the Christians of Asia in and
around Ephesus. It is a strange fact that St. Augustine, in quoting
iii. 2, describes the passage as "said by John in his Epistle to the
_Parthians_." This statement is a riddle which no commentator has been
able to answer satisfactorily. As the Eastern Churches had little or
no knowledge of this title, we are compelled to regard it as a mistake.
It may have arisen from some scribe failing to read a partially
illegible manuscript in which St. John may have been given the title of
_parthenos_ or virgin. But it is most likely that it arose from a
confusion with the Second Epistle, which was thought in the time of
Clement of Alexandria to be addressed to _parthenoi_ or virgins. The
absence of quotations from the Old Testament, and the command "guard
yourselves from idols" (v. 21), solemnly given at the very end of the
Epistle, suggest that the recipients of the letter were converts from
heathenism. The Christians of Ephesus, the mother-city of Asiatic
idolatry, were peculiarly in need of such an exhortation.

[Sidenote: Where and when written.]

We can hardly doubt that it was written at Ephesus, where the apostle
spent his last years. The assertion that St. John did not live at
Ephesus is in direct contradiction with the best and earliest
traditions. But it has been repeated at intervals during the last
sixty years by several critics, who found that they would be compelled
to admit the genuineness of the Revelation if they granted that St.
John lived at Ephesus, where the Revelation was evidently published.[3]
Against such criticism we can confidently marshal the express and
independent statements of Apollonius of Ephesus (A.D. 196), Polycrates
of Ephesus (A.D. 190), {258} Irenaeus of Lyons (A.D. 185), Clement of
Alexandria (A.D. 190), Tertullian of Carthage (A.D. 200), not to
mention some valuable indirect evidence of earlier date. If we are to
reject such evidence as this, the science of history must be laid in
the tomb.

The question as to the exact date is very important for those who
believe that the Epistle was not written by the author of the Gospel.
They are involved in the most intricate questions about the
reproduction of the Gospel in the Epistle or of the Epistle in the
Gospel. For those who do not believe in a diversity of authorship the
problem is far less vital. The apostle was evidently advanced in
years. He includes all his people under the affectionate name "m