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JOHN, EPISTLES OF
        F IRST E PISTLE . Genuineness. Polycarp, John's disciple (ad
        Philippians 7), quotes 1 John 4:3. Eusebius (H. E., iii.
        39) says of Papias, John's hearer, "he used testimonies from the
        first epistle of John." Irenaeus
        light and life to those born again of His Spirit; on, the other
        hand Satan's counterwork, His rejection by His own
        countrymen, though in His own person fulfilling all their law.
        His adversaries are called "the Jews," the nation by the time of
        John writing having become through continued resistance of the
        truth identified With their hierarchical chiefs, Jesus' opponents;
        whereas in the synoptists the several classes of opponents are
        distinguished, "Pharisees," "scribes," "lawyers," "chief priests,"
        etc. After Jerusalem's fall Jehu living among the Gentiles
        regarded the Jews as no longer the people of God; an
        undesigned confirmation of authenticity. That the writer was a
        Jew appears from his quoting the Hebrew Old Testament (not
        Septuagint): John 12:40; 19:37. His own brother James
        he never names; a pseudo John of later times would have been
        sure to name him. The synoptists and Acts similarly never
        introduce him individually. John dwells most on the deep
        spiritual truths, Christ's essential oneness with the Father, His
        mystical union with believers, the promise of the Comforter,
        and love the "new commandment." Yet Matthew, Mark, and
        Luke have the germs of them, and Paul further develops them
        (Matthew 5:44; 11:27; 16:16; 28:20; Luke
        10:22; 24:49). Matthew 26:11 verbally agrees with
        John 12:8. Compare 1 Corinthians 13;
        Colossians 1:15,16; 2 Corinthians 5:17.
        (On the Passovers in John see JESUS CHRIST ). As John,
        though mainly treating of Jesus' ministry in Judea, yet has
        occasional notices of that in Galilee (John 1:43-2:13,
        after the temptation, recorded by the synoptists as following thebaptism, John 1:32; namely, the Galilean ministry
        before John's imprisonment, John 3:24, whereas they
        begin with it after John's imprisonment: Mark 1:14), so
        they, though mainly treating of the Galilean ministry, plainly
        hint at that in Judaea also
        (Matthew 4:25; 23:37; 27:57; Luke 10:38;
        13:34; Mark 3:7,8). Thus, John 4:1-3 is the
        introduction to the Galilean ministry described by them.
        John 7:1,9, intimates a transfer of Jesus' ministry to
        Galilee after the second last Passover (John 6:4,5). The
        feeding of the 5,000 links him to Matthew 14:15. This
        Passover He did not attend, but in the same year attended the
        feast of tabernacles, six months before His death
        (John 7:2,10). John 10:22,40, Jesus' retirement
        to beyond Jordan after His visit to Jerusalem at the feast of
        dedication, answers to
        Matthew 19:1. The continuous Galilean ministry of two
        years and a third (excepting the Jerusalem short visit, John 5)
        was naturally first recorded as having most internal unity.
        John's later record dwells on the
        The objections to John's acquaintance with the synoptical
        Gospels are based on the presumption that in that case he was
        bound to slavishly supplement them and guard against the
        appearance of discrepancies between him and them. But he was
        an independent witness, not formally designing to supplement;
        yet as knowing their Gospels he would mostly use materials
        heretofore not handled. As they presented Jesus' outer and
        popular life, so it remained that he should represent the deeper
        truths of His divine mission and Person. They met the church's
        first needs; he, its later wants. Luke's Gospel was written under
        Paul's superintendence at least 20 years before John's.
        Considering the intercourse between the Christian churches it is
        incredible that his Gospel should have been unknown at
        Ephesus, John's and previously Paul's scene of labours, and this
        to John a "pillar" of the church.
        Design. John, the last surviving apostle, would surely be
        consulted on the canonicity of New Testament Scriptures which
        by God's providence he lived to see completed. Theodore of
        Mopsuestia, 4th century (Catena Johann. Corder. Mill New
        Testament) says John did attest it. Clement Alex. (Eusebius, H.
        E. vi. 14) states on the authority of old presbyters (and the
        Muratorian Fragment, Ant. M. Aev. 3, confirms the statement)
        that John wrote at his friends' request to give Christ's
        "spiritual" aspect, the former Gospels already having given His
        "bodily" aspect. John, who leant on Jesus' breast, His closest
        intimate, was the fittest to set forth the deeper spiritual truths of
        the Son of God. Thus the "ye" (John 19:35; 20:31) will
        refer to John's "friends" primarily, the general church
        secondarily. To prove "that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God"is this Gospel's declared design, that men so "believing might
        have life through His name." A continued polemic reference is
        not likely, considering John's contemplative and usually loving
        spirit. An incidental guarding of the truth against incipient
        heresies in that region certainly there is in the prologue and
        John 19:34; 20:20,27; compare 1:14. Paul in epistle to
        Colossians alludes to the Judaizing form of Gnosticism.
        Oriental and Grecian speculations combined at Alexandria to
        foster it. As the Docetae denied that the divine Word assumed a
        real body, so the Ebionites denied His real Godhead. John
        counteracts both incidentally in subordination to his main
        design. He uses in a sense congruous to Old Testament, and
        sanctioned by the Spirit, the terms used by gnostics in a false
        sense.
