There has always been a difference of opinion and discussion concerning
the Second and Third Epistles ascribed to John, the apostle. Neither
the ancient church nor the modern critics have been entirely agreed
concerning the writer, the persons addressed, or even concerning their
title to a place in the Canon. The limited space to which I am confined
will not allow me to enter at length into these controversies, further
than to say that every hypothesis which refers to the authorship to any
one else than John, the apostle, rests upon filmy foundations. The
conjecture that they were written by a "Presbyter John," who was a
contemporary of the apostle, and also lived at Ephesus, is based upon a
fragment preserved from Papias, a Father in the second century, who
mentions what he had learned from "the elders," or ancients, and among
them names "the Elder John," who was a personal disciple of Christ.
Since in the very same sentence he names seven apostles and calls them
not apostles, but "elders," or "ancients," those are hard pressed who
assume that he meant by the "Elder John," some other personal disciple
of Christ than the son of Zebedee. There is no evidence that any "John
the elder" lived in the apostolic age, a separate life from John the
apostle. In addition, the language, doctrine and style of the two
epistles point to the author of the fourth gospel, and especially to
the writer of the First Epistle of John.