Editing Third Epistle of John (section)

==Authorship==
{{Main|Authorship of the Johannine works}}

3 John was almost certainly written by the same author who wrote [[2 John]], and likely [[1 John]] as well.<ref name="Brookelxxiii">Brooke, lxxiii, lxxv</ref> This individual may have been John the Evangelist himself or someone else, perhaps [[John the Presbyter]], though according to scholar [[C. H. Dodd]], "If we attempt to&nbsp;... identify the anonymous author of these epistles with some known individual, we have little but surmise to go on."<ref>Dodd, lxix.</ref>

There are many similarities between 2 and 3 John.  Both follow the format of other personal letters of the era; in both the author self-identifies as "the Presbyter",<ref>Painter, 52</ref> a term which literally means "the elder";<ref name="Dodd155">Dodd, 155</ref> and both deal with themes of hospitality and conflict within the church.<ref>Painter, 56</ref> They are also extremely similar in length, probably because they were both written to fit on one papyrus sheet.<ref name="Brookelxxiii"/>

3 John is also linguistically similar to both 2 John and other Johannine works.  Of 99 different words used, 21 are unimportant words like "and" or "the", leaving 78 significant words.  23 of these do not appear in 1 John or the Gospel of John, of which four are unique to 3 John, one is common to 2 and 3 John, and two are found in both 2 and 3 John as well as in other New Testament writings.  Approximately 30% of the significant words in 3 John do not appear in 1 John or the Gospel, compared to 20% for 2 John.<ref>Dodd, lxii</ref>  These considerations indicate a close affinity between 2 and 3 John, though 2 John is more strongly connected with 1 John than it is with 3 John.<ref name="Painter361"/><ref>Dodd, lxvi</ref>  A minority of scholars, however, argue against common authorship of 2 and 3 John, and [[Rudolf Bultmann]] held that 2 John was a forgery based on 3 John.<ref>Brown, 15–16</ref>

If 3 John was written by John the Apostle, however, it is strange that [[Diotrephes]] would oppose him since the apostles were highly respected in the early church.<ref>Schnackenburg, 270</ref> One possible alternative view of the epistle's authorship arises from a fragment written by [[Papias of Hierapolis]] and quoted by Eusebius which mentions a man named "the Presbyter John". However, since nothing else is known of this individual it is not possible to positively identify him as the author of 3 John.<ref>Schnackenburg, 268–269</ref>

===Date and location of writing===
All three letters of John were likely written within a few years of each other, and internal evidence indicates that they were written after the Gospel of John, placing them in the second half of the first century.<ref>Brown, 100–101</ref> This dating makes sense given their allusions and opposition to [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] and [[docetism|docetic]] teaching, which denied the full humanity of Jesus, and which was gaining ascendancy at the end of the first century.<ref name="Brown 101">Brown, 101</ref>

Dodd argues for a date between 96 and 110 A.D., concluding from the absence of references to persecution in the letters that they were probably written after the harsh reign (AD 81–96) of the Roman emperor [[Domitian]], whose persecution of Christians seems to have prompted the writing of the [[Book of Revelation]].  Dodd notes, however, that they could have been written in the pre-Domitian era, which is likely if the author was a personal disciple of Jesus.<ref>Dodd, xxviii–lxix, lxx–lxxi</ref> Marshall suggests a date of between the 60s and 90s.<ref name="IHM48">Marshall, 48</ref> Rensberger suggests a dating of around 100, assuming that the Gospel of John was written in the 90s and the letters must have followed after.<ref name="Rensberger30"/> Brown argues for a date of between 100 and 110, with all three letters composed in close time proximity.<ref name="Brown 101"/> A date past 110–115 is unlikely, as parts of 1 John and 2 John are quoted by Polycarp and Papias.<ref>Rensberger, 29–30; Brooke, lviii</ref>

The letters do not indicate the location of authorship, but since the earliest quotations of them (in the writings of Polycarp, Papias, and Irenaeus) come from the province of [[Asia Minor]], it is likely that the epistles were also written in Asia.<ref name="Doddlxvii">Dodd, lxvii</ref>  Church tradition typically places them in the city of [[Ephesus]].<ref name="Rensberger30">Rensberger, 30</ref>

===Manuscripts===
3 John is preserved in many of the old manuscripts of the New Testament. Of the Greek [[great uncial codices]], codices [[Codex Sinaiticus|Sinaiticus]], [[Codex Alexandrinus|Alexandrinus]], and [[Codex Vaticanus|Vaticanus]] contain all three Johannine epistles, while [[Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus]] contains 3 John 3–15 along with 1 John 1:1–4. [[Codex Bezae]], while missing most of the Catholic epistles, contains 3 John 11–15 in Latin translation. In languages other than Greek, the [[Vulgate]] and the [[Coptic versions of the Bible|Sahidic]], [[Bible translations into Armenian|Armenian]], [[Philoxenian version|Philoxenian Syriac]], and Ethiopian versions contain all three epistles.<ref>Plummer, 63–64</ref> Between the different copies there are no major difficulties or differences, meaning that there is very little doubt over determining the original text.<ref>Brooke, lxiv</ref>