there be any irregularity, it is in the latter, where τῷ ἀγαπητῷ is a defining after-thought (cf. 1 John 1. 2: τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον, “the life, the eternal life’). Carpzov would identify Kyria (Martha) with the sister of Lazarus and Mary. The family of Bethany disappear from the Gospel-story after the feast in Levi’s house at the beginning of the Passion-week. They probably fled to escape the fury of the rulers, and it is just possible that they had found a home in Asia Minor like so many other refugees from Palestine! And now Martha is living in one of the cities of St. John’s diocese, a widow with a grown-up family; and it is natural that she should be dear to the Apostle and honoured by the whole Church. This is a pleasant fancy, but it is nothing more.
The facts are sufficiently interesting. The epistle is addressed to a devout lady named Kyria, who resided in one of the cities near Ephesus with a grown-up family. It is remarkable how large a part was played by women in the life of the primitive Church, especially in Asia Minor,? and Kyria was an honourable and influential person- age not only in her own community but all over that wide area (verse 1). It is probable that, like that of Nympha at Colossz,’ her house was the meeting-place of the Church, according to the custom of those days when there were no ecclesiastical edifices; and it appears from verse 10 that she afforded hospitality to the itinerant evangelists of whom the Third Epistle speaks. A sister of Kyria, presumably deceased, had a family resident at Ephesus and con- nected with St. John’s congregation; and several of Kyria’s sons had visited their cousins. The Apostle had met with them and found them earnest Christians, and in the gladness of his heart he wrote to their mother, testifying his gratification, giving some kindly counsel very needful in those days of intellectual unrest, and expressing the hope that he might ere long visit her.
The Third Epistle is addressed to “Gaius the beloved”. Gaius (never Caius) was one of the commonest of names, and there are three who bear it in the N.T. (1) Gaius of Macedonia (Acts xix. 29), (2) Gaius of Derbe (Acts xx. 4), and (3) Gaius of Corinth (Rom. xvi. 23; 2 Cor. i. 14). The name being so common, our Gaius may very well have been different from all these, but it is affirmed in the interesting Synopsis Sacre Scripture ascribed to St. Athanasius that St. John composed his Gospel during his exile in Patmos and that Gaius of Corinth acted as his amanuensis and
1See p. 154. 2 Cf. Ramsay, The Church in the Rom. Emp., p. 67. * Col. iv. 15: Νύμφαν καὶ τὴν kat’ αὐτῆς ἐκκλησίαν (WH Nest).