Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 39 and Revelation 8

Ezekiel 39 – The prophet is again told to prophesy against Gog this time, the prince of kingdoms that have attacked the mountains of Israel – as an agent of God’s wrath against His people.

Now it is they who will be brought low. “I am going to see that my holy name is known among my people Israel, and I will no longer allow my holy name to be profaned; the nations shall learn that I am Yahweh, holy in Israel (39:7).

They shall be slain, and it will take the Israelites seven months of searching to find all the dead and cleanse the land of their corpses.

It sounds like irony to me when the prophet then says the Lord wants him to speak to the birds and beasts of the region and tell them that the Lord is preparing a blood sacrifice on the mountains of Israel for them. They will “eat the flesh of heroes [and] drink the blood of the princes of the world” (39:18).

The prophet concludes his rant against/in praise of Gog by a reassurance that all of this violence is simply part of the way God will make Himself know by “all the nations.” “[T]he nations will learn that the House of Israel was exiled for their sin in behaving so treacherously to me that I had to avert my face from them because they had rebelled against me, and to hand them over to their enemies; and they all perished by the sword. I treated them as their filthy sins deserved and hid my face from them . . . Now I am going to bring back the captives of Jacob, now I am going to take pity on the whole House of Israel and show myself jealous for my holy name. They will forget the disgrace of having so often betrayed me when they were living safely in their own land, . . . When I bring them home from the peoples, when I bring them back from the countries of their enemies, when I reveal my holiness in them for many nations to see, they will know that I am Yahweh their God” (39: 23-27).

All will be made to understand what it is the Lord expects of his people and what the ultimate goal is – to bring his people home and there reveal his holiness to all men. He promises at the end never again to “hide [his] face” from them but instead to “pour out [his] spirit on the House of Israel” (39:29).

Revelation 8 – The seventh seal is broken and there is silence in heaven for about half an hour – a silence that typically preceded prophetic revelation.

Seven angels with seven trumpets are ready to start the end time:

The first angel comes with hail, earthquake and fire. Incense from the altar is thrown down on the earth and brings thunder and lightning. One-third of the earth and the earth’s trees are burned along with all of its grass.

The second angel casts a mountain of fire into the sea, filling one-third the sea is filled with blood and killing one-third of the sea life and one-third of the ships on the sea.

The third angel is a star of fire called “Wormwood” that destroys one-third of the rivers and springs of the earth and fills the water with wormwood.

The fourth angel destroys one-third of the sun and moon and stars; an eagle comes crying out “Trouble, trouble, trouble” (8:12).

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 7

Ezekiel 38 – The footnote introducing this chapter says that this is the earliest apocalyptic, eschatological, vision in scripture. Other examples are Isaiah 24-27, Daniel 7-12, Zechariah 9-14. This type of literature bloomed in the 2^nd c. BC (Book of Enoch, etc.). The countries of Meshech and Tubal were on the Black Sea; Magog is not known. Gog is a “type” of victorious barbarian who will inflict the final ordeals on Israel.

           

In an unspecified future time, Gog will assault Israel after they have been returned for a long while. He will come “like a cloud” and many nations shall come with him. Unaware of being an instrument of Yahweh’s, Gog will work out a wicked plan and march against the peaceful nation Israel will be to plunder them. Jerusalem was thought to be at the center of the world – its navel.

           

Ezekiel is told to prophesy to Gog and say he will be used to “display my holiness to them [Israel]” (38:16). When Gog invades, God’s anger will come and he will bring a fearful quaking of the land. Mountains will fall, cliffs crumble. Men will turn their swords on each other and he will punish them with all kinds of disasters. All of this is designed to display His greatness and make the nations acknowledge Him.

Revelation 7 – Four angels are at the four corners of the earth holding the winds back, ready to devastate the earth. Another angel in the east where the sun rises carries God’s seal and tells them to hold off until the saved can be marked with God’s seal - 144,000 of them.

The “saved” will be of every land and nation. They have been “through the great persecution” (Nero’s) and their robes have been washed white “in the blood of the Lamb” (7:14).

“They will never hunger or thirst again; neither the sun nor scorching wind will ever plague them, because the Lamb who is on the throne will be their shepherd and will lead them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes” (7:16-17) Quote echoes Hosea 2 and Isaiah 11.

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 37 and Revelation 6

Ezekiel 37 – The Dry Bones – The hand of the Lord carries Ezekiel to the middle of a valley full of bones. He makes him walk up and down among them.

