DATE
DATE
The date of the epistles of John is entirely bound up with the date of the fourth gospel and their relationship to it. As we have seen, although a few date the gospel of John before A.D. 70, and a majority assign it to the last decade of the first century, we have cautiously suggested 80-85. The question to be posed, then, is whether the epistles were written before or after the gospel.
Certainty is impossible; the decision depends, finally, on one’s understanding of the respective purposes of the fourth gospel and of the Johannine Epistles. It will be argued here that the epistles, unlike the gospel, were written in part to establish and encourage the faith of Christians in the wake of rising controversy over proto-Gnosticism (see the section Purpose below). Since this movement was on the ascendency at the end of the first century (though it did not reach full flowering until well into the second century), it seems best to date the epistles after the fourth gospel. This judgment is confirmed by the evidence that suggests that at least some of the Gnostic heretics were using the fourth gospel for their own purposes: certainly John was a favorite of Gnostics in the second century (though John 1:14, "the Word became flesh,” was ultimately destructive of their beliefs). Probably, therefore, some time elapsed between the publication of the fourth gospel and that of the epistles, enough at least to allow what John perceives to be the improper use of his earlier work to gain enough steam to cause schism in the church (see 1 John 2:19). Constrained at the other end by apparent allusions to 1 John in some of the subapostolic fathers, it appears best to date the epistles of John to the early nineties.