        The prologue gives the keynote of the Gospel: the eternal
        Godhead of the Word who was made flesh that, as He created
        all things, so He might give
        (Eusebius, H. E., v. 8) often quoted it; he quotes (Haeres. iii. 15,
        sections 5,8) from John by name 1 John 2:18; and in
        1 John 3:16, section 7 he quotes 1 John 4:1-3;
        5:1; 2 John 1:7,8. Clement Alex. (Strom. ii. 66, p. 664)
        refers to 1 John 5:16 as in John's larger epistle;
        compare Strom. iii. 32,42; iv. 102. Tertullian adv. Marcion, vi.
        16, refers to 1 John 4:1; adv. Praxean xv to 1
        John 1:1; also 1 John 1:28, and contra Gnost. 12.
        Cyprian (Ep. 28:24) quotes 1 John 2:3,4 as John's; and,
        de Orat. Domini, 5, quotes 2:15-17; De opere et Eleemos.
        quotes 1 John 1:8; De bono Patientiae quotes 1
        John 2:6. Muratori's Fragment on the Canon states "there are
        two (the Gospel and epistle) of John esteemed universal,"
        quoting 1 John 1:3. The Peshito Syriac has it. Origen
        (Eusebius vi. 25) designates the first epistle genuine, and
        "probably second and third epistles, though all do not recognize
        the latter two"; he quotes 1 John 1:5 (tom. 13 vol. 2).
        Dionysius of Alexandria, Origen's scholar, cites this epistle's
        words as the evangelist John's. Eusebius (H. E.,
        iii. 24) says John's first epistle and Gospel are "acknowledged
        without
        question by those of the present day, as well as by the ancients."
        So Jerome (Catalog. Ecclesiastes Script.). Marcion opposed it
        only because it was opposed to his heresies.
        The Gospel and the first epistle are alike in style, yet evidently
        not mere copies either of the other. The individual notices, it
        being a universal epistle, are fewer than in Paul's epistles; butwhat there are accord with John's position. He implies his
        apostleship (1 John 2:7,26), alludes to his Gospel
        (John 1:1, compare <430114> John 1:14; 20:27), and the
        affectionate He uniting him as an aged pastor to his spiritual
        "children"
        (1 John 2:18,19). In 1 John 4:1-3 he alludes to
        the false teachers as known to his readers; in 1 John
        5:21 he warns them against the idols of the world around.
        Docetism existed in germ already, though the Docete by name
        appear first in the second century (Colossians 1:15-18;
        1 John 4:1-3 denounces as "not of God every spirit that
        confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (compare
        John 2:22,23). Presciently the Spirit through John
        forearms the church against the coming heresy.
        T O W HOM T HE E PISTLES W ERE A DDRESSED . Augustine
        (Quaest. Evang. 2:39) says it was addressed to the Parthians, i.e.
        the Christians beyond the Euphrates, outside the Roman empire,
        "the church at Babylon elected together with" (1 Peter
        5:13) the churches in the Ephesian region, where Peter sent his
        epistles (1 Peter 1:1: Pontus, Galatia,
        Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia). As Peter addressed the Asiatic
        flock tended first by Paul, then by John, so John, Peter's close
        companion, addresses the flock among whom Peter was when
        he wrote. Thus "the elect lady" (2 John 1:1) answers to
        "the church elected together."
        T IME A ND P LACE . This epistle is subsequent to the Gospel,
        for it assumes the reader's acquaintance with the Gospel facts
        and Christ's speeches, and His aspect as the incarnate Word
        God manifest in the flesh, set forth in John's Gospel. His
        fatherly tone addressing his "little children" implies it was
        written in old age, perhaps A.D. 90. The rise of antichristian
        teachers he marks as a sign of "the last time" (1 John
        2:18), no other "age" or dispensation will be until Christ comes;
        for His coming the church is to be ever waiting;
        Hebrews 1:2, "these last days." The region of Ephesus,
        where Gnostic heresy sprang up, was probably the place, and
        the latter part of the apostolic age the time, of writing.
        Contents. Fellowship with the Father and the Son is the subject
        and object (1 John 1:3). Two divisions occur:
        (1) 1 John 1:5-2:28, God is light without darkness;
        consequently, to have fellowship with Him necessitates walking
        in the light. Confession and consequent forgiveness of sins,
        through Christ's propitiation for the world and advocacy for
        believers, are a necessary preliminary; a further step is positive
        keeping God's commandments, the sum of which is love as
        contrasted with hatred, the sum of disobedience. According to
        their several stages of spiritual growth, children, fathers, youngmen, as respectively forgiven, knowing the Father, and having
        overcome the wicked one, John exhorts them not to love the
        world, which is incompatible with the indwelling of the
        Father's love. This anointing love dwelling in us, and our
        continuing to abide in the Son and in the Father, is the antidote
        against the antichristian teachers in the world, who are of the
        world, not of the church, and therefore have gone out from it.
        (2) 1 John 2:29-5:5 handles the opening thesis: "He is
        righteous," therefore "every one that doeth righteousness is
        born of Him." Sonship involves present self purification, first
        because we desire now to be like Him, "even as He is pure,"
        secondly because we hope hereafter to be perfectly like Him,
        our sonship now hidden shall be manifested, and we shall be
        made like Him when He shall be manifested (answering to
        Paul's Colossians 3), for our then "seeing him as He is"
        involves transfiguration into His likeness (compare <470318> 2
        Corinthians 3:18; Philippians 3:21). In
        and clergy (compare 2 John 1:12; 3 John
        1:9,10,14). On one tour he rebuked Diotrephes. If this be so,
        both epistles were written after Revelation, in his old age,
        which harmonizes with their tone, and in the Ephesian region.
Bibliography Information
Fausset, Andrew Robert M.A., D.D., "Definition for 'john, epistles of' Fausset's Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Fausset's; 1878.

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