Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 John 1-6, The elder to the chosen lady
The elder writes to the chosen lady and her children, whom he loves in the truth. He is glad that some of her children walk in the truth, and he asks for no new command but the old one, that they love one another, which means walking in God's commands.
2 John 1-6, in every translation this tool compares.
The elder writes to a chosen lady and her children, whom he loves because of the truth they share. He is glad that some of her children are living by the truth, and he reminds her of the command they have had from the start, to love one another. Love, he explains, means living by God's commands. Who the elder was, and whether the lady is a woman or a church, are both read in more than one way.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/elders\/","n":"Elders","s":"Older men respected for wisdom led Israel's villages in the Old Testament and still led Jewish communities and synagogues in the first century, usually as a group. The first churches took over the pattern, calling their elders overseers too, with deacons beside them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/following-a-teacher\/","n":"Following a teacher","s":"A disciple walked behind his teacher, lived with him, learned his ways and carried his reputation. Jesus chose his own, which only radical teachers did.","r":""}
Who the elder was is debated. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles and Carson, Moo and Morris take him for the apostle John: "there is nothing anomalous about an apostle designating himself as an elder" (1 Peter 5:1); Wright's commentary calls elder a title some gave the aging apostle. Wright and Bird think John the elder, whom Papias and Eusebius distinguish from the apostle, the more likely author. Readings of the lady vary. The ESV and CSB Study Bibles, Wright and Bird, Carson, Moo and Morris and Wright's commentary take her as a congregation, since "the universal church has no sister" (verse 13); Keener thinks a congregation more likely but, with the cultural backgrounds notes, leaves open a woman, and the Zondervan dictionary notes that Kyria could be a proper name. Wright's commentary guesses that the family language was a cover, with danger at hand, and that both churches might lie within Ephesus, then a city of tens of thousands. Wright and Bird and Carson, Moo and Morris think 2 John may be a covering note for 1 John. Ephesus, late in the first century, is the likeliest setting (the ESV and CSB Study Bibles; Carson, Moo and Morris).
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to 2 John (Authorship, Date; Nature of the Letter), and on 2 John 1-3 and 4-6
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, Introduction to 2 John (Genre), and notes on 2 John 1 and 5
- ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 2 John (Author and Title, Date, Recipients), and study note on 2 John 1
- CSB Study Bible, Introduction to 2 John (Background), and note on 2 John 1
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 33, Origins of the Johannine letters, Genre and purpose, and The Argument of 2 John, section 1
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 21, 1, 2, 3 John, Content and Structure, Author, Provenance, Date, and Destination
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry elect lady
- N. T. Wright, Early Christian Letters for Everyone, comment on 2 John 1-6
