ELECTA or ECLECTA ('EKXeKry5). Accord ing to Grotius, Wetstein, and some other critics, this word is used as a proper name in the address of John's second epistle, '0 Ilpeo-ptirepos 'ExXemj, xvpig--` The Presbyter to the Lady Eclecta.' This meaning is advocated by Bishop Middleton in his treatise on the Doctrine of the Greek Article (2d ed. Cambridge, 1828, pp. 626-629). He adduces in support of it several epistolary inscriptions from Basil, in which the name precedes, and the rank or condition in life is subjoined, such as MaraOicp larp.P—Acorriep eincr dr — Ma-yvmutav43 K6/..0771. : none of these, however, are purely honorary titles. To meet the objection that the sister of the person addressed is also called Eclecta in ver. 13, he suggests that the words 'ExXcKrijs are a gloss, explanatory of crov. But this is mere conjecture, unsupported by a single manu I script ; and such a gloss, if occasioned (as Bishop Middleton supposes) by the return to the singular number, would more naturally have been inserted after or, in which position, however unnecessary, it would at least produce no ambiguity. Some writers, both ancient and modern, have adopted a mystical interpretation, though contrary to the tuns loquendi, and to all apostolic usage, and sup posed with Jerome that the term KXEKTil referred to the church in general, or with Cassiodorus, to some particular congregation. The last named
writer (b. A.D. 47o, d. 562), in his Complexiones in Epistolas, etc. (Lond. 1722, p. 136), says, ' Johannes —electm dominx scrihit ecclesim, filiisque emus, quas sacro forte genuerat.' Clemens Alexandrinus, in a fragment of his Adumbrations, attempts to combine the literal and the mystical meanings ' Scripta vero est ad quandam Babyloniam Electam nomine, significat autem electionem ecclesix sancte ' (Opera, ed. Klotz. iv. p. 66). The A. V. translates the words in question 'the elect lady,' an interpreta tion approved by Castalio, Beza, Mill, Wolf, Le Clerc, and Macknight. Most modern critics, how ever, Schleusner and Breitschneider in their Lexi cons, Bourger (1763), Vater (1824), Goeschen (1832), and Tischendorf (1841), in their editions of the N. T., Neander (History of the Plant ing of the Christian Church, vol. ii. p. 71, Eng. transl.), De Wette (Lehrbuch, p. 339), and Dicke (Commentary on the Epistles of St. yohn, pp. 3 r4. 32o, Eng. transl.), agree with the Syriac and Ara bic Versions in making li.upig a proper name, and render the words ' to the elect Cyria.' Lardner has given a copious account of critical opinions in his History of the Apostles and Evangelists, C. xx. ; Works, vi. 284-288.—J. E. R.