1, 2, and 3 John: New Testament Discourse Analysis Commentaries
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
This commentary approaches 1, 2, and 3 John as social discourses and seeks to provide insights into the use of language in these epistles within their situational contexts. The method of discourse analysis employed to analyze the texts and linguistic characteristics in 1-3 John is based on the model of systemic functional linguistics proposed by Michael A. K. Halliday. The interpretative task of this commentary is to analyze the ways in which the author draws on the vast resources of language to convey his ideas to the audience and accomplish his purposes. Despite the adoption of systemic functional linguistics, the use of jargon is avoided in the interpretation of the Johannine Epistles and the commentary does not demand from the reader a mastery of this discourse analysis method. The insights offered will help open up the text of 1-3 John in a fresh way.
- Provides a blueprint for constructing sermons and Bible lessons.
- Provides detailed charts, tables, and arcing diagrams that visually represent the grammatical and logical structure of the Johannine epistles.
- Analyzes how sentences and paragraphs connect to form a coherent argument, paying close attention to conjunctions, repeated phrases, and rhetorical structures.
- Introduction
- Commentary on 1 John
- Commentary on 2 John
- Commentary on 3 John
Taking the view that these letters are from John the son of Zebedee, Mavis Leung applies Hallidayan linguistics to the text. The result is an impressively lean and rigorous exposition, interacting amply with more traditional recent commentaries but establishing a distinct explanatory idiom. This is a rich and skilled contribution to grasp the Greek text, the flow of discourse, and the aims of all three epistles.
——Robert W. Yarbrough, Professor of New Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary
Commentaries on the Johannine Epistles continue to pour from the presses. This latest contribution, from Dr. Mavis Leung, covers the ground found in most commentaries, but does so with an eye focused on the social discourse features of the text. Influenced by the systemic functional linguistics proposed by Michael A. K. Halliday, Leung seeks to enrich her exegesis by drawing attention to the writer’s deployment of language to flesh out the social world he shares with his readers.
——D. A. Carson, Emeritus Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
By utilizing a modern theory of language—Systemic Functional Linguistics—and applying it to the common Greek text of 1, 2, and 3 John in the first century, Mavis Leung guides us on an interesting tour of Greek exegesis that may bring immerse us in the social-cultural formation of the author to the first audience. The author’s hortatory aim to the first audience may find echoes to us in our world of idols and self-affirmative ideologies.
——Sin Pan Ho, Dean of Studies, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Hong Kong
- Title: 1, 2, and 3 John: New Testament Discourse Analysis Commentaries
- Author: Mavis M. Leung
- Series: New Testament Discourse Analysis Commentaries
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2025
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 226
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- ISBNs: 9781532685514, 9781532685491, 1532685491, 9781532685507, 1532685505, 1532685513
- Resource ID: LLS:9781532685514
- Resource Type: Commentary
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-02T21:36:29Z