1 2 3 John

     I. Authorship

            A.  External

                  1.  Earliest allusion in Polycarp (Ad Phil. 7)

 I. Authorship

            A.  External

                        The external attestation to 2 John is not so strong as that for 1 John. Absence of citations from the book may have been due to its subject matter. It is significant that the objections to apostolic authorship come from the later Christian writers.

 I. Authorship

It is uncertain whether there is any evidence for 3 John ‘s being cited before the third century, if the Muratorian Canon speaks only of two epistles of John. This lack of citation and mention is understandable because of its brevity and the character of its contents. What was said of “the Elder” in connection with 1 John applies here also.