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| − | The '''Third Epistle of John''' or '''III John''', usually referred to as '''3 John''', is a book of the [[New Testament]], written by [[Apostle John]] to his friend Gaius. It is the shortest book in the Bible, having only 14 verses and totaling only 219 words.<ref>[https://deanebarker.net/other/bible/ word length of each book in the Bible]. ''The Holy Word Church of God''.</ref> This is the only [[New Testament]] book that does not mention "[[Jesus]]" or "[[Christ]]." | + | The '''Third Epistle of John''' or '''III John''', usually referred to as '''3 John''', is a book of the [[New Testament]], written by [[Apostle John]] to his friend Gaius. It is the shortest book in the Bible, having only 14 verses and totaling only 219 words.<ref>[https://deanebarker.net/other/bible/ word length of each book in the Bible]. ''The Holy Word Church of God''.</ref> This is the only [[New Testament]] book that does not mention "[[Jesus]]" or "[[Christ]]", even though the [[Apostle John]] used both terms repeatedly in all his known works. |
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| − | The author identifies himself as John, historically considered to be the [[Apostle John]], who also wrote the [[Gospel of John]] along with [[I John]], [[II John]], and the [[Book of Revelation]]. Liberal theologians disagree, some contending that only that all three Epistles shared authorship by the same individual. | + | This book, 3 John, is also the only work attributed to the [[Apostle John]] which uses the term "[[Gentiles]]" and in an odd way ("accepting nothing from the Gentiles"<ref>[[ESV]]</ref>). In addition, there is no reference to "[[eternal life]]" in this book, which John references repeatedly in the [[Gospel of John]] and [[1 John]]. |
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| | + | This book lashes back at Diotrephes in a style uncharacteristic of John, and with a reference to "our authority" that is also anomalous: |
| | + | {{cquote|Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.<ref>{{bibleref|3John|9-10}} ([[ESV]].}} |
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| | + | The author identifies himself as John, historically considered to be the [[Apostle John]] who also wrote the [[Gospel of John]] along with [[I John]], [[II John]], and the [[Book of Revelation]]. Some theologians disagree, contending that only all three Epistles shared authorship by the same individual, or that only 2 John and 3 John had a common author. |
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| | John wrote this book to: | | John wrote this book to: |