 5:12) they are inseparably intertwined. A rough analysis may be attempted.
1Jn 1:1-4.-The introduction states the writers purpose-to rekindle the true joy of fellowship in his readers, by recalling the old message of Life, which has been from the beginning, and of late has been manifested in Jesus, the Son of God (1Jn 1:1-4).
1Jn 1:5 to 1Jn 2:27.-(a) The burden of that message is that God is Light. As the light must shine, so it is of His essence to reveal Himself to those whom He has made to share His fellowship. In spite of what some Gnostics may say, there is nothing in His nature that hides Him from all but a few select souls. But light describes, so to speak, His character as well. Fellowship with Light is only possible for those who walk in light. To claim fellowship, and go on committing deeds of darkness, is to tell a lie. But for those who try, He has prescribed a way of dealing with their partial failures (1Jn 2:7). Two similar false pleas are then set aside: the denial that sin is a real power, active for evil, in those who have sinned, and the denial that actual sin has been committed. They are shown to be contrary to experience, and to what we know of Gods dealing with men (1Jn 2:8-10). In 1Jn 2:1 the writer sets aside a false inference which might be drawn from what he has said. The universality of sin might seem to be an excuse for acquiescence. The writer states that he writes to prevent, not to condone, sin. And this is possible, or in the Christian society the means are ready to hand for dealing with the sins which occur. The Paraclete is pleading their cause in heaven, and He is the propitiation He ministers. And men can know how they stand. Obedience is the sign of knowledge of God. Men are in union with God when they try to follow the steps of the Christ (1Jn 2:2-6). In 1Jn 2:7-17 thesis and warning are put forward on the grounds of the readers circumstances and experiences. Obedience to command suggests a general statement of the command to love. Thou shalt love thy neighbour is an old command. It received new force and meaning in the light of Christs life, and the new life which Christians have learned to live. This is more clearly realized as in the new society the darkness passes away. A man cannot be in the light and hate his brother Christian. Love lights the path, so that he can walk without stumbling.
The writer then turns to immediate circumstances (1Jn 2:12-17). The sin which keeps them far from God has been removed; the experience of the old and the strength of the young have secured victory (1Jn 2:12-13 a). This explains how he could write as he has written. Their knowledge and strength made it possible for him to use the words he has penned (1Jn 2:13 b, 14). But there is need of hard striving. Love of the world may soon destroy all that they have gained. The world is passing; only that which is done according to Gods will abides (1Jn 2:15-17).
(b) So he passes to the first statement of the christological thesis (1Jn 2:18-27). Faith in Jesus as the Christ is the test of fellowship with God. The passing of the transitory suggests the signs of the times. The last hour has struck. The saying Antichrist cometh is being fulfilled in the many false teachers who have appeared. The Faith had gained a decisive victory, in the unmasking of the traitors, who had to go. The crisis had shown that all such false teachers, however they differed among themselves, were aliens, and no true members of the Body. This the readers knew, if they would use their knowledge. Their anointing had given to all of them knowledge to detect falsehood. Falsehood culminates in the denial that Jesus is the Messiah. This denial includes denial of the Father, in spite of Gnostic claims to superior knowledge. All true knowledge of the Father comes through the Son. It is gained in living and abiding union, the eternal life which He has promised (1Jn 2:18-26). This much he must write about the deceivers. If his readers had used their knowledge, he need not have written it (1Jn 2:27-28). Let them abide, and confidence will be theirs when He appears (1Jn 2:28). Who can have this confidence? Those who know that God is just, and who therefore learn in the experience of Christian life that the doing of righteousness is the true test of the birth from God (1Jn 2:29).
1Jn 2:28 to 1Jn 4:6.-(a) We pass to the second statement of the ethical thesis (1Jn 2:28(?) 1Jn 3:24): the doing of righteousness, i.e. love of the brethren, shown in active service, is the sign by which we may know that we are loving God. In 1Jn 3:1-6 thesis and warning are considered in the light of the duty of self-purification, laid upon us by the gift of sonship and the hope of its consummation. Everyone who has this hope must of necessity purify himself here and now. Lawlessness does not consist only in disobeying the injunctions of a definite code. There is a higher Law which is broken by even act of , of failure to realize in life the ideal set before men in the human life of Jesus Christ. This is further explained in 1Jn 3:7-18, introduced by an earnest warning against deceivers. The doer of righteousness alone has attained to Christ-like righteousness. The doer of sin still belongs to the Devil, who has been working for sin throughout human history. So, if we realize that for us righteousness finds its clearest expression in love of the brethren, we gain a clear contrast: Gods children, always striving to realize the ideal of sinless love, and the children of the Devil, striving after, or drifting towards, their own ideal of sinful hate and selfish greed Sinlessness, i.e. righteousness, is not the monopoly of a chosen race, or section of men. It is the natural outcome of the new life which every man may have, if he will take it and use it, to follow Christ, not Cain, whose evil life found its natural expression in the final issue of hatred-murder with violence (1Jn 3:12). 1Jn 3:13-18 contain variations on the same theme. The worlds hatred should not surprise them; it is the natural attitude of those who cannot stand the sight of good. They really ought to know that love and death, murder and eternal life, have nothing in common. And Christs example has shown what love is. At least they can show their love in helping their brethren. He who has not even got so far as that need not talk of Gods love. With an exhortation to sincerity in loving service (1Jn 3:18) the meditation passes over once more to the tests of truth. How can we know that we are on the side of truth, and still the accusations of our consciences?-By throwing ourselves on Gods omniscience. When a man feels confidence towards God and finds that his prayers are answered-that he wishes for and does the things that God wills-his conscience ceases to accuse (1Jn 3:19-22). Gods will is shown in His command-which is more than a series of precepts: He bids men have faith in Christ and love like His. These lead to fellowship with Him. Men know that they have it by their possession of the Spirit which He has given (1Jn 3:23-24).
(b) Thus the interlacing of Faith and Love leads on to the second presentation of the christological thesis (1Jn 4:1-6), in such a way as to show its vital connexion with the ethical. The mention of the Spirit suggests the form of the new statement. All spiritual phenomena could not he regarded as the work of Gods Spirit. The spirits must be tested by their attitude to the Christ. The reality of the Incarnation as a permanent union between God and man is the vital truth. The statement (1Jn 4:2-3) is followed by a short meditation (1Jn 4:4-6) on the attitude of the Church and the world to the two confessions and those who make them. The spirits of truth and error are clearly discerned by the kinds of people who listen to them.
1Jn 4:7 to 1Jn 5:12.-In these verses, the last and most intricate section of the Epistle, we have the third presentation of the two theses. The remainder of ch. 4 is predominantly ethical, the opening verses of ch. 5 christological, or at least doctrinal. But the two theses are interwoven, and can hardly be separated. Love is the proof of fellowship with God, for God is Love. The true nature of love has been made clear, in terms intelligible to men, in the sending of His Son, as faith conceives it.
In the first explanation of the two combined ideas (1Jn 4:7-21), it is shown that love based on faith in the revelation of love given in Christs life and work is the proof of knowing God and of being loved of God. In the second explanation (1Jn 5:1 ff.) faith is first. Victory over the world-the forces opposed to God-is gained by faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God. This faith rests historically on a three-fold witness-of the water (the Baptism in which He was set apart for His Messianic work), of the suffering (which culminated on the Cross, and which has dealt with sin), and of the Spirit (who interprets these facts to men). And the work of the Spirit continues in those who follow Christ as thus conceived. They realize the truth in their own experience.
1Jn 5:13-21.-So the last christological statement passes out into yet another answer to the question, How can we know? (1Jn 5:13-17). True confidence is established when men know that prayer is heard because what is asked is in accordance with Gods will. The true answer to prayer is the immediate consciousness that what is taken to God has reached His ear, and may be safely left in His care. Where intercession is possible it will succeed. Then (1Jn 5:18-21), with a triple , the writer sums up the things he has to say which matter most. Sin can be conquered; we belong to God, whom, we have learned to know in the revelation of Him which His Son has brought down to men. The Epistle closes with the terse warning that His children must reject all meaner conceptions of God.
2. The false teachers.-If the analysis given of the teaching of the First Epistle is correct, it follows that edification and exhortation rather than controversy are the writers primary objects. He reiterates the leading ideas of his teaching, already familiar to his readers, to kindle once more the enthusiasm of their faith and first love, which is growing cold, to guard them from the dangers which threaten, and to give them tests by which they may know the security of their Christian position.
