Five-minute study · Day 115 · 3 John 1
3 John 1:2
A word worth stopping on: prosper εὐοδοῦσθαι euodousthai
This verse has been preached in stadiums and printed on prosperity gospel business cards. 'Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.' Taken out of context, it sounds like a divine guarantee of financial success. The Greek word behind 'prosper' tells a different story. It means to have a good road. And the sentence is a standard greeting from ancient letter-writing convention, the first-century equivalent of 'I hope this email finds you well.'
Word study: prosper
- Greek
- εὐοδοῦσθαι
- Pronounced
- euodousthai
- Strong's
- G2137
- Definition
- To have a good journey, to prosper on the way, to succeed. From eu (good, well) and hodos (road, path, journey).
Euodoo is built from two parts: eu (good, well) and hodos (road, path, way). To euodoo is to have a good road, to travel well, to find your path unobstructed. Romans 1:10 uses it when Paul prays for a 'prosperous journey' to Rome. The word lives in the world of travel, of roads that may or may not be safe, of journeys that may or may not reach their destination.
First-century letters followed predictable conventions. The sender identified himself, named the recipient, offered a greeting, and expressed a health wish. Papyrus letters discovered in Egypt's dry climate preserve thousands of examples. 'I pray that you are well' or 'I hope you are in good health' appears so routinely that scholars classify it as a formulaic element of the letter's opening. John's health wish in 3 John 2 follows this convention precisely.
That does not make it meaningless. John personalizes the formula by tying physical prosperity to the state of Gaius' soul: 'even as your soul prospers.' He knows Gaius is spiritually healthy (verse 3 confirms it: 'I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you'). The health wish says: may your body and circumstances match what I already know is true about your inner life.
Smalley's commentary notes that reading this verse as a universal promise of wealth requires ignoring the letter's genre, the word's etymology, and the sentence's grammatical function. Euodoo means a good road. John is wishing Gaius safe travel through life. The verse is warm, personal, and limited to its recipient. It is not a blank check.
Historical context · Late first century AD
How Ancient Letters Began
Third John is addressed to a man named Gaius, a common Roman name that appears elsewhere in the New Testament (Acts 19:29, 20:4; Romans 16:23; 1 Corinthians 1:14). Whether any of those references identify the same person as 3 John's Gaius is uncertain. The name was one of the most common in the Roman Empire, equivalent to 'John' or 'James' in modern English.
The letter concerns hospitality. Gaius has been receiving traveling missionaries and supporting them financially. A man named Diotrephes, who 'loves to have the preeminence' (verse 9), has been refusing to welcome these missionaries and excommunicating church members who do. The elder writes to commend Gaius and condemn Diotrephes.
Ancient letter-writing conventions are well documented through the papyri. Adolf Deissmann's 'Light from the Ancient East' (1908) was among the first studies to compare New Testament letters with ordinary correspondence discovered in Egyptian rubbish heaps. The health wish formula appears in letters from every social class: soldiers writing home, wives writing to husbands, merchants writing to partners. P.Oxy. 1481 (second century AD) reads: 'Before all else I pray that you are well, and I make obeisance for you before the gods.' The formula was so standard that its absence would have been conspicuous.
John's version Christianizes the convention. He replaces the standard Greek gods with a prayer directed to the God of Israel, and he adds a theological qualifier: 'even as your soul prospers.' The standard formula becomes pastoral. But it remains a greeting. Building a theology of guaranteed prosperity on a first-century letter opening is like building a doctrine on 'Dear Sir or Madam.'
For reflection
Euodoo means a good road. John wished Gaius safe passage through life, tied to the health of his soul. What does your road look like right now, and what is the relationship between the state of your inner life and the way you are navigating the external journey?
John already knew Gaius' soul was in good shape. The wish was that his outer circumstances would catch up. Sometimes the road is rough even when the traveler is healthy.
Sources: BDAG Lexicon; Smalley, '1-3 John' (WBC); Deissmann, 'Light from the Ancient East'