HarperCollins Study Bible
Page 545
The Second Letter of JOHN
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A TRUE LETTER, 2 JOHN contains the usual opening and closing formulas. It is apparently addressed to a Christian congregation, referred to as an “elect lady” (v. 1).
Author and Relation to Other Writings
THE AUTHOR CALLS HIMSELF “the elder” (v. 1), suggesting that he holds a position of some authority within the Christian community concerned. He is presumably the same as the author of 3 John and may have written 1 John also. It is no longer certain that he was the apostle John or even identical with the author of the Fourth Gospel (see Introductions to the Gospel of John and 1 John).
Date and Place
THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE THREE DOCUMENTS suggest that 2 John was probably written at about the same time and place as 1 and 3 John, i.e., around 100 CE, perhaps at Ephesus.
Historical Background and Message
LIKE 1 JOHN, 2 John seems to have been written during a conflict with people who denied that the human Jesus was identical with the divine Christ. Though it insists on the importance of loving one another, it calls on its readers to avoid these opponents and even to refuse them the hospitality usually shown to Christian travelers. [DAVID K. RENSBERGER, revised by HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE]
2 John 1
Salutation
11 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth, 2because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:
3Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and froma Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.
Truth and Love
4I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father. 5But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another. 6And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.
7Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist! 8Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what web have worked for, but may receive a full reward. 9Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching; 11for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.
Final Greetings
12Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.
13The children of your elect sister send you their greetings.c
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a Other ancient authorities add the Lord
b Other ancient authorities read you
c Other ancient authorities add Amen
1–3 An opening similar to other NT Letters; see, e.g., 2 Cor 1.1–2 and esp. 1 Tim 1.1–2; 2 Tim 1.1–2.
1 Elect lady, perhaps an individual church leader, but more likely a metaphor for a congregation, whose members are her children; see v. 13. Truth is important in the Gospel and Letters of John. Here it probably relates to the controversy over false teaching (see Introduction). Loving in the truth. See 1 Jn 3.18; 3 Jn 1. Knowing the truth. See Jn 8.32; 1 Jn 2.21.
2 The truth that abides…forever. See Jn 14.16–17; 1 Jn 2.27.
4–11 The body of the Letter focuses on truth and love.
4 Walking in the truth. See 3 Jn 3–4; see also note on v. 6.
5 On the new commandment to love one another, which has really been a commandment from the beginning, see Jn 13.34–35; 15.12–17; 1 Jn 2.7–11; 3.11, 23.
6 See 1 Jn 5.2–3. Walk. See also 1 Jn 1.6–7; 2.6, 11. Commandments. See Jn 15.10.
7 For a comparable critique of the opponents and their views, see 1 Jn 2.18–27; 4.1–3. Has come, lit. “is coming.” Antichrist. See note on 1 Jn 2.18.
8 What we have worked for. See Jn 6.27–29. We, perhaps the author and other church leaders, or it may include the readers, as elsewhere in 2 John. Reward, or “payment.” The notion of a final recompense for good work is common. See Mt 5.12; Mk 9.41; Lk 6.23; 1 Cor 3.8.
9 Abide, typical Johannine language, frequent in 1 John (see note on 1 Jn 2.6). Cf. Jn 14.10; 15.10. The teaching of Christ, i.e., the doctrine of Christ coming in the flesh (v. 7; see also 1 Jn 2.22–27; 4.15). On having both the Father and the Son, see 1 Jn 2.23; 5.12.
10–11 Hospitality was essential to traveling missionaries and teachers in the early churches (see, e.g., 3 Jn 5–8; also Rom 12.13; 15.23–24; 16.1–2; Heb 13.2; Didache 11.1; 12.1). By forbidding it to the opponents, the author hopes to hinder the spread of their teaching (see also Rom 16.17; 2 Thess 3.6). In 3 Jn 9–10, the author complains of similar tactics being used against him! Evil deeds. See Jn 3.19–20; 7.7; 1 Jn 3.12.
12–13 Concluding greetings, again similar to other NT Letters. See esp. 1 Pet 5.13; 3 Jn 15.
12 See 3 Jn 13–14. So that our joy may be complete. See 1 Jn 1.4; also Jn 3.29; 15.11; 16.24; 17.13.
13 Elect sister. See note on v. 1.
The Third Letter of JOHN
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LIKE 2 JOHN, 3 JOHN IS A GENUINE LETTER. Its addressee, Gaius, is otherwise unknown. “The elder,” as the author of 3 John calls himself (v. 1), is presumably the same as the author of 2 John (see Introductions to the Gospel of John and 1 John). Whatever his relationship to the author of the Gospel and of 1 John, he evidently held a position of some authority within the Christian community concerned.
