Text -- 2 John 1:10-13 (NET)

1:10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him any greeting, 1:11 because the person who gives him a greeting shares in his evil deeds.

Conclusion

1:12 Though I have many other things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come visit you and speak face to face, so that our joy may be complete. 1:13 The children of your elect sister greet you.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 2Jo 1:10

¹ sn Do not give him any greeting does not mean to insult the person. It means “do not greet the person as a fellow Christian” (which is impossible anyway since the opponents are not genuine believers in the author’s opinion).

NET Notes: 2Jo 1:11

¹ sn Shares in his evil deeds. Giving a public greeting could be understood by an onlooker to suggest agreement with the (false) teaching of the opponents and is thus prohibited by John.

NET Notes: 2Jo 1:12

¹ tn “Other” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity in English.

² tn Grk “by means of.”

³ sn Presumably the author means he would rather say the additional things he wants to say to the recipients in person rather than by letter (with paper and ink).

⁴ tn Grk “speak mouth to mouth,” an idiom for which the English equivalent is “speak face to face.”

⁵ tn Grk “be fulfilled.”

NET Notes: 2Jo 1:13

¹ tc The Byzantine text has ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the conclusion of this letter. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. Further, the particle is lacking in excellent, early, and diffuse witnesses (א A B P Ψ 33 81 323 1739 1881 al co), rendering its omission the strongly preferred reading.