At the same time it is clear that in all he writes he has in view definite forms of false teaching which have proved dangerous, errors both doctrinal and ethical, the fascination of which is a serious menace to their Christian life.
A careful study of the language of the Epistle makes it probable that the author is combating more than one kind of false teaching. His opponents are not all to be found in the same camp. The opinions which he refutes might all have been held by the same opponents; but they do not form a complete system: still less can they be separated into a series of complete homogeneous systems. Probably he offers a few leading truths which in his opinion are the antidote to the manifold errors by which his readers are threatened, while there is one particular party, to whose opinions recent circumstances have given a predominant importance.
The expressions used suggest variety. Many antichrists have come (1Jn 2:18); all of them, whatever their differences may be, are aliens to the truth (1Jn 2:19). The repeated use of (1Jn 2:21; 1Jn 2:23) suggests manifold and varied opposition. Those who lead astray are spoken of in the plural (1Jn 2:26). The one , which all have, should have taught them all things. The same variety is suggested by ch. 4. Many false prophets are gone out into the world. Every spirit which does not confess (dissolves?) Jesus is not of God; Antichrist is working in many subordinates (1Jn 2:2-3). It is only in ch. 5 that the writer seems, to narrow the issues down to one particular form of error; the denial that the sufferings and death of Jesus were an essential part of His Messianic work. Even here his method is the same. He emphasizes a few fundamental truths which should safeguard his readers from all the varied dangers which threaten. A special incident is the occasion of his writing. He has in view several forms of error.
(1) Judaism.-Jews who have never accepted Christianity are not the only enemy. The words (1Jn 2:19) must refer to a definite secession of those who were generally recognized as Christians. But Jewish opposition is clearly a serious danger. This is shown by the writers insistence on the confession that Jesus is the Messiah (1Jn 2:22; cf. 1Jn 4:2; 1Jn 5:6). The Jewish controversy is prominent throughout. The Jewish War and the Destruction or Jerusalem must have profoundly affected the relation of Judaism to Christianity. Jewish Christians were placed in a desperate position. Hitherto they had no doubt hoped against hope for the recognition of Jesus as Messiah by the majority of their countrymen. But the final catastrophe had come, and the Lord had not returned to save His people. Christians had not been slow to draw the obvious conclusion from the fate of Jerusalem. And Jewish Christians could expect nothing but the bitterest hostility from their fellow-countrymen. Apostasy was now the only possible condition of reunion. If some openly accepted the condition, many Jewish Christians must have been sorely tempted to think that their estimate of Jesus as Messiah had been mistaken, and to regard Him as a Prophet indeed, but not as Messiah, still less as the unique Son of God. This danger, which threatened Jewish Christians primarily, must have affected the whole body. The prominence of the Jewish controversy in the Fourth Gospel is now generally recognized. It is less prominent in the Epistle, but there is no essential difference of situation.
At the same time it is only one element in the situation. A. Wurm (Die Irrlehrer im 1. Johannesbrief, 1903) is not justified in deducing from the words of 1Jn 2:23 the exclusively Jewish character of the false teaching combated. The author certainly deduces the fact that the opponents have not the Father from their false Christology. It does not follow, however, that he and his opponents were at one in their doctrine of the Father. He could not have written as he has unless they claimed to have the Father; but they may have claimed it in a different sense from that of orthodox Christian. The passage is more easily explained if we suppose that the writer has in view a claim to a superior knowledge of the Father imparted to a few spiritual natures, unattainable by the ordinary Christian. All true knowledge of the Father comes through Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. By rejecting the truth about Jesus they forfeited all claim to Knowledge of the Father.
(2) Gnosticism.-There is no clear evidence in the Epistles of the fully developed Gnostic systems of the 2nd century. There are, for instance, many simpler explanations of the use of in 1Jn 3:9 than Pfleiderers hypothesis that it refers to the system of Basilides. But undoubtedly Gnostic ideas are an important element in the mental circumstances of the writer and his age. The burden of his message is that God is Light (1Jn 1:5), and the reiteration of this in negative form is probably aimed at the view that the Father of all is unknowable or that know ledge of Him is the monopoly of a pneumatic minority. The Gnostic claim, real or supposed, that the are superior to the obligations of the Moral Law is roughly handled. And the insistence with which intellectual claims are met by the challenge to fulfil the Christian duty of love and its obligations is significant. The confession demanded of Jesus Christ come in flesh is a protest against the Gnostic doctrine of the impossibility of real union between the spiritual seed and flesh. And at the same time the writers sympathy with Gnostic ideas is obvious. Here as elsewhere, he is always reminding his children that they are old enough to refuse the evil and to choose the good.
Gnostic ideas afford no criterion for dating the Epistles of John. It is, of course, a perversion of history to assume that Gnostic ideas first came into contact with Christianity when Christians began to think in terms of Greek philosophy, towards the middle of the 2nd century. The movement is Oriental rather than Greek, and far older in date. But its reflexion in these Epistles is a patent fact.
(3) Docetism.-It is customary to speak of the Johannine Epistles, and also of the Gospel, as anti-Docetic (cf. Schmiedel [Encyclopaedia Biblica , s.v. Jonn, Son of Zebedee, 57], Moffatt [Introd. to Literature of the New Testament (Moffatt)., 1911, p. 586]). If the term is used popularly of all teaching which denied or subverted thee reality of the Incarnation, this is true. The Word was made Flesh, Jesus Christ came in flesh, are the watchwords of Gospel and Epistles. But there is no real trace in these writings of Docetism in the stricter sense of the term, i.e. the teaching denounced by Ignatius (Smyrn. 2ff.; cf. Trall. 10f.), which assigned a purely phantasmal body to the Lord. And it is probable that in the development of christological thought theories of pure Docetism are a later stage than the assumption of a temporary connexion between a Heavenly Power and the real manhood of Jesus of Nazareth (cf., however, Lightfoot and Pfleiderer).
(4) Cerinthianism.-We have seen that the writer has to deal with dangers which threaten from several quarters. As the Epistle proceeds, his attack becomes more direct, and the Christological passage in ch. 5 contains clearer reference to one definite form of error-the denial that Jesus, the Son of God, came by blood as well as by water, i.e. that the Sufferings and Death of Jesus were as essential a note of His Messianic work as the Baptism by John. This suits the teaching of Cerinthus as described by Irenaeus (c. Haer, i. xxvi. 1): post baptismum descendisse in eum ab ea principalitate quae est super omnia Christum figura columbae et tunc annunciasse incognitum patrem, et uirtutes perfecisse, in fine autem reuolasse iterum Christum de lesu, et Iesum passum esse et resurrexisse, Christum autem impassibilem perseuerasse, existentem spiritalem. The traditional view that ch. 5 contains a reference to Cerinthianism has been held by the majority of scholars of all schools who have dealt with the Epistle. This view has been seriously challenged especially by Wurm (op. cit.) and Clemen (Zeitschrift fr die neutest. Wissenschaft vi. [1905] 271ff.) on the ground that 1Jn 2:23 excludes Cerinthianism, as it implies that the writer and his opponents are conscious of no difference of view in their doctrine of the Father. If the suggestion made above ( 2 (1)) that that passage gains in point if the opponents claimed a superior having the Father to that of ordinary Christians, the objection falls to the ground. The limits of this article preclude a general discussion of our knowledge of Cerinthianism. The present writer has discussed it at length in his Johannine Epistles (International Critical Commentary , 1912), p. xlv ff.). There are good reasons for thinking that Hippolytus in his Syntagma ascribed to Cerinthus the view that the Spirit (not the Christ) descended on Jesus at the Baptism. If so, this gives additional force to the description in 1Jn 5:6 f. of the proper function of the Spirit. It would seem that Cerinthus continued these Judaizing and Gnostic tendencies which the author of these Epistles regarded as most dangerous. But many Antichrists had come to be even if Cerinthus is most prominently in his thoughts.
