john, epistles of Summary and Overview

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.