with some known individual, we have little but surmise to go on." There are many similarities between 2 and 3 John. Both follow the format of other personal letters of the era; in both the author self-identifies as "the Presbyter", a term which literally means "the elder"; and both deal with themes of hospitality and conflict within the church. They are also extremely similar in length, probably because they were both written to fit on one papyrus sheet. 3 John is also linguistically similar to both 2 John and other Johannine works. Of 99 different words used, 21 are unimportant words like "and" or "the", leaving 78 significant words. 23 of these do not appear in 1 John or the Gospel of John, of which four are unique to 3 John, one is common to 2 and 3 John, and two are found in both 2 and 3 John as well as in other New Testament writings. Approximately 30% of the significant words in 3 John do not appear in 1 John or the Gospel, compared to 20% for 2 John. These considerations indicate a close affinity between 2 and 3 John, though 2 John is more strongly connected with 1 John than it is with 3 John. A minority of scholars, however, argue against common authorship of 2 and 3 John, and Rudolf Bultmann held that 2 John was a forgery based on 3 John. If 3 John was written by John the Apostle, however, it is strange that Diotrephes would oppose him since the apostles were highly respected in the early church. One possible alternative view of the epistle's authorship arises from a fragment written by Papias of Hierapolis and quoted by Eusebius which mentions a man named "the Presbyter John". However, since nothing else is known of this individual it is not possible to positively identify him as the author of 3 John. Date and location of writing All three letters of John were likely written within a few years of each other, and internal evidence indicates that they were written after the Gospel of John, placing them in the second half of the first century. This dating makes sense given their allusions and opposition to Gnostic and docetic teaching, which denied the full humanity of Jesus, and which was gaining ascendancy at the end of the first century. Dodd argues for a date between 96 and