(5) Ethical error.-In his denunciations of ethical error there is no reason to suppose that the writer has a different class of opponents in view. He could not have connected his ethical and christological theses as he has, if the two sources of danger had been separate. At the same time, in his practical warnings as well as in his christological teaching his words have a wider reference than one particular body of opponents. There is no reason to suppose that any of the opponents had been guilty of the grosser sins of the flesh. The phrase (1Jn 2:17) does not imply this. And the Epistle is not directed against Antinomianism, as has been sometimes wrongly inferred from 1Jn 3:4. It would seem that they claimed a superior knowledge of God to which ordinary Christians could not attain, while disregarding some at least of the requirements of the Christian code, especially the love which shows itself in active service for the brethren. They hardly recognized the obligation of the new command of Joh 13:34. While condemning lawlessness (cf. 1Jn 3:4)-and many of them no doubt recognized the obligations of the Mosaic Law-they failed to see that all falling short of the ideal revealed as possible in the human life of Jesus is disobedience to Gods highest Law. The indifference of conduct, as compared with other supposed qualifications, as e.g. descent from Abraham, or possession of the pneumatic seed, is clearly part of their ethical creed. In this sphere also a mixture of Judaizing and Gnostic tendencies such as may reasonably be attributed to Cerinthianism will explain the language of the Apostle in which the ethical shortcomings of the opponents are denounced.
3. Relation to the Gospel.-The authorship of the Epistles is closely connected with the question of the authorship of the Gospel. It is impossible to attempt here even a summary of the controversy. The relation, however, of the longer Epistle to the Gospel and to the shorter Epistles must be considered. The similarity of style and content is so marked that the obvious explanation of common authorship might seem to need no further discussion. But the views of an increasing number of competent critics cannot be neglected. Holtzmanns articles (JPTh [Note: PTh Jahrbcher fr protestantische Theologie.] vii. [1881], viii. [1882]) are still the fullest and fairest statement of the views of those who reject the idea of common authorship. A rough estimate makes the vocabulary of the Epistle 295 words, of which 69 only are not found in the Gospel. The general impression formed by reading verses or chapters of the documents is probably a safer guide. There can be no doubt as to the prevalence of characteristic and distinctive words and phrases common to both. The similarity extends to common types of phrases variously filled up. Attention has often been called to the following points of similarity in style: the carrying on of the thought by the use of , by disconnected sentences, by the positive and negative expression of the same thought; the use of the demonstrative, , etc., followed by an explanatory clause to emphasize a thought; the repetition of emphatic words. Such phenomena leave us with the choice between an author, varying his own phrases and forms of expression, and a slavish imitator.
The similarity extends to content as well. The leading ideas-the reality of the Incarnation, the life which springs from Christ and is identified with Him, abiding in Christ and in God, the sending of the Son as the proof of Gods love, the birth from God, the importance of witness, many well-known pairs of opposites-are equally prominent in both writings. They find that kind of similar but varied expression which suggests an author doing what he would with his own, rather than the work of a copyist. And the differences, though real, are not greater than are naturally explained by differences of time, circumstances, and object. The question of priority has also been the subject of long controversy. The priority of the Epistle has been maintained on the following grounds:
(1) The introductory verses are said to present an earlier stage of the Logos doctrine than the Prologue of the Gospel. The personal Logos is a stage not yet reached. Even if this is true, the facts might equally well be explained by the theory that in the Epistle we have a further accommodation to the growing Monarchianism of a later period. And if we take the whole Epistle into account, it is clear that the personal differentiation of Father and Son is stated in the Epistle as definitely as in the Logos doctrine of the Gospel. And it is far easier to explain the opening expressions of the Epistle as a summary of that Prologue than vice versa.
(2) The of Joh 14:16 has been explained by the doctrine of the Epistle which presents Christ as . But the two ideas are different, and not mutually exclusive. The of the Gospel finds its natural explanation in the approaching withdrawal of the bodily presence of the speaker.
(3) The Epistle shows an immediate expectation of the Parousia which the author of the Gospel is said to have abandoned, substituting the Presence of the Spirit for the hope of the Coming. Again, the point, if true, is not decisive. It could as plausibly be explained as a modification of more original and less popular views. But serious divergence can only be maintained by the excision of Joh 5:26-29; Joh 6:39 f. and other inconvenient passages from the Gospel. The differences are definite, but not fundamental. The treatment of the Antichrist legend in the Epistle is as complete a process of spiritualization as that of popular eschatology in the Gospel.
(4) It has also been maintained that on the subject of Propitiation the Epistle is nearer to the Pauline standpoint than the Gospel, which conceives of Christs work merely as the glorifying of the Father by the Sons revelation of Him to men. Again there is a difference of relative prominence, but there is no reason to neglect what is involved in Joh 1:36; Joh 1:51 f.
(5) In the record of the piercing of the side a misunderstanding of 1Jn 5:6 has been found by some writers. It is, however, more natural to see in the Epistle a reference to a well-known story, though the incident itself does not afford a complete explanation of the meaning of the verse.
(6) External evidence is equally indecisive. The probable quotation of the Epistle by Polycarp proves nothing, especially if Schwartz and Lightfoot are right in their view that Papias knew and valued the Gospel.
On the other hand, there are many passages in the Epistle which seem unintelligible without a knowledge of corresponding passages in the Gospel to explain them. If there is no clear proof of borrowing in the Epistle, it is almost indisputable that the Gospel is original, the Epistle is not. And it is hard to escape the general impression left by the study of the two documents, that in the Epistle the writer summarizes the important parts in the teaching of the Gospel, which his readers had failed to make their own. They were therefore in danger of falling victims to errors which their knowledge ought to have enabled them to detect and avoid.
4. Relation to Mystery religions.-The time has hardly come for a satisfactory treatment of the question of the relation of the Johannine writings to the Mystery religions. The valuable work of Dieterich, Reitzenstein, and others is well known. But until the actual dates of documents can be determined with greater certainty than is at present possible, the influence of the Mysteries on early Christian thought and literature must remain a matter for conjecture. Reference may be made to the valuable treatise of C. Clemen (Der Einfluss der Mysterienreligionen auf das lteste Christentum, 1913) and to the admirable summary in Feines Theologie des Neuen Testaments2, 1911, p. 556ff. with reference to the Johannine books.
II. The shorter Epistles
1. Authorship.-It is unnecessary to waste time in discussing the common authorship of the two shorter Epistles. The close parallelism of their general structure, and the similarity of their style, vocabulary, and ideas (see Harnack, Texte and Untersuchungen xv. 3 [1897]) leave us with as high a degree of certainty as such evidence can ever give, though the reference which many scholars find in the Third Epistle to the Second is improbable. Their relation to the First Epistle is less certain. External and internal evidence raises the possibility of different authorship. The problem, however, is clearly similar to that of the relation of the First Epistle to the Gospel. A study of the facts leads to a similar answer. It is a case of common authorship or conscious imitation. The freedom of handling of the some tools points to the former alternatives. The shorter Epistles are the most obviously genuine of the five books generally attributed to St. John. Common sense and sound criticism alike shrink from the hypothesis that either the Gospel or the First Epistle is modelled on them.
2. Contents of Second Epistle.-The object of the second letter is to give advice to the church or family addressed in it about hospitality to Christians from other churches. The question of the reception of the higher order of ministers who moved from place to place (apostles, prophets, teachers, evangelists), and who claimed authority over the resident officers, was a burning one in early days, and the situation presupposed in this Epistle is parallel with that found in the Didache. The stages of development are similar, though it does not follow that they had been reached at the same date in both centres. The answer given to the question is the application of the two tests, practical and doctrinal, of the First Epistle. Those who walk in love and who confess Jesus Christ coming in flesh are to be welcomed. (A possible interpretation of as opposed to (1Jn 4:2) suggests that doubts as to the Parousia had come into greater prominence, but this is far from certain.)
3. Destination of Second Epistle.-The controversy whether the letter is addressed to a church or an individual is still acute. The latter hypothesis has been ably maintained by Rendel Harris (Expositor, 6th ser. iii. [1901] 194ff.) and others. The attempts to find a proper name either in Kyria or Eclecta are not convincing. If a lady is addressed, it is best to suppose that her name is not given. The language in which the writers affection is expressed, and the subjects with which the letter deals, point to a church rather than to an individual. And the interchange of singular and plural in the use of the second person is almost decisive in favour of the former view.