Date and Place
THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN 3 John and 1 and 2 John suggest that the three documents were probably written at about the same time and place, i.e., around 100 CE, perhaps at Ephesus.
Historical Background and Message
UNLIKE 1 AND 2 JOHN, 3 John contains no discussion of doctrine or love. Instead, it praises Gaius for his hospitality and criticizes someone named Diotrephes for opposing the elder. It has been suggested that Diotrephes was a leader of the movement confronted by 1 and 2 John or a church leader seeking either to establish his own authority or to keep his church free from controversies. A roughly contemporary parallel appears in the Didache, a book of church order from the late first or early second century. That text urges hospitality toward wandering preachers (Didache 11.1–4) but requires such teachers to be tested and urges that they be sent off after a two-day stay (11.5). The Didache also urges its recipients to elect bishops and deacons (15.10). Diotrephes may have been such a bishop who refused more than minimal hospitality to wandering teachers. [DAVID K. RENSBERGER, revised by HAROLD W. ATTRIDGE]
3 John 1
Salutation
11 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
Gaius Commended for His Hospitality
2Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 3I was overjoyed when some of the friendsa arrived and testified to your faithfulness to the truth, namely how you walk in the truth. 4I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
5Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends,b even though they are strangers to you; 6they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; 7for they began their journey for the sake of Christ,c accepting no support from non-believers.d 8Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may become co-workers with the truth.
Diotrephes and Demetrius
9I have written something to the church; but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. 10So if I come, I will call attention to what he is doing in spreading false charges against us. And not content with those charges, he refuses to welcome the f
riends,e and even prevents those who want to do so and expels them from the church.
11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil but imitate what is good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. 12Everyone has testified favorably about Demetrius, and so has the truth itself. We also testify for him,f and you know that our testimony is true.
Final Greetings
13I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; 14instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk together face to face.
15Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.
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a Gk brothers
b Gk brothers
c Gk for the sake of the name
d Gk the Gentiles
e Gk brothers
f Gk lacks for him
1–2 An opening typical of Greek personal letters. Gaius, a common Roman name borne by three other men in the NT (Acts 19.29; 20.4; Rom 16.23; 1 Cor 1.14). Whom I love in truth. See 2 Jn 1.
3–8 Some Christian workers are commended to the hospitality of Gaius.
3 Your faithfulness to the truth, lit. “your truth.” Walk in the truth. See 2 Jn 4.
5–8 On the importance of hospitality in the early churches, see note on 2 Jn 10–11.
6 Send them on, i.e., with provisions (see Titus 3.13).
8 Co-workers. Cf. 2 Jn 11.
9–12 A dispute between church leaders.
9–10 Diotrephes (see Introduction) uses something like the elder’s own tactics (2 Jn 10–11) against him. Likes to put himself first. This vague description may allude to the role of Diotrephes as a local bishop, an office that came to prominence in the late first or early second century. For evidence of an emerging hierarchy, see 1 Tim 3.1–7 and the letters of Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, from the early second century. In those letters the position of a singular bishop who heads a local Christian community is clear. Acknowledge our authority, or just “welcome us” (cf. welcome the friends, v. 10).
11 Whoever does good is from God. See 1 Jn 2.29; 3.10. Seen God. See 1 Jn 3.6; 4.12; also Jn 1.18; 6.46.
12 The identity of Demetrius is unknown; he may have delivered this Letter. The author commends him to Gaius’s hospitality and support (see vv. 5–8). Our testimony is true. See Jn 5.31–33; 19.35; 21.24.
13–15 Closing greetings typical of NT Letters; see esp. 1 Cor 16.19–20; Phil 4.21–22; Titus 3.15.
13–14 See 2 Jn 12.
The Letter of JUDE
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THIS LETTER IS ATTRIBUTED to Jude (Greek Judas), one of the brothers of Jesus (see Mk 6.3). He is known to have been a prominent leader and traveling missionary in the early Jewish-Christian movement in Palestine (see 1 Cor 9.5). The authenticity of the attribution to Jude has often been doubted, but recent work demonstrates that it is entirely plausible. This Letter may therefore be one of the few NT writings to derive directly from Palestinian Jewish Christianity. We do not know to which churches it was originally written.
