ΤΗΕ First EPISTLE.
Tue first Epistle differs from all the other N.T. Epistles save the Epistle to the Hebrews in this, that it is anonymous. The author, however, claims to have been an eye-witness of the Word of Life (i. 1-3) and speaks throughout in-a tone of apostolic authority, and there is abundance of primitive and credible testimony that he was St. John, ‘‘the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and the last survivor of the Apostle-company.
1. The MSS. Titles.—AB Ἰωάνου (-άννου) a: S “lwdvvou ἐπιστολὴ a: L ἐπιστολὴ καθολικἠ τοῦ ἁγίου ἀποστόλου Ἰωάννου: P Ιωάννου τοῦ εὐαγγελιστοῦ καὶ ἀποσίτόλου ἐπιστολὴ) a. Two later MSS. have inter- esting titles—13 ἐπιστολὴ α Ἰωάννου: εὐαγγελικὴ θεολογία περὶ xu: f βροντῆς vids Ἰωάννης τάδε χριστιανοῖσιν.ὶ
2. Patristic Evidence.—Polycarp. ad Philipp. viii.: was γὰρ ὃς ἂν μὴ ὁμολογῇ ᾿Ιησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν σαρκὶ ἐληλυθέναι, ἀντίχριστός ἐστικ---α mani- fest echo of 1 John iv. 2,5. This proves the early date of our Epistle and the esteem in which it was held, and if it does not attest the Johannine authorship, it at least suggests it. Polycarp had known several of the Apostles and of those who had seen the Lord; he had been a disciple of St. John and had been ordained by him bishop of Smyrna; and he was the leading ecclesiastic in the whole of Asia. Cf. Jer. Script. Eccles.; tren. ΤΠ. iii. 4.
Eusebius (H. E. iii. 39) says that Papias, whom Irenzus had called “a hearer of John and a comrade of Polycarp, an ancient man
1St. Augustine’s discourses on the First Epistle are entitled ‘‘ Ten Treatises on the Epistle of John to the Parthians (In Epistolam ¥oannis ad Parthos Tractatus Decem),” and he elsewhere quotes from the Epistle under this strange title (Quest. Ev. ii. 39). Probably the Epistle was entitled in some MS. Ἰωάννου τοῦ παρθένον, as the Apocalypse is entitled in 30 αποκαλυψ. του aytov ενδοξοτατου αποστολου και εναγγελιστου παρθενου ηγαπηµενου επιστηθιον twavvov θεολογου, and TOY- ΠΑΡΘΕΝΟΥ was mistaken tor ΠΡΟΣΠΑΡΘΟΥΣ. The Latin frag. of Clem. Alex.’s exposition of the Second Epistle begins: ‘* Secunda Joannis epistola que ad virgines Scripta,” where “ Joannis ad virgines’’ probably represents *lwavvov τοῦ παρθένου.