Heidegger's Bible Handbook: 1 John: Authorship

1. The Author of the Epistle is Saint John, Apostle of Christ. For what reason was his name not prefixed? The rash assertion of Baronius concerning the lost preface of the Epistle.

This Epistle was written by Saint John, the Evangelist and Apostle of Christ, as the inscription, which reads thus, Ἰωάννου τοῦ Ἀποστόλου ἐπιστολὴ καθολικὴ πρώτη, the First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle John, teaches; and the ancients uniformly related; and the perfect agreement of the style and matter with the other writings of John argues. Concerning this we spoke at somewhat greater length in the chapter on the Gospel of John. Moreover, he omitted his own name in a his customary manner. For neither did he prefix his name to his Gospel, and he hardly ever speaks of himself except by circumlocution. And Baronius, asserting on the year 99 AD that the inscription of the Epistle perished through the injury of time, the Most Illustrious Gomarus, page 719, with good reason branded with a mark of audacity.