Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 John 1:3

Omit Κυρίου before Ἰησοῦ with [867][868] against [869][870][871]. [872] omits ἔσται μεθ ̓ ἡμῶν.

[867] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.

[868] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[869] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[870] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[871] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[872] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.

3. ἔσται μεθʼ ἡμῶν χ. ἔλ. εἰρ. Yea, there shall be with us grace, mercy, and peace. The preceding μεθʼ ἡμῶν ἔσται has probably produced this very unusual mode of greeting. It is not so much a prayer or a blessing, as the confident assurance of a blessing; and the Apostle includes himself within its scope. This triplet of heavenly gifts occurs, and in the same order, in the salutations to Timothy (both Epistles) and Titus. The more common form is χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη. In Jude 1:2 we have another combination ἔλεος ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη καὶ�. In secular letters we have simply ‘greeting’ (χαίρειν) instead of these Christian blessings. Χάρις is the favour of God towards sinners (see on John 1:14); ἔλεος is the compassion of God for the misery of sinners; εἰρήνη is the result when the guilt and misery of sin are removed. Χάρις is rare in the writings of S. John; elsewhere only John 1:14; John 1:16-17; Revelation 1:4; Revelation 22:21 : ἔλεος occurs here only.

παρὰ … παρὰ … The repetition of the preposition marks the separate Personality of the Father and the Son. The doctrinal fulness of statement is perhaps in anticipation of the errors condemned in 2 John 1:7; 2 John 1:10. For παρά see on John 1:6; John 16:27 : it means ‘from the presence of’ or ‘from the hand of’. In S. Paul’s Epistles we usually have ἀπό (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; &c.); and [930] has ἀπό here.

[930] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.

ἐν�. These two words, so characteristic of S. John (see on 1 John 1:8; 1 John 2:8; 1 John 3:1), are key-notes of this short Epistle, in which ‘truth’ occurs five times, and ‘love’ twice as a substantive and twice as a verb. Ἐντολή is a third such word.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 John 1:3

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