4. Contents of Third Epistle.-The Third Epistle also deals with the question of hospitality to travelling missionaries and teachers, emphasizing in a particular instance the duty of Christians in this respect, as the Second deals with its necessary limitations. The objects of the letter are to claim a suitable welcome for some travelling missionaries about to visit the Church of Caius to whom the letter is addressed, and to re-instate Demetrius in the good opinion of the members of that church. The connexion of Demetrius with the missionary band is a matter of uncertainty. But it is clear that he had fallen under suspicion, and that Diotrephes, a prominent member of Caiuss church, had succeeded in working on the resentment felt at the Elders support of a suspect, to raise the question of the Elders right to interfere in the affairs of the church, and to persuade his fellow-Christians to ignore a letter which the Elder had written to the church on the subject. On the whole, it is improbable that this letter (mentioned in 1Jn 4:9) is to be identified with the Second Epistle, which does not deal with the questions which must have been discussed in such a letter. But it is evident that the majority of the church are inclined to take the side of Diotrephes against the Elder, whose right of supervision is in serious danger of being set aside, though he is still confident that he can maintain it by personal intervention.
5. Historical background of the shorter Epistles.-Several interesting attempts have been made to reconstruct the historical background of the two shorter Epistles, among which mention should be made of the ingenious suggestions of J. Chapman (Journal of Theological Studies v. [1903-04] 357, 517), who finds the Demetrius of the Third Epistle in Demas (2Ti 4:10), and identifies the church addressed as Thessalonica, while in the Second Epistle (cf. 2Ti 4:4 with Joh 10:17 f.) he finds a warning addressed by the Presbyter, who may or may not be the son of Zebedee, to the Church of Rome (cf. 1Pe 5:13), against the False Teachers who are trying to get a hearing in the metropolis now that the First Epistle has closed the Asiatic churches to them. Vernon Bartlets sound criticism (Journal of Theological Studies vi. [1904-05] 204) of the difficulties of these hypotheses should also be mentioned, and Rendel Harriss vigorous support of the view that the Second Letter is addressed to an individual lady and not to a church. Harnacks contribution (Texte and Untersuchungen xv. 3) to the interpretation of the Epistles is of far more permanent value. He has shown the importance of their evidence as throwing light on an obscure period in the development of ecclesiastical organization in Asia, when the old missionary organization is breaking down, and the monarchical episcopate is beginning to emerge. He is, however, on less sure ground in arguing that the Presbyter is fighting a losing battle against the new movement. It is at least is probable that he sees in it the best way of dealing with the dangers caused by the private ambitions of prominent members of the local churches, such as Diotrephes and other . But Harnack is probably right in his view that the differences found in the Ignatian Epistles point to a stage of development later by some fifteen or twenty years.
6. Date.-The questions of authorship and date cannot be discussed satisfactorily apart from the wider question of the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. If the view maintained above is correct, that the author of the Gospel wrote the Epistles at a somewhat later date, to emphasize those points in its teaching which seemed needed to meet the special dangers of somewhat changed circumstances, the date of the Epistles cannot be very long before or after the close of the 1st century. The only natural interpretation of the language of the first verse of the First Epistle is that the author claims to have been an eye-witness of the Ministry, unless indeed we are driven by other considerations to regard this as impossible. The tradition which assigned the two shorter Epistles to the Elder offers the least difficult solution of a difficult problem. In the present state of our knowledge we must rest content with the suggestion that the same author is responsible for the First Epistle and the Gospel in something very like the form in which they have come down to us. It is probable that he has used the ideas and the recollections of another who was better qualified than himself to tell of the sacred words and no less sacred deeds of the Lord, and to interpret them in the light of Christian experience.
The external evidence, which cannot be discussed in detail here, if naturally interpreted, points to similar conclusions. There is very little ground for doubting that Papias and Polycarp knew and valued the Epistles, or at least the first two Epistles. Probably the name of Ignatius should be added to the list. The traces of Johannine thought in his Epistles are clear. Reference may be made to the articles by H. J. Bardsley in Journal of Theological Studies xiv. [1912-13] 207, 489, though he has hardly succeeded in proving the literary use of apostolic documents. But the absence of direct references to the Apostle John, where we might reasonably expect them, are undoubtedly significant. The practically unanimous evidence of writers at the close of the 2nd cent. as to the Apostles residence at Ephesus till the days of Trajan must be interpreted in the light of the probability of confusion between Elder and Apostle, and the strong probability that the work of Papias contained a statement of the martyrdom of John, the son of Zebedee. There are no serious grounds for setting aside the tradition which connects all the Johannine books with Asia Minor, and especially with Ephesus.
Literature.-The only ancient Commentaries extant are those of Clement of Alexandria (on 1 and 2 John: extant only in Cassiodorus Latin Summary [Clement, ed. Sthlin, iii., 1909]), cumenius, Theophylact, Augustine, and Bede. Among modern Commentaries may be mentioned those of F. Lcke3 (1820-56), J. E. Huther4 (in Meyers Kommentar, 1855-80), H. Ewald (1862), E. Haupt (Eng. translation , 1879), R. Rothe (1878), B. F. Westcott (1883), B. Weiss (in Meyers Kommentar, 1899), H. J. Holtzmann3 (in Handkommentar zum NT, 1908), and H. Windisch (in Handbuch zum NT, 1911).
Among the more important monographs and articles, besides those mentioned in the article, are W. A. Karl, Johanneische Studien, 1898; G. B. Stevens, The Johannine Theology, 1894; Wilamowitz, in Hermes, xxxiii. [1898], p. 531ff.; Wohlenberg, in NKZ [Note: KZ Neue kirchliche Zeitschrift.] xxvi. [1902]; S. D. F. Salmond, in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ii. [1899] 728ff.; R. Law, Tests of Life, 1909.
A. E. Brooke.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
John, Epistles of
Three canonical books of the New Testament written by the Apostle St. John.
The subject will be treated under the following heads: FIRST EPISTLE I. Authenticity II. Canonicity III. Integrity IV. Author V. Time and Place VI. Destination and Purpose VII. Argument SECOND EPISTLE THIRD EPISTLE
FIRST EPISTLE
I. Authenticity
A. External evidence
The very brevity of this letter (105 verses divided into five chapters) and the lateness of its composition might lead us to suspect no traces thereof in the Apostolic Fathers. Such traces there are, some unquestionable. St. Polycarp (A.D. 110-117, according to Harnack, whose chronology we shall follow in this article) wrote to the Philippians: “For whosoever confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is Antichrist” (c. vi; Funk, “Patres Apostolici”, I, 304). Here is an evident trace of I John, iv, 2-3; so evident that Harnack deems this witness of Polycarp conclusive proof that the first Epistle and, consequently, the Gospel of John were written toward the end of the reign of Trajan, i.e. not later than A.D. 117 (cf. Chronologie der Altchristlichen Litteratur, I, 658). It is true that Polycarp does not name John nor quote word for word; the Apostolic Fathers cite from memory and are not wont to name the inspired writer whom they cite. The argument from Polycarp’s use of I John is strengthened by the fact that he was, according to Irenæus, the disciple of St. John. The distinctively Johannine phrase “come in the Flesh” (en sarki eleluthota) is also used by the Epistle of Barnabas (v, 10; Funk, op. cit., I, 53), which was written about A.D. 130. We have it on the authority of Eusebius (Hist. eccl., V, xx) that this First Epistle of John was cited by Papias, a disciple of John and fellow of Polycarp (A.D. 145-160). Irenæus (A.D. 181-189) not only cites I John ii, 18, and v, 1 but attributes the citation to John the Lord’s disciple (“Adv. Hær.” 3, 16; Eusebius, “Hist. eccl.”, V, viii). The Muratorian Canon (A.D. 195-205) tells the story of the writing of John’s Gospel consequent upon a revelation made to the Apostle Andrew, and adds: “What wonder, then, that John so often in his letters gives us details of his Gospel and says of himself, etc.” — here I John. i, 1, is quoted. St. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 190-203) quotes v, 3, with his usual indubitable accuracy, and expressly assigns the words to John (“Pædag.”, III, xi; Kirch. Comm., ed. I, p. 281). Tertullian (A.D. 194-221, according to Sunday) tells us that John, in his Epistle, brands as Antichrist those who deny that Christ is come in the flesh (De Præscrip. 33), and clearly attributes to “John the author of the Apocalypse” several passages of the First Epistle (cf. “Adv. Marc.”, III, 8, and V, 16, in P. L., II, 359 and 543; “Adv. Gnost.”, 12, in P. L., II, 169; “Adv. Prax.”, 15, in P. L., II, 196).
