Christianity: Details about 'Third Epistle Of John'
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The New Testament Third Epistle of John (often referred to as 3 John) is the 64th book of the Bible. It is the second-shortest book in the Christian Bible. It is written by a man who identifies himself only as "the presbyteros" and is addressed to Caius (or Gaius). Easton's Dictionary finds it uncertain whether the Christian Caius in Macedonia (Acts 19:29), the Caius in Corinth (Romans 16:23) or the Caius in Derbe (Acts 20:4) is intended. The letter has indications that it is a genuine private letter, written for the purpose of commending to Gaius a party of Christians led by Demetrius, who were strangers to the place where he lived, and who had gone on a mission to preach the gospel (verse 7). The purpose of the letter is to encourage and stengthen Caius, and to warm him against the party headed by Diotrephes, who refuses to cooperate with the presbyteros who is writing. Edgar Goodspeed saw this and 2 John as cover letters for 1 John, as the only likely reason for their preservation. The language of this epistle is remarkably similar to 2 John, and it is the scholarly consensus that the same man wrote both of these letters, although it has been debated whether or not this same Joannes also wrote the Gospel of John, 1 John, or Revelation: see Authorship of the Johannine works. The earliest possible attestations for 3 John come from Tertullian and Origen. Tertullian, "On Monogamy" ch.vi quotes a brief phrase—"follow the better things"— from 3 John i.11 "Beloved, imitate not that which is evil, but that which is good", a phrase that might also have been adapted from the Septuagint Psalm xxxvi. 27 (xxxvii in the Hebrew Bible) or from the First Epistle of Peter iii.11 . Origen's Commentary on Matthew book xi says "But many things might be said about the Word Himself who became flesh", which has been offered as a parallel showing the use of logos in 3 John i.7. . Irenaeus in Adversus Haereses iii. 16. 7 (written ca 175), quotes 2 John. 7 and 8, and in the next sentence I John 4:1, 2, as from "the Letter of John."; he does not quote from 3 John. The Muratorian Canon accepts two letters of John only.
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