Editing First Epistle of John (section)

==Authorship==
{{main|Authorship of the Johannine works}}
The epistle is traditionally held to have been composed by [[John the Evangelist]], at [[Ephesus]],<ref name="Burton367">Burton, p. 367</ref> when the writer was in advanced age. The epistle's content, language and conceptual style are very similar to the [[Gospel of John]], [[2 John]], and [[3 John]].<ref name ="Harris 1 John">[[Stephen L Harris|Harris, Stephen L.]], ''Understanding the Bible'' (Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985) "1 John," p. 355–356</ref> Thus, at the end of the 19th century scholar [[Ernest DeWitt Burton]] wrote that there could be "no reasonable doubt" that 1 John and the gospel were written by the same author.<ref>Burton, p. 366</ref>

Beginning in the 20th century, however, critical scholars like [[Heinrich Julius Holtzmann]] and [[C. H. Dodd]] identified the Gospel of John and 1 John as works of different authors. Certain linguistic features of the two texts support this view. For instance, 1 John often uses a [[demonstrative pronoun]] at the beginning of a sentence, then a particle or conjunction, followed by an explanation or definition of the demonstrative at the end of the sentence—a stylistic technique which is not used in the gospel.<ref name="Wilder211"/> The author of the epistle also "uses the conditional sentence in a variety of rhetorical figures which are unknown to the gospel". This indicates, at the very least, the linguistic characteristics changed over time.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dodd |first1=C. H. |title=The first epistle of John and the Fourth Gospel |journal=Bulletin of the John Rylands Library |date=1 April 1937 |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=129–156 |doi=10.7227/bjrl.21.1.5 }}</ref> Today, following the work of [[J. Louis Martyn]] and [[Raymond E. Brown|Raymond Brown]], the majority of scholars believe that John and 1 John were written by different members of the same community: the "Johannine Community".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Raymond |title=The Community of the Beloved Disciple |date=1979 |publisher=Pauli's Press |location=Mahwah, NJ |isbn=0809121743}}{{page needed|date=March 2020}}</ref>

Most critical scholars conclude that [[John the Apostle]] wrote none of these works.<ref name="Fourth Gospel 1985 p. 355">"Although ancient traditions attributed to the Apostle John the Fourth Gospel, the Book of Revelation, and the three Epistles of John, modern scholars believe that he wrote none of them." [[Stephen L Harris|Harris, Stephen L.]], ''Understanding the Bible'' (Palo Alto: Mayfield, 1985) p. 355</ref><ref name="Kelly2012">{{cite book|last=Kelly|first=Joseph F.|title=History and Heresy: How Historical Forces Can Create Doctrinal Conflicts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=923-w0Knq-AC&pg=PA115|date=1 October 2012|publisher=Liturgical Press|isbn=978-0-8146-5999-1|page=115}}</ref>