Johannine epistles
Specifically in the First Epistle of John, Jesus is identified with the divine Christ, and more than in any other New Testament text, God's love of humanity is emphasised.
[1] The letters are anonymous, but since the late second century, when Irenaeus referred to the first two epistles, they have been connected to John, son of Zebedee, who according to the gospels was one of the twelve disciples and part of Jesus's closest circle.
[9] All of the writings concern an undergoing schism or conflict, where enemies are threatening the recipients', and their communities', identity and rules.
[9] Others see similarities between the Johannine Epistles' dualism and the sectarian Jewish group connected to the Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, often considered to be Essenes.
[2] The First Epistle of John stands out from the others due to its form, but they're united by language, style, contents, themes, and worldview.
[9][10] Despite these differences, most scholars consider the personal and warm tone, the fact that the author discusses a certain problem, and the wish to bridge distance, to connect it with regular letter composition, granting that it was meant for a larger audience.
[13] Within the letter, John warns about opening her home to false teachers and to always practice truth, avoiding secrecy.
[14] The third epistle, also a short letter from "the elder", is addressed to a man named Gaius and mentioned as "a dear friend".
Diotrephes's hostility and lack of hospitality has spurned the elder to write to Gaius asking him to take more responsibility for these missionaries.
In the fourth century, the Western Church came to consider all three letters canonical and attributed them to John the Evangelist.
While most of them are general and not written to a specific church or person, the Second and Third Epistles of John obviously form an exception.
[3] They're written to the elect lady and Gaius, but since they were considered to belong with the First Epistle of John they came to be regarded as catholic.
However, Bart Ehrman, an agnostic atheist, argues that the letter should still be seen as one, as the author lies about being a witness (1 Jn 1:1-4) and having belonged to Jesus's inner circle.
[17] The trinitarian formula in 1 John 5:7-8, the Comma Johanneum, which has found its way into many modern bible translations, is an interpolation.
[22] As a rule, this movement, or its congregations, are usually placed in Ephesus or its surroundings in Anatolia on the western coast of modern Turkey.
However, many argue against counting the Book of Revelation amongst the Johannine writings, due to its different genre, style, and theology.
[21] They exhibit a polarised rhetoric, affecting both their portrayal of people and ideas, through word-pairs such as light-darkness, truth-lie, love-hate, life-death, we-them, children of God-children of the Devil, and more.
This circumstance, along with the direct and authoritative language, is argued by some scholars to support the idea that the author really was an eyewitness.
[17][24] However, the majority of scholars argue that the Gospel of John and the Johannine Epistles were written by different people.
It is only when considered with the Second Epistle of John, with its strong connection to the First, and dito with the Third, that it emerges that all three letters probably share the same author.
[21] Both the Second and Third Epistles of John claim to be written by "the elder" (Greek: ὁ πρεσβύτερος, ho presbyteros, sometimes rendered in English as "the Presbyter").
[18][1] It mainly means "the elder" as in a man who enjoys social prestige due to the experiences of a long life.
[9] A possibility is that the term referred to a well-known and unmistakeable figure, and that it wasn't felt necessary to write the name.
Many argue that for the two shorter letters (2 and 3 John) to be preserved and made canon, it's required that they would have been written by a famous figure in the Johannine school.
However, some argue that these similarities could also be due to a shared sociolect within the Johannine school, and furthermore, that there are certain differences in language and style between the First Epistle of John on the one hand and the Second and Third on the other.
[21] The obvious similarities in vocabulary, theme, and language have convinced most scholars that the same person wrote all three letters.
[24] Irenaeus's judgement was hugely influential, and it can be presumed that Tertullian writing in the early third century followed him in accepting John the Evangelist as the author of the epistles and the Book of Revelation also.
[21] Furthermore others argue for the order 2-3-1, since the Third Epistle of John seems to refer to the Second, and that the title "the elder" points to an early period within the Johannine school.
Those who argue that the final redaction of the Gospel of John happened simultaneously, or slightly after, the writing of the epistles, date the letters to the very end of the first century.
