I looked through about a dozen commentaries on 2 John and most don’t go much into the date and original recipients.
This seems to be the situation in most commentaries. What I also notice, that even with a clear recipient and date, most of that information does not come into the interpretation of text.
This should not be the situation if following a historical, grammatical, literal hermeneutic. One should ask, “What did this mean to the original audience.?” and then we apply this original meaning across time and culture to ourselves.
So I’m suggesting a late 60’s date, before the fall of Jerusalem. Here are some of the significant dates:
July 66 Battle of Beth Heron and start of great revolt of Israel from Rome.
Fall 66 Paul and Peter arrested. Paul writes 2 Timothy from jail in Fall. In Fall and Spring 67, Peter writes his two epistles.
The church is going through a leadership transition. There are a lot of churches with a lot of Christians and they need leadership. The Apostles are doing less, Second generation pastors like Timothy and Titus are doing less, and more and more new leaders are being appointed.
June 67 Nero kills Paul and Peter.
June 68 Nero kills himself by sticking a knife through his throat.
69, year of four emperors ending with Vespasian, father of Titus.
From 66-mid 68 Rome conquering most of Israel except Jerusalem.
From mid 68-69 Roman army sitting outside of Jerusalem waiting for a new emperor. Titus hooks up with Bernice, sister of Agrippa II.
July 69, Vespasian becomes emperor.
On August 10, 70 AD Jerusalem was conquered and the temple burnt.
Mark, John, and Hebrews written in late 68, early 69.
1-3 John written between 67-68 to encourage Churches.
So, the audience of 2 John was a Church that John knew well, that he had visited, and knew individuals fellowshipping there. This Church was having leadership problems and John was helping the Church weed out the bad and promote the good.
The apostles are moving off the scene, and the leaders need to step up to the plate. 2 John encourages some theological tests and warns that those who don’t focus on Jesus will harm their faith.
So not only is there turmoil in different parts of the Roman empire, the Church needed diligent oversight to keep it healthy.
In this context, the members are doing well (see time and aspect of 2 John 1-4) but they needed to press on to the FULL reward and not get caught up in WICKED deeds (See blog on 2 John 8 word order).#GreekBible#KoineGreek#BibleHistory#2John#New Testament Greek
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