Paragraph 9–12

Read 9–12 in both Berean Standard Bible and Good News Translation. Compare the two versions.

Paragraph Theme: John uses a negative example and a positive example to reinforce what he has said about helping the traveling preachers. He describes Diotrephes, who opposes their work and rejects John’s instructions. Then he describes Demetrius, who is respected by all the Christians.

9a

(Good News Translation) a short letter: (Text) After “I have written,” many Greek manuscripts have a word meaning “something,” or “a little.” Several English versions translate this text. Other versions such as Berean Standard Bible follow manuscripts which do not have this text. In your translation it may be best to follow the Berean Standard Bible.

the church: (Multiple Senses) Here this means the group of Christians in the place where Diotrephes was. That was probably in the same place where Gaius lived, or nearby.

9b

Diotrephes: (New Participant) It is not clear whether Gaius already knew about Diotrephes or not. In translation he should be referred to as someone who has not previously been mentioned in this letter.

loves to be first: (Connotation) This implies that even if Diotrephes thinks that he is the leader of the church, John does not recognize him as the leader. He condemns Diotrephes for actively seeking such a position.

first: (Multiple Senses) This means being the leader of the church in that place. John does not use either of the biblical terms “bishop” or “elder” here, and at that time Christian leaders were not called pastors or priests. So a more neutral term for a Christian leader should be used in translation here. See Good News Translation, The Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English, Living Bible.

will not accept: (Meaning) The Greek word used here means that Diotrephes did not accept or obey what John had written. It implies that he did not accept John’s authority to give him instructions. See Good News Translation, Revised Standard Version, Living Bible.

our: (Pronoun Reference) John is here using the plural pronoun to refer to himself. In many languages this may need to be translated as “my.”

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.