HOW THE LETTERS CAME TO BE · AN ANCIENT LETTER · THE PEN · THE ROAD · LETTERS ABOUT LETTERS

The letter itself

How an ancient letter was built, and the hands that wrote and carried these ones.

AN ANCIENT LETTER

How a letter was built

The seven parts every letter of the day followed, with examples.

  • Opening: sender, readers, greeting
  • Thanksgiving and prayer
  • Body: the business of the letter
  • Exhortation
  • Greetings
  • The writer's own hand
  • Blessing and farewell

Opening: sender, readers, greeting

An ancient letter began with one formula: the sender's name, the reader's name, and a greeting. "Apion to Epimachus his father and lord, many greetings," wrote a young Egyptian soldier in the second century. James and the Jerusalem letter in Acts keep the plain Greek word for "greeting" (chairein); Paul and Peter enlarge every part, naming the sender's calling and describing the readers, and turn the greeting into a blessing: "Grace to you and peace." The address itself, Deissmann notes, was written on the outside of the folded sheet, and none of the New Testament letters preserves it. Acts 15:23 James 1:1 Romans 1:7 [1][11][5]

Romans 1:1–7 1 Corinthians 1:1–3 James 1:1 1 Peter 1:1–2 2 John 1:1–3 Jude 1:1–2

THE PEN

Secretaries and the writer's own hand

The secretaries named, and the places the writer wrote in his own hand.

SECRETARIES

  • Tertius Romans
  • Silvanus (one reading) 1 Peter

IN THE WRITER'S OWN HAND

  • Paul, in his own hand 1 Corinthians
  • Paul, in his own hand Galatians
  • Paul, in his own hand Colossians
  • Paul, in his own hand 2 Thessalonians
  • Paul, in his own hand Philemon

Click a name to read what the letter says.

THE ROAD

Carriers and co-senders

Who carried the letters, and who joined the writer in sending them.

CARRIERS

  • Phebe Romans
  • Tychicus Ephesians
  • Tychicus Colossians
  • Onesimus Colossians
  • Onesimus Philemon
  • Epaphroditus Philippians
  • Titus 2 Corinthians
  • Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus 1 Corinthians
  • Silvanus (other reading) 1 Peter
  • Demetrius 3 John

CO-SENDERS

  • Sosthenes 1 Corinthians
  • Timothy 2 Corinthians
  • Timothy Philippians
  • Timothy Colossians
  • Timothy Philemon
  • Silvanus and Timothy 1 Thessalonians
  • Silvanus and Timothy 2 Thessalonians
  • "All the brethren which are with me" Galatians

Click a name to read what the letter says.

LETTERS ABOUT LETTERS

Letters that mention letters

Where one letter speaks of another, including letters now lost.

