- Chapters
- 1
- Verses
- 0
- Where it sits
- The Catholic Epistles
What it is
A real letter, and one of the two shortest books in the Bible. It is from the elder to the elect lady and her children — read by the Orthodox tradition and much patristic commentary as a church and its members rather than a household.
The subject is the same controversy as 1 John, and the instruction is practical: do not take travelling teachers who deny that Christ has come in the flesh into your house, because to welcome them is to share in the work.
Known for
Verse 7. Verses 10–11, which have been argued about ever since by Christians trying to work out where hospitality ends.
Where it sits
The author calls himself the elder, not the apostle, which is the crux. Tradition since Irenaeus takes him for John the apostle; the question is open. It was among Eusebius’s disputed books — partly, no doubt, because a short local letter simply circulated less.
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