Will Vaus

  AUTHOR   The Third Letter of John begins, “The elder to Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth.”   As with 2 John, the author of this letter identifies himself simply as “the elder”.   There is both internal evidence and external evidence that leads scholars to associate this letter with 1 John and 2 John as well as with the Gospel of John and Revelation. The internal evidence consists of a common language. As we saw in 1 John and 2 John, love and truth were dominant topics. So also, here in 3 John, those topics are introduced from the get-go.    Pastor David Jackman summarizes the external evidence for the authorship of this letter…   From the earliest times the letter has been attributed to John the apostle, but not without debate. The early evidence is sparse, though the Muratorian Canon, a fragmentary list of New Testament books known at Rome about AD 200, certainly includes the first two letters. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (c. 175—c. 195), quote...

  AUTHOR   New Testament scholar, Raymond Brown, once wrote the following about this letter… “This work, which was known already in the mid-second century, began to be treated as canonical Scripture toward the end of the second century when it was accepted as a writing of John, son of Zebedee.”    However, 2 John does not claim to be written by John, the disciple of Jesus. Rather, the author simply calls himself “the Presbyter” which many English versions translate as “the elder”. As far as we know, this letter did not receive the title “The Second Letter of John” until the fourth century.   The word “presbyter” could simply mean an old man. People in the first century thought of old age as beginning at about 40. “Presbyter” was also an official office in the early church. From this Greek word we get our more modern word “Presbyterian” which refers to a type of church ruled by elders. However, the author of this letter is not just “an elder” of a local church. H...

  AUTHOR   1 John is not like most other letters in the New Testament. It is not addressed to a specific group of people. It does not begin with “Dear So and So” and it does not end with “Yours sincerely, John.” What is called the first letter of John is more like a sermon or a meditation. David Jackman describes 1 John as being like a spiral staircase. He writes,   As you climb the central staircase in a large palace or a stately home, you see the same objects or paintings from a different angle, often with a new appreciation of their beauty. It is rather like that with the great truths John is concerned to state and revisit in the letter. The view gets more wonderful as you climb and the heavenly light shines more and more clearly until you reach the top. [1]   Who created this wonderful spiral staircase? This is one of only two letters in the New Testament (the other one being Hebrews) that does not provide the author’s name. However, the opening verses of 1 John ...