Objection: Faith Teachers Tell Us to Heal the Sick, Not Pray for Them, but John Prayed That Gaius Would Be Healthy (3 John 2)

The objector obviously does not use the King James Version, which does not say that John prayed for Gaius, but rather that he wished that Gaius be in health.  Young’s Literal Translation uses the word desire, not pray, as do a couple others.  However, many translations do use the word pray in this verse.

Who’s right?  If you go by biblical usage, the Greek word euchomai is a toss-up between an obvious meaning of wish or desire and an obvious meaning of pray.  It can be used in both cases and translated both ways.  This leaves the translator with the job of trying to figure out from the context which meaning should apply in English.

Given that fact, there is no proof that John actually did pray for Gaius to be in health as opposed to simply stating his wish for Gaius to be healthy.  If you think that the “wish” explanation leads to the conclusion that this verse is only a greeting with no doctrinal authority, please read the separate objection reply that deals with that issue.