ABSTRACT
The three writings known as the First, Second and Third Epistles of John are related to the Gospel of John in a distinctive way. Scholars have become more and more sceptical about the common apostolic authorship of these writings, but the Gospel and the Epistles are still universally grouped together and regarded, if not as written by a single hand, then as produced in a common school of thought or community that explains the affi nities between them. It is undecided whether it is legitimate to speak about the legacy or reception of the Fourth Gospel in the Johannine Epistles at all. There is no agreement among scholars about the sequence in which the Gospel and the Epistles were written. The question is all the more complicated if we reckon that the Gospel itself was composed in different stages. In this case, it could be argued that an early version of the Gospel predates the Epistles which are, however, contemporary or prior to the fi nal redaction of the Gospel (especially John 21 and possibly also John 15-17).
