3 John
3 John
INTRODUCTION
This is a “letter of recommendation” for Demetrius, a traveling missionary (vv. 7-8) who needs to be put up by a local *church while he is evangelizing in their area (cf. comment on Mt 10:11-13, 40-42). For authorship and date, see the introduction to 2 John. For the first three centuries of the church’s existence, congregations usually met in homes; for further details on this practice, see Romans 16:5. In this letter to Gaius, a house-church leader, John is apparently attempting to counter the opposing influences of Diotrephes, a different house-church leader who is asserting his own authority and rejecting emissaries backed by John’s apostolic authority.
Commentaries. See the introduction to 1 John.
1-2. This is a standard greeting in many ancient letters, which quite often began with a prayer for the reader’s health, frequently including the prayer that all would go well with the person (not just material prosperity, as some translations could be read as implying). This greeting might be similar to saying “I hope you are well” today, but it represents an actual prayer that all is well with Gaius (see comment on 1 Thess 3:11). “Gaius” was a common name.
3-4. Rabbis and philosophers sometimes spoke of their *disciples as their “children”; here John probably intends those he brought to *Christ (cf. Gal 4:19 and perhaps the later Jewish tradition that when someone made a convert to Judaism, it was as if the converter had created the convert).
5-6. Hospitality was a critical issue in the Greco-Roman world, and Jewish people were especially concerned to take care of their own. Most inns also served as brothels, making a stay there unappealing, but Jewish people could expect to find hospitality from their fellow Jews; to prevent abuse of this system, they normally carried letters of recommendation from someone the hosts might know to substantiate their claim to be good Jews. Christians had likely adopted the same practice.
7-8. Philosophers and sophists (traveling professional speakers, which is how many observers in the Greco-Roman world interpreted traveling Christian preachers) often made their livings from the crowds to whom they spoke, although others took fees or were supported by wealthy *patrons. Like Jewish people, Christians showed hospitality to travelers of their own faith, and these traveling preachers were dependent on this charity. Jewish people spoke of the sacred “Name” of God; John is apparently applying this title to Jesus.
9-11. Diotrephes is apparently leader of another house church; he refuses to show hospitality to the missionaries who have letters of recommendation from the elder. Scholars have speculated whether the issue was doctrinal disagreement, disagreement over church leadership structure or that Diotrephes was simply outright disagreeable; at any rate, he refuses to accept the authority of John that stands behind the missionaries he backs. To reject a person’s representatives or those recommended by a person was to disrespect the person who had written on their behalf.
12. This is the recommendation for Demetrius, who has not only John’s attestation but that of the rest of his home church(es). (For letters of recommendation, see comment on 2 Cor 3:1.) No one in Diotrephes’s house church will receive him, so Gaius’s house church must help him.
13-15. Sometimes ancient letters closed as John does here. Most letter writers employed *scribes, and if John is writing by hand, he may well wish to close quickly. See comment on 2 John 12. If “friends” is here a title for a group, it probably refers to fellow Christians in the place from which the elder is writing; these Christians may have borrowed the idea from the *Epicureans, whose philosophical communities consisted especially of “friends.”