John's Second Letter
Although we are unable to fix the exact date of this Letter or the place at which it was written, there is sufficient evidence, both external and internal, to warrant our acceptance of it as a genuine work of the Apostle John.
Some have thought that the "lady" addressed stands for an unknown Church, but upon careful consideration it appears more reasonable and natural to regard the Letter as having been a private one. It is impossible to discover the name of the individual to whom it was sent, but both this and the following Letter may be taken as "precious specimens of the private correspondence of the beloved Apostle."
John's Third Letter
There can be no doubt that this Letter was addressed to an individual person. We cannot affix to it a definite date, or place, but the most natural supposition—which there is nothing to contradict—is that it came from the Apostle in Ephesus, about the same time as the preceding Letter.
The special mention of Diotrephes and his behaviour points indeed to a somewhat advanced development in the Church to which Galus belonged, but such characters are all too possible at any juncture to afford in this instance any guarantee of a later date.
In this, as in the preceding Letters, the writer's great concern is that transcendental truth should be embodied in practical holiness.
Jude's Letter
Of the time and place of the composition of this Letter we know nothing beyond what may be inferred from its contents. These seem to show that it was written in Palestine, and the absence of any reference to so striking an event as the destruction of Jerusalem points to a date earlier than 70 A. D.
It has, however, been thought that such a rebuke of error and licentiousness as that which this Letter contains can only apply to the forms of Gnosticism known to have existed in the first quarter of the second century. But there is no reason to doubt that the author was the man he asserts he was, the brother of James, the head of the Church in Jerusalem. He was, therefore, not an Apostle but one of the Lord's brothers.