James, First, Second, and Third John (Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

Anderson, Kelly, Keating, Daniel, Williamson, Peter S., Healy, Mary

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781493406593
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

In this addition to the successful Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, two respected scholars and Bible teachers interpret James and First, Second, and Third John from within the living tradition of the Church. The commentary provides crisp explanations of the text with helpful sidebars and ideas for application to enrich preaching, group Bible study, and personal reflection. This volume presents excellent biblical scholarship in a format accessible to laypeople with no special training in biblical studies.

First, Second, and Third John

Daniel Keating

General Introduction to First, Second, and Third John

The New Testament contains three letters attributed by tradition to the apostle John. They are commonly known as the †Johannine Epistles. The first letter, 1 John, by far the most substantial of the three, offers a profound teaching on Christian faith and love. Second John (thirteen verses) is a brief letter of greeting from the author to a local church. Third John (fifteen verses) is a personal letter from the author to a certain Gaius, a leader in a local church.

Various questions perennially confront the reader of the three Letters of John. Are they all from the same author? How are the letters linked historically? Why is there no opening or closing greeting in 1 John?1 And why were 2 John and 3 John preserved at all and included in the †canon of the New Testament?2

Most scholars believe that 2 John and 3 John were preserved because they were copied and circulated along with 1 John. Because 1 John and 2 John share language and themes, many scholars believe that they were written at about the same time, with 3 John coming later. Some commentators even suggest that 2 John may have been sent as a cover letter for 1 John, or that all three letters were written at the same time and sent together as one package.3

Although we cannot determine the exact historical relationships among the three letters, we can see that they are closely linked and mutually illuminate one another. Given the striking similarities in style and language, it is very likely that they come from the pen of the same author. Some scholars in the past century argued that the author of 2 John and 3 John is not the author of 1 John, but today there is a general consensus that the three letters come from the same hand (see the introduction to 1 John for a discussion of authorship). In this commentary I will assume that the same author wrote all three letters.

Given the brevity of 2 John and 3 John, there is no significant development of major themes to be found in them, but we can still discern various threads that connect the three letters, such as love for one another, walking in the truth, unity in the Church, and caution against deceivers. By reading each letter in light of the other two, we can gain insight into obscure or ambiguous passages and reach a better understanding of what John is saying in each letter.

Daniel Keating

1. Rudolf Schnackenburg calls the lack of a true opening greeting in 1 John “an enigma” (The Johannine Epistles, trans. Reginald and Ilse Fuller [New York: Crossroad, 1992], 4). Apart from the Gospels and Acts, 1 John is the only writing in the NT that has neither an opening nor a closing greeting.

2. “It is a miracle that despite the enigmatic sender . . . and their insignificant contents these two letters were preserved at all” (Martin Hengel, The Johannine Question [London: SCM, 1989], 26).

3. Luke Timothy Johnson offers this as a plausible historical hypothesis (The Writings of the New Testament: An Introduction, rev. ed. [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999], 561–62). The weakness of this hypothesis is the statement in both 2 John and 3 John that the author has much more to say, but rather than using “paper and ink,” he hopes to come and speak to them in person. Why would he write this if he were also including a lengthy written letter (1 John) composed of “paper and ink”?

Introduction to 1 John

Saint Augustine began his homilies on 1 John by telling his readers that in this letter John “said many things, and nearly everything was about charity.”1 Broadening this, the Venerable Bede opened his commentary on 1 John with this summation: “The blessed apostle John wrote this letter about the perfection of faith and charity, praising the faithfulness of those who were persevering in the unity of the Church.”2 At a much later date, the great preacher John Wesley praised 1 John as being “the deepest part of the Holy Scripture. . . . Here are sublimity and simplicity together, the strongest sense and the plainest language.”3

The Aim of 1 John

The aim of 1 John is to declare, with clarity and simplicity, the qualities of those who truly belong to God the Father and have †fellowship with him and his Son Jesus Christ. In other words, John sets forth in this letter the basic criteria that distinguish those who truly belong to God from those who do not.

