OET interlinear 3 YHN (3 JHN) 1:9

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

τι

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἔγραψα τὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀλλʼ ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμάς)

What John wrote was a letter, probably containing instructions about helping traveling Christian teachers. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [a letter about this]

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / explicit

τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ

˱to˲_the assembly

Here, the church refers to Gaius and the group of believers who regularly met together with him to worship God. You could include this information if that would be helpful to your readers. Alternate translation: [to the assembly of believers in your place]

Note 3 topic: translate-names

Διοτρέφης

Diotrephes

Diotrephes is the name of a man who was a leader of the church.

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / idiom

ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν

the_‹one› loving_to_be_first ˱of˲_them

John is using the word first in the sense of “most important” or “in charge.” Alternate translation: [who loves to be the most important one among them] or [who loves to act as though he is their leader]

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / metonymy

οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμᾶς

not ˓is˒_accepting (Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἔγραψα τὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀλλʼ ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμάς)

John is using the word us to represent someone or something associated with himself and those with him. This could mean: (1) that Diotrephes opposes providing hospitality and support to the traveling believers whom John endorses. (The word translated receive in this verse is the same one as in the phrase “he does not receive the brothers” in the next verse.) Alternate translation: [opposes helping these traveling believers]; (2) that Diotrephes does not accept John’s authority and so will not do what he says. Alternate translation: [rejects our instructions]

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / exclusive

ἡμᾶς

(Some words not found in SR-GNT: Ἔγραψα τὶ τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀλλʼ ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης οὐκ ἐπιδέχεται ἡμάς)

Here the word us refers to John and those with him but not to Gaius, so use the exclusive form of that word in your translation if your language marks that distinction.