“He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I said, ‘You know, Lord Yahweh’. He said, ‘Prophesy over these bones. Say, “Dry bones, hear the word of Yahweh. The Lord Yahweh says this to these bones: I am now going to make the breath enter you, and you will live. I shall put sinews on you. I shall make flesh grow on you. I shall cover you with skin and give you breath, and you will live; and you will learn that I am Yahweh”’ (37:3-7).

As Ezekiel prophesies to the bones, they stir and come back to life – “the bones joined together. I looked, and saw that they were covered with sinews; flesh was growing on them and skin was covering the, but there was no breath in them. He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man. Say to the breath, ‘The Lord Yahweh says this: Come from the four winds, breath; breathe on these dead; let them live!’” (37:7-10).

He continues: “O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. . .I will put my spirit in you that may live. . .” (37:14).

Ezekiel’s passage on the “dry bones” is all about being spiritually resurrected from the dead, and early Friends understood resurrection. What Ezekiel describes here in 6^th c. Palestine, Christ brought to life in his own resurrection from the dead and it was also what early Friends experienced in 17^th c. England:

Wait to see the law set up within . . .and the rebellious nature yoked.  Wait in patience for the judgment, and let the Lord’s work have its perfect operation in you; and so as you turn to him who has smitten and wounded you; he will bind up and heal.  And give up all to the great slaughter of the Lord, to the Cross . . .And as the earth comes to be plowed up, the seed which is sown comes up; and, the rocks broken, the water gushes out.  You so will see that some promises will arise in you to the Seed which is coming up out of the grave, and so the love of God will appear in you, and you will be stayed, and see hope in the midst of calamity . . .And as you come to be redeemed from under the bondage of sin, and come above the bonds of death, and the pure principle lives in you, there will be a delight in you to do the will of the father, who has redeemed you from sin and its law to righteousness and its law, . . . (Francis Howgill)

.  . . he that hears not the Voice of the Son of God, does not

live but is in death. . .And the hour is come, that they which

have been in the graves have heard the Voice of the Son of

God and do live.  They that do not hear . . .are in the death

and the grave.  They that come to believe in the Light, hear

the Voice of the Son of God. . .and live over death, the grave

and hell, and so come to Life (George Fox).

Ezekiel’s prophecy is of God’s gathering of the loyal remnant.  “I will make them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will multiply them, and put my sanctuary among them forever.  My dwelling shall be with them; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  These words which were so central to the exiled Jews and to the early Christians, who saw in them a prophesy of Christ’s resurrection, and were also so important to Friends who saw the churches of their day as dry bones scattered all throughout Europe are hopefully also applicable to the condition of the church today. I believe they are.  I do believe Christ will gather us all together somehow.  His intention is inextinguishable.  It has been there from the very beginning of creation and I do not believe the world will end until He has brought forth what he meant to bring forth and he’ll do it without violating our freedom.

Revelation 6 – Now the Lamb breaks the seals of the scoll:

First – a white horse appears with a rider holding a bow; he is given a victor’s crown.

Second – a bright red horse whose rider will take peace away and set men killing each other; he has a sword.

Third – a black horse whose rider has scales to weigh out wheat and barley skimpily and who will give no oil or wine.

Fourth – a deathly pale horse with a rider called plague with Hades at his heels.

These four are given authority over a quarter of all the earth to kill with sword, famine, plague and wild beasts (6:8).

Fifth – he sees “underneath the altar the souls of all the people who had been killed on account of the word of God, for witnessing to it” (6:9). They all shout, “’Holy, faithful Master, how much longer will you wait before you pass sentence and take vengeance for our death on the inhabitants of the earth?’” (6:10) They are told to be patient.

Sixth – at the breaking of the sixth seal, there is a violent earthquake and the sun goes black. The moon turns red and the Great Day of God’s anger has arrived. The rich and powerful race to the mountains to hide from the anger of the Lamb.

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 34-36 and Revelation 4-5

Ezekiel 34  – Ezekiel prophesies against the shepherds [leaders spiritual and temporal] of Israel’s people who “feed themselves” instead of feeding their flocks. They have failed to make the weak stronger; they have not cared for the sick or wounded sheep. So they have scattered and have become prey for wild animals. The shepherds will be called to account, but also the Lord will not rely on them any more. He says, “I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view . . . I myself will show them where to rest . . .I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them” (34:11-16).

