Overview of 1st John
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -- the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us..." (1:1-2) THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN. In this first epistle from the Apostle John there are many themes carried over from the gospel which he wrote, the Gospel of John. He is writing late in the first century to a number of churches in Asia Minor (now Turkey), including Ephesus, where he lived his last years and was buried. It seems that his readers were being tempted to move toward a hybridized philosophy of Christ, which was more acceptable to Greek thinking at that time. This included a de-emphasis on the humanity of Jesus (some of the later Gnostics would say that Jesus was a kind of hologram from heaven), and an over-emphasis on knowl...