Third 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 third letter of John is the last of three New Testament epistles in the Bible that are attributed to John the Evangelist.
Generally
The 3rd Letter of John with 219 words ( according to Nestle - Aland27 ) the shortest letter in the New Testament. Who wrote it, is disputed among theologians. The tradition sees the writer in St. John the Evangelist. This is but denied more and more. The letter is attributed by many theologians today are either the presbyter John, who is mentioned by Papias, or another student of the Johannine school. The date of writing is set depending on the theological doctrine in 90 AD to about 130 AD. As Abfassungsort applies Ephesus.
Structure and Content
The letter is structured as a classic antique private letter, but with the difference that the salutatio, so the usual greeting in the introduction, is missing.
Briefpräskript
At the beginning of the letter, in the so-called Briefpräskript, 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. The receiver is a Gaius, on the one otherwise learns nothing else in the New Testament.
Letter corpus
The actual body of the letter, the so-called letter corpus, can be divided into four sections:
- In the first section, V. 5-8, the author directed a request to Gaius: He should support the itinerant missionaries on their journey
- In the second section, V. 9-10, the author mentions Diotrephes, a member of the church that does not recognize the authority of the author and the missionaries denied any assistance.
- The third section, v. 11, has a chiastic structure:
- In the fourth section, V.12, a third person is introduced, Demetrius, which is described by the author very positive. This verse led some theologians to see in 3 Jn a letter of recommendation.
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In the letter body of the letter conclusion follows 13-15. The letter concluded consists of the declaration of intentions that the author was planning to visit Gaius ( V.13 -15) and the closing greeting in V.15.