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AnswerRaymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) believes that 1 John makes more sense if understood as written in a period following the appearance of the Gospel, at least after the initial edition and before redaction. There are many parallels with the Gospel now known as John's Gospel, confirming that it would have come from the same community, but there are differences in theology that demonstrate disagreement on matters of theology. For example, 1 John assigns to God features that the Gospel assigns to Jesus.

Burton L. Mack (Who Wrote the New Testament) believes, along with other scholars, that a split took place in the Johannine community shortly after the turn of the second century. One faction thought it best to merge with other Christian groups of a more centrist leaning. Another party refused, holding to the enlightenment tradition of the community and developed in the direction of a Christian gnosticism. The issues they parted over were orientation to knowledge (gnosis) versus faith (pistis).

1 John was written for those who remained behind in the Johannine community as a Gnostic group. The author wanted to charge his opponents with being sinners (1 John 1:8-10), but did not want to offer his opponents the promise of forgiveness. In 1 John, "The Jews" who are the chief adversaries in the Gospel are absent and all attention is on deceivers who have seceded from the Johannine community. Mack says that the author's polemic against his erstwhile brothers and sisters is vicious and his arguments ridiculous. He was reduced at most points of direct confrontation to labelling his opponents 'liars' (1 John 1:6-10; 2:4; 4:20) or consigning them to demonic, cosmic, or divine destruction (1 John 3:4‑10).

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