Diotrephes

Diotrephes, whose name means nourished by Jupiter (reflecting a Greek pagan background), was a leader in a Christian congregation addressed in 3 John. The apostle John rebukes him pointedly as one who "loves to have the preeminence" among the church—refusing to acknowledge John's apostolic authority, refusing to receive the traveling missionaries John commended, forbidding others from welcoming them, and threatening to expel from the congregation those who showed hospitality (3 John 9–10).

Whether Diotrephes was a formally appointed church officer who abused his position or an upstart lay leader who had seized authority is debated in the commentaries. In either case his conduct stands as an early documented example of ambition for power disrupting the fellowship of the early church. John promises to deal with him personally on his next visit. The ISBE notes he may have represented a resistance to itinerant apostolic oversight as local congregations consolidated their own structures in the late first century.