  • 2 Peter → Paul's letters · "All his epistles" 2 Peter calls Paul "our beloved brother", knows "all his epistles", finds "some things hard to be understood" in them, and sets them beside "the other scriptures". It is the only place where one group of letters speaks of another, and the earliest hint of Paul's letters read as a set; how early depends on the date of 2 Peter, which is disputed (Zahn about 60-63, Chase about 150). 2 Peter 3:15–16 [20][14]
  • 2 Peter → 1 Peter · "This second epistle" "This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you." Read most simply, the first is 1 Peter. Zahn, as Bigg reports, thought it an earlier letter now lost; Mayor held that 2 Peter was not sent to the readers of 1 Peter at all. 2 Peter 3:1 [20][22]
  • Colossians → The letter from Laodicea · Exchange letters Paul tells Colossae to have its letter read at Laodicea and to "read the epistle from Laodicea". Lightfoot sorts the old answers: a letter the Laodiceans wrote; a letter written from Laodicea (1 Timothy, say); or a letter to Laodicea, lost, or forged later, or Ephesians sent round as a circular, which was his own view. The Muratorian list already rejects a forged letter "to the Laodiceans". Colossians 4:16 [9][35]
  • 1 Corinthians → An earlier letter to Corinth · "I wrote unto you in an epistle" "I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators": a letter before 1 Corinthians, now lost. Shaw (ISBE) suggests that 2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 may preserve "a stray fragment" of it. 1 Corinthians 5:9 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1 [15][16]
  • Corinth's letter → 1 Corinthians · "The things whereof ye wrote unto me" The traffic ran both ways: the Corinthians had written to Paul, and 1 Corinthians answers them, taking up topic after topic with "Now concerning". Shaw thinks Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus brought the church's letter. 1 Corinthians 7:1 1 Corinthians 7:25 1 Corinthians 8:1 1 Corinthians 12:1 1 Corinthians 16:17 [15]
  • 2 Corinthians → The tearful letter · "With many tears" Paul recalls a letter written "out of much affliction and anguish of heart ... with many tears" that made them sorry. Easton took it to be 1 Corinthians; Shaw (ISBE) treats it as a separate "severe letter", and reports the view, from Hausrath (1870) on, that it survives as 2 Corinthians 10-13. 2 Corinthians 2:3–4 2 Corinthians 7:8 [19][16]
  • 2 Corinthians → Paul's letters · "Weighty and powerful" Paul quotes what his critics said of his letters: "weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak". Schaff counts this among the signs that Paul wrote more letters than survive. 2 Corinthians 10:9–11 [5]
  • 2 Corinthians → Letters of commendation · "Epistles of commendation" "Need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you?" Letters introducing a traveller were common; Deissmann prints papyrus examples and points to Romans 16, which opens "I commend unto you Phebe", as Paul's own use of the form. 2 Corinthians 3:1–2 Romans 16:1 1 Corinthians 16:3 [1]
  • 2 Thessalonians → A forged letter · "Nor by letter as from us" The Thessalonians were not to be shaken "by letter as from us", which may mean a forged letter or a misreading of a real one; the verse does not say which. The letter closes with Paul's own hand as "the token in every epistle", a safeguard Lightfoot connects with such forgeries. 2 Thessalonians 2:2 2 Thessalonians 3:17 [8][1]
  • 2 Thessalonians → 1 Thessalonians · "Our epistle" "Hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle": 2 Thessalonians points back to a letter the church already had. The only earlier letter of Paul to Thessalonica that survives is 1 Thessalonians, and Easton reads the second letter as correcting a misunderstanding of the first. 2 Thessalonians 2:15 [19]
  • Ephesians → An earlier writing · "As I wrote afore in few words" "As I wrote afore in few words": Schaff and Pratt (ISBE) count this among the traces of letters that have not survived. The verse itself does not say whether it means another letter or the earlier part of Ephesians. Ephesians 3:3 [5][11]
  • 3 John → A letter to the church · "I wrote unto the church" The elder had written to Gaius's church, but Diotrephes "receiveth us not". Zahn, Schmiedel and Findlay identified that letter with 2 John; Harnack, Brooke and Law (ISBE) did not, since the two letters face different problems. 3 John 1:9 [18][26]
  • 1 John → "I have written" · "I write ... I have written" 1 John says "I write unto you" four times and then "I have written unto you" twice (the Revised Version reads three and three). Plummer lists seven explanations: the second refers to the Gospel of John, which he thought most likely; to a lost earlier letter, for which "we have no evidence whatever"; to the first part of 1 John; and others, including the letter-writer's habit of looking at the letter from the reader's side. 1 John 2:12–14 [25]
  • Jude → A letter Jude meant to write · "Of the common salvation" Jude had set out to write "of the common salvation" but found it "needful" to write instead an appeal to "contend for the faith": a glimpse of one letter put aside for another. Jude 1:3

