Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DIOTREPHES

(Gk. Diotréphēs)

Presumably the host of a house church who “liked to be first” over his congregation (3 John 9-10). He refused to receive a message or messengers from the author of 3 John and expelled from the congregation those who did show such hospitality. Nothing else is known about Diotrephes, and his motives are unclear. Some suppose that he was among the heretics mentioned in 1 and 2 John, that he suspected the elder himself of heresy, or that he simply wished to keep this controversy out of his congregation. Others suggest that issues of church structure and authority were involved: e.g., that Diotrephes was an early bishop and that the elder represented an older style of authority; or that the elder held a bishop-like office and that Diotrephes resisted this innovation. In any case, uncertainties over new developments in church authority seem to be involved, particularly troublesome for the Johannine churches with their fundamentally egalitarian tradition. Issues of personal power and honor may also have played a significant part.

Bibliography. J. M. Lieu, The Second and Third Epistles of John (Edinburgh, 1986); A. J. Malherbe, “Hospitality and Inhospitality in the Church,” in Social Aspects of Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (Philadelphia, 1983), 92-112.

David Rensberger

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

DIOTREPHES

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)