The Author of the Epistle is the Apostle John, not an Ephesian Elder differing from him, as Grotius imagines, whose arguments are refuted, 1. It is inscribed to an elect Lady, not a Church, but an individual matron, and to her children, 2. The occasion and argument of the Epistle, 3. The time of writing, 4. It has three parts: I. A Preface (2 John 1-3). II. The Discussion, that is, congratulations concerning the acknowledgment of the truth, and an exhortation to constancy (2 John 4-11). III. An Epilogue (2 John 12, 13). Interpreters of the Epistle, Ancient, Reformed, Lutheran, Roman Catholic; and also a Synoptic Table, 5.