B. Internal evidence
So striking is the internal evidence in favour of common authorship of the Gospel and First Epistle of John, as to be almost universally admitted. It cannot be by accident that in both documents we find the ever-recurring and most distinctive words light, darkness, truth, life, and love; the strictly Johannine phrases “to walk in the light”, “to be of the truth”, “to be of the devil”, “to be of the world”, “to overcome the world”, etc. Only such erratic and sceptical critics as Holtzmann and Schmiedel deny the forcefulness of this argument from internal evidence; they conclude that the two documents come from the same school, not from the same hand.
II. Canonicity
The foregoing citations, the fact that there never was any controversy or doubt among the Fathers in the matter of the canonicity of the First Epistle of John, the existence of this document in all the ancient translations of the New Testament and in the great uncial manuscripts (Sinaitic, Alexandrian, etc.) — these are arguments of overwhelming cumulative force to establish the acceptance of this letter by the primitive Church as canonical Scripture, and to prove that the inclusion of the First Epistle of John in the Canon of Trent was only a conciliar acceptance of an existing fact — the feet that the letter had always been among the Homologoumena of Holy Writ.
III. Integrity
The only part of the letter concerning the authenticity and canonicity whereof there is serious question is the famous passage of the three witnesses: “And there are three who give testimony (in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth): the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one” (1 John 5:7-8). Throughout the past three hundred years, effort has been wade to expunge from our Clementine Vulgate edition of canonical Scripture the words that are bracketed. Let us examine the facts of the case.
A. Greek Manuscripts
The disputed part is found in no uncial Greek manuscripts and in only four rather recent cursives — one of the fifteenth and three of the sixteenth century. No Greek epistolary manuscript contains the passage.
B. Versions
No Syriac manuscript of any family — Peshito, Philoxenian, or Harklean — has the three witnesses; and their presence in the printed Syriac Gospels is due to translation from the Vulgate. So too, the Coptic manuscripts — both Sahidic and Bohairic — have no trace of the disputed part, nor have the Ethiopic manuscripts which represent Greek influence through the medium of Coptic. The Armenian manuscripts, which favour the reading of the Vulgate, are admitted to represent a Latin influence which dates from the twelfth century; early Armenian manuscripts are against the Latin reading. Of the Itala or Old Latin manuscripts, only two have our present reading of the three witnesses: Codex Monacensis (q) of the sixth or seventh century; and the Speculum (m), an eighth or ninth century manuscript which gives many quotations from the New Testament. Even the Vulgate, in the majority of its earliest manuscripts, is without the passage in question. Witnesses to the canonicity are: the Bible of Theodulph (eighth century) in the National Library of Paris; Codex Cavensis (ninth century), the best representative of the Spanish type of text: Toletanus (tenth century); and the majority of Vulgate manuscripts after the twelfth century. There was some dispute as to the canonicity of the three witnesses as early as the sixth century: for the preface to the Catholic Epistles in Codex Fuldensis (A.D. 541-546) complains about the omission of this passage from some of the Latin versions.
C. The Fathers
(1) Greek Fathers, until the twelfth century, seem one and all to have had no knowledge of the three witnesses as canonical Scripture. At times they cite verses 8 and 9 and omit the disputed portions of verses 7 and 8. The Fourth Lateran (A.D. 1215), in its decree against Abbot Joachim (see Denzinger, 10th ed., n. 431) quotes the disputed passage with the remark “sicut in quibusdam codicibus invenitur”. Thereafter, we find the Greek Fathers making use of the text as canonical. (2) The Syriac Fathers never use the text. (3) The Armenian Fathers do not use it before the twelfth century. (4) The Latin Fathers make much earlier use of the text as canonical Scripture. St. Cyprian (third century) seems undoubtedly to have had it in mind, when he quotes John, x, 30, and adds: “Et iterum de Patre et Filio et Spiritu Sancto scriptum est — Et hi tres unum sunt” (De Unitate Ecclesiæ, vi). Clear also is the witness of St. Fulgentius (sixth century, “Responsio contra Arianos” in P. L., LXV, 224), who refers to the above witness of St. Cyprian. In fact, outside of St. Augustine, the Fathers of the African Church are to be grouped with St. Cyprian in favour of the canonicity of the passage. The silence of the great and voluminous St. Augustine and the variation in form of the text in the African Church are admitted facts that militate against the canonicity of the three witnesses. St. Jerome (fourth century) does not seem to know the text. After the sixth century, the disputed passage is more and more in use among the Latin Fathers; and, by the twelfth century, is commonly cited as canonical Scripture.
D. Ecclesiastical Documents
Trent’s is the first certain ecumenical decree, whereby the Church established the Canon of Scripture. We cannot say that the decree of Trent on the Canon necessarily included the three witnesses. For in the preliminary discussions signs that led up to the canonizing of “the entire books with all their parts, as these have been wont to be read in the Catholic Church and are contained in the old Latin Vulgate”, there was no reference whatsoever to this special part; hence this special part is not canonized by Trent, unless it is certain that the text of the three witnesses has “been wont to be read in the Catholic Church and is contained in the old Latin Vulgate”. Both conditions must be verified before the canonicity of the text is certain. Neither condition has as yet been verified with certainty; quite the contrary, textual criticism seems to indicate that the Comma Johanninum was not at all times and everywhere wont to be read in the Catholic Church and is not contained in the original old Latin Vulgate. However, the Catholic theologian must take into account more than textual criticism; to him the authentic decisions of all Roman Congregations are guiding signs in the use of the Sacred Scripture, which the Church and only the Church has given to him as the Word of God. He cannot pass over the disciplinary decision of the Holy Office (13 January, 1897), whereby it is decreed that the authenticity of the Comma Johanninum may not with safety (tuto) be denied or called into doubt. This disciplinary decision was approved by Leo XIII two days later. Though his approval was not in forma specifica, as was Pius X’s approval of the Decree “Lamentabili”, all further discussion of the text in question must be carried on with due deference to this decree. (See “Revue Biblique”, 1898, p. 149; and Pesch, “Prælectiones Dogmaticæ”, II, 250.)
IV. Author
It was of chief moment to determine that this letter is authentic, i.e., belongs to the Apostolic age is Apostolic in its source, and is trustworthy. Among those who admit the authenticity and canonicity of the letter, some hold that its sacred writer was not John the Apostle but John the Presbyter. We have traced the tradition of the Apostolic origin of the letter back to the time of St. Irenæus. Harnack and his followers admit that Irenæus, the disciple of Polycarp, assigns the authorship to St. John the Apostle; but have the hardihood to throw over all tradition, to accuse Irenæus of error in this matter, to cling to the doubtful witness of Papias, and to be utterly regardless of the patent fact that throughout three centuries no other ecclesiastical writer knows anything at all of this John the Presbyter. The doubtful witness of Papias is saved for us by Eusebius (“Hist. eccl.” III, xxxix, Funk, “Patres Apostolici”, I, p. 350): “And if any one came my way who had been a follower of the elders, I enquired the sayings of the elders — what had Andrew, or what had Peter said, or what Philip, or what Thomas or James, or what John (he ti Ioannes) or Matthew or any one else of the disciples of the Lord; and what were Aristion and John the elder, the disciples of the Lord, saying?” (a te Apistion kai ho presbuteros Ioannes, oi tou kuriou mathetai legousin). Harnack insists that Eusebius read his sources thoroughly; and, on the authority of Eusebius and of Papias, postulates the existence of a disciple of the Lord named John the Elder, who was distinct from John the Apostle; and to this fictitious John the Elder assigns all the Johannine writings. (See Geschichte der Altchristliche Litteratur, II, i, 657.) With all Catholic authors, we consider that either Eusebius alone, or Papias and Eusebius, erred, and that Irenæus and the rest of the Fathers were right, in fact we lay the blame at the door of Eusebius. As Bardenhewer (Geschichte der Altkirchlichen Literatur, I, 540) says, Eusebius set up a straw man. There never was a John the Elder. So think Funk (Patres Apostolici, I, 354), Dr. Salmon (Dictionary of Christian Biography, III, 398), Hausleiter (Theol. Litteraturblatt, 1896), Stilting, Guerike, and others.
