1-3 John: Worship by Loving God and One Another to Live Eternally

220 Pages·2015·5.196 MB·English

by  John Paul Heil

1-3 John treats the three letters of John as a unifi ed epistolary package. 1
-
Taking a thorough and scholarly approach, John Paul Heil proposes two 3 1-3 John
important contributions to the study of 1-3 John. First, he presents new
J
comprehensive chiastic structures for each of the three letters of John based
o
on concrete linguistic evidence in the text. These chiastic structures serve
h
as the guide to a better understanding of the intended readership of John’s
n
Worship by Loving God and
epistles, and why they were written. Secondly, he treats these letters from the

point of view of their worship context and themes. Not only were 1-3 John
One Another to Live Eternally
intended to be performed orally as part of liturgical worship, but together

these three letters plead with their audience to engage in a distinctive kind

of ethical worship. The three letters of John are most concerned with giving

their audience the experience of living eternally by the worship that consists

of loving God and one another.

John Paul Heil has made a distinctive contribution in his commentary

on the Johannine Epistles. Based on his recognition that the three J
Epistles belong together in the context of worship in the community o
to which they were sent, he analyzes the Epistles into fi fteen chiastic h
micro-structures which exhort the readers/hearers to a distinctive n
worship of love of God and brother/sister, thus revealing unity in P
literary complexity. John Painter, a
Professor of Theology, St Mark’s National Theological Center, u
Charles Sturt University, Canberra l

H
John Paul Heil opens up rich and compelling insights into these
e
three letters by paying detailed attention to their micro- and macro-
i
structures. His audience-oriented approach leads him to treat seriously l
the worship setting in which these letters were fi rst heard and to show
that they call for a distinctive ethical worship. He argues persuasively
that true worship – involving loving God and loving one another
so as to live eternally – is the main theme of these letters. Highly
recommended. Paul Trebilco,
Professor of New Testament Studies,
University of Otago, Dunedin
John Paul Heil is Professor of New Testament at The Catholic University
of America in Washington, DC. He is the author most recently of The Book
of Revelation: Worship for Life in the Spirit of Prophecy.
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1–3 John
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1–3 John
Worship by Loving God and
One Another to Live Eternally
John Paul Heil
C
James Clarke & Co
James Clarke & Co
P.O. Box 60
Cambridge
CB1 2NT
United Kingdom
www.jamesclarke.co
[email protected]
ISBN: 978 0 227 90497 8
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A record is available from the British Library
First published by James Clarke & Co, 2015
Copyright © John Paul Heil, 2015
Published by arrangement
with Cascade Books
All rights reserved. No part of this edition may be reproduced, stored
electronically or in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without prior written permission from the
Publisher ([email protected]).
Contents
Abbreviations | vii
1 Introduction | 1
2 3 John: The Elder to Gaius | 31
3 2 John: The Elder to an Elect Lady | 45
4 1 John 1:1–10: He Will Cleanse Us from
All Unrighteousness | 57
5 1 John 2:1–14: If We Keep His Commandments the Love
of God Has Been Perfected | 71
6 1 John 2:15–17: Do Not Love the Things in the World | 89
7 1 John 2:18–27: The One Confessing the Son Also
Has the Father | 93
8 1 John 2:28–3:6: You Know Whoever Does Righteousness Has
Been Begotten from Him | 105
9 1 John 3:7–12: We Should Love One Another | 114
10 1 John 3:13–17: We Ought To Lay Down Our Lives for
the Brothers | 123
11 1 John 3:18–24: Believe in the Name of His Son Jesus Christ and
Love One Another | 130
12 1 John 4:1–6: In This You Know the Spirit of God | 139
13 1 John 4:7–12: God Has Sent His Son so that We Might
Live through Him | 149
14 1 John 4:13—5:2: Just as That One Is so We Are in
This World | 157
v
vi contents
15 1 John 5:3–12: This Is the Love of God that We Keep
His Commandments | 172
16 1 John 5:13–21: All Unrighteousness Is Sin | 186
17 Summary and Conclusion | 200
Bibliography | 207
Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
AUSS Andrews University Seminary Studies
BDAG Danker, Frederick W., Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt, and
F. Wilbur Gingrich. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testa-
ment and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago:
Univeristy of Chicago Press, 2000
BDF Blass, Friedrich, Albert Debrunner, and Robert W. Funk.
A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early
Christian Literature. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press,
1961
BECNT Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
Bib Biblica
BIS Biblical Interpretation Series
BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentaries
BSac Bibliotheca Sacra
BT Bible Translator
CBET Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CBQMS Catholic Biblical Quarterly Monograph Series
EDNT Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament
EvQ Evangelical Quarterly
vii
viii abbreviations
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament
JSNTSup Journal for the Study of the New Testament:
Supplement Series
LNTS Library of New Testament Studies
NAC New American Commentary
Neot Neotestamentica
NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament
NovT Novum Testamentum
NTL New Testament Library
NTS New Testament Studies
RevScRel Revue des Sciences Religieuses
SBLECL Society of Biblical Literature Early Christianity
and Its Literature
SNTSMS Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series
SP Sacra Pagina
THKNT Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament
WBC Word Biblical Commentary
ZECNT Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament
ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die
Kunde der älteren Kirche
1
Introduction
Following the plausible views of a few others, I will treat the three
letters of John as a unified epistolary package.1 Accordingly, I will con-
sider 3 John as a letter recommending Demetrius as well as Gaius to the
audience of 1–3 John, a sister church to the church of the implied author,
“the elder” (3 John 1:1; 2 John 1:1, 13). As an introductory cover letter for
1 John, 2 John places 1 John in an epistolary context. Originally written
to be orally performed as a hortatory sermon for the church led by the el-
der at Ephesus, 1 John, together with 2 and 3 John, was possibly delivered
by Demetrius to an outlying sister church.2 Although the order in which
they were authored was most likely 1–2–3 John, the order in which they
were to be listened to by the sister church in the context of a communal
worship service was most likely 3–2–1 John.3 The close affinities between
1. “The three letters were probably sent at the same time to the same destination,
for it would be difficult to account for the preservation of letters as unassuming as
2 and 3 John were they not the companions of a more significant writing. . . . The
Johannine letters thus make most sense when viewed as parts of the same epistolary
package” (Johnson, Writings, 497–98). See also Yarbrough, 1–3 John, 329; Schuchard,
1–3 John, 19–35; Jobes, 1, 2, & 3 John, 28–29.
2. Trebilco, Early Christians, 263–70.
3. On the characteristics of 1 John, Edwards (Johannine Epistles, 45) notes: “The
memorable, rhythmic, antithetical style and frequent repetitions suggest the inclusion
of material designed for oral delivery and perhaps memorization.” On 1 John as a ser-
mon to be read during a worship service, see Hengel, Johannine Question, 48. For a re-
cent discussion of the oral dimension of biblical texts, see Horsley, Text and Tradition.
1