The Jewish Annotated New Testament (125 page)

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By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
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And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world.
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God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.
¹⁶
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.
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Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world.
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There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.
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We love
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because he first loved us.
²⁰
Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters,
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are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister
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whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.
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The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters
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also.

5
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ
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has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.
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By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
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For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,
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for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.
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Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

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This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.
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There are three that testify:
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8
the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree.
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If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.
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Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God
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have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.
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And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
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Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

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I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

¹⁴
And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
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And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him.
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If you see your brother or sister
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committing what is not a mortal sin, you will ask, and God
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will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin that is mortal; I do not say that you should pray about that.
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All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not mortal.

¹⁸
We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.
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We know that we are God’s children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.
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And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true;
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and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

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Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
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THE SECOND LETTER OF JOHN

TITLE, AUTHORSHIP, AND DATE

The brief letter known as 2 John is included in the “Johannine” letters because its vocabulary and themes overlap substantially with those of 1 and 3 John, which in turn share themes with the Gospel of John. (For a fuller discussion of these shared themes and vocabulary, and of the Johannine literature, see the Introduction to 1 John.) Like 3 John, 2 John is written by someone calling himself “the elder” (Gk “presbyteros”). The early second-century Christian writer Papias (Eusebius,
Hist. eccl
. 3.39.17) refers to an elder named John, and since at least that time the letter has been attributed to “John the elder,” that is, a different John from the disciple traditionally credited with writing the Gospel. The term “presbyter” can designate either an aged (and thus presumably venerable) person, or a leader, regardless of age. It commonly translates the Hebrew “zaqen,” which has a similar range of meanings (see Lev 19.32; Job 32.6–9; and the debate on who qualifies as a “zaqen” in
b. Qidd
. 32b, in which the argument turns on whether honor to an aged person [“hoary head”] depends only on the fact of age, or also on a quality sometimes acquired with age, such as wisdom).

This “elder,” apparently a leader of local importance, is in a position to advise another congregation—“the elect lady and her children,” a reference either to the leader and her community or a personification of the community as a “lady.” Like the author of Proverbs (e.g., 1.8,10) and other ancient Near Eastern literature, the elder refers to his readers as children for whom he is responsible.

The letter of 2 John was probably produced in the same circles responsible for the other Johannine literature, in Asia Minor, sometime around the year 100. The letters rely on the Gospel of John for many concepts, as noted above, but the controversy with, and critical attitude toward, Jews that characterize the Gospel is not present in the letters; many scholars therefore conclude that the letters are later than the Gospel (which dates from the 90s), and are concerned with matters of false belief about the nature of Christ rather than with the conflict with Jewish opponents.

CONTENTS

The situation is similar to that addressed in 1 John, in that the congregation is warned against missionaries proclaiming a false gospel. But whereas in 1 John the deceitful missionaries have defected from the author’s congregation, in 2 John the author warns the “elect lady” against the arrival of these “deceivers.”

Throughout the letter, the elder emphasizes the idea of truth: he loves the believers in truth, they know the truth, the truth abides in them, and they walk in the truth. The conflict with the “deceivers” is apparently due to competing truth-claims regarding belief. For 2 John, belief that Jesus is the Christ is insufficient; equally important is correct belief about Jesus.

The opponents “do not confess that Jesus Christ [is coming] in the flesh” (v. 7; the NRSV translates the present participle as “has come”), and therefore do not “have God” (v. 9). By contrast, those who agree with the elder have “both the Father and the Son.” The opponents’ claim has been understood as (1) a denial that Jesus was truly human (a belief known as “docetism,” from Gk “dokeō,” “to seem, appear”); (2) a denial that he was truly divine (therefore those who think so do not “have God”); and (3) a denial that Jesus will return to earth in the flesh. If 2 John were written in the same community that produced 1 John and the Fourth Gospel, the opponents probably object to the elevation of Jesus to divine status, that is, an increasingly close identification of “the Father and the Son.”

Julie Galambush

¹
The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth,
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because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

³
Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from
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Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love.

⁴
I was overjoyed to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we have been commanded by the Father.
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But now, dear lady, I ask you, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but one we have had from the beginning, let us love one another.
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And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment just as you have heard it from the beginning—you must walk in it.

⁷
Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!
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Be on your guard, so that you do not lose what we
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have worked for, but may receive a full reward.
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Everyone who does not abide in the teaching of Christ, but goes beyond it, does not have God; whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son.
¹⁰
Do not receive into the house or welcome anyone who comes to you and does not bring this teaching;
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for to welcome is to participate in the evil deeds of such a person.

¹²
Although I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink; instead I hope to come to you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

¹³
The children of your elect sister send you their greetings.
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THE THIRD LETTER OF JOHN

The shortest document in the New Testament (at 219 words), lacking any reference to scripture, 3 John is a private letter probably written near the end of the first century. Its author, “the elder” (Gk “presbyteros”), a leading figure in the Johannine community, most likely wrote 2 John and is presumed to have written 1 John as well. Although some early Christians, like the church father Origen (ca. 185–254), cast doubt on whether the same “John” who wrote the Gospel and the first two letters attributed to him also wrote 3 John, the general view was that John, the son of Zebedee (see e.g., Mt 4.21; Mk 1.19; Lk 5.10; Jn 21.2; Gal 2.9) was the author. Scholarly consensus now holds that the author of any of the Fourth Gospel is not the same as the author of the epistles, yet there are thematic connections among the three letters and the Fourth Gospel. This Johannine community, founded by the “beloved disciple” mentioned in John’s Gospel (21.24), faced challenges both from Jews who did not believe in Jesus’ messiahship and from its own members. Some in this nascent community resisted an increasing focus on the divinity of Jesus; others may have questioned the terms of the mission to Gentiles; still others rejected certain claimants for church leadership.

Scholars presume that the writing of John’s Gospel and the three letters occurred at different stages in the history of the community. In this light, 3 John is relatively early, when the majority were still ethnically Jewish but were extending their mission to Gentiles, and when rivalries were beginning but before the increasingly acrimonious divisions attested in 1 and 2 John. This letter, which conforms to the genre known today as a “letter of recommendation” (see 2 Cor 3.1–3), commends the loving behavior of Gaius and Demetrius. Diotrephes, a fellow church member, appears to have rejected the elder’s leadership. None of these named characters is known apart from this letter.