           

As for his sheep, the Lord shall judge between them. This is the language Jesus is drawing on when he speaks of separating the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25. And then it goes on to say, “I mean to raise up one shepherd, my servant David, and to put him in charge of them and he will pasture them; he will pasture them and be their shepherd. I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David shall be their ruler” (34:23). Remember that Ezekiel is prophesying in the 6^th c. BC, long after David’s time.

This has to be some of the most important Old Testament language in terms of understanding the mission of Jesus and the significance his disciples saw in his presence among them. David was long gone from Israel’s history, but the promise made by God to David’s “House” in 2 Samuel 7 is invoked here as a reminder that the Messiah would be of this same House.

Ezekiel 35 – This prophesy against the mountains of Seir or Edom precedes a similar oracle concerning the mountains of Israel, mountains that Edom tried to take over along with all of Palestine after 587. The Lord will devastate Edom for things they have done and said about Israel, for slandering Yahweh and rejoicing when Israel was reduced to ashes.

Ezekiel 36 – This oracle is to the mountains of Israel and according to the footnote was likely issued after 587. In this moment of complete desolation Yahweh affirms his eternal commitment to his people. He says to the mountains of Israel that they will again grow trees and branches that bear fruit for God’s people who will one day return to their lands. God will multiply the population living on the mountains and will raise the cities up once again. He will make them even more prosperous than they were before.

People of the House of Israel defiled the land with their conduct (killing babies, worshipping idols) and they have offended God by their conduct in captivity as well, but He will bring them back and cleanse them:

            I shall give you a new heart,

            and put a new spirit in you;

            I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies

            and give you a heart of flesh instead.

            I shall put my spirit in you

            and make you keep my laws,

            and sincerely respect my observances.

            You will live in the land, which I gave your ancestors;

            You shall be my people,

            And I will be your God (36:24-28).

Revelation 4 – A series of prophetic visions follow here: He has a vision of the door of heaven opening and a voice like a trumpet saying, “’Come up here: I will show you what is to come in the future.’” He sees “the One” seated on a throne in heaven” (4:3). It is not an anthropomorphic vision but one of gems and sparkling rainbows and such.

The central throne is surrounded by 24 thrones for the 24 elders who sit in white robes. There are seven flaming lamps between God and the circle of elders. They represent the seven “spirits of God” or angels of his presence.

Before the throne, there are also four creatures with many eyes – a lion (majesty), a bull (strength), a man (wisdom) and an eagle (flight) – each of which has six wings. And there is a sea of glass that looks like crystal between the prophet and the central image.

The note says that from the time of Irenaeus, the four creatures have been seen as representing the gospel writers. The image in Ezekiel is similar in some ways but also unique. There are no wheels here by each animal and the animals in Ezekiel are “of human form” with only four wings – two touching the wings of the next “animal” and two covering it. The vision in Ezekiel 10 is also quite different though some similarities can be found.

The four never stopped singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God, the Almighty; he was, he is and his is to come’” (4:8), and the twenty-four elders honor the Lord for “He” “made all the universe and it was only by [His] will that everything was made and exists’” (4:11).

Revelation 5 – There is a scroll in God’s right hand written on front and back and sealed with seven seals that cannot be opened by anyone – there is no one worthy. This makes John cry, but an elder reassures him that the “Lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed” and will be able to open them (5:5).

The Lamb before the throne has seven horns (strength) and seven eyes (omniscience). Everyone is prostrate before him. “You were sacrificed with your blood. You bought men for God of every race, language, people and nation and made them a line of kings and priests, to serve our God and to rule the world”(5:9). Everything that lives praises him.

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 32-33 and Revelation 2-3

Ezekiel 32 – Egypt’s pharaoh is again compared to a crocodile, snorting, churning the waters and muddying its streams (32:2). God’s net will be thrown over this crocodile and its carcass will be scattered, leaving the country in darkness. The world will be shocked at the fate of Egypt.

Egypt will go down to Sheol and there meet with those who have died in battles before – Assyria, Elam [ancient civilization in SW Iran], Meshech, Tubal, Edom, the princes of the North and the Sidonians.

One is reminded of the many works of literature that also are built on the premise that there is a dark abode, beneath the earth and beyond time where the personages of the past may be encountered suffering judgment for all the bad things they did in life. 

