3 John 1:11

Before κακοποιῶν omit δέ with [987][988][989][990][991] against [992].

[987] 4th century. Discovered by Tischendorf in 1859 at the monastery of S. Catherine on Mount Sinai, and now at Petersburg. All three Epistles.
[988] 5th century. Brought by Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Constantinople, from Alexandria, and afterwards presented by him to Charles I. in 1628. In the British Museum. All three Epistles.
[989] 4th century. Brought to Rome about 1460. It is entered in the earliest catalogue of the Vatican Library, 1475. All three Epistles.
[990] 5th century. A palimpsest: the original writing has been partially rubbed out and the works of Ephraem the Syrian have been written over it. In the National Library at Paris. Part of the First and Third Epistles; 1 John 1:1 to 1 John 4:2; 3 John 1:3-14. Of the whole N.T. the only Books entirely missing are 2 John and 2 Thessalonians.

[991] 9th century. All three Epistles.
[992] 9th century. All three Epistles.

11. ἀγαπητέ. The address again marks transition to a new subject, but without any abrupt change. The behaviour of Diotrephes will at least serve as a warning.

μὴ μιμοῦ τ. κακὸν�. τ. ἀγ. Imitate not the ill, but the good. Κακός, though one of the most common words in the Greek language to express the idea of ‘bad,’ is rarely used by S. John. Elsewhere only John 18:23; Revelation 2:2; Revelation 16:2 : in Revelation 16:2 both words occur. Perhaps ‘ill’ is hardly strong enough here, and the ‘evil’ of A.V. had better be retained. Nothing turns on the change of word from πονηρός in 3 John 1:10, so that it is not absolutely necessary to mark it. For μιμεῖσθαι comp. 2 Thessalonians 3:7; 2 Thessalonians 3:9; Hebrews 13:7; the word occurs nowhere else in N.T.

ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐστίν. He has God as the source (ἐκ) of his moral and spiritual life; he is a child of God. In its highest sense this is true only of Him who ‘went about doing good’; but it is true in a lower sense of every earnest Christian. See on 1 John 2:16; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:8-9; 1 John 4:4; 1 John 4:6-7.

οὐχ ἑώρακεν τὸν Θεόν. See on 1 John 3:6. Of course doing good and doing evil are to be understood in a wide sense: the particular cases of granting and refusing hospitality to missionary brethren are no longer specially in question.