1 ^1-2 Dear friend who loves God:^[a]

Several biographies of Christ have already been written using as their source material the reports circulating among us from the early disciples and other eyewitnesses. ³ However, it occurred to me that it would be well to recheck all these accounts from first to last and after thorough investigation to pass this summary on to you,^[b]

1 ^1-2 Dear friend who loves God:

In my first letter^[a] I told you about Jesus’ life and teachings and how he returned to heaven after giving his chosen apostles further instructions from the Holy Spirit. ³ During the forty days after his crucifixion he appeared to the apostles from time to time, actually alive, and proved to them in many ways that it was really he himself they were seeing. And on these occasions he talked to them about the Kingdom of God.