Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 2 John 1:1 - 1:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
2Jn_1:1. ὁ πρεσβύτερος ] The definite article restricts the general idea πρεσβύτερος to a particular person, to whom this epithet is specially appropriate. That this is most probably the Apostle John, see Introduction, sec. 1. The reflection on his age may have led the apostle to write, not ὁ ἐπίσκοπος , but ὁ πρεσβύτερος .
ἐκλεκτῇ κυρίᾳ καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς ] The interpretation of these words has from the earliest times been very diverse, according as either ἐκλεκτή or κυρία has been regarded as a proper noun, or both words have been considered as appellatives. The first opinion (Lyranus, a Lapide, Lorinus, Cappellus, Grotius, Wetstein, etc.) has been with justice given up by modern commentators; it is clearly enough opposed not only by the mode of its conjunction with κυρία , but also by 2Jn_1:13. The second view, according to which κυρία is the proper noun, is found as early as in Athanasius, and afterwards in Bengel, Carpzovius, Heumann, Krigel (Commentatio de κυρία Johannis, Lips. 1758), Paulus, Lücke, de Wette, Brückner, Guericke, Düsterdieck, Ebrard, Braune, etc. That Κυρία appeared as a feminine proper name is not to be doubted, see Grutteri, Inscriptt. p. 1127, num. xi.; comp. Heumann: Poecile de Cyria Johannis; but if this view be taken, not only is the adjective ἐκλεκτή strange, as it never is assigned to any individual in the N. T. as a single predicate except in Rom_16:13 (where, however, ἐν κυρίῳ is put along with it), but also its connection with the proper noun, instead of Κυρίᾳ τῇ ἐκλεκτῇ , comp. 3Jn_1:1; Php_1:1-2; Romans 16. Lücke, it is true, refers to 1Pe_1:1 : ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήμοις ; but here the case is different, as παρεπιδήμοις is not a proper noun, as even Brückner admits, though he nevertheless falls back on a “familiar carelessness” in this case.[1] The third interpretation is found in Luther (“the elect woman”), Hornejus, Wolf, Rittmeier (Diatriba, de electa domina, Helmst. 1706), Baumgarten-Crusius, Sander, etc. According to Epictetus, chap. 62: αἱ γυναῖκες εὐθὺς ἀπὸ τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα ἐτῶν ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνδρῶν κυρίαι καλοῦνται , women might certainly be called κυρίαι ; but this was plainly only a polite address, corresponding not to the German “Frau” (woman), but to the German “Herrin” (lady). It hardly corresponds with the apostolic dignity of the author, however, to describe the receiver of the Epistle in the superscription by this name of a conventional politeness.[2] But the opinion of Knauer (Stud. u. Krit. 1833, Part 2, p. 452 ff.), that by ἐκλεκτὴ κυρία is to be understood Mary, the mother of Jesus, lacks any tenable foundation (see Lücke on this passage).
Already at an early date κυρία was taken as a symbolic description of the Christian Church; so Jerome (ep. xi. ad Ageruchiam) and the Scholiast I. ( ἐκλεκτὴν κυρίαν λέγει τὴν ἐν τινὶ τόπῳ ἐκκλησίαν ), and later Calovius, Whiston, Michaelis, Augusti, Hofmann (in his Weissagung u. Erfüllung, II. p. 321, and in his Schriftbew. I. p. 226 ff.), Hilgenfeld (1855), Ewald, etc. It is true the word does not elsewhere appear in this signification, but according to its connection with Him who is ὁ κύριος , the Church may certainly be called κυρία in its relationship to the individual members.[3] Both the contents of the Epistle, which is lacking in the slightest individual reference to a single person, and the way in which John speaks to the receivers of the Epistle and passes judgment on them (comp. what follows in this verse; further, 2Jn_1:4-5; 2Jn_1:8; 2Jn_1:10); and, finally, the way in which the sister and her children are mentioned,[4]—are no less opposed to the opinion that the Epistle was written to one particular woman, than they are in favour of the opinion that it was directed to a Christian Church; only κυρία must not be regarded as the name of honour of any one particular Church, according to Serrarius of the Corinthian Church, or according to Augusti of that of Jerusalem; it is rather a name suitable for every Church, by which, therefore, that Church could also be described to which the Epistle is directly addressed.[5]
καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς ] If κυρία is a description of the Church, the τέκνα are her individual members. The representation of the Church as a mother, and of her members as her children, occurs elsewhere also; comp. Gal_4:26.