Ezekiel 33 - God tells Ezekiel to speak to the nation and tell them that he is meant to be the sentry God has appointed to protect the people of Israel. A sentry is there to warn of coming disasters. If the sentry blows his horn and people ignore him, then they are responsible for their own fate. But if the sentry does not warn them, he is responsible for and will be held responsible for the people’s deaths. In a similar way, if the sentry God has sent – the prophet – warns the people that they are being unfaithful and bringing God’s wrath upon them, and they do not respond to the warning, then they are justly doomed; but if the prophet does not warn them, then he must bear the consequences.

The Lord also says through his prophet, “I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man, but in the turning back of a wicked man who changes his ways to win life” (33:11). Past integrity will not save the man who chooses to sin, and similarly, past sins will not consign a man to destruction if he uses his free will to turn from sin. We are free.

At the end of 586 BC, a “fugitive” comes from Jerusalem and tells the prophet that the city has fallen. The night before, the hand of the Lord had been upon him and he was no longer unable to speak. The Lord intends to reduce the land to desolation. People listen to the prophet but do not act on his words – “you are like a love song beautifully sung to music. They listen to your words, but no one puts them into practice” (33:32).

The relationship between God and man is dynamic, not static.  The wicked man can repent and find forgiveness and life through his repentance.  But in a similar way, the man who is righteous can forfeit his “life,” his unity with God, by turning from the path of virtue.  Nothing is settled until death – and who knows after that. 

The New Testament “take” on the Lord’s assessment of our integrity is much harsher (Matthew 5:20-26). Who can escape reproach under this very high standard?  Really, no one.  We are all under condemnation as Calvin (following Paul, I think) noted – condemnation is kind of where we start from.  In a way, the Old Testament reading is more comforting than the New, for it promises that we have a choice between life and death that is not completely unrealistic.  It is within our power to choose the good.  It is our fault when we turn away from it. Still, looking beyond these words to the larger message, our love of Jesus and our faith in his healing death (which is that joining of himself to us despite our sinfulness) can bridge the deep if invisible gap between what God expects from us and what we in our own power can achieve.

Hearing God’s voice, St Catherine of Sienna says in His name, “I will only your well-being and whatever I give, I give it so that you may reach the goal for which I created you.”  Again we see a glimpse into the idea, the reality of God’s faithfulness to His own intention, the original intention or goal He had in our creation – that we would live as His image in the creation.  In a way, we (corporately) were created to be God’s Eve, God’s spouse, God’s companion and helpmate on the earth.  We are “bone of his bone,” and “flesh of his flesh.”  And his faithfulness to us has endured from the very beginning. 

My own conviction is that most of what has been revealed to us by God’s spirit and happened to us and for us through His intervention in our history has been to fulfill this simple intention.  I see it mostly as being in the context of the creation, and in the context of time, but that of course is not to say there is no heaven, no life in some eternal dimension with God.  I believe in fact that there is a realistic hope that this may be so based on the knowledge and faith of those who have known God better than I have yet known Him.  But I do think that sometimes we wander into speculations about things we do not need and cannot in fact know with any certainty.  The Jehovah’s Witnesses and other fundamentalists wander off into speculation about the end-time; Catholics and other mainline Christians seem to me to wander into speculations about after-things too much.  The focus of the scriptures is on the fulfillment of God’s intention with respect to our corporate human life on this earth, in this history we have.  Such clarity as I feel I have relates only to that dimension.

Revelation 2 – The messages that are to go to “the angel” watching over these churches is are as follows:

To Ephesus – The beginning image here is the image of one holding the seven stars in his right hand, surrounded by seven gold lamp-stands. Ephesus was the religious capital. They are praised for their patience and discernment – they tested some who called themselves apostles but were not. They have suffered tirelessly, but the “have less love now than [they] used to” (2:4). They need to repent and be as they were at first.

They loathe what the Nicolaitans are doing, which is good. No certainty exists as to what the Nicolaitans practiced that was thought though some seem to think they were associated with promiscuity. Wikipedia says Hippolytus of Rome (170-235), disciple of Irenaeus, wrote that it was product of a deacon Nicolas, hence the name.

The Ephesians are praised for just sticking to the more ethically conservative gospel that was considered authentic.

To Smyrna: No introductory symbol in this letter unless it is just the resurrected Christ, “the First and the Last, who was dead and has come to life again” (2:8). They are poor and have had many trials. The Jews have accused them unfairly, and they will face an ordeal, but they are encouraged not to be afraid. The ordeal will be short, and “even if you have to die, keep faithful, and I will give you the crown of life for your prize” (2:11).

