The Second Epistle of St John (2 John)

The Second Epistle of St John is one chapter of thirteen verses, read in a few minutes. It stands between the long First Epistle of St John and its twin, the Third Epistle of St John, and says in small compass what St John says everywhere: the commandment is that we love one another, and there is no true love outside the truth about Jesus Christ. The chapter page of 2 John sets the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims, verse by verse.

The author: St John, "the ancient"

The Church has always received the letter as the work of St John the Apostle and Evangelist, son of Zebedee, the disciple "whom Jesus loved". He gives not his name but a title: "The ancient" (Senior in the Vulgate, ho presbyteros, "the elder", in the Greek). Challoner explains: "That is, the ancient bishop St. John, being the only one of the twelve apostles then living."

Internal witness. The letter speaks in the voice of the Gospel of St John and of 1 John. "Not as writing a new commandment to thee, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another" (verse 5) echoes 1 John 2:7 and the Lord's words at the Last Supper, "A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another" (John 13:34). The seducers "who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh" (verse 7) are those unmasked in 1 John 4:2–3. The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes that "the style and manner of the second letter are very like to those of the first."

Patristic witness. St Polycarp, St John's own disciple, writes to the Philippians (VII, 1) that whoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist; the Catholic Encyclopedia judges that he "cites rather II John, 7, than I John, 4." St Irenaeus quotes verses 10–11 as the words of "John, the disciple of the Lord" (Against Heresies I, 16, 3), and verses 7–8 from "his Epistle" (III, 16, 8). The Muratorian Canon knows two epistles of John, St Clement of Alexandria commented on this one, and Origen knew the two shorter letters, which "both together do not contain a hundred lines".

The "presbyter John". Eusebius placed "the second and third of John" among the disputed writings, "whether they belong to the evangelist or to another person of the same name" (Church History III, 25), and St Jerome reports that some ascribed them to a "John the presbyter" whose tomb was shown at Ephesus (On Illustrious Men, 9).

Yet Jerome, as the Catholic Encyclopedia's article on the Canon observes, "unhesitatingly received them as Sacred Scriptures", and its article on the Epistles holds that this second John rests on a misreading of Papias and "never existed". The Pontifical Biblical Commission gave no special response on the Epistles; its decree of 29 May 1907 upheld the apostolic authorship of the Fourth Gospel, to which they are closely bound. Many modern scholars attribute the letters to an elder distinct from the Apostle; the Church's tradition reads them as St John's.

Date and occasion

The letter gives no date. Tradition places the three Epistles of St John late in his long life, in the last years of the first century, at or near Ephesus, where he died about A.D. 100. Of the First Epistle, which the two small letters closely follow, the Catholic Encyclopedia judges: "Nothing certain can be determined in this matter. The arguments are probable in favour of Ephesus and also for the last few years of the first century."

False teachers had arisen in Asia, Cerinthus among them, who divided Jesus from the Christ or held that the Son of God only seemed to take flesh. St Irenaeus tells how St John, seeing Cerinthus in the baths at Ephesus, "rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within" (Against Heresies III, 3, 4). The thirteen verses of 2 John, says the Encyclopedia, "are directed against the same Docetic errors and germs of Gnosticism" which the Apostle opposes in his Gospel and First Epistle.

The elect lady

The letter opens: "The ancient to the lady Elect, and her children, whom I love in the truth" (Senior Electae dominae, et natis ejus, 2 John 1:1). The Greek eklektē kyria can be read "the elect lady", "the lady Electa" or "the elect Kyria", or as a title for a church. Catholic interpreters hold two views.

A Christian woman and her family. Challoner writes: "Some conjecture that Elect might be the name of a family, or of a particular church; but the general opinion is, that it is the proper name of a lady, so eminent for her piety and great charity, as to merit this Epistle from St. John." St Clement of Alexandria also names her: "It was written to a Babylonian lady, by name Electa, and indicates the election of the holy Church."

A particular church and its faithful. The Catholic Encyclopedia, with St Jerome, reads the "lady" as a local church and her "children" as its members: "This interpretation best fits in with the ending to the letter: 'The children of thy sister Elect salute thee'", that is, the faithful of the church where John was writing. The letter passes from "thee" to "you" as if speaking to a community, and St Peter calls a church elect in the same way: "The church that is in Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you" (1 Peter 5:13).

