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Since antiquity, three letters attributed to John have belonged to the canon of the New Testament. Among these letters, the first one is better attested than the second and the third. First witnesses of the First Letter of John are Papias (in Eus. Hist. eccl. 3.39.17, see Aland, 2001, 547), where “the earlier letter” should be 1 John, and Polycarp in his (Second) Letter to the Philippians (7:1), where 1 John 4:2 (see 2 John 7) is quoted, besides possible allusions to 1 John 3:8 (see 1 John 2:18.22). Although 1 John does not bear the …

[German Version] I. Religious Studies – II. Bible – III. Dogmatics – IV. Education and Ethics – V. Law I. Religious Studies Emphasis on the phenomenon known as obedience varies among religions, but wherever human beings are understood as hearers of a divine or sacred word obedience plays an important role as the claim of a higher, transhuman power on human beings. The religious will to obey presupposes prevailing over one’s own self-will for the sake of God or what is holy. The Enlighten-¶ ment, which calls human beings to autonomy, led to a crisis of the religious concept of o…