Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 3 John · About this commentary
Peace, and the Friends by Name
3 John 1:13-14
13 I had many things to write to you, but I am unwilling to write to you with ink and pen; · WEB
The letter ends the way the Gospel ends — peace given, and the sheep called by name.
The close is the twin of the second letter's 2 John 1:12: many things to say, no appetite for saying them in writing, the hope of speaking face to face. There the tools were paper and ink; here they are ink and pen — kalamos G2563, the reed cut for writing. A letter can carry truth a long way; what it cannot do is sit in a room, and the elder means to.
Then three farewells, each heavier than it looks. Peace be to you is the greeting the risen Lord gave twice in one evening, behind a shut door John 20:19 John 20:21. Spoken toward an assembly Diotrephes has troubled, it is not a pleasantry but a bequest John 14:27. The friends greet you — friend is the Lord's own name for those he no longer calls servants John 15:15. And: greet the friends by name. The shepherd's idiom ends the letter — he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out John 10:3. Diotrephes casts out of the assembly in bulk; the elder counts heads one by one. Between those two ways with a flock, the letter has said everything it came to say.
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