2 John 1:5

Warning Against False Teachers

1:5 But now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.

2 John 1:13

1:13 The children of your elect sister greet you. ⁷ 

[1:5]  ¹ tn The introductory καὶ νῦν (kai nun) has some adversative (contrastive) force: The addressees are already “living according to the truth” (v. 4) but in the face of the threat posed by the opponents, the author has to stress obedience all the more.

[1:5]  ² tn The words “if I were” are not in the Greek text, but are supplied for clarity in English.

[1:5]  ³ sn An allusion to John 13:34-35, 1 John 2:7-8.

[1:5]  ⁴ tn “The one” is not in the Greek text. It is supplied for clarity in English.

[1:5]  ⁵ sn See 1 John 2:7.

[1:5]  ⁶ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause indicates content.

[1:13]  ⁷ 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.