DIOTREPHES. – A personage recalled with disapproval in III Io. 9 ff.
The name (Διοτρεφής) is found in inscriptions and in Greek authors (J. Chaine, p. 256). D. must have been the head of the community to which the addressee of the letter, Caio (v.), also belonged. Giovanni wrote (ἐγραψά τι, “I have written something,” rather than ἐγραψά ἄν, “scripsissem forstitan” in the Vulgate) a letter to the community to recommend itinerant missionaries, perhaps sent by Giovanni himself: a letter badly received, or even destroyed by D., who saw in this intervention by the Elder a diminution of his own authority, of which he was extremely jealous. There is no indication that he professed heretical doctrines, nor does it appear that his conduct provides evidence of that alleged crisis whereby the Christian communities supposedly passed from the primitive form of collegial government to that of monarchical episcopacy (A. Harnack, Über den dritten Johannesbrief [Texte und Untersuchungen, 15], Leipzig 1897). Φιλοπροστάσιν indicates not so much an excessive desire for advancement as jealousy of one’s own authority. The reproach directed at D. is not that he usurped or wished to usurp the first place, but that he held it in a spirit of pride, which led him to disregard Giovanni’s authority, whispering malicious insinuations against him, and to refuse hospitality to the itinerant missionaries, even preventing others from offering II. On a forthcoming visit the Elder will publicly denounce his conduct.
Teodorico da Castel San Pietro