πρεσβύτερος because the latter had so styled himself in each of the Epistles.!
' The Second Epistle is addressed ἐκλεκτῇ kupia καὶ τοῖς τέκνοις αὐτῆς, and the meaning of the address is a disputed question.? It was supposed by St. Jerome,® and the idea is approved by many moderns, that “ {πε elect lady’’ 4 is a figurative appellation, signifying either the whole Church (Hilgenfeld, Mangold) or a particular community (Hofmann, Ewald, Huther, Wieseler). The main argu- ments are that the universal affection spoken of in verse 1 could hardly have been felt for an individual, and that it is “not impro- bable”’ that this is the Epistle referred to in 3 John 9. The meta- phor is indeed paralleled by Eph. v. 22-33 and Rev. xxi. 9; but it is the Church which is thus designated, not a particular community, and, on the ecclesiastical interpretation, it is a particular community that is here addressed, since St. John sends greetings to the “elect lady” from “the children of her elect sister’ (verse 13), 7.e., pre- sumably, his own congregation. And, moreover, the simplicity of the little letter precludes the possibility of so elaborate an allegory, while the tenderness of its tone stamps it as a personal communication.
It is therefore not a church but a lady that is addressed, and there are authority and reason for regarding Κυρία as her name.‘ The name was common in those days, and it occurs, ε.ρ., in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 498: ᾿Αντωνίᾳ ᾿Ασκληπιάδι τῇ καὶ Κυρία. 914: Αὐρήλιος ᾽Απϕοῦτος vids ᾿Αρεοῦτος μητρὸς Κυρίας. It is the Greek form of Martha, which means “mistress (domina)”. The objection has been urged that, if it be a proper name, St. John must have written not ἐκλεκτῇ Κυρίᾳ but Kupia τῇ ἐκλεκτῇ on the analogy of Γαϊῷ τῷ ἀγαπητῷ in 3 John 1; but either construction is permissible. The former is paralleled by 1 Peter i. 1: ἐκλεκτοῖς παρεπιδήµοις, and if
* On the identity of John the Presbyter and John the Apostle see Barth, Haupt- probl., S. 26-29; Farrar, Early Days, Exc. xiv.
* Cf. scholium quoted by Euth. Zig.: ἢ πρὸς ἐκκλησίαν γράφει ἢ πρός τινα γυναῖκα διὰ τῶν εὐαγγελικῶν ἐντολῶν τὴν ἑαυτῆς οἰκίαν οἰκονομοῦσαν πνεν- ματικῶς.
3 Ep. ad Ageruchiam.
+ The words, however, can hardly mean more than “an elect lady”.
5 Schmiedel in Encyci. Bibl., vol. ii., col. 2560. Cf. Β. Weiss, Exnleit.
® Others take ᾿Εκλεκτῇ as the name (“the lady Electa”). Clem. Αἶεχ.: “ad quandam Babyloniam (probably a confused reference, for which the translator is responsible, to 1 Peter v. 13) Electam nomine”. Clement apparently took Electa as the Church personified, for he proceeds: “ significat electionem ecclesiz sanctz ”’. But then ᾿Ἐκλεκτῆς in verse 13 must also be a proper name, and two sisters can hardly have borne the same name.
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