WHERE THIS PAGE COMES FROM

  • Adolf Deissmann (trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan), Light from the Ancient East (1910), ch. III, the twenty-one ancient letters: pp. 147-149 (address and salutation), 153 n. 2 (dictation and the autograph close), 158-159 (letters of commendation; closing in one's own hand), 167-172 (Apion's letters: health-wish, thanks, intercession, greetings, farewell), 176-178 notes ("I would have you know").
  • Adolf Deissmann (trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan), Light from the Ancient East (1910), ch. III, §§4-8: pp. 218-224 (letter and epistle; pseudonymous epistles), 225-234 (Paul's letters and 2-3 John as real letters; letter copy-books, pp. 227-228), 234-237 (catholic epistles, Hebrews, 1 John), 239 (Acts and Paul's letters), 244 (the canon).
  • Adolf Deissmann (trans. Lionel R. M. Strachan), Light from the Ancient East (1910), ch. IV, pp. 372-373 (parousia).
  • Adolf Deissmann (trans. Alexander Grieve), Bible Studies: "Prolegomena to the Biblical Letters and Epistles" (1901), pp. 3-59, especially 14-15 (pseudonymity), 50-51 ("catholic"), 55-56 (the collection of Paul's letters).
  • Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 1: Apostolic Christianity (revised ed.) (1890), §76 (order of the books, with notes 868-870), §86 (The Epistles), §87 (The Catholic Epistles), §88 (The Epistles of Paul).
  • B. F. Westcott, A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (7th ed.) (1896), pp. 248-249 (Peshitta), 377 with n. 2 (place of Hebrews in the manuscripts), 400-401 (the seven catholic epistles and Euthalius), 488-491 (Luther's prefaces).
  • W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new edition (first published 1852) (1891), p. 319 n. 1 (letters written by an amanuensis with an autograph postscript), p. 321 (the stages of an apostolic letter), p. 498 n. 1 (Tertius), p. 499 n. (Phoebe the bearer).
  • J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1865), note on Gal 6:11, pp. 220-221.
  • J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon (1875), detached note "The Epistle from Laodicea", pp. 340-366.
  • W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (1895), ch. VII, §6, "The Separation of Paul and Barnabas" (Silas and Silvanus).
  • Dwight M. Pratt, "Epistle", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915), §§1-2, 5, 7, 9; checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • Dwight M. Pratt, "Catholic Epistles", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915), checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • J. S. Riggs, "Canon of the New Testament", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915), §II.1-3; checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • William G. Moorehead, "Peter, the Second Epistle of", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (1915), §§I-II; checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • R. Dykes Shaw, "Corinthians, First Epistle to the", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • R. Dykes Shaw, "Corinthians, Second Epistle to the", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • A. T. Robertson, "Paul, the Apostle", International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), part 1, Sources; checked against CrossWire's digital ISBE (1915), 2026-10-07.
  • Robert Law, "John, the Epistles of", International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, ed. James Orr (1915), vol. III pp. 1711-1720 (checked against the 1915 scan).
  • M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary (3rd ed.) (1897), "Corinthians, First Epistle to the"; "Thessalonians, Epistles to the".
  • Charles Bigg, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude (1901), pp. 246-247 (secretaries; Zahn on 2 Peter).
  • Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James (1892), Introduction, ch. VI (date).
  • Joseph B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. Jude and the Second Epistle of St. Peter (1907), Introduction, pp. lxviii, cxxxv, cxliv.
  • John Calvin (trans. John Owen), Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles (1551) (1855), Argument to 2 Peter.
  • John Calvin (trans. William Pringle), Commentary on Galatians (1548) (1854), on Gal 2:1.
  • A. Plummer, The Epistles of S. John (Cambridge Bible) (1886 (1890 reprint used)), notes on 1 John 2:12-14, pp. 97-99; Introduction p. 61 (Demetrius).
  • A. E. Brooke, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Johannine Epistles (1912), Introduction p. lxxxiii.
  • B. F. Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays (2nd ed.) (1892), Introduction, "History and Authorship", pp. lxxiv-lxxix.
  • A. B. Davidson, The Epistle to the Hebrews (1882), Introduction ch. III, p. 34.
  • Marcus Dods, "The Epistle to the Hebrews", in The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. IV (1897 (1910 printing)), Introduction: history, pp. 221-224.
  • Marcus Dods, "The Epistle to the Hebrews", in The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. IV (1897 (1910 printing)), Introduction: authorship, pp. 228-229 (Harnack on Priscilla).
  • R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, or 1 Enoch (1912), 1 Enoch 1:9 with note, pp. 8-9.
  • Eusebius (trans. A. C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1), Church History (1890), 2.15; 2.23.25 with McGiffert's note 528; 3.3.5; 3.25; 3.39.16; 4.14.9; 5.8.7; 5.26; 6.14; 6.20; 6.25; 7.25.
  • Athanasius (trans. R. Payne-Smith, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 4), Festal Letter 39 (1892), §§5-6.
  • Henry R. Percival (ed.), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 14, The Code of Canons of the African Church (Carthage, 419) (1900), canon 24 (Greek 27), with the editor's note that it is canon 36 of Hippo, 393.
  • Unknown (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5), The Muratorian Fragment (Canon Muratorianus) (1886), §§3-4.
  • Tertullian (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3), Against Marcion, book 5; On Baptism (1885), Against Marcion 5.2-21; On Baptism 17.
  • Tertullian (trans. S. Thelwall, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 4), On Modesty (De Pudicitia) (1885), ch. 20.
  • Clement of Rome (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1), First Epistle to the Corinthians (1885), ch. 47.
  • Ignatius (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1), To the Ephesians (1885), chs. 12 and 18.
  • Polycarp (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