Purpose and Opponents
THE LETTER’S PURPOSE is to warn the readers about the danger posed by a form of teaching that is being propagated in their churches and to advise them on how to respond. The proponents of this teaching claim to be inspired prophets whose visionary revelations exempt them and all truly spiritual people (i.e., their followers) from any form of moral authority (v. 8). They claim that the grace of God in Christ liberates them to do as they please (v. 4) and apparently demonstrate this freedom especially by sexual indulgence (v. 7). In response, Jude insists that faith in the Christian gospel is inseparable from moral obedience to Christ. The opponents are a serious danger to his readers, because they encourage deliberate immorality that puts their salvation at risk. Such outright rejection of God’s moral authority can only incur judgment when Christ comes as judge. But Jude’s purpose is not only to warn of the danger (vv. 4–19). It is also to urge his readers “to contend for the faith” (v. 3) by positively living out the gospel in faith, hope, and love (vv. 20–21). His advice on how to deal with the opponents and their followers (vv. 22–23) combines a realistic sense of the danger they pose to his readers with a pastoral concern for their salvation.
Use of the OT and Extracanonical Literature
JUDE BASES MUCH OF HIS ARGUMENT on OT allusions and employs current Jewish methods of scriptural interpretation. He also refers to Jewish works that are not in the OT canon, especially 1 Enoch (see vv. 6, 14–15) and an apocryphal story about the burial of Moses (see v. 9) that he may have found in the (now lost) ending of the Testament of Moses. Such apocryphal literature was widely read and valued in Judaism at that time. [RICHARD J. BAUCKHAM]
JUDE 1
Salutation
11 Jude,a a servantb of Jesus Christ and brother of James,
To those who are called, who are belovedc ind God the Father and kept safe fore Jesus Christ:
2May mercy, peace, and love be yours in abundance.
Occasion of the Letter
3Beloved, while eagerly preparing to write to you about the salvation we share, I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. 4For certain intruders have stolen in among you, people who long ago were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.f
Judgment on False Teachers
5Now I desire to remind you, though you are fully informed, that the Lord, who once for all savedg a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. 6And the angels who did not keep their own position, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains in deepest darkness for the judgment of the great day. 7Likewise, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which, in the same manner as they, indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural lust,h serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
8Yet in the same way these dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and slander the glorious ones.i 9But when the archangel Michael contended with the devil and disputed about the body of Moses, he did not dare to bring a condemnation of slanderj against him, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10But these people slander whatever they do not understand, and they are destroyed by those things that, like irrational animals, they know by instinct. 11Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain, and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain, and perish in Korah’s rebellion. 12These are blemishesk on your love-feasts, while they feast with you without fear, feeding themselves.l They are waterless clouds carried along by the winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, uprooted; 13wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the deepest darkness has been reserved forever.
14It was also about these that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “See, the Lord is comingm with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15to execute judgment on all, and to convict everyone of all the deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” 16These are grumblers and malcontents; they indulge their own lusts; they are bombastic in speech, flattering people to their own advantage.
Warnings and Exhortations
17But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; 18for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” 19It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. 20But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; 21keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads ton eternal life. 22And have mercy on some who are wavering; 23save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.o
Benediction
24Now
to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
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a Gk Judas
b Gk slave
c Other ancient authorities read sanctified
d Or by
e Or by
f Or the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ
g Other ancient authorities read though you were once for all fully informed, that Jesus (or Joshua) who saved
h Gk went after other flesh
i Or angels; Gk glories
j Or condemnation for blasphemy
k Or reefs
l Or without fear. They are shepherds who care only for themselves
m Gk came
n Gk Christ to
o Gk by the flesh. The Greek text of verses 22-23 is uncertain at several points
1–2 The opening address and greeting are characteristic of early Christian letters.
1 Jude. See Mk 6.3. James must be the Lord’s brother (see Gal 1.19), leader of the Jerusalem church and so well known as to need no further identification (see Acts 15.13; Jas 1.1).
3–4 The theme of the Letter is introduced in two parts: an appeal (v. 3) and a reference to the situation that makes the appeal necessary (v. 4).
3 The faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints, the gospel as the readers received it from the apostles who founded their churches. Paul makes similar references to the gospel as it was first preached to his readers; see Rom 16.17; 2 Cor 11.4; Gal 1.9.