3 John — Editorial Guide

This reading edition follows the Saints-priority English text. Source chapter and verse labels are retained, including textual additions and numbered gaps. Square or double brackets signal textual or translation qualifications retained from the companion edition. This is a V1 working translation awaiting specialist review.

Companion translation and editorial notes: Saints Translation: 3 John [V1 Working Draft]

Textual and Christian reception notes

Every verse of 3 John 1:1–15 was reviewed against the official SBLGNT Greek main text, and the existing English reading is retained. Each entry distinguishes textual observation from verified Christian reception. Wesley and Reynolds are later interpreters; Benedict is a thematic comparison. Commentary numbering is mapped explicitly to the fifteen source verses. No exhaustive reception survey, manuscript/apparatus collation, or independent specialist certification is claimed.

1:1 Text [G]: The sender uses the elder rather than his own personal name. Gaius is named; identifying him with another person of that name is outside the wording. Reception: Wesley [W], note 1, conjectures Corinthian Gaius; the identification remains uncertain.

1:2 Text [G]: The wish is directed to Gaius; euodousthai means to fare well. The verse distinguishes health from the condition of the soul and states no universal promise of wealth. Reception: John Reynolds [R], on 1–2, III.2, distinguishes spiritual flourishing from bodily health and allows that they need not coincide.

1:3 Text [G]: Your truthfulness renders sou tē alētheia, the truth evident in Gaius’s conduct. The following clause explains it through walking in truth; it is not a claim that Gaius possesses an independent private truth. Reception: Wesley [W], note 3, understands truth as faith and love.

1:4 Text [G]: My children continues the relational language of spiritual care. The source specifies hearing, not personal observation of every child. Reception: Wesley [W], note 4, reads children as pastoral affection regardless of who converted them.

1:5 Text [G]: Faithful is the evaluative adjective; strangers emphasizes that the brothers were not previously familiar to Gaius. The sentence continues in 1:6. Reception: Wesley [W], note 5, interprets faithfulness as sincerity.

1:6 Text [G]: Sending onward includes practical provision in the travel context; no sum or material list is specified. Saints: Benedict, Rule 53, opening paragraphs [BEN], instructs the reception of guests as Christ and particular honor to fellow believers and pilgrims. This is a later thematic comparison concerning Christian hospitality, not a claim of direct quotation from 3 John. Reception: Wesley [W], note 6, includes necessary travel provision.

1:7 Text [G]: The Name is retained without inserting Jesus into the sentence. The context supports a Christian mission, but its object remains expressed by the source’s title. Gentiles renders ethnikōn. Reception: Wesley [W], note 7, identifies gospel preaching as the journey’s purpose.

1:8 Text [G]: Hypolambanein here denotes receiving or supporting such travelers. With the truth preserves the dative and its personifying force; serving the truth is another possible English construal. Reception: Wesley [W], note 8, stresses kind reception of the preachers.

1:9 Text [G]: Something follows ti in source G. The source does not identify the earlier writing. Diotrephes’ desire for precedence is explicit; no official title is supplied. Reception: Wesley [W], note 9, describes self-willed control; his proposed pastoral office is conjectural.

1:10 Text [G]: If I come preserves the condition. The three actions are distinct: refusal of welcome, prevention of others, and exclusion from the Church. The object them naturally continues those willing to welcome the brothers. Reception: Wesley [W], note 10, treats the malicious speech as self-excuse.

1:11 Text [G]: The contrast concerns conduct and relationship to God. The translation retains has not seen rather than substituting an interpretive account of intellectual knowledge. Reception: Wesley [W], note 11, contrasts Diotrephes’s conduct with Demetrius’s example.

1:12 Text [G]: Truth itself is personified. You know is singular in source G. Demetrius’ role as a possible letter carrier is not stated in the verse. Reception: Wesley [W], note 12, understands truth itself as confirming the report.

1:13 Text [G]: Kalamos is a reed used for writing. The past I had and present I do not wish are retained. Reception: John Reynolds [R], on 12–14, II.1, jointly treats 13–14 as reserving suitable matters for personal conversation. This is exposition of the pair, not a separate comment on each verse.

1:14 Text [G]: Face to face renders literally mouth to mouth. The hope and the future speaking remain distinct. Reception: See Reynolds’s joint exposition of 13–14 at 1:13 [R], which values direct conversation between Christians. His section numbered 12–14 includes SBLGNT 1:15 as well.

1:15 Text [G]: Source G numbers this final greeting 1:15. Some English numbering systems attach it to 1:14; no words are omitted here. The two greeting directions and by name are preserved. Reception: Wesley [W], displayed note 14, understands individual greetings as though each friend were named.

Sources consulted

[G] Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition (2010), official electronic main text, 3 John 1:1–15. SBLGNT Greek text. All fifteen verses reviewed; electronic apparatus boundary signs are not translated words. No manuscript or critical-apparatus collation.

[W] John Wesley, Notes on the Third Epistle of St John, chapter I, Wesley Center Online, Northwest Nazarene University. Later Methodist exposition; displayed note 14 comments on the farewell numbered 1:15 here.

[R] John Reynolds of Shrewsbury, credited completer of Third John in Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, volume 6. Reynolds, Third John in Matthew Henry’s Commentary. Wikisource English transcription: section 1–2, III.2; section 12–14, II.1. The latter jointly discusses 13–14; its closing greeting belongs to SBLGNT 1:15.

[BEN] Benedict, Rule 53, opening paragraphs, Leonard J. Doyle’s English translation (1948; republished 2001), Order of Saint Benedict archive. Benedict, Rule 53. Rechecked as a thematic hospitality comparison; its explicit scriptural quotation is Matthew 25:35, not 3 John.