528 John Byron and the Epistle can also be explained by the common interpretive traditions shared by the two documents (8). While both the Gospel and the Epistle use ajnqrwpoktovno" to describe the referent as a murderer, the applications are somewhat different. In the Gospel the context seems to be the conflict between the Johannine community and the local synagogue. In the Epistle the author is more concerned with the problems of community life. The familial language that permeates 1 John 3 suggests that in spite of the terminology used, the author has a particular type of murder in mind: fratricide. The author presents a contrast between those who are children of God and those who are not and condemns all who hate their brothers. Since the focus is on community life through familial language, it would seem plausible that the Epistle’s author used traditions shared with the Gospel to label the brother-haters not simply as murderers but more specifically as fratricides. The examples from Euripides’ limited usage of anqrwpoktono" suggests it was reserved for those types of murder that were j v viewed as particularly revolting. The killing of a family member could be viewed with the same repugnancy as would the sacrifice and/or devouring of the victim. In the story of Iphigenia in Tauris, the heroine is a priestess of Artemis and her job consists of consecrating men to be put to death on the altar. The plot is framed around how she helps her brother, Orestes, to escape this fate. Such a use of ajnqrwpoktovno" by Euripides is interesting since both here and in 1 John it is the (potential) act of fratricide that is central to the stories. Iphigenia rescued her brother; Cain killed his brother. When combined with the Cain illustration in 1 John 3,15, the ajnqrwpoktovno" label would have been an effective condemnation of those who refused to follow the example of Christ. Moreover, since they follow the example of Cain and hate their brothers they could be more properly called fratricides (9). Such a depiction of Cain is not without precedence. Although Cain is not mentioned by name there are clear echoes between Wisdom 10,3 and 1 John 3,12. In Wisdom an unrighteous man perished because he committed fratricide (ajdelfoktovnoi") in a fit of anger. 1 John 3,12 says that Cain committed fratricide because his brother’s works were righteous and his were not. Philo refers to Cain as an ajdelfoktovno" no less than ten times and sometimes uses the label as a way to talk about Cain without mentioning his name (10). The same labeling of Cain is found in Josephus’s Antiquities 1.65, a fragment of Jubilees 4.15 (11) and in 1 Clement 4,7. (8) Bultmann suggested that the author’s source contained the term ajnqrwpoktovno" and therefore induced him to make reference to the Cain and Abel story (The Johannine Epistles, 54). (9) There maybe some connection to Jesus tradition here with anger towards one’s brother being connected to murder in Matthew 5,21-24 (A.E. BROOKE, The Johannine Epistles [ICC; Edinburgh 1912] 94; SMALLEY, 1, 2, 3 John, 191; D.C. ALLISON, Studies in Matthew [Grand Rapids, MI 2005] 65-78). A similar theme is found later in the Jewish work Derek Eres Rabba 11.13 (57b) which attributes to Rabbi Eliezer ben Hyrcanus, a contemporary of the Johannine authors, the saying, “He who hates his neighbor is among the shedders of blood” (BROWN, The Epistles of John, 447). (10) Worse 96; Posterity, 49; Agriculture, 21; Virtues, 199; Cherubim, 52; Flight, 60; Rewards, 72, 74. (11) A.-M. DENIS, Concordance grecque des pseudépigraphes d’ Ancien Testament (Louvain-la-Neuve 1987).