A Letter of Recommendation? 211 The exordium of the letter is thus a somewhat explicit attempt to gain Gaius’ favor by highlighting his spiritual prosperity, his faithfulness, and praiseworthy general behavior, which, of course, brings great joy to the Elder himself. It is not clear yet if the Elder believes Gaius to be already on his side or if he feels the need to persuade him. c) Commission to Gaius / bad (“pagans”) and good (“we”) examples (vv. 5-8) A second vocative (after that of v. 2) marks the beginning of a new section. The Elder now moves from praise to request, but with tact and always upholding Gaius’ laudable behavior and presumed willingness to keep and achieve honor as his main argument. In fact, the Elder again proceeds by praising Gaius for what he “faithfully does” (pisto;n poiei'", v. 5). He also refers to a specific occasion in which “the brothers” testified to Gaius’ love before the church (v. 6a) (34). However, the Elder is very vague in defining the occasion and content of Gaius’ actions: “whatever you work towards the brothers especially [when they are] stranger” (v. 5) is a very indefinite construction which employs ejavn followed by the aorist subjunctive of the verb ejrgavzomai(35). This description of the brothers as “strangers” suggests that the Elder is probably alluding to hospitality, but there is no indication that Gaius has already extended hospitality to the brothers. The overall impression one gets of this section of the letter is that the Elder is praising Gaius for his “general” praiseworthy behavior and attitude, which is well known by the brethren. The Elder suggests that because of this honorable reputation, Gaius should be ready to eventually give further proof of his commendable Christian character by extending hospitality to some brother, even if a stranger, connected with the Elder. In ancient Mediterranean culture, hospitality was a sacred bond and refusing it to a friend or to a friend’s envoy would have been considered shameful (cf. Rhet. Her. 3,3,4). At this juncture, the suggestion becomes an invitation: “you will do well to send them in a manner worthy of God” (ou}" kalw'" poihvsei" propevmya" ajxivw" tou' qeou', v. 6b). The verb propevmpw clearly has the meaning of “equipping someone with the necessary provisions when (34) So should be understood the meaning if the aorist indicative ejmartuvrhsavn (“they bore witness”). Cf. LIEU, Epistles of John, 104. (35) S. LANGDON, “History of the use of ejavn for a[n in Relative Clauses”, American Journal of Philology 24 (1903) 447-451.