Introduction
1. Authorship. The majority of the Epistles of the New Testament are catholic, that is, they are addressed not to individuals but to Churches of this and that locality. There are references to letters of this kind which are now lost. Thus St. Paul says, 'I wrote unto you in an epistle not to keep company with fornicators' (1 Corinthians 5:9). And he directs the Colossian Church to exchange Epistles with the Church at Laodicea (Colossians 4:16); this being the only mention we have of a Laodicean Epistle. But there are several private letters in the New Testament, each bearing the vivid stamp of an occasion. And these must have constituted but a small part of the correspondence of the early Christian writers. St. Paul speaks of 'epistles of commendation' (2 Corinthians 3:1), personal letters of introduction, as passing frequently among the Churches. Undoubtedly, then, many private letters by the authors of the New Testament have been lost.
This adds special interest to the Second and Third Epistles of St. John; for here we have two letters of unquestionably early date, revealing each a section of the Christian community in the colours of life. They are almost universally allowed to be by the same hand; by the hand, most commentators add, of John the Apostle. The direct external evidence for their authenticity is not extensive. This may be perhaps on account of their brevity and their private character, which would render them not likely to be mentioned frequently by the Fathers. Yet there are several references to them in the first four centuries. It is said in the Muratorian Canon (170 a.d.) that John wrote at least two Epistles. Irenæus (180 a.d.) twice ascribes the Second Epistle to St. John. The Old Italic Version (180 a.d.) has both Epistles. Clement of Alexandria (190 a.d.) refers to the First Epistle as 'the larger Epistle,' implying that he knows another which is shorter; and again he speaks of a Second Epistle of John, addressed 'to a Babylonian lady by name Electa.' Both Epistles, the Second and Third, are mentioned by Origen (230 a.d.), and by Dionysius of Alexandria (245 a.d.). Eusebius (325 a.d.) in speaking of them places them among the books whose right to a position in the Canon is disputed. The Second Epistle is referred to by Cyprian (248 a.d.); and both are acknowledged by the Councils of Laodicea (363 a.d.), of Hippo (393 a.d.), and the Third Council of Carthage (397 a.d.).
The internal evidence is stronger. According to the contents, the author is a person of apostolic, or at least authoritative, position. There is no ground for doubting that such was the case, for there is no motive conceivable for forgery. Moreover, if the attempt had been made to pass off the work of an obscure author for that of a prominent one, a more definite and authority-giving title than that which heads both Epistles—the Presbyter'—would have been assigned the writer. Their style, form, and contents are so alike that their unity of authorship can hardly be questioned. In each case the opening address (cp. 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1), the writer's joy in the conduct of his friends (cp. 2 John 1:4; 3 John 1:4), and the conclusion (cp. 2 John 1:12; 3 John 1:13), is the same. Similarity in the words, ideas, style, character, binds them also to the First Epistle. 'Love' and 'truth' glow as fundamental conceptions in all three. (Among instances of similar treatment of the same themes, are the following: cp. 2 John 1:4; 2 John 1:6; 2 John 1:6; 2 John 1:11 cp. 2 John 1:5; 1 John 2:7 cp. 2 John 1:6; 1 John 5:8 cp. 2 John 1:7; 1 John 2:22 cp. 2 John 1:7; 1 John 4:1 cp. 2 John 1:9; 1 John 2:23 cp. 2 John 1:12; 1 John 1:4 cp. 3 John 1:11; 1 John 3:10. of the thirteen vv. of the Second Epistle eight are thus found in essentially the same form in the First.) In all of them the centre of Christianity is the recognition of Jesus as the Christ and the authoritative revealer of God, and walking in love and truth as the soul's mode of union with Him. The prominence given to Christ leads to warnings against 'antichrist,' an expression found in the New Testament in the First and Second Epistles of John only (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 1 John 2 Jn V. 7). The First Epistle utters three clear and weighty warnings against the dangers of the time—the danger of denying the true Christ, of failing in love to the brethren, and of not observing Christ's commandments. These same three warnings constitute the body of thought of the Second Epistle (2 John 1:7; 2 John 1:9; 2 John 1:5). The connexion between the First Epistle and the Second and Third is so close that the arguments for the Johannine authorship of the last two are in the main the same as for the First, and may be found at length in commentaries on that Epistle. Whether this connexion involves unity of authorship “with the Fourth Gospel and the Revelation, is a question too large to be entered upon here.
It has been held that the title which the author of the Second and Third Epistles gives himself—'the Presbyter' or 'Elder'—excludes Johannine authorship. For this, it is maintained, is the of official designation of the minister of a particular Church, and therefore cannot have been assumed by one having the apostolic position of St. John. This opinion is supported by a passage in Eusebius, in which Papias is quoted as mentioning a John the Presbyter. 'If I met with any one who had been a follower of the Presbyters, I made it a point to enquire what were the declarations of the Presbyters; what was said by Andrew or by Peter or by Philip or by Thomas or by James or by John or by Matthew or any of the Lord's disciples; and what Aristion and the Presbyter John, the disciples of the Lord, say.' Of this statement of Papias, Eusebius says: 'It is proper to observe that the name of John occurs twice. The one John he mentions with Peter and James and Matthew and the other Apostles. But in a separate part of his discourse he ranks the other John with the rest not included in the number of the Apostles, placing Aristion before him. He distinguishes him plainly by the name of Presbyter.' Eusebius therefore infers that there were two Johns—John the Apostle and John the Presbyter. Cp. Euseb. 'Hist. Eccles.,' VII, 25. But apart from the fact that it is somewhat uncertain whether Papias in this passage refers to a different person from John the Apostle, this is the only place in Christian history down to the time of Eusebius in which such a person as John the Presbyter is mentioned. Moreover, it is an assumption that 'the Presbyter' must necessarily be the technical and official title of the minister of a special Church; for in the very passage quoted, Papias calls seven of the Apostles Presbyters. It is more probable, therefore, that 'Presbyter,' at the beginning of the Second and Third Epistles of John, is not an official title, but a descriptive appellation, as it is translated in both AV and RV—' the Elder.' The term therefore claims for the author a position of dignity and authority in the Christian community; not necessarily implying apostleship, but not excluding it.