The Church has not decided between them. Either way, the letter is addressed to a household of faith, a mother and her children walking in the truth.

What is 2 John about? A summary

Greeting: love in the truth (verses 1–3)

The ancient loves the lady and her children "in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth, for the sake of the truth which dwelleth in us" (verses 1–3). "Truth" comes four times in three verses, and the blessing joins the two words of the whole letter: grace, mercy and peace from the Father and from "Christ Jesus the Son of the Father; in truth and charity."

The commandment of love (verses 4–6)

John was "exceeding glad" to find her children "walking in truth" (verses 4–6). He gives no new law but the old one, "that we love one another", and defines it: "And this is charity, that we walk according to his commandments." Love is obedience, as the Lord said: "If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love" (John 15:10).

Deceivers and antichrists (verses 7–11)

Then the warning: "many seducers are gone out into the world" who deny the Incarnation (verses 7–11). The faithful must look to themselves, "that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward." Whoever does not continue "in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God"; whoever continues in it "hath both the Father and the Son." So the teacher who brings another doctrine is not to be received into the house, nor greeted with "God speed".

Farewell (verses 12–13)

"Having more things to write unto you, I would not by paper and ink: for I hope that I shall be with you, and speak face to face: that your joy may be full" (verses 12–13). 3 John 1:13–14 closes in almost the same words.

Themes and the Catholic reading

Truth and charity are one. St John never sets love against doctrine. The love he commands is "in the truth", and the truth he guards is the faith by which we love God rightly. Challoner's heading to the chapter sums it up: "He recommends walking in truth, loving one another and to beware of false teachers." Charity is the supernatural love of God above all things and of our neighbour for His sake, and so it walks "according to his commandments"; see What Does God Say About Love? and the Ten Commandments.

"Little children, love one another." St Jerome relates, in his commentary on Galatians, that St John in extreme old age at Ephesus had to be carried to the assembly and said each time only, "Little children, love one another." Asked why he always repeated it, he answered that it was the Lord's command, and that if this alone were done, it was enough. Verse 5 of this letter is that sermon in writing.

Jesus Christ come in the flesh. The test of every teacher is the Incarnation: "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The Epistles of St John are the only books of Scripture that use the word "antichrist" (1 John 2:18, 22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 7). They speak of the many antichrists already at work and of the one "of whom you have heard that he cometh"; our article What Does God Say About the Antichrist? gathers this teaching.

Persevering for the full reward. "That you may receive a full reward" (verse 8) teaches that good works done in grace are truly rewarded and can be lost by falling away, as the Council of Trent teaches of the merit of the justified and the gift of perseverance (Session VI, chapters 13 and 16). The doctrine in which we must "continue" (verse 9) is what was received "from the beginning" and handed down in the Church.

Famous verses of 2 John

2 John 1:6, the most searched verse: "And this is charity, that we walk according to his commandments. For this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same." Compare 1 John 5:3: "his commandments are not heavy."

2 John 1:7: "For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an antichrist" (hic est seductor, et antichristus).

2 John 1:10–11: "If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you. For he that saith unto him, God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works." The Latin is nec Ave ei dixeritis, do not greet him with "Hail". Challoner explains that the admonition is "to forewarn the faithful of the dangers which may arise from a familiarity with those who have prevaricated and gone from the true faith, and with such as teach false doctrine." It concerns the teacher who comes to spread his error, as St Paul says in Titus 3:10: "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid."

2 John in the canon and the liturgy

2 and 3 John belong to the seven Catholic Epistles, with James, 1 and 2 Peter and Jude. The Catholic Encyclopedia counts them among the New Testament books whose canonicity "was long disputed": Eusebius listed them among the antilegomena, and the old Syriac Peshitta lacked them. From the fourth century the West received them, as did the Roman synod under Pope St Damasus in 382, whose catalogue the Encyclopedia calls "the complete and perfect Canon which has been that of the Church Universal ever since"; the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397), and later Florence, gave the same list.

The Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) closed the question, naming "two of Peter the apostle, three of John the apostle, one of the apostle James, one of Jude the apostle", beyond the dispute of such men as Cajetan. Protestant Bibles contain 2 John as well, under the same name. Our pages on the Douay-Rheims Bible and the Latin Vulgate explain the text we print.

