The children of your elect sister greet you. Amen.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
The children of thy sister Electa salute thee. From hence Å’cumenius and our Serarius maintain that the name of Electa, to whom this Epistle is inscribed, is an appellative noun and the title of some particular church. They think the meaning Isaiah , "The children of thy sister, i.e. the faithful of the elect Church of Ephesus, salute thee, 0 elect Church of Corinth." Some think that these Electas were particular persons, but were called sisters, not as being so in the flesh, but because they were disciples of the same master, S. John.
It is probable that the sister of Electa was also called Electa on the principle that in many families two or more children bear the same name, so that there are two Johns, two Peters, two Marys, or Margarets. I add what I have intimated at the commencement of the Epistle, that Electa is not so strictly a proper as an appropriated name, a title, so to say, of dignity and office which is bestowed upon several persons discharging similar functions. Electa thus seems to have been the name of a chief matron, who like a mother supported the ministers of the Church, the widows, the orphans, and the poor, and who as a Deaconess presided over the instruction and government of other women in the Church. The meaning then Isaiah , "0 Electa, mother of the faithful in the Church, say of Corinth, the children of thy sister, who is also Electa, a mother of the faithful, in the Church of Ephesus, from whence I write, salute thee." It is in favour of this that the Greek article is prefixed to Electa, which is not usual in the use of proper names, but to names of dignity and office appropriated to certain persons.
It is an instance of the kindness and courtesy of S. John that he salutes Electa, not only in his own name, but in the name of his grandchildren.
Some Greek and Latin codices add, Grace be with them. Amen. This is a salutation worthy of S. John and common with S. Paul.
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