Library / Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged

Volume I · D

Diotrephes

DIOTREPHES. Who Diotrephes was, we cannot tell, nor of what Church he was Bishop, nor whether he were a Bishop or not. Grotius believes that Gaius, to whom St. John wrote his third Epistle, and who lived in the same place as Diotrephes, was of one of the seven Churches which are named in the Revelations. Lightfoot is of opinion, that he lived at Corinth. But let this be as it will, Diotrephes was one who did not receive those with hospitality whom St. John sent to him, and would suffer no one else to do so. Oecumenius, Bede, and some modern Commentators will have it, that Diotrephes was an Heretick. Others think he was a Judaizing Christian, who would not admit the Gentile Converts to his table. But others affirm the quite contrary, and that Diotrephes would not receive those who were converted to Judaism. See 3 John, v. 9.

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Augustin Calmet, O.S.B., “Diotrephes,” in Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible, Complete and Unabridged, English translation, Mind of the Church, https://mindofthechurch.com/works/calmet-dictionary/d/diotrephes/.

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