NOGO

Nice to hear it.

Steven Carr

Germany is not so bad. Avoid the sauerkraut, drink the beer, and the time passes.

I still doubt that the author of 2 John thinks Jews are antichrists, or needs to remind his readers that Jews deny Jesus was the Christ, or thinks that many Jews have 'gone out' into the world to preach that Jesus Christ had not come in the flesh.

Surely he would have regarded Jews as being part of the world (a term tending to mean all non-Christian things).

Steven Carr

CX

Fair enough, but you haven't really supported that position. 2 John is extremely short and mostly a personal letter in form and content. As such it is difficult to be certain what it's about except in the larger context of the Johannine writings. Udo Schnelle says this about the "false teachers" (emphasis mine):

I think if you read any intro text you see the same theme. The general consensus is that the "false teachers" in 2 John are heretical Xians. Luke Timothy Johnson refers to, "those who have left the elder's community", referring to former "orthodox" Xians in the Johannine community who have abandoned the traditional teachings.

It is absolutely clear that the "false teachers" in 2 John is not a reference to the Jews, but to heretical Xians.

Vorkosigan

Ignatius also makes a similar point to this one in 2 John. Trallians 9:1:

"Close your ears, then, if anyone preaches to you without speaking of Jesus Christ."

He then goes on to outline the NT legend about Jesus in strong terms. This too looks like a comment directed at people preaching a Jesus who was spiritual and not incarnate. Magnesians 11:1 contains similar sentiments, as does Smyrnans 5:2. I'm in the Jesus Puzzle now, and Doherty reads these as addressed to both groups, the Docetists and the Spiritual Jesus crowd. Can't tell your heretics without a scorecard....

What's wrong with Germany?

Vorkosigan