2 John 1:12 - Exposition

Having many things to write. This remark is almost conclusive against the supposition that the Second Epistle was sent as a companion-letter to the First. The hypothesis has little or nothing to support it. I would not (do so) by means of paper and ink. It is astonishing that any one should suppose that intercourse on paper is here opposed to spiritual intercourse: obviously it is opposed to conversation. The elder just writes what is of urgent importance to prevent fatal mistakes during the present time, and leaves everything else until he can talk matters over with her. ξάρις is mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament, but is found in the Septuagint ( Jeremiah 36:23 ); it probably means "papyrus." ΄έλαν occurs in the parallel passage 3 John 1:13 , and in 2 Corinthians 3:3 ; it was commonly made of lampblack or other soot, and hence the name. But I hope to come unto you; literally, I hope to come to be γένεσθαι at your house. πρὸς ὑμᾶς is here very much the same as the French chez vous. So also πρὸς ἡμᾶς , Matthew 13:56 . "Face to face" στόμα πρὸς στόμα is exactly the French bouche a bouche. The phrase occurs only here and 3 John 1:14 in the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 13:12 we have πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον ; but there the emphatic thing is that the two should see one another. Here the special point is that they should converse with one another; and this is more clearly expressed by "month to mouth" than by "face to face." For the phrase, "that your joy may be fulfilled," see note on 1 John 1:4 , to which passage the apostle may here be consciously referring. That was ever one main purpose of his teaching—the perfecting of Christian joy.