The book of 2 John, explained simply

Who wrote it

The writer never gives his name. He calls himself only "the elder," which means an older, respected leader. Church tradition has long said this was John, one of Jesus' twelve followers. Many modern scholars are less sure. Some think it was a different leader known as John the Elder, mentioned by an early Christian writer, or another teacher from the same circle of churches. Because the style and ideas are very close to 1 John and 3 John, most agree the three letters come from the same person or group.

When

Probably late in the first century, roughly AD 90 to 110, though no one knows exactly. Tradition links the writer to the city of Ephesus in what is now western Turkey. At that time small groups of Jesus followers met in private homes, and traveling teachers moved from group to group, depending on these households for food and a place to stay.

Who it was written to

"The chosen lady and her children." Most scholars think this is a warm, coded way of describing a local church and its members, especially since the letter ends with greetings from "the children of your chosen sister," which sounds like another church. Some readers take it as a real woman and her family. The text itself does not settle the question.

Why it was written

The churches connected to this writer seem to have gone through a painful split, as 1 John also suggests. Some teachers were saying that Jesus Christ had not truly come "in the flesh," meaning as a real human being with a real body. The elder writes to remind his readers of the simple command to love one another and to warn them not to give these teachers a welcome and a platform. The letter offers a small, personal window into how the earliest Christians tried to hold love and truth together when they disagreed about who Jesus was.

Big themes

Love shown by how people live · Holding on to the truth about Jesus · Jesus as fully and truly human · Care about whom a community welcomes

How it is laid out

Greeting in truth and love (1:1-3)

Keep loving one another (1:4-6)

Warning about deceiving teachers (1:7-11)

Hope to visit and closing greetings (1:12-13)

A tip for reading it

Read it in one sitting, ideally alongside 1 John, which explains many of the same ideas at greater length. The instruction in verses 10 and 11 not to take certain teachers into your house or even greet them can sound harsh. Many scholars read it as being about house churches giving traveling teachers official hospitality and support, not about refusing everyday kindness to people, but that is an interpretation, and readers have understood it in different ways.