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3 John

About this book

1 From the elder, to Gaius my dear brother, whom I love in truth. 2 Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul. 3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, just as you are living according to the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are living according to the truth. 5 Dear friend, you demonstrate faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers).⁠ 6 They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.⁠ 7 For they have gone forth on behalf of “The Name,”⁠ accepting nothing from the pagans.⁠ 8 Therefore we ought to support such people so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth. 9 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing—the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church! 11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has been testified to by all,⁠ even by the truth itself. We also testify to him, and you know that our testimony is true. 13 I have many things to write to you, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. 14 But I hope to see you right away, and we will speak face to face. (1:15) Peace be with you. The friends here greet you. Greet the friends there by name.

Texts in conversation

Compare 3 John 1:7 and Jonathan Isaiah 48:11

New Testament · Targum

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Summary

Isaiah 48 describes God protecting his honor and the Aramaic translation in the Targum adds that He does so for his honor and his “Memra.” This is similar to 3 John, where people go out for “the Name,” suggesting influence by a similar Aramaic tradition.

Passages

3 John 1:7

New Testament
5 Dear friend, you demonstrate faithfulness by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers). 6 They have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they have gone forth on behalf of “The Name,” accepting nothing from the pagans. 8 Therefore we ought to support such people so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth. 9 I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. 10 Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing—the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!
100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 John

Jonathan Isaiah 48:11

Targum
10 I have refined you, but not in the crucible of silver; I tested you in the distress of poverty. 11 For my name’s sake, for the sake of my Memra, that it may not be profaned, I will do it, and my glory, in which I have revealed myself to you, I will not give to another people. 12 Listen to my Memra, you who are of the house of Jacob and Israel, my called: I am He who was of old; yes, ages upon ages are mine, and besides me there is no God. 13 Yes, by my Memra I laid the foundation of the earth, and by my might I suspended the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together.
200–300 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jonathan Isaiah

References

"... In 3 John 1:7 John refers to those who ‘went out [on Christian ministry] for the sake of the Name.’’ One might take ‘the Name’ here as Brown took it in 1 John 2:12, as a reference to the name of God, as in Leviticus 24:11 (‘he blasphemed the Name’). We saw in the previous section that Christ’s name is ‘the Word of God’ (Revelation 19:13), and we saw the appropriateness of seeing this name as the Tetragrammaton used of the Son, since in the Targums ‘‘the Word of the LORD’’ stands hundreds of times for the Masoretic text ‘‘YHWH,’’ including contexts of divine warfare. A close connection between God’s name and his divine Word is also implied in Targum Isaiah 48:11, where the Masoretic text ‘For my own sake, for my own sake’ is rendered ‘For my name’s sake, for my Memra’s sake I will act, that nothing should be profaned.’ One could easily conclude, then, that when John says Christian workers ‘went out for the sake of the Name,’ the name is the Tetragrammaton, and the assumption is that this is Christ’s name, just as in Revelation 19:13 ..."
John L. Ronning, “The Targum of Isaiah and the Johannine Literature,” WTJ 69 (2007): 247–278.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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3 John 1:7 and Jonathan Isaiah 48:11

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