Eusebius is here a special pleader. He opposes the millennium. Wrongly fancying that the Apocalypse favours the Chiliasts, he assigns it to this John the Elder and tries to rob the work of its Apostolic authority, the clumsiness of expression of Papias gives occasion to Eusebius in proof of the existence of two disciples of the Lord named John. To be sure, Papias mentions two Johns — one among the Apostles, the other in a clause with Aristion. Both are called elders; and elders here (presbuteroi) are admitted by Eusebius to be Apostles, since he admits that Papias got information from those who had met the Apostles (substituting ton apostolon for ton presbuteron; see Hist. eccl., III, xxxix, 7). Hence it is that Papias, in joining John with Aristion, speaks of John the Elder and not of Aristion the Elder; Aristion was not an elder or Apostle. The reason for joining the Aristion with John at all is that they were both witnesses of the present to Papias, whereas all the Apostles were witnesses of the past generation. Note that the second aorist (eipen) is used in regard to the group of witnesses of the past generation, since there is question of what they had said, whereas the present (legousin) is used in regard to the witnesses of the present generation, i.e. Aristion and John the Elder, since the question is what they are now saying. The Apostle John was alive in the time of Papias. He and he alone can be the elder of whom Papias speaks. How is it, then, that Papias mentions John twice? Hausleiter conjectures that the phrase he ti Ioannes is a gloss (Theol. Litteraturblatt, 1896). It is likelier that the repetition of the name of John is due to the clumsiness of expression of Papias. He does not mention all the Apostles, but only seven; though he undoubtedly means them all. His mention of John is quite natural in view of the relation in which he stood to that Apostle. After mention of the group that were gone, he names the two from whom he now receives indirect information of the Lord’s teaching; these two are the disciple Aristion and John the Apostle.
V. Time and Place
Irenæus tells us the letter was written by St. John during his stay in Asia (Adv. Hær., III, i). Nothing certain can be determined in this matter. The arguments are probable in favour of Ephesus and also for the last few years of the first century.
VI. Destination and Purpose
The form is that of an encyclical letter. Its destination is clearly the churches which St. John evangelized, he speaks to his “little children”, “beloved”, “brethren”, and is affectionate and fatherly throughout the entire letter. The purpose is identical with the purpose of the Fourth Gospel — that his children may believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and that believing may have life eternal in His name (1 John 5:13; John 20:31).
VII. Argument
A logical analysis of the letter would be a mistake. The thought is built up not analytically but synthetically. After a brief introduction, St. John works up the thought that God is Light (i, 5); so, too, should we walk in the light (i, 7), keep from sin (i, 6-ii, 6), observe the new commandment of love (ii, 7), since he that loves is in the light and he that hates is in darkness (ii, 8-iii). Then follows the second leading Johannine thought that God is Love (iii-v, 12). Love means that we are sons of God (iii, 1-4); Divine sonship means that we are not in sin (iii, 4-13), that we love one another (iii, 13-44), that we believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God (iv, 5, 6); for it was love that impelled God to give us His only on (iv, 7-v, 12). The conclusion (v, 13-end) tells the reader that the purpose of the letter is to inculcate faith in Jesus Christ, since this faith is life eternal. In this conclusion as well as in other parts of the letter, the same salient and leading Johannine thoughts recur to defy analysis. John had two or three things to say; he said these two or three things over and over again in ever varying form.
SECOND EPISTLE
These thirteen verses are directed against the same Docetic errors and germs of Gnosticism which St. John strives to uproot in his Gospel and First Epistle. Harnack and some others, who admit the canonicity of the Second and Third Epistles, assign them to the authorship of John the Elder; we have shown that this John the Elder never existed. The authenticity of this second letter is attested by very early Fathers. St. Polycarp (“Phil.”, VII, i; Funk, “Patres Apostolici”, I, 304) cites rather II John, 7, than I John, 4. St. Irenæus expressly quotes II John, 10, as the words of “John the Disciple of the Lord”. The Muratorian Canon speaks of two Epistles of John. St. Clement of Alexandria speaks of the larger Epistle of John; and, as a consequence, knows at least two. Origen hears witness to the two shorter letters, which “both together do not contain a hundred lines” and are not admitted by all to be authentic. The canonicity of these two letters was long disputed. Eusebius puts them among the Antilegomena. They are not found in the Peshito. The Canon of the Western Church includes them after the fourth century; although only Trent’s decree set the question of their canonicity beyond the dispute of such men as Cajetan. The Canon of the Eastern Church, outside that of Antioch, includes them after the fourth century. The style and manner of the second letter are very like to those of the first. The destination of the letter has been much disputed. The opening words are variously interpreted — “The ancient to the lady Elect, and her children” (ho presbuteros eklekte kuria kai tois teknois autes). We have seen that the elder means the Apostle. Who is the lady elect? Is she the elect Kyria? The lady Eklekte? A lady named Eklekte Kyria? A lady elect, whose name is omitted? A Church? All these interpretations are defended. We consider, with St. Jerome, that the letter is addressed to a particular church, which St. John urges on to faith in Jesus Christ, to the avoidance of heretics, to love. This interpretation best fits in with the ending to the letter — “The children of thy sister Elect salute thee.”
THIRD EPISTLE
Fourteen verses addressed to Gaius, a private individual. This Gaius seems to have been not an ecclesiastic but a layman of means. He is praised by John for his hospitality to visiting brethren (verses 2-9). The Apostle then goes on: “I had written perhaps to the church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, doth not receive us” (verse 9). This Diotrephes may have been the bishop of the Church. He is found fault with roundly, and Demetrius is set up for an example. This short letter, “twin sister”, as St. Jerome called it, to the second of John’s letters, is entirely a personal affair. No doctrine is discussed. The lesson of hospitality, especially of care for the preachers of the Gospel is insisted on. The earliest certain recognition of this letter as Apostolic is by St. Denis of Alexandria (third century). Eusebius refers to the letters called “the second and third of John, whether these chance to belong to the evangelist or to someone else with a name like to his” (“Hist. eccl.”, III xxv; Schwartz, II, 1, p. 250). The canonicity of the letter has already been treated. The greeting and ending of this letter are internal evidence of composition by the author of the previous Johannine letter. The simple and affectionate style, the firmness of the rebuke of Diotrephes are strictly Johannine. Nothing certain is known as to time and place of writing; but it is generally supposed that the two small letters were written by John towards the end of his long life and in Ephesus.
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WALTER DRUM Transcribed by Ernie Stefanik
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
John, Epistles Of
JOHN, EPISTLES OF.The three Epistles known by this name have from the beginning been attributed to the Apostle John, and were admitted as canonical in the 3rd century. Some points of obvious similarity in style and diction indicate a connexion between them, but their internal character and the external evidence in their favour are so different that it will be convenient to deal with them separately.
I. First Epistle
1. Authorship, Genuineness, etc.The Epistle ranked from the first among the Homologoumena, and the testimony in favour of its authenticity is early, varied, and explicit. Its great similarity to the Fourth Gospel in phraseology and general characteristics made it natural to attribute the two documents to the same author; and few questions, or none, were raised upon the subject till comparatively recent years. A very small number of eminent critics at present dispute the identity of authorship.
(1) So far as external evidence is concerned, Polycarp, writing about a.d. 115 to the Philippians, quotes the words, For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is antichrist, with evident allusion to 1Jn 4:3, though the author is not named. Polycarp was a disciple of John, as his own disciple Irenus informs us. Eusebius several times refers to this Epistle, saying (HE 1Jn 4:20) that Papias used it and (1Jn 4:8) that Irenus made free use of it. The passages 1Jn 2:18; 1Jn 5:1 are expressly attributed by Irenus to the Apostle. According to the Muratorian Canon, Epistle and Gospel were closely associated: What wonder that John makes so many references to the Fourth Gospel in his Epistle, saying of himselfand then follows a quotation of 1Jn 1:1. Clement of Alexandria at the close of the 2nd cent. quotes 516 as the words of John in his larger Epistle. Tertullian quotes the language of 1Jn 1:1 as that of the Apostle John, and Origen definitely refers the words of 1Jn 3:8 to John in his catholic Epistle. All the ancient versions include the Epistle among those canonically recognized, including the Peshitta and the Old Latin. The only exceptions to this practically universal recognition of its genuineness and authenticity are the unbelievers vaguely called Alogi, because they rejected the doctrine of the Logos, and Marcion, who accepted no books of NT except St. Lukes Gospel and St. Pauls Epistles. So far as external testimony is concerned, the early recognition of the Epistle as written by St. John is conclusively established.