Against those who are denying essential truths about Jesus, John teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, who has truly taken on our †flesh and died for our sins on the cross. Against those who have failed to love their brothers and sisters by providing for material needs, John declares what genuine love is by pointing to the example of Jesus and showing the origin of love in God himself. For John, no one can rightly claim to love God and be joined to Christ who does not show love to brothers and sisters. In short, the aim of 1 John is to declare the signs of true faith and genuine love.

But John writes this letter not only to clarify the marks of a true Christian. His ultimate goal is to bring his readers into deeper fellowship or communion with God and with one another. For John, this living communion with the Father and Son that we share is eternal life.

Authorship and Date

The First Letter of John itself gives no clue as to its author. It has no opening or closing greeting, and no names are named anywhere in the letter. Even if we look to 2 John and 3 John for help, the author identifies himself simply as “the †presbyter” (presbyteros), or “elder.” This title could refer to his age or his position, or both, but it does not disclose his personal identity.

The Christian tradition dating from the late second and early third centuries identifies the author of 1 John as the apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who wrote this letter toward the close of the first century.4 These early Christian authors, however, do not say why they attribute this letter to the apostle John. There may have been a record of John’s authorship handed down by those who preserved the letter, but it is also possible that the early Church came to this conclusion because the language and literary style of 1 John are unmistakably similar to that of the Fourth Gospel, also attributed to the apostle John.

Scholars today generally agree with the tradition that 1 John should be dated to the end of the first century, but there is sharp disagreement about the identity of the author. Because 1 John is so similar in style and language to the Fourth Gospel, the question about the authorship of 1 John is closely tied to the authorship of the Fourth Gospel. We cannot go into the complex issues surrounding authorship of the Fourth Gospel here, but we can identify the main options by asking the following questions: Is the author of the Fourth Gospel John the son of Zebedee (the “†beloved disciple” [see John 13:23; 19:26])? Or, is the author, the beloved disciple, not one of the twelve apostles but another eyewitness disciple of Jesus who bore his own distinct testimony? Or, is the Fourth Gospel the product of a school of disciples of the beloved disciple who together compiled this Gospel after his death? From the testimony of John 21:24, it seems that the followers of the beloved disciple were responsible at least for publishing the Fourth Gospel and may have had a hand in its final editing, but they clearly attribute the testimony written in the Fourth Gospel to the beloved disciple himself.

Assuming that the Gospel of John comes from “the disciple Jesus loved,” we can now pose the relevant questions concerning the authorship of 1 John:5 Is the author of 1 John the beloved disciple himself, whether the apostle John or another eyewitness disciple of Jesus? Or, is the author one of the followers of the beloved disciple, a member of his school writing after his death? We cannot answer these questions with certainty, but I am inclined to the view that the author of 1 John is the beloved disciple himself and that the same hand wrote both the Gospel and the Letters. Not only do the clear and simple cadences of 1 John match those of the Fourth Gospel (especially chaps. 13–17), but also the authoritative tone of 1 John and the author’s testimony that he saw, heard, and touched the “Word of life” (1:1–3) point not to a second-generation follower of the beloved disciple but rather to one who heard Jesus speak and who lay upon his breast (John 13:23).6 Whether this beloved disciple is John the apostle, the son of Zebedee, is a further question that we cannot answer with certainty.

The Recipients of the Letter

The First Letter of John is addressed to a Christian community that had recently experienced an internal rupture in its life. On the basis of clues within the letter itself (especially 2:19), it appears that some portion of the local church had recently dropped out of the church and was following teaching that in some way denied the reality of Jesus’ †incarnation. John is writing to encourage those who have remain...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Endorsements
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Editors’ Preface
• Abbreviations
• James
• First, Second, and Third John
• Suggested Resources
• Glossary
• Index of Pastoral Topics
• Index of Sidebars
• Back Cover