Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Anyway, I am just thinking aloud here. Something happened in the fellowships of the believers which by AD 90 or so had the aged apostle John quite bothered. The assemblies were in some kind of bondage. A new Babylon was rising in their midst. Whether this was due to the efforts of James or Paul or something else I can't establish. John was one of the 12 who set up the "feeding committee" in Acts 6 (see v.2). He didn't want to serve tables either. So why is he excoriating the Nicolaitans 50 years later?
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Well maybe think about this aloud: John's gospel is the most purely Greek of the bunch and it is markedly distinct in any number of ways. Why and how did that occur? And as you already noted, he was way outside of the mainstream at the close of the period. Surely that might give him perspective. I wouldn't hold being among them in Acts 6 as anything much because he may have seen the outcome of that very early organizational effort and felt differently later. Can you identify some statement which might reveal that?
But this is the thing that instantly interested me most in this context: he referred to himself four times as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." I think instinctively, we may tend to hear this as a boast about the special place that he had in the Lord's heart but consider his epistles and see if that reading really fits for you. Surely, brother John did not truly believe Jesus loved him more than all the others! And he never says "more" anyway.
So, if that's the case, how can we understand the repeated phrase about being loved? What else might he have meant to convey by the phrase? And is it possible that this is a clue?
I don't just want to raise the questions. My speculation, along the line of yours I believe, is that John was on a different line from the rest early on.
Maybe not read John as opposed to those brothers but as opposed to what came from their Jewish practice because of a more Greek connection of some kind?
This is interesting!