(2) The similarily of diction between Gospel and Epistle is so close that it cannot be accidental, and it cannot escape the notice of the most superficial reader. The repeated use, in a characteristic way, of such cardinal words as Life, Love, Truth, Light, and Darkness; the recurrence of phrases which in both documents figure as watchwords,to be of the truth, of the devil, of the world; the only begotten Son, the Word, knowing God, walking in the light, overcoming the world, and the special use of the word believe, speak for themselves. The use of literary parallels always requires care; but in this case the similarity is so close as incontestably to establish a connexion between the two documents, whilst the handling of the same vocabulary is so free as irresistibly to suggest, not that the writer of the Gospel borrowed from the Epistle, or vice versa, but that the two writings proceed from the same hand. If this is so, the genuineness of each is doubly attested.
Jos. [Note: Josephus.] Scaliger in the 16th cent. was practically the first to challenge the genuineness of all three Epistles, but not until the time of Baur and the Tbingen school of critics in the last century was a sustained attack made upon them. Since that time there have never been wanting critics who have denied the Johannine authorship of the First Epistle. Some contend that Gospel and Epistle proceed from the same author, who, however, was not the Apostle John, but John the Presbyter or some later writer. The view taken by Holtzmann, Schmiedel, and some others is that the two documents come from different writers who belong to the same general school of thought.
The chief ground of the objections raised against the Johannine authorship of the First Epistle is the alleged presence of references to heretical modes of thought which belong to a later age. Docetism, Gnosticism, and even Montanism are, it is said, directly or indirectly rebuked, and these forms of error do not belong to the Apostolic period. The reply is threefold, (a) Those who ascribe the Epistle to John the Apostle do not date it before the last decade of the 1st cent., when the Apostolic age was passing into the sub-Apostolic. (b) No references to full-grown Gnosticism and other errors as they were known in the middle of the 2nd cent. can here be found. But (c) it can be shown from other sources that the germs of these heresies, the general tendencies which resulted afterwards in fully developed systems, existed in the Church for at least a generation before the period in question, and at the time named were both rife and mischievous.
The points chiefly insisted on are: the doctrine of the Lagos; the form of the rebuke given to the antichrists; the references to knowledge and anointing; the insistence upon the coming of Christ in the flesh, in condemnation of Docetic error; the distinction between mortal and venial sins; and some minor objections. In reply, it may he said that none of these is definite or explicit enough to require a later date than a.d. 100. The Epistle is indeed indirectly polemic in its character. While constructive in thought, the passing references made in it to opponents of the truth are strong enough to make it clear that the opposition was active and dangerous. But there is nothing to show that any of those condemned as enemies of Christ had more fully developed tendencies than, for example, Cerinthus is known to have manifested in his Christology at the end of the 1st century. Judaizing Gnosticism had appeared much earlier than this, as is evidenced by the Epistles to the Colossians and the Pastoral Epistles. The use of the words Paraclete (2:1) and propitiation (2:2), and the way in which the coming of Christ is mentioned in 2:28, have also been brought forward as proofs of divergence from the teaching of the Gospel, on very slender and unconvincing grounds.
2. Place and Date.Whilst very little evidence is forthcoming to enable us to fix exactly either of these, the general consensus of testimony points very decidedly to Ephesus during the last few years of the 1st century. Irenus (adv. Hr. iii. 1) testifies to the production of the Gospel by St. John during his residence in Asia, and the probability is that the Epistle was written after the Gospel, and is. chronologically perhaps the very latest of the books of the NT. If, as some maintain, it was written before the Gospel. it cannot be placed much earlier. The determination of this question is bound up with the authorship and date of the Apocalypse,a subject which is discussed elsewhere. (See Revelation [Book of]).
3. Form and DestinationThis document has some of the characteristics of a letter, and in some respects it is more like a theological treatise or homiletical essay. It may best be described as an Encyclical or Pastoral Epistle. It was addressed to a circle of readers, as is shown by the words, I write unto you, beloved, and little children, but it was not restricted to any particular church, nor does it contain any specific personal messages. The term catholic epistle was used from very early times to indicate this form of composition, but in all probability the churches of Asia Minor were kept more especially in view by the writer when he penned words which were in many respects suitable for the Church of Christ at large. A reference in Augustine to 3:2 as taken from Johns Epistle to the Parthians has given rise to much conjecture, but the title has seldom been taken seriously in its literal meaning. It is quite possible that there is some mistake in the text of the passage (Qus. Evang. ii. 39).
4. Outline and Contents.Whether Gospel or Epistle was written first, the relation between the two is perfectly clear. In both the Apostle writes for edification, but in the Gospel the foundations of Christian faith and doctrine are shown to lie in history; in the Epistle the effects of belief are traced out in practice. In both the same great central truths are exhibited, in the same form and almost in the same words; but in the Gospel they are traced to their fount and origin; in the Epistle they are followed out to their only legitimate issues in the spirit and conduct of Christians in the world. So far as there is a difference in the presentation of truth, it may perhaps be expressed in Bishop Westcotts words: The theme of the Epistle is, the Christ is Jesus; the theme of the Gospel is, Jesus is the Christ. Or, as he says in another place: The substance of the Gospel is a commentary on the Epistle: the Epistle is (so to speak) the condensed moral and practical application of the Gospel.
The style is simple, but baffling in its very simplicity. The sentences are easy for a child to read, their meaning is difficult for a wise man fully to analyze. So with the sequence of thought. Each statement follows very naturally upon the preceding, but when the relation of paragraphs is to be explained, and the plan or structure of the whole composition is to be described, systematization becomes difficult, if not impossible. Logical analysis is not. however, always the best mode of exposition, and if the writer has not consciously mapped out into exact subdivisions the ground he covers, he follows out to their issues two or three leading thoughts which he keeps consistently in view throughout. The theme is fellowship with the Father and the Son, realized in love of the brethren. Farrar divides the whole into three sections, with the headings, God is light, God is righteous, God is love. Plummer reduces these to two, omitting the second. With some such general clue to guide him, the reader will not go far astray in interpreting the thought of the Epistle, and its outline might be arranged as follows:
Introduction: The life of fellowship that issues from knowledge of the gospel (1Jn 1:1-4).
i. God is Light. The believers walk with God in light (1Jn 1:5-10); sin and its remedy (1Jn 2:1-6); the life of obedience (1Jn 2:7-17): fidelity amidst defection (1Jn 2:18-29).
ii. God is Righteous Love. True sonship of God manifested in brotherly love (1Jn 3:1-12). Brotherhood in Christ a test of allegiance and a ground of assurance (1Jn 3:13-24). The spirits of Truth and Error (1Jn 4:1-6). The manifestation of God as Love the source and inspiration of all loving service (1Jn 4:7-21). The victory of faith in Love Incarnate (1Jn 5:1-12).
Conclusion: The assured enjoyment of Life Eternal (1Jn 5:13-21).
Such an outline is not, however, a sufficient guide to the contents of the Epistle, and a very different arrangement might be justified. The writer does not, however, as has been asserted, ramble without method, nor is the Epistle a shapeless mass. The progress discernible in it is not the straightforward march of the logician who proceeds by ordered steps from premises to a foreseen conclusion: it is rather the ascent by spiral curves of the meditative thinker. St. John is here no dreamer; more practical instruction is not to be found in St. Paul or St. James. But his exhortations do not enter into details: he is concerned with principles of conduct, the minute application of which he leaves to the individual conscience. The enunciation of principles, however, is uncompromising and very searching. His standpoint is that of the ideal Christian life, not of the effort to attain it. One who is born of God cannot sin; the love of God is perfected in the believer, and perfect love casts out fear. The assured tone of the Epistle allows no room for doubt or hesitation or conflict one who is guided by its teaching has no need to pray. Help thou my unbelief. The spirit of truth and the spirit of error are in sharp antagonism and the touchstone which distinguishes them must be resolutely applied. The world, the evil one, and antichrist are to be repelled absolutely and to the uttermost; the writer and those whom he represents can say, We know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one. Bright light casts deep shadows, and the true Christian of this Epistle walks in the blaze of gospel day. One who knows the true God and has eternal life cannot but guard himself from idols.
