Editing Third Epistle of John (section)

===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>