Man living at the time of the New Testament
Diotrephes was a church leader who loved to be first and refused to welcome John and his companions.
🗺 Places mentioned alongside Diotrephes on the map →
Diotrephes is mentioned in 3Jn.1.9-10 as a church leader who opposed the apostle John and his associates. John describes Diotrephes as someone "who loves to be first" among the church members, suggesting that he had a dominant and controlling personality.
According to John, Diotrephes refused to welcome him and his companions and even went so far as to speak maliciously against them. Moreover, Diotrephes would not receive other believers who were associated with John and would expel from the church those who did welcome them (3Jn.1.10).
John's letter to Gaius, in which Diotrephes is mentioned, was written to commend Gaius for his faithfulness and hospitality towards traveling ministers (3Jn.1.5-8). By contrast, Diotrephes' behavior was a hindrance to the spread of the gospel and the unity of the church.
John declared his intention to confront Diotrephes about his actions when he visited the church (3Jn.1.10).
More background: search Wikipedia ↗
Jove-nourished, rebuked by John for his pride (3 John 1:9). He was a Judaizer, prating against John and his fellow-labourers “with malicious words” (7).
(nourished by Jove), a Christian mentioned in (3 John 1:9) but of whom nothing is known.
nourished by Jupiter
DIOT'REPHES (Jove-nourished), the head of the church, situation unknown, in Asia Minor to which Gaius belonged. 3 John 9. John rebukes him for his arbitrary use of authority and resistance to the higher powers. See John. Epistles of.
DIOT'REPHES (Jove-nourished), the head of the church, situation unknown, in Asia Minor to which Gaius belonged. 3 John 9. John rebukes him for his arbitrary use of authority and resistance to the higher powers. See John. Epistles of. DISCERNING OF SPIRITS was one of the miraculous gifts of the
Holy Ghost, by virtue of which the spirits of men were tried whether they were of God. 1 Cor 12:10; 1 John 4:1. It was a most desirable gift in the first ages of the Church, when false prophets and wicked spirits abounded on every side. Comp. Acts 5:1-10; Acts 13:6-12.
Easton (1897), Smith (1863), Hitchcock (1869), Hastings (1898) and Schaff are in the public domain. Parsed text: neuu-org/bible-dictionary-dataset (CC BY 4.0). Headwords and whitespace normalised for this site.
1 verse in 1 book · English text: BSB (change it from the menu at the top) · Strong’s G1361
I have written to the church about this, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not accept our instruction.
Names, family links and references: STEPBible TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Short descriptions were drafted with AI assistance by STEPBible. Family links follow STEPBible’s scholarly decisions where genealogies are ambiguous.