Editing First Epistle of John (section)

==Style==
The epistle is not written in the same form as the other biblical epistles, as it lacks an [[Epistle#Opening|epistolary opening]] or conclusion.<ref name="Wilder211">{{cite book|last=Wilder|first=Amos|author-link=Amos Wilder|editor-last=Harmon|editor-first=Nolan|title=The Interpreter's Bible|volume=12|page=211|chapter=Introduction to the First, Second, and Third Epistles of John|publisher=[[Abingdon Press]]|year=1957}}</ref> The epistle is written in a simple style, without syntactical flourishes,<ref name="Wilder211"/> and makes frequent use of [[asyndeton]], where related thoughts are placed next to one another without conjunctions.<ref name="Barbour343">{{cite journal |last=Barbour|first=J. H.|year=1896|title=The Structure of the First Epistle of Saint John|journal=The Biblical World|volume=9|issue=5|pages=341–348|doi=10.1086/472075|jstor=3140289|s2cid=144652601}}</ref> In contrast to the linear style used in the [[Pauline epistles]], biblical scholar [[Ernest DeWitt Burton]] suggests that John's thought "moves in circles", forming a slowly advancing sequence of thought.<ref name="Burton368">{{cite journal |last=Burton|first= Ernest DeWitt|author-link=Ernest DeWitt Burton|year=1896|title=The Epistles of John|journal=The Biblical World|volume=7|issue=5|pages= 366–369|jstor=3140373}}</ref> This is similar to the parallel structure of [[Biblical poetry|Hebrew poetry]], in which the second verse of a couplet often carries the same meaning as the first, although in this epistle the frequent recapitulations of already expressed ideas serve also to add to what has previously been said.<ref>Barbour, p. 342</ref> In summary, the epistle may be said to exhibit a [[Protrepsis and paraenesis|paraenetic]] style which is "marked by personal appeal, contrasts of right and wrong, true and false, and an occasional rhetorical question".<ref name="Wilder211"/>

The text refers to the writer's audience several times as "little children" ({{langx|grc|Τεκνία}}, ''{{Strong-number|teknia|G|5040}}'').<ref>[https://biblehub.com/text/1_john/2-1.htm Greek Text Analysis: 1 John 2:1]. Biblehub.com</ref> This affectionate [[diminutive]] appears seven times in the letter, once as "my little children" (1 John 2:1), and the phrase also appears in [[John 13#Verse 33|John 13:33]].<ref>{{cite book|last= Morris |first= Leon | authorlink= Leon Morris | chapter= 1 John|editor-last=Carson |editor-first=D. A. |title=New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition|editor-link= D. A. Carson| editor-last2= France |editor-first2= R. T. | editor2-link= R. T. France |editor-first3=J. A. |editor-last3= Motyer | editor3-link = J. Alec Motyer| editor-first4= G. J. |editor-last4= Wenham | editor4-link = Gordon Wenham| edition=4, illustrated, reprint, revised| publisher= Inter-Varsity Press | date= 1994| isbn = 9780851106489 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=uveHQgAACAAJ |page = 1401}}</ref> [[Paul the Apostle|Paul]] also uses the phrase "my little children" when addressing the Galatian churches in [[Galatians 4]]:19.<ref>[[Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer|Meyer, H. A. W.]] (1880), [https://biblehub.com/commentaries/meyer/1_john/2.htm Meyer's NT Commentary] on 1 John 2, translated from the German sixth edition, accessed 14 April 2024</ref>

Some scholars have proposed the idea that the epistle is really John's commentary on a selection of traditional parallel couplets. While this theory, first propounded by [[Ernst von Dobschütz]] and [[Rudolf Bultmann]], is not universally accepted, Amos Wilder writes that, "It is at least clear that there are considerable and sometimes continuous elements in the epistle whose style distinguishes them from that of the author both with respect to poetic structure and syntactic usage."<ref name="Wilder 212">Wilder, p. 212</ref>