Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full. (2 John 12)
This is a very “un-Protestant” verse as the author clearly privileges oral instruction as opposed to the written word (even when he is writing what we now know to be God-breathed revelation!) Note the following from commentators:
His purpose achieved, the elder brings his letter to a close in a conventional way: there are other things that would be better said, or perhaps can wait to be said, in person. It was a truism in ancient letter writing that a latter was a poor but sometimes necessary substitute for a face-to-face conversation. This need not mean that his hope of a visit is a polite but unrealistic courtesy. Second John, and, even more, 3 John convey a picture of a man connected to these communities by other travellers, so why should not he himself also make the journey? The hope perhaps does ameliorate the authoritative note he has just adopted by anticipating a more open and equal encounter, but is also reinforces his status as one who would not be accorded the treatment he has just enjoined. This is further strengthened by the same phrase with which the author of 1 John closed the opening prologue, “that our joy may be made complete” (1 John 1:4): as elsewhere the change to the first person plural, “our,” serves to unite author and audience, but might also extend to locate them in a wider circle. More particularly, as another Johannine catchphrase (John 3:29; 16:24; 17:13), its use here, and not at the equivalent place in 3 John, is appropriate in a letter that has achieved much of its effects by echoes of language familiar to the readers. (Judith M. Lieu, I, II, & III John: A Commentary [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008], 263)
12. ὑμῖν] The position of the pronoun is perhaps emphatic. The writer of these Epistles is clearly well acquainted with the circumstances of those whom he addresses.
οὐκ ἐβουλήθην] One of the more certain instances in the N.T. of the epistolary aorist.
χάρτου καὶ μέλανος] Cf. the similar phrase in 3 Jn. 13, μέλανος καὶ καλάμου, and 2 Co. 3:3, οὐ μέλανι ἀλλὰ πνεύματι. The material denoted is, of course, papyrus, the usual material for correspondence and for the cheaper kinds of books. Contrast 2 Ti. 4:13, μάλιστα τὰς μεμβράνας.Cf. Jer 43. (36.) 23, ἐξέλιπεν πᾶς ὁ χάρτης εἰς τὸ πῦρ.γενέσθαι] If there is any difference of meaning between this word and the more usual ἐλθεῖν into which it has been altered in the Textus Receptus, γενέσθαι seems rather to mean to “pay a visit” (cf. 1 Co. 2:3, 16:10, ἵνα ἀφόβως γένηται πρὸς ὑμᾶς). The intercourse which the coming makes possible is emphasized rather than the actual fact of coming. But cf. Tebtunis Pap. ii. 298 (p. 421), ἅμα τῷ λαβεῖν σε ταῦτά μου τὰ γράμματα γενοῖ πρὸς μέ, and also Jn. 6:21 (ἐγένετο ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς), 25. πότε ὧδε γέγονας;
στόμα πρὸς στόμα] Cf. 3 Jn. 14, and 1 Cor. 13:12, πρόσωπον πρὸς πρόσωπον: Nu. 12:8, στόμα κατὰ στόμα (פה אל פה).
ἵνα ἡ χαρὰ κ.τ.λ.] Cf. 1 Jn. 1:4; 3 Jn. 4. The object of the proposed visit is the same as that which the writer had in view in writing the First Epistle. It is generally to be noticed that the closest parallels in the Johannine writings are given some slightly different turn in different circumstances, which suggests that in both cases the writer is using his own favourite expressions rather than copying those of another.
εχων אc A2 B K L P al. pler. cat. vg. etc.] εχω א*A* 27. 29. 61. 64. 180 oscr: ειχον K51 (17) arm. | υμιν] post γραφειν99 al.3 scr | γραφειν] γραψαι Α 17. 73 gscr | ουκ] pr. sed arm. | μελανος και χαρτου sah. | αλλα ελπιζω א B K L P al. longe. plur. sah. syrbodl et p Thphyl. Oec.] ελπιζω γαρ A 5. 13 27. 29. 66**. 73 dscr al.10 cat. vg. cop. arm. aeth.: ελπιζων68 | γενεσθαι א A B 5. 6. 7. 13 27. 33. 65. 66**. 68. 137. 180 dscr vg. syrp Thphyl. Oeccom (παραγενεσθαι)] ελθειν K L P al. longe. plur. cat. tol. sah. syrbodl arm. aeth. Oectxt: uidere boh-ed. | λαλησαι] λαλησομενIb 396 (-) | ημων א K L P al. pler. cat. syrbodl et p arm. Thphyl. Oec.] υμων A B 5. 13 27. 29. 65. 66**. 68. 69. 73. 101. 104 cscr al. 8 vg. cop. aeth.: meum sah.: om. 21. 37. 56. Nestle retains ημων in his Greek text, but it is probably a correction into conformity with the common reading in the First Epistle | πεπληρωμενη η א (ην א*) Bvg. (et. fu. demid. harl. tol.) Thphyl.] η πεπληρωμενη A K L P al. omnuid cat. am. Oec. (Brooke, A. E. (1912). A critical and exegetical commentary on the Johannine epistles (pp. 179–180). New York: C. Scribner’s Sons.)
