The first Johannine Epistle appears to have been written as a circular to one or more Christian communities in Asia Minor. The author names himself as “the elder” in the second and third Epistles (2 John 1; 3 John 3), but in his first and fullest communication he simply begins with a worship piece that is very similar in vocabulary and form to the prologue of the Johannine Gospel. Note the use of first-person plural references (“we,” 1:1–5) as a means of including the audiences with the community of the elder. Appeals to corporate solidarity draw the hearers and readers into fellowship with the author and other Johannine leaders (cf. John 1:14, 16; 21:24), and the first epistle draws squarely on familiar themes developed in the first edition of the Gospel.

Like the prologue of the Gospel…