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Epistle

An epistle (/ɪˈpɪsəl/; from Ancient Greek ἐπιστολή (epistolḗ) 'letter') is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians are usually referred to as epistles. Those traditionally attributed to Paul are known as Pauline epistles and the others as catholic (i.e., "general") epistles.

This article is about the literary genre of letter-writing. For other uses, see Epistulae (disambiguation). For the Manichaean text, see The Epistles (Manichaeism).

Ancient Egyptian epistles[edit]

The ancient Egyptians wrote epistles, most often for pedagogical reasons. Egyptologist Edward Wente (1990) speculates that the Fifth-dynasty Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi—in his many letters sent to his viziers—was a pioneer in the epistolary genre.[1] Its existence is firmly attested during the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom, and is prominently featured in the educational guide The Book of Kemit written during the Eleventh Dynasty.[1] A standardized formulae for epistolary compositions existed by the time of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The epistolary formulae used in the Ramesside Period found its roots in the letters composed during the Amarna Period of the Twentieth Dynasty. Wente describes the "Satirical Letter" found on the Papyrus Anastasi I of the Nineteenth Dynasty as an epistle which was commonly copied as a writing exercise by Egyptian schoolchildren on ceramic ostraca (over eighty examples of which have been found so far by archaeologists). Epistle letters were also written to the dead, and, by the Ramesside Period, to the gods; the latter became even more widespread during the eras of Persian and Greek domination.[1]

a set of 14 letters also known as the Epistle to Seneca the Younger

Correspondence of Paul and Seneca

(canonical for a time in the Armenian Orthodox), also a correspondence of two letters

Third Epistle to the Corinthians

(Latin version found in Codex Fuldensis)

Epistle to the Laodiceans

Letter of Peter to Philip

Epistle of the Romans to the Corinthians ()

1 Clement

Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians

Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians

Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians

Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans

Epistle of Ignatius to the Philadelphians

Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp

Epistle of Polycarp to the Philippians

Epistle of Barnabas

Epistle to Diognetus

These are letters written by some very early Christian leaders, in the 1st or 2nd century, which are not part of the New Testament. They are generally considered to form part of the basis of Christian tradition. The ennobling word "epistle" is used partly because these were all written in Greek, in a time period close to when the epistles of the New Testament were written, and thus "epistle" lends additional weight of authority.

Medieval epistles[edit]

During the Middle Ages, the art of letter writing was taught in numerous manuals, and the ars dictaminis became an important genre of instructional discourse. The necessity for letter writing was in large part due to the general deterioration of civil life and the decay of the Roman road system in the early Middle Ages, factors that obliged literate people with business to transact to send letters instead of travel themselves.[21] A vast number of letters and letter-writing manuals were written in the period's lingua franca, Latin.[22]

Acts of the Apostles (genre)

Agrapha

Authorship of the Bible

Epistle (Quaker)

Epistolography

a novel written as a series of letters or similar writings

Epistolary novel

Epistolary poem

Letter collection

New Testament apocrypha

Pseudepigraphy

Textual criticism

Shikshapatri

(1911). "Epistle" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 9 (11th ed.). pp. 701–703.

Gosse, Edmund William

: Epistles

Catholic Encyclopedia

"How to read an ancient letter collection", 1999: the possibility of a narrative critical study of the Letters of Paul

David Trobisch