3 John 1:14

But I trust I shall shortly see thee More closely, but I hope immediately to see thee. The punctuation of this passage should be assimilated to the parallel passage in the Second Epistle. There is no reason for placing a comma before -but I hope" in the one case, and a full stop in the other.

face to face As in 2 John 1:12, this is literally -mouth to mouth."

Peace be to thee Instead of the usual -Farewell" we have an ordinary blessing with Christian fulness of meaning.

Pax interna conscientiae,

Pax fraterna amicitiae,

Pax superna gloriae.

Comp. John 20:19; John 20:26. The concluding blessing 1 Peter 5:14 is similar; comp. Eph 6:23; 2 Thessalonians 3:16; Galatians 6:16.

Our friends salute thee Rather, The friends salute thee: there is no authority for -our" either as translation or interpretation. If any pronoun be inserted, it should be -thy": the friends spoken of are probably the friends of Gaius. It is perhaps on account of the private character of the letter, as addressed to an individual and not to a Church, that S. John says -the friends" rather than -the brethren." Comp. -Lazarus, our friend, is fallen asleep" (John 11:11); and -Julius treated Paul kindly, and gave him leave to go unto the friendsand refresh himself" (Acts 27:3), where -the friends" probably means - hisfriends," just as it probably means - thyfriends" here. In -Lazarus, ourfriend" the pronoun is expressed in the Greek.

Greet the friends by name Better, as R. V., Salute the friends by name: the same verb is used as in the previous sentence and in 2 John 1:13 (ἀσπάζεσθαι): -greet" may be reserved for the verb used Acts 15:23; Acts 23:26; James 1:1; comp. 2 John 1:10-11 (χαίρειν). The former is much the more common word in N. T. to express salutation. For other instances of capricious changes of rendering in the same passage in A.V. comp. 1 John 2:24; 1 John 3:24; 1 John 5:10; 1 John 5:15; John 3:31.

by name The phrase (κατ' ὄνομα) occurs in N. T. in only one other passage (John 10:3); -He calleth His own sheep by name." The salutation is not to be given in a general way, but to each individual separately. S. John as shepherd of the Churches of Asia would imitate the Good Shepherd and know all his sheep by name.