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INTRODUCTION TO

THE THIRD LETTER OF SAINT JOHN

Author The Third Letter of John is nearly identical in style, structure, and length to 2 John, and both have close affinities with 1 John. Interrelations of this type among the Johannine epistles support the common authorship of all three letters, which tradition generally attributes to John the Apostle, son of Zebedee and one of the Twelve (Mk 3:17). Indeed, it would be hard to account for the inclusion of such a short and incidental letter as 3 John in the canon of Scripture unless the epistle had a strong claim to apostolic authenticity in the ancient Church. Even on internal grounds, the Apostle John emerges as the most likely of any proposed candidate for authorship.

Date The same factors that suggest a single author wrote 1, 2, and 3 John also suggest the letters were written about the same time, probably around A.D. 100. A number of scholars contend that 3 John was actually the first of the three Johannine letters to be written, but this has not been determined with certainty. See introduction to 2 John: Author and Date.

Purpose Third John was written for several reasons: (1) to encourage the addressee, "Gaius" (1), in his efforts to show hospitality toward traveling preachers in need of temporary food and lodging (5-8); (2) to expose a certain "Diotrephes", whose heavy-handed leadership over a local Church was not to be endorsed or imitated (9-11); and (3) to recommend to Gaius a faithful brother named "Demetrius", who probably delivered this letter by hand (12).