2 John 1

Stephen, are you familiar with Raymond Brown's 1978 book, The Community of the Beloved Disciple? It's speculative, to be sure, but he argues that the Johannine community developed separately from the apostolic church but merged with it toward the end of the first century, at which point the Johannine community suffered a schism in which a "Gnostic-like" majority group walked out "into the world". Brown's proposition is that the Johannine epistles are intended to point the right understanding of the Johannine gospel and to warn against the schismatic group, the second and third letters focusing more on those in the schismatic group. That, at least, is my recollection of it, but something like that must be involved in these letters. Statistics: Posted by cwconrad — January 10th, 2014, 10:47 am

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Thanks for your comments. So it looks like our author is being argumentative right from the get-go? Statistics: Posted by Stephen Carlson — January 9th, 2014, 6:44 pm

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Stephen Hughes wrote: Isn't it just setting up for the contrast that follows?

2 John 1 wrote:οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐγνωκότες τὴν ἀλήθειαν

Assuming (shouldn't I assume it?) that the ἐκλεκτὴ κύρια is ἡ ἐκκλησία and that her children are the believers, I would suppose that an antitheseis is being prepared between those "who know the truth" and those πλάνοι of vs. 7 who have left the church and gone out into the world. This is the same contrast that is frequently highlighted in 1 John between those who continue to love their brothers and those who have left the community and who are "liars who hate their brothers." Statistics: Posted by cwconrad — January 8th, 2014, 9:54 am

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Isn't it just setting up for the contrast that follows?

2 John 1 wrote: οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐγνωκότες τὴν ἀλήθειαν

Statistics: Posted by Stephen Hughes — January 8th, 2014, 7:49 am

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What is the function of ἐγώ in 2 John 1?

2 John 1 wrote: Ὁ πρεσβύτερος ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς, οὓς ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος ἀλλὰ καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐγνωκότες τὴν ἀλήθειαν,

Is there some implied contrast with someone who does not love the elect lady and her children in truth? Statistics: Posted by Stephen Carlson — January 8th, 2014, 5:36 am

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