In the 1962 Roman Breviary the whole letter is read at Matins on the Wednesday after the Ascension, in three lessons (verses 1–5, 6–9 and 10–13), after 1 John on the preceding days. Pray the Office in our Breviary and find the day in the liturgical calendar. St John's feast is 27 December; his life and death at Ephesus are told in our novena to St John the Apostle and in How Did the Apostles Die?

How to read 2 John

Read it at one sitting, then read 3 John straight after: the two letters are a pair, one warning against receiving false teachers, the other praising Gaius for receiving true ones. Then turn to 1 John 4, where the same testing of spirits is set out at length. Keep the Latin beside you for its key words, veritas, caritas, mandatum, doctrina.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote 2 John?

The Church has always received 2 John as the work of St John the Apostle, the beloved disciple, who also wrote the Gospel, 1 and 3 John and the Apocalypse. He calls himself "the ancient", or elder, a title fitting the last surviving Apostle, and St Irenaeus quotes the letter as the words of "John, the disciple of the Lord." Some ancient and many modern writers ascribe it to another John, "the presbyter", but tradition reads it as the Apostle's.

Who is the elect lady in 2 John?

The letter is addressed "to the lady Elect, and her children" (2 John 1:1). Challoner gives the general opinion that she was a real Christian woman of great piety and charity, and St Clement of Alexandria names her Electa. St Jerome and the Catholic Encyclopedia read the lady as a local church and her children as its faithful, which fits the closing greeting from "the children of thy sister Elect". The Church has not settled the question.

Who was 2 John written to?

It was written to "the lady Elect, and her children": a Christian mother and her household, or a local church and its members, in the province of Asia where St John spent his last years. Its warning concerns travelling teachers who denied that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh.

When was 2 John written?

The letter gives no date. Tradition places it, with 1 and 3 John, towards the end of St John's long life, in the last years of the first century, at or near Ephesus. Nothing more certain is known.

What is 2 John about?

It is a short pastoral letter on truth and charity. St John rejoices that the lady's children walk in the truth, repeats the commandment "that we love one another", and defines charity as walking "according to his commandments". He then warns against deceivers who deny that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and forbids the faithful to welcome their teachers or bid them "God speed". Read it whole in 2 John 1.

What is the doctrine of Christ in 2 John 9?

"Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son" (2 John 1:9). The doctrine of Christ is the faith about Christ that the Apostles preached "from the beginning": that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, is truly come in the flesh. To go beyond it or abandon it is to lose communion with God; to keep it whole is to possess the Father and the Son.

How many chapters are in 2 John?

One. The Second Epistle of St John has a single chapter of thirteen verses, so references such as "2 John 2" or "2 John 3:16" do not exist: they usually mean 2 John 1:2, or another book such as John 3:16 or 1 John 3:16. 3 John likewise has one chapter, of fourteen verses in the Douay-Rheims.

Is 2 John the shortest book in the Bible?

It has the fewest verses of any book in the Douay-Rheims, thirteen. In the Greek, however, 3 John is shorter in words, though it has one more verse, so it is usually named the shortest book. Together, as Origen observed, the two letters "do not contain a hundred lines".

What does 2 John 1:10 mean?

"If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you." It forbids welcoming a teacher who comes to spread error against Christ, because that would be to share in his work. Challoner adds that it is "not forbidding a charity for all men, by which we ought to wish and pray for the eternal salvation of every one, even of our enemies."

Read the whole Second Epistle of St John verse by verse, Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner) and Latin Vulgate: 2 John 1, with Challoner's chapter heading and notes; John 1:14, 13:34, 15:10; 1 John 2:7, 2:18, 2:22, 4:2–3, 5:3; 3 John 1; 1 Peter 5:13; Titus 3:10. St Polycarp, Epistle to the Philippians VII. St Irenaeus, Against Heresies I, 16, 3; III, 3, 4; III, 16, 8. St Clement of Alexandria, Adumbrationes on 2 John. Eusebius, Church History III, 25 and VI, 25 (Origen). St Jerome, On Illustrious Men 9; Commentary on Galatians, on 6:10. Council of Trent, Session IV (1546), Decree on the Canonical Scriptures; Session VI (1547), Decree on Justification. Pontifical Biblical Commission, response on the Fourth Gospel (29 May 1907). W. Drum, "Epistles of Saint John", and G. Reid, "Canon of the New Testament", The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908–1910). Roman Breviary (1962), Matins of Wednesday after the Ascension.