Home

Nazarene Commentary 2000©

21^st Century Paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures© –
21^st Century Version of the Christian Scriptures© [NCMM]

THE FIRST LETTER OF JOHN

INTRODUCTION TO THE FIRST LETTER OF JOHN

This Epistle was written by John, the son of Zebedee, the beloved Disciple, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. The outlines of his history and character have been fully given in the Introduction to the Gospel of John (People’s New Testament, Vol. I.) to which I refer the reader. Prominent in the Savior’s earthly ministry, the active companion of Peter in the founding of the church in Judea, he was soon overshadowed in the Acts of the Apostles by the towering personalities of Peter and Paul. He is only named four times in the Acts, and his name only occurs once in the Epistles of Paul (Gal. 2:9) in a passage which probably names the only occasion when he and Paul ever met face to face. The opinion of the early church was that his residence was in Palestine until the time approached for the overthrow of the Jewish state, and probably until he had been released from the sacred charge of the mother of Jesus by her death; that he then removed to Asia Minor to make his home at Ephesus among the great body of Gentile churches which had been robbed of the care of their founder, the great apostle to the Gentiles, by his martyrdom, and that in Ephesus he wrote the Epistles which are ascribed to him in the New Testament.

Like the Gospel by the same writer, the Epistle does not mention the name of its author, and we are indebted for the knowledge of the authorship to the uniform testimony of the early church, as well as to the similarity of thought and expression of the Gospel and the Epistle. I do not think the hypothesis of those destructive German critics who have such a mania for novelties, that the writer of Ephesus was not the Apostle John, but a Presbyter John of the second century, is worthy of serious consideration. Such a figment is incredible in view of the fact that the second century testifies that John the Apostle long lived at Ephesus, and died there, leaving the legacy of his life and writings to the churches. We have still extant the writings of those who affirm that they had been trained by men of God who had been trained under the direction of the aged apostle during his Ephesian residence. It may be added that this epistle is repeatedly quoted in the writings of the Fathers belonging to the second century, and is named, as well as the other two Epistles of John, in the first Canon of the New Testament writings, the Canon Muratori, which belongs to the last half of the second century.

Its date is only a matter of conjecture. It is evident from the various false doctrines which the writer evidently had in view that it belongs to a later period than any other writings of the New Testament save those of John himself. It was probably written when John remained as the only survivor of the apostolic band, after his gospel, and when certain heresies began to assume form. Why it should appear without either the names of the author or of the churches to which it was addressed is uncertain, but it does demonstrate that it is a genuine Epistle, and no part of a forgery, as some German writers have held. A forged Epistle would be ascribed to an apostolic writer in order to gain its acceptance. The examples afforded by certain forged epistles of the early centuries, the so called Epistle to the Laodiceans for instance, settle this point. The peculiarities of the Epistle, which cannot be discussed in our limited space, will be best seen in the notes on the text. [380] (B. W. Johnson The People’s New Testament, 1891)

Preface

We see an old man as ancient and hard as oak. Though his eyes have dimmed with age his vision has not. He is the apostle beloved of the Nazarene and likely the oldest and most senior Christian in all the world near the end of the First Century. He believes he lives in “the last hour” and with his death then all the “men” of Jesus parable of the wheat and tares will be “sleeping.” (Matthew 13:25) He believes he is the last remnant of that “restraint” holding back a full-scale apostasy from Christianity. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-9) His fisherman’s fingers too gnarled to write, he dictates the last letters of his life. His Greek is poor and stumbling but the copyist is rigid and faithful despite the old elder’s regressions and repetitions. No one has attempted to correct his Greek into a smoother style like that of Paul. What he spoke was surely considered inspired and the words left untouched as they fell upon the ear of the secretary.

First John is bare bones stuff – spiritual abstractions stripped of the fat and reduced to naked truths. John’s Greek is the simplest of all. This is a fisherman who has found his own spiritual voice and risen to exalted heights of communion with the Father and the Son. Though intent on expressing this union he is confronted with the enemy of Colossians 2:8 in the form of the Gnostics and various “buzz-words” are found throughout. This is the last vestige of “restraint” (2 Thessalonians 2:6, 7) making its last stand in the form of a gnarled fisherman approaching his 100th year, weakened by prison, shriveled by austere living, and no doubt crippled by that arthritis which attacks ancient people. John is The Elder – an elder among elders and he writes as a beloved father who seems never to die. (John 21:23) In paraphrase or summary it is difficult to reduce John’s words to a simpler form.

The authenticity of 1 John is confirmed by the Muratorian Fragment (c120-150 AD) as well as early church elders such as Irenaeus, Polycarp (a disciple of John), and Papias. The Church historian Eusebius (c260-342 AD) states that the authenticity of 1 John was never challenged.

Greek scholar William Barclay, comments that John is writing to expose those “whose aim was to make Christianity intellectually respectable… who knew the intellectual tendencies and currents of the day, and who wished to express Christianity in terms of these current philosophical ideas. It came from men who felt that the time had come for Christianity to come to terms with secular philosophy and with contemporary thought.”

There are thoughts that echo those in the Gospel of John. John’s preferred designation for the Almighty is “The God” and second “the Father.” Though he uses the name of the Son, he never suggests the Name of God – YHWH in the Hebrew Bible. Some feel the author John wrote from Ephesus where he served as a Presbyter around the end of the first century.

Jesus promised to send a Spirit-Helper to guide his inspired Apostles into “all the Truth.” [John 16:12, 13] This Spirit-Helper would speak on three themes: sin, righteousness, and judgment. John uses all of these pneumatic words: sin 27 times, righteous(ness) 9 times, and judgment 1 time. Other key words used in First John are: love (38), testify (16), commandments (14), children (14), truth (10), faith (8), darkness (8), light (6), liar (5), walk (5).