74 connected with a church whose leader (Diotrephes) had refused to support the traveling evangelists that John had sent through that area. John urges Gaius to support the traveling evangelists who were bringing this letter to him (3 Jn 5-8), and not to follow the bad example of Diotrephes (3 Jn 9-11) who had refused to support those traveling missionaries and excommunicated any of the church members who did support them. 3 John 12 – John recommends Demetrius to Gaius, suggesting perhaps that Demetrius may have been one of the messengers carrying this letter. Evidently Demetrius was previously known to the church there, as well as by Gaius, but for some reason needed John’s recommendation and endorsement to make him acceptable to Gaius and the church there. Evidently John felt that since they already knew Demetrius, that John’s endorsement would carry further weight in getting them to support such traveling missionaries. John says (3 Jn 1314) that he had a lot more to write to them, but that he would save that for a personal visit “shortly.” Reading between the lines, it seems as though this letter was a warning to Gaius and perhaps Diotrephes, that they needed to change their ways, because John was coming there personally (and “shortly”) to set matters straight if they had not already been corrected by the time he got there. All three of the names mentioned in this epistle (Gaius, Diotrephes, and Demetrius) are Greek names, suggesting that this church was in Greece, Macedonia, or Turkey. The fact that John was planning to come visit them “shortly” implies he is writing from Jerusalem. We would have to wonder why John would write to those churches in Asia if he was dwelling right there in the area after his release from Patmos. He could more easily have gone to visit them instead. The state of the church under Diotrephes, which obviously had a dictatorial type of leader, instead of being led by a group of elders, easily fits a time before his exile when the churches of Asia had so many problems (as also was mentioned in the book of Revelation). After his exile it would have been more dangerous to go visit that church and set it in order. Even writing letters to it would be dangerous in late 63. This condition of the church, and his warning that he was intending to visit them soon, seemingly fits a pre-Patmos scenario in Jerusalem better. Evidently it was written at a time when it was still safe for evangelists to do mission trips, obviously before the Neronic persecution, and probably before his exile to Patmos.
Luke-Acts Written in Rome (AD 61-62) Since these two books (Luke-Acts) appear to be written to a Gentile audience, and include several encounters with the governmental authorities and the courts, which supply legal precedents for Nero’s court to follow, the weight of evidence favors the idea that Luke-Acts were written for one of Nero’s court officials right after Paul and Luke reached Rome in the Spring of 61, and were most likely finished by the Spring of 62 before Paul’s case went to trial in Nero’s court. Since the book of Acts ends with Paul’s release from Roman imprisonment, the book of Acts must have been finished no later than 63. But there is good reason to believe that the main corpus of Acts was finished long before Paul’s trial before Nero began in late 62 or early 63. Paul would have known, even before he reached Rome, that he would need a good defense to get him acquitted before Nero, so he would have needed Luke to at least gather all the facts, do his research, and at least make some notes before heading toward Rome. How early in the Caesarean imprisonment Luke began doing his research and making his notes is difficult to guess, but it was probably hastened along once Paul realized he would have to appeal to Caesar. The plot by 40 men to ambush and kill him would have been enough to make him start thinking about getting out of Judea, and his Roman citizenship would have come readily to mind, especially after Jesus appeared to him in jail there in Jerusalem in AD 58 and told him that he must testify for the gospel in Rome also (Acts 23:11). That would have given him the idea that he would have to testify in Roman court somehow. It would not have taken any imagination for him to see what Jesus was alluding to. All he had to do was wait for the appropriate moment to make the appeal to Caesar. That opportunity came in his hearing before Festus and Agrippa, when they asked Paul if he was willing