To Pergamum: Message from the one with the sharp, double-edged sword [judgment]: Satan is enthroned where they live but they hold firmly to Christ. Antipas [the bishop] was killed in Pergamum. Some there are “followers of Balaam” (Nicolaitans); they must repent. To “those who prove victorious I will give the hidden manna and a white stone—a stone with a new name written on it, known only to the man who receives it” (2:17).

To Thyatira: The introductory symbol here is of the burning eyes and feet like burnished bronze [divine knowledge and permanence]: The Thyatirans are charitable and devoted but they encouraged the woman Jezebel, “who claims to be a prophetess,” and she is luring people to eat food sacrificed to idols. It is “I who search heart and loins and give each one of you what your behavior deserves” (2:21).

Revelation 3 – Three other churches are addressed:

To Sardis: The opening symbol is the same as for Ephesus – the one holding the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. This church is “reputed to be alive and yet are dead” (3:1).  

“Wake up; revive what little you have left: it is dying fast” (3:2). “[R]emember how eager you were when you first heard the message. . .Hold on to that. Repent“ (3:3). Individuals from this church who have been faithful will be acknowledged (3:6).

To Philadelphia: From the holy and faithful one “who has the key of David” (3:7). They are not very strong, but have not disobeyed the commandments or “disowned my name” (3:8). “I will keep you safe in the time of trial which is going to come for the whole world, to test the people of the world (7:10).

To Laodicea: The message of “the Amen, the faithful, the true witness, the ultimate source of God’s creation” (3:14).

“You are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were one or the other, but since you are neither, but only lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth” (3:16). They are satisfied with their wealth and so not seek the “gold that has been tested in the fire to make you really rich” (3:18). “I am the one who reproves and disciples all those he loves: so repent in real earnest. Look, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears me calling and opens the door, I will come in to share his mean, side by side with him” (3:19-20).

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 31 and Revelation 1

Ezekiel 31 – In the spring of 587, Ezekiel is addressed by God to say to Pharaoh that Egypt can be compared to a cedar of Lebanon “with noble branches, thick-set needles and lofty trunk. Its top pierces the clouds. The waters have made it grow, the deep has made it tall, pouring its rivers round the place where it is planted, sending its streams to all the other trees” (31:3-4).

“[I]n its shade every kind of people sat . . . It was the envy of every tree in Eden, in the garden of God” (31:9).

But the greatness of the land has tempted them to arrogance, and now the “prince of the nations” (31:11), Nebuchadnezzar, will bring it down. We should learn from what has happened to Egypt. “In future let no tree rise in pride beside the waters, none push its top through the clouds, no well-watered tree stretch its whole height towards them” (31:14).       

Revelation 1 – “This is the revelation given by God to Jesus Christ so that he could tell his servants about the things which are now to take place very soon; he sent his angel to make it known to his servant John, and John has written down everything he saw and swears it is the word of God guaranteed by Jesus Christ. Happy the man who reads this prophecy, and happy those who listen to him, if they treasure all that it says, because the Time is close” (1:1-3).

John writes to the seven churches of Asia [Asia Minor] from the seven spirits who reside before his throne. Christ is the “faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth” (1:5). “He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a line of kings, priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever” (1:5-6).

“’I am the Alpha and the Omega’ says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty” (1:8).

John says his is on the island called Patmos “on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (1:9). His vision is this: “I saw seven golden lamp-stands and surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a gold girdle. His head and his hair were white as white wool or as snow, this eyes like a burning flame, his feet like burnished bronze when it has been refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of the ocean” (1:12-15). He holds “seven stars in his hand and out of his mouth came a sharp sword, double-edged, and his face was like the sun shining with all its force” (1:15-16). The seven lamp-stands are the seven churches.

The Jerusalem Bible note on pg. 431 is good – it explains the symbolism of the vision John has. The long robe is symbolic of his priesthood, the golden girdle – his royalty, his white hair – his eternity, his burning eyes – his ability to probe minds and hearts, his feet of bronze – his permanence, the brightness of his legs and face and the strength of his void – the fear inspired by his majesty, the stars – the seven churches and the double-edge sword – His judgment. “One or other of his attributes as Judge is used at the beginning of each of the seven letters, to suggest the situation of the particular church addressed” (431).

