Johannine epistles in the context of "Second Epistle of John"

The Gospel of John is the fourth of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It contains a schematic account of the ministry of Jesus, with seven "signs" culminating in the raising of Lazarus (foreshadowing the resurrection of Jesus) and seven "I am" discourses culminating in Thomas's proclamation of the risen Jesus as "my Lord and my God". The penultimate chapter's concluding verse set out its purpose, "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name."

John was written between AD 90–100. The gospel is anonymous, although it identifies a "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions and perhaps author. Twentieth-century scholarship interpreted the gospel within the paradigm of a "Johannine community", but this has been increasingly challenged in the 21st century, and there is currently considerable debate over the gospel's historical context. As it is closely related in style and content to the Johannine epistles, most scholars treat the four books, along with the Book of Revelation, as a single corpus of Johannine literature, albeit not by the same author.

John the Apostle (Ancient Greek: Ἰωάννης; Latin: Ioannes; c. 6 AD – c. 100 AD), also known as Saint John the Beloved and, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saint John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he was the son of Zebedee and Salome. His brother James was another of the Twelve Apostles. The Church Fathers identify him as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, John the Elder, and the Beloved Disciple, and claim that he outlived the remaining apostles and was the only one to die of natural causes, although modern scholars are divided on the veracity of these claims.

John the Apostle is traditionally held to be the author of the Gospel of John, and many Christian denominations believe that he authored several other books of the New Testament (the three Johannine epistles and the Book of Revelation, together with the Gospel of John, are called the Johannine works), depending on whether he is distinguished from, or identified with, John the Evangelist, John the Elder, and John of Patmos.

Johannine community is the hypothesized network of early Christian groups associated with the Gospel of John and the Johannine epistles. Scholars, including Rudolf Bultmann, J. Louis Martyn, Raymond E. Brown, and Harold W. Attridge, interpret the writings' high Christology, dualistic language, and Paraclete discourses as evidence for a circle of Jesus followers who cultivated strong internal solidarity and sharp contrasts with outsiders. The concept has shaped New Testament studies since the mid twentieth century and remains a focus of debate.

Reconstructions locate the circle in the late first century Mediterranean world, often in Asia Minor or Syria, and describe devotion to Jesus as the unique revealer of God that structured communal identity and practice. Other scholars contend that the textual evidence can be explained without positing a discrete sect and prefer author centered, literary, or network models.

Johannine literature is a modern collective term for five New Testament writings that early Christian tradition linked in various ways with John the Apostle or a related circle of teachers: the Gospel of John, the three Johannine epistles (1 John, 2 John, and 3 John), and the Book of Revelation. The designation identifies a literary family with shared vocabulary and theology without implying single authorship, and it reflects how ancient readers grouped the texts while acknowledging distinct voices within them.

Current scholarship usually dates the Gospel and Letters to the final decades of the first century, often AD 90–110; some pursue earlier signs and editions, while recent scholarship increasingly views the gospel as a literary unity by a single author. Revelation is most often dated within the reign of Domitian (AD 81–96) because of its address to seven assemblies in Roman Asia and its critique of imperial cult imagery, though a minority advocates an earlier context in the late 60s under Nero or Galba.

The First Epistle of John is the first of the Johannine epistles of the New Testament, and the fourth of the catholic epistles. There is no scholarly consensus as to the authorship of the Johannine works. The author of the First Epistle is sometimes termed John the Evangelist, who most modern scholars believe is not the same as John the Apostle. Most scholars believe the three Johannine epistles have the same author, but there is no consensus if this was also the author of the Gospel of John.

This epistle was probably written in Ephesus between 95 and 110 AD. The author advises Christians on how to discern true teachers: by their ethics, their proclamation of Jesus in the flesh, and by their love. The original text was written in Koine Greek. The epistle is divided into five chapters.

The authorship of the Johannine works (the Gospel of John, the Johannine epistles, and the Book of Revelation) has been debated by biblical scholars since at least the 2nd century AD. The debate focuses mainly on the identity of the author(s), as well as the date and location of authorship of these writings.

Although authorship of all of these works has traditionally been attributed to John the Apostle, most scholars theorize that he wrote none of them, though the tradition still has many modern defenders. Although some scholars conclude the author of the epistles was different from that of the gospel, most scholars agree that all three epistles are expressed by the same author or school of thought.