Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LETTER

Letters were among the most important types of written texts in antiquity, in part because they were understood to function as a substitute for the author’s presence. In addition to a few handbooks on writing letters, a large number of Hellenistic letters from the period beginning in the mid-3rd century b.c.e. are extant. These materials provide an important resource for understanding the letters of the NT.

The letter is the most common literary form in the NT. Besides the nearly 20 NT books written in this form, some letters are found embedded within books of both the OT (e.g., 2 Sam. 11:15) and the NT (Acts 15:23-29).

Letters in the Hellenistic era included several conventional parts or “periods.” These were: a greeting, often a thanksgiving or prayer, a body, and a closing. The greeting identified both the sender and recipient and sometimes included information about each, such as their relationship or their respective places in the social hierarchy. Thus, the greeting established a context for the rest of the correspondence. It also often included a health-wish for the recipient. When a letter included a thanksgiving or prayer to the gods, it often consisted largely of an extended health-wish, but not uncommonly it included other matters. After the letter’s body, which contained the basic message and purpose of the letter, the closing was usually composed of stereotyped conventions and greetings to and from others known to both the sender and recipient.

Early in the 20th century, Adolf Deissmann divided letters into two types: epistles (which he saw as literary productions for a general/public audience) and genuine letters (which were private, strictly occasional, and nonliterary). While there were writings in epistolary form which were composed primarily as literary works, Deissmann’s distinction does not satisfactorily fit either the production of letters in the Greco-Roman world generally or the NT letters. Paul’s letters are clearly occasional and do not adopt the elevated style of a literary work, but they are not purely private because they are intended to be read to congregations, as are all NT letters.

Early Christian writers adapted the letter form to meet the needs of their churches. Paul often expands conventional periods so that they contribute to the purpose of the letters of which they are a part. This is most evident for thanksgivings which signal in advance the main concerns of the letter. Studies of Paul’s use of each of the conventional epistolary periods reveal many patterns which contribute to our understanding of his letters. The bodies of the canonical letters draw on both epistolary and rhetorical conventions. Although early Christian writers seem to have a working knowledge of the content of handbooks on epistolary style, their letters do not indicate that these writers possessed advanced rhetorical training. Beginning in the late 2nd century, however, Christian letter writers were often trained in rhetoric and began to produce letters of a more literary nature.

The style of the canonical letters falls between everyday correspondence and literary productions. Their closest parallel seems to be letters written by philosophers to exhort and teach their readers. But even this is not an exact parallel. It is significant that NT writers chose the letter as their primary literary genre. Letters are, by their nature, occasional, i.e., designed to address specific situations. Thus, their purpose is to supply specific instructions for the particular situations in which the recipients and author(s) find themselves. Letters are also dialogical, a piece of a conversation between the sender and recipient. So modern readers need to know as much as possible about the circumstances of both the sender and the recipients to understand a letter’s content.

Some NT writings which were given an epistolary framework are not actually letters. Most notably, Hebrews and James have closing or opening features of letters but are treatises of a different sort. While these writings are not genuine letters, they bear witness to the power of the epistolary genre as a means of teaching and exhortation in early Christianity.

Bibliography. S. K. Stowers, Letter Writing in Greco-Roman Antiquity. Library of Early Christianity 5 (Philadelphia, 1986); J. L. White, Light from Ancient Letters. Foundations and Facets (Philadelphia, 1986).

Jerry L. Sumney

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

LETTER

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)