    

Daily Bible Reading: Ezekiel 29-30 and Epistles 2 and 3 of John

Ezekiel 29  – The year is 588-587 BC. Ezekiel goes on to prophesy against the Pharaoh of Egypt, the “great crocodile wallowing in [the] Niles” (29:3). God is going to “put hooks through [his] jaws,” pull him out of the Nile, drop him in the desert and give him “as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of heaven, so that all the inhabitants of Egypt may learn that I am Yahweh” (29:6).

He is disappointed that they have not been more supportive to the House of Israel: “Whenever they grasped you, you broke in their hands and cut their hands all over. Whenever they leaned on you, you broke and left their loins shaking” (29:7).

           

God intends to reduce Egypt to a desert and scatter its inhabitants for 40 years, and the Babylonians – agents of God’s wrath – will be reward by being able to loot the Egyptians. But the suffering of Egypt will not be forever either. Like the “chosen people,” Egypt will be restored. They will be weak at first, and they will not dominate others, but they will be restored.

Lawrence Boadt’s book on the Old Testament notes that Ezekiel 29:17-21 is about Nebuchadnezzar giving up on the 13 year siege of the island city of Tyre in 572 BC. Ezekiel 29:1-9 refers to the Egyptians sending a relief column to help Jerusalem escape the Babylonia attack of 588-586 (did not help).Tyre and Egypt are most condemned as promoters of pagan gods: Baal in Tyre and Egypt’s idea of their pharaoh being divine.

Ezekiel 30 – Again, Ezekiel is addressed by Yahweh – “Howl: Alas the day! For the day is near, the day of Yahweh is near; it will be a day dark with cloud, the end of an epoch for the nations. The sword will come on Egypt, and terror will visit Ethiopia when the slaughtered fall in Egypt, when her riches are carried away, when her foundations are destroyed” (29:3-4). These consequences will show the nations that the fate of all nations is in His hands. There is a plan, a will behind all that happens, however empty it may seem to those who suffer it.

Introductory Information on 2 and 3 John: These two epistles were written presumably by John the Apostle, thought at this time to be residing in Ephesus. He designates himself as “the Elder” of the church communities of Asia Minor. “The Lady” is a figurative title for the churches over which he is head. The challenge to John’s teaching that Jesus was “the Word made flesh” is seen as a danger and not a doctrine that was there from the beginning (Brown 397). This challenge might have been coming from local Jewish synagogues “that rejected as irreconcilable with monotheism the Johannine Christian confession of Jesus as God” (Brown 404-405).

On the “treatment proposed in 2 John 10-11 that false teachers should not be received into peoples’ houses or greeted as friends, Brown thinks this was not necessarily directed at all visitors of this persuasion but rather only those who came specifically with an intention to teach their erroneous doctrine.

2 John – This epistle is addressed to “the Lady, the chosen one, and to her children” (2 John 1), the church under his care. He says he is writing “not to give you any new commandment, but the one which we were given at the beginning, and to plead: let us love one another” (2 John 5). This is it in its simplest form: “this is the commandment . . . live a life of love (2 John 6).

But John is concerned that there are “many deceivers about in the world, refusing to admit that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh” (2 John 7). These deceivers are the “Antichrist.”

“Watch yourselves, or all our work will be lost and not get the reward it deserves. If anybody does not keep within the teaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he cannot have God with him: only those who keep to what he taught can have the Father and the Son with them” (2 John 8-9).

“If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him in your house or even give him a greeting. To greet him would make you a partner in his wicked work.” (12)

3 John – Here John thanks his friend Gaius for receiving missionaries he has sent and helping them. But he complains that one Diotrephes,, “who seems to enjoy being in charge of [the church]” (3 John 9), refuses to receive the missionaries John has sent to them.  He advises Gaius not to follow this example. Demetrius, presumably one of the missionaries John has sent, “has been approved by everyone” (2 John 12), and John assures Gaius that he vouches for him too.

He says there are other things he would like to discuss but does not want to “trust them to pen and ink” (2 John 14).

Both of these letters do certainly help us to recognize that divisions in the Christian community – the church – were there from the beginning. I think that they should give Friends pause too because the error John sees in some of the early interpreters rejection of the “doctrine” that Jesus Christ had come in the flesh, is rarely seen as an essential part of the Johannine gospel Quakers usually find so attractive.