The writer of such an Epistle is appropriately called the Apostle of love. Yet the title taken by itself is misleading. He is the Apostle equally of righteousness and of faith. He loved well because he hatedhated the wickedness which hinders loving. There is a stern ring, implying however no harshness, about the very exhortations to love, which shows how indissolubly it is to be identified with immutable and inviolable righteousness. If to this Epistle we owe the great utterance, God is Lovehere twice repeated, but found nowhere else in Scriptureto it we owe also the sublime declaration, God is Light, and in him is no darkness at all. And the Epistle, as well as the Gospel, makes it abundantly clear that the spring of Christian love and the secret of Christian victory over evil are alike to be found in believing: in the immovable and ineradicable faith that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is come in the flesh, and that in Him the love of God to man is so manifested and assured that those who trust Him already possess eternal life, together with all that it implies of strength and joy, and all that flows from it of obedience and loving service.
Textual questions can hardly be touched upon in this article. But it is perhaps worth pointing out that whilst the corrected text restores the Utter half of 1Jn 2:23, which in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] is printed in italics as doubtful, there can now be no question that the passage (1Jn 5:7-8) referring to the three witnesses in heaven, as read in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] . does not form part of the Epistle. The words are wanting in all Greek MSS except a few of exceedingly late date; nor are they found in the majority of the Greek Fathers, or in any ancient version except the Latin. They undoubtedly form a gloss which found its way into the text from Latin sources; and the insertion really breaks the connexion of thought in the paragraph.
II. The Second Epistle.The Second and Third Epistles of St. John are distinguished from the First by their brevity, the absence of dogmatic teaching, and their private and personal character. They are found among the Antilegomena of the early Church in their relation to the Canon: apparently not because they were unknown, or because their authorship was questioned, but because their nature made them unsuitable for use in the public worship of the Church. The Muratorian Canon (a.d. 180) refers to two Epistles of John as received in the Catholic Church, and Irenus about the same date specifically quotes 2Jn 1:10 f. as coming from John the disciple of the Lord. He also quotes 2Jn 1:7 apparently as occurring in the First Epistle. Clement of Alexandria by a mention of Johns larger Epistle shows that he was acquainted with at least one other shorter letter. Origen states that the two shorter letters were not accepted by all as genuine, but he adds that both together do not contain a hundred lines. Dionysius of Alexandria appeals to them, adding that Johns name was not affixed to them, but that they were signed the presbyter. They are omitted from the Peshitta Version, and Eusebius describes them as disputed by some, but in the later 4th cent. they were fully acknowledged and received into the Canon. The Second Epistle, therefore, though not universally accepted from the first, was widely recognized as Apostolic, and so short a letter of so distinctly personal a character could never have been ranked by the Church among her sacred writings except upon the understanding that it bore with it the authority of the Apostle John. The title the Elder does not militate against this, but rather supports it. No ordinary presbyter would assume the style of the elder and write in such a tone of absolute command, whilst an anonymous writer, wishing to claim the sanction of the Apostle, would have inserted his name. But no motive for anything like forgery can in this case be alleged. The similarity in style to the First Epistle is very marked. Jerome among the Fathers, Erasmus at the time of the Reformation, and many modern critics have ascribed the Epistle to John the Presbyter of Ephesus, but there is no early reference to such a person except the statement of Papias quoted by Eusebius and referred to in a previous article.
Much discussion has arisen concerning the person addressed. The two leading opinions are (1) that the words elect lady and her children are to be understood literally of a Christian matron in Ephesus and her family; and (2) that a church personified, with its constituent members, was intended. Jerome in ancient times took the latter view, and in our own day it has been supported by scholars so different from one another as Lightfoot, Wordsworth, Hilgenfeld, and Schmiedel. It is claimed on this side that the exhortations given are more suited to a community, that the children of thine elect sister can be understood only of a sister church, and that this mode of describing a church personified is not unusual, as in 1Pe 5:13, She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you. On the other hand, it is urged that this mystical interpretation destroys the simplicity and natural meaning of the letter (see especially 1Pe 5:5; 1Pe 5:10), that the church being constituted of members, the distinction between the lady and her children would disappear, and that if the lady be a private person of influence the parallel with the form of salutation to another private person in the Third Epistle is complete. This hypothesis still leaves difficulty in the exact interpretation of the words Eklekt Kyria. Some would take both these as the proper names of the person addressed; others take the former as her name, so that she would be the lady Eklekt, others would render to the elect Kyria, whilst the majority accept, in spite of its indefiniteness, the translation of AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] . On the whole, this course is to be preferred, though the view that a church is intended not only is tenable but has much in its favour. The fact that the early churches so often gathered in a house, and that there was so strong a personal and individual element in their community-life, makes the analogy between a primitive church and a large and influential family to be very close. Thus an ambiguity may arise which would not be possible to-day.
It remains only to say that, as in style, so in spirit, the similarity to 1 Jn. is very noticeable. The same emphasis is laid on love, on obedience, on fellowship with the Father and the Son, and the inestimable importance of maintaining and abiding in the truth. The same strong resentment is manifested against deceivers and the antichrist, and the same intensity of feeling against unbelievers or false teachers, who are not to be received into the house of a believer, or to have any kindly greeting accorded them. Whether the Epistle was actually addressed to a private person or to a Christian community, it furnishes a most interesting picture of the life, the faith, and the dangers and temptations of the primitive Christians in Asia Minor, and it contains wholesome and uncompromising, not harsh and intolerant, exhortation, such as Christian Churches in all ages may not unprofitably lay to heart.
III. Third Epistle.The two shorter Epistles of St. John were called by Jerome twin sisters. They appear to have been recognized together at least from the time of Dionysius of Alexandria, and they are mentioned together by Eusebius (HE iii. 25), who refers to the Epistles called the second and third of John, whether they belong to the Evangelist or to another person of the same name. They are found together in the Old Latin Version, are both omitted from the Pesh., and they were included together in the lists of canonical books at the end of the 4th cent. by the Council of Laodicea and the Third Council of Carthage. References to the Third Epistle and quotations from it are naturally very few. It is short, it was written to a private person, it does not discuss doctrine, and its counsels and messages are almost entirely personal. But its close relationship to the Second Epistle is very obvious, and the two form companion pictures of value from the point of view of history; and St. Johns Third Epistle, like St. Pauls personal letter to Philemon, is not without use for general edification.
The person to whom it is addressed is quite unknown. The name Gaius (Lat. Caius) is very common, and three other persons so called are mentioned in NT, viz., Galus of Corinth (1Co 1:14; cf. Rom 16:23); Gaius of Derbe (Act 20:4); and Galus of Macedonia (Act 19:29). A bishop of Pergamos, appointed by the Apostle John and mentioned in the Apostolic Constitutions, was also called Gaius, and some critics are disposed to identify him with St. Johns correspondent. This is, however, a mere conjecture, and the letter is addressed, not to a church official, but to a private layman, apparently of some wealth and influence. It is written in a free and natural style, and deals with the case of some of those travelling evangelists who figured so prominently in the primitive Church, and to whom reference is made in the Didache and elsewhere. Some of these, perhaps commissioned by John himself, had visited the Church to which Gaius belonged, had been hospitably entertained by him, and helped forward on their journey, probably with material assistance. But Diotrephesan official of the church, perhaps its bishop or a leading elderwho loved power, asserted himself arrogantly, and was disposed to resist the Apostles authority. He declined to receive these worthy men who at their own charges were preaching the gospel in the district. He also stirred up feeling against them, and at least threatened to excommunicate any members of the church who entertained them. The evil example of Diotrephes is held up for condemnation, whilst in contrast to him, a certain Demetrius is praised, whose reputation in the Church was excellent, who had won the confidence of the Apostle, andhigher commendation stillhad the witness of the truth itself. Tried by the strictest and most searching test of all, the sterling metal of Demetrius character rang true. Full information is not given us as to all the circumstances of the case. Probably Diotrephes was not wholly to be blamed. It was quite necessary, as the Didache shows us, to inquire carefully into the character of these itinerant preachers. Some of them were mercenary in their aims, and the conflict of opinion in this instance may have had some connexion with the current controversies between Jewish and Gentile Christians. But it is the spirit of Diotrephes that is blameworthy, and the little picture here drawn of primitive ecclesiastical communities with their flaws and their excellences, their worthy members and ambitious officers, their generous hosts and kindly helpers, and the absent Apostle who bears the care of all the churches and is about to pay to this one a visit of fatherly and friendly inspection, is full of interest and instruction.
We have no information as to the time at which, or the places from and to which, these brief letters were written. They rank, with the Gospel and the First Epistle of St. John, as among the latest documents in the NT.
W. T. Davison.