Second Epistle of John
- Matthew
- Markus
- Luke
- John
- Roman
- 1 Corinthians
- 2 Corinthians
- Galatians
- Ephesians
- Philippians
- Colossians
- 1 Thessalonians
- 2 Thessalonians
- 1 Timothy
- 2 Timothy
- Titus
- Philemon
- Hebrew
- Epistle of James
- 1 Peter
- 2 Peter
- 1 John
- 2 John
- 3 John
- Judas
The second letter of John is the second of three New Testament epistles in the Bible that are attributed to John the Evangelist.
General
Who wrote the second letter of John, is disputed among theologians. The tradition sees the writer in St. John the Evangelist. However, this will often disputed. The letter is attributed by many theologians today are either a possibly mentioned by Papias Presbyter Johannes, or another student of the evangelist. The date of writing is set depending on the theological doctrine in 90 AD to about 130 AD. As Abfassungsort applies Ephesus.
With 245 words ( according to Nestle - Aland27 ) he is a little longer than the 3 John, and thus the second shortest letter in the New Testament.
Content and structure
The letter is structured as a classic antique private letter, ie it consists of three major parts: the Briefpräskript, the letter body and the ask price.
Briefpräskript
At the beginning of the letter is the Superscriptio for piccolo, so the mail sender. The sender only Ὁ πρεσβύτερος = "The Oldest " or " The Old Man " is listed, without further attribution. Also, the recipient will not be named. In the adscriptio, as the recipient name, is only ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ = " the elect lady ". In the Salutatio, the entrance greeting, the author wishes his opposite grace, mercy, and peace. This threefold salutation found in the New Testament otherwise only found in the two letters to Timothy.
Letter corpus
The actual body of the letter, the so-called letter corpus, contains two main topics:
- In the V.4 -6 praises the author of " Mistress " and " their children " for their loyalty in faith. And then he turns to her, asking for love with each other. For by the love for one another, we express our love of God.
- In the V.7 -11, the author warns against " false teachers ". False teachers are the people who deny that Jesus is truly became human ( Docetism ) in his eyes. The recipient of the letter to avoid dealing with these false teachers. They should not even say hello.
Ask price
In the letter body of the letter conclusion follows 12-13. The letter concluded consists of the declaration of intentions that the author was planning to visit the recipient, ( V.12 ) and the closing greeting in V.13.
Exegetical difficulties
An exegetical problem in 2 John is the question of the recipient dar. Who is the " elect lady " ( ἐκλεκτή κυρία )? There are booms under different theories about who could be just the recipient:
- Part of the boom assumes that there is a real woman at the " elect lady ". Then either ἐκλεκτή ( Eklekte ) could be her real name, meaning " the mistress Eklekta "; or κυρία ( Kyria ) would be its name, meaning " the chosen one ( noble ) Kyria ". A third possibility is that her name remains anonymous and the author she addresses him with the salutation " elect lady " as he imagines himself only with " elder", to mention just without his own name.
- Other interpreters see in the elect lady a symbolic name for a town, in which case the municipality, which are addressed by the letter writer. This would be consistent with the biblical language of symbols. Israel is repeatedly addressed as a woman in the Old Testament: In Jer 31:21 as " virgin of Israel " and in Micah 4.8 as the " daughter of Zion ". In the New Testament the church is presented as the " Bride of Christ " (2 Cor 11.2 and Revelation 19:7). Moreover, this interpretation would fit better to V.13 in the letter. There, the sister of the elect and their children are mentioned. According to this interpretation, this would mean that a municipality, so the members of the other community send their regards.