οὓς ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ ] If we take κυρία as a proper noun, then οὕς indicates that by τέκνοις only sons are to be understood; but why then does not the apostle write: καὶ τοῖς υἱοῖς αὐτῆς ? If the τέκνα are the members of the Church, however, then οὕς is used here exactly as τεκνία μου , οὕς in Gal_4:9; comp. also Mat_28:19 : τὰ ἔθνη … αὐτούς . Suitable though the masculine is to denote all Church-members, it would be just as unsuitable to denote members of one family, if this consisted not merely of sons, but—as Braune here supposes—of daughters also. ἐγώ is used emphatically, inasmuch as the apostle wants to bring out his intimate relationship to the members of the Church.
ἐν ἀληθείᾳ in its connection with ἀγαπῶ is not = ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ , as if the (Christian) truth were thereby indicated as the element in which love has its existence (Bengel, Düsterdieck), but it is used adverbially, not, however, to emphasize the sincerity of the love, but, as the word itself states, the truth of the love (Ebrard: “I love thee with that love which is a love in truth;” similarly Lücke: “it is the real Christian love that is meant,” and Braune).
καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ μόνος , ἀλλὰ πάντες ] All who have known the truth share with the apostle love to the τέκνα of the κυρία . This addition also goes to show that κυρία is not a proper noun; for how could the children of an individual woman be regarded as an object of the love of all believers? Bengel, with whom Düsterdieck agrees, remarks indeed on this: communio sanctorum, but the apostle’s mode of expression presupposes an actual knowledge about one another. Several commentators accordingly have recourse to a weakening of the idea πάντες ,[6] which, however, is arbitrary.
ἀλήθεια is the divine truth, of which the believer becomes a partaker in Christ. The emphasis of ἈΛΉΘΕΙΑ both here and in 2Jn_1:2 is caused by the antithesis to the ΠΛΆΝΟΙ (2Jn_1:7). The bracketing of the words: ΚΑῚ ΟὐΚ … ΤῊΝ ἈΛΉΘΕΙΑΝ , “spoils the clearness of the connection, and is also logically not quite correct, because 2Jn_1:2 refers not only to ἘΓΏ , but also to ΠΆΝΤΕς ” (Lücke).
[1] According to Ewald, it is “foolish to think” that “the apostle is here writing to an individual woman.”
[2] Against the distinction between the expressions “Frau” and “Herrin,” Braune adduces the etymology of the former word (Frau, feminine of fro = Herr); this is quite irrelevant here, however, as it is not the German, but the Greek, expressions, that are in question; it is the distinction between γυνή and κυρία . That “Frau” originally corresponded to the expression κυρία is certain,—the word is even yet frequently used in this sense,—but it docs not therefore follow that the Greek κυρία became so much weakened in usage as the German word “Frau.”
[3] Hofmann recalls the description of the Church in the Apocalypse as the νύμφη and the γυνή . When Ebrard objects to this, that the Church in contrast with the “Lord” is not “the lady,” but the obedient handmaid, it must be remembered that she is here spoken of not in regard to her subordinate relationship to Christ, but in regard to her superior relationship to her individual members.
[4] De Wette also says: “The way in which her sister and her sister’s children are mentioned is favourable to the idea that a single Christian Church is meant.”
[5] That the Epistle is directly addressed to a particular Church is evident from ver. 12; the want of references to individual circumstances may perhaps be explained by the fact that it also had an encyclical design; that the author, however, “had in view the whole of orthodox Christendom” (Hilgenfeld), is just as little appropriate to this Epistle as to the First.—Braune’s considerations are of little importance; the name of the Church might be omitted, because the bearer of the Epistle knew to what Church he had to take it; ἐκλεκτή is by no means unsuitable with κυρία = ἐκκλησία , according to ἡ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι συνεκλεκτή (by which the Church is certainly to be understood); it has not been asserted that the relationship of the mother in Gal_4:26 has been given to a single Church.
[6] Hornejus: omnes fideles, non quidem qui in toto orbe tum temporis erant, sed qui in illis partibus et simul Dominam illam et liberos ejus norant.—Lücke: “ πάντες κ . τ . λ ., i.e. all Christians (perhaps of this place?) who know the Kyria and her children;” Braune agrees with this explanation, but would regard “as included, even those who would later become acquainted with her”—which is clearly unsuitable.