1. For instance, P.Oxy. 292 (Loeb, p. 297), “Before all else I pray that you may have health and the best of success”; B.G.U. 423 (Loeb, p. 305), “Before all else I pray for your health and that you may always be well and prosperous.” See also P.Giess. 17 (Loeb, p. 309–10); B.G.U. 846 (Loeb, p. 317). The examples are too numerous to list.
2. D. Lake, “Elder (NT),” ZEB, 2:290–91; also Hermann W. Beyer, “ἐπίσκοπος,” TDNT, 2:608–22; Günter Bornkamm, “πρεσβύτερος,” TDNT, 6:651–81.
3. Bultmann, Johannine Epistles, 95.
4. E.g., P.Oxy. 1162; P.S.I. 208; see also Kim, Form and Structure.
5. Bultmann, Johannine Epistles, 95–96.
6. Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, 344.
7. Bray, ACCS 11, 240.
8. Brown, Epistles of John, 703; Bultmann, Johannine Epistles, 95; Marshall, Epistles of John, 81; Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John, 344; Stott, Epistles of John, 217; John Christopher Thomas, The Pentecostal Commentary on 1 John, 2 John, 3 John (Cleveland: Pilgrim, 2004), 21.
9. See Select Papyri, vol. 1 (Loeb), for the following examples: P.Oxy. 292 (p. 296), Class. Phil. xxii (p. 302), B.G.U. 423 (p. 304), P.Giess. 17 (p. 308), B.G.U. 846 (p. 316).
10. Exler, Form of the Ancient Greek Letter, cited by Robert W. Funk, “The Form and Structure of II and III John,” JBL 86 (1967): 425.
11. E.g., Andrew Whitman, “3 John: Helping or Hindering with the Spread of the Gospel?” Evangel (Summer 1997): 37–38. Though Whitman should not put such exegetical weight on 3 John 2, he makes many valid points about prayer.
12. For instance, John Bird Sumner, A Practical Exposition of the General Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude (London: J. Hatchard & Son, 1840), cited in H. L. Landrus, “Hearing 3 John 2 in the Voices of History,” JPT 11, no. 1 (2002): 78.
13. Carrie J. Montgomery, “The Sacredness of the Human Body,” Triumphs of Faith 30 (July 1910): 167.
14. J. Rendel Harris, “A Study of Letter-Writing,” The Expositor, 5th series, 8 (1898): 167; Funk, “The Form and Structure of II and III John,” 425 n7.
15. See http://papyri.info/hgv/9398/?q=transcription_ngram_ia%3A%28Θεόκτιστος+++++%29 (accessed 2 August 2012).
16. Landrus, “Hearing 3 John 2,” 81.
17. Ibid.
18. Albert Barnes, Notes: Explanatory and Practical on the General Epistles of James, Peter, John and Jude (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1854), 422, cited in Landrus, “Hearing 3 John 2,” 79.
19. Bray, ACCS 11, 240.
20. BDAG, s.v. καθώς 2, 3.
21. Kim, Form and Structure, 131. For an example, see Deismann, Light from the Ancient East, 184.
22. Kim, Form and Structure, 85.
23. Wallace, Greek Grammar, 475.
24. Bray, ACCS 11, 240.
25. Wilson, For God So Loved the World, 131.
26. This is the central thesis of a popular book by Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict (San Bernardino, CA: Here’s Life, 1972).