2 John 1:13
The children of your elect sister send you greetings.
BSB
ASV
The children of thine elect sister salute thee.
KJV
The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen.
Some, on the basis of these words, think to affirm that this epistle was written not to a woman, but to the Church. With him who thinks so, I do not at all argue.
The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen. Not the members of a sister church, as some think; but the children of one who was the sister of this lady, according to the flesh; and who, as she was either a very famous and excellent person, or rather one chosen of God likewise unto eternal life and salvation; and whose children also were walking in the truth, and here send their Christian salutation to their aunt; very likely those sister's children lived at Ephesus, where John resided.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk5
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
1 Peter 5:13The church in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does my son Mark.
leads to
And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying.
And he cried out in a mighty voice: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons and a haunt for every unclean spirit, every unclean bird, and every detestable…
When Barnabas and Saul had fulfilled their mission to Jerusalem, they returned, bringing with them John, also called Mark.
“I will mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know Me— along with Philistia, Tyre, and Cush— when I say, ‘This one was born in Zion.’”
And on her forehead a mysterious name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
