1 John
INTRODUCTION
1, 2 & 3 JOHN
H.L. ELLISON
1 John
Strictly speaking, this letter is anonymous. As it has much in common with the fourth Gospel, the church has always accepted it as being written by the same author, the apostle John. The author clearly has a position of authority in the group of churches he addresses and they will have known him well. There are no hard facts about its date of writing but most people think of a date towards the end of the first century ad.
The readers of the letter were well known to the apostle John. Some of the congregation had recently left them (2:19), perhaps to follow false teaching (2:26). John writes to reassure them that their faith in Jesus Christ is true (5:13). As tradition tells us that John spent his later life in Ephesus, the readers probably lived in the same area, the west of modern Turkey.
2 and 3 John
Their author is identified as “The Elder” (2 John 1; 3 John 1) who does not give his name. Traditionally, the author is seen as the apostle John, who also wrote 1 John and the fourth Gospel. Its date of writing is uncertain; possibly in the AD 80s or 90s.
As John’s ministry took place in Asia Minor (present Turkey), the readers probably lived in that area. 2 John was written to “the chosen lady and her children” (2 John 1). This was a way of referring to a congregation of Christians. 3 John was written to Gaius, a member of an otherwise unknown congregation, and a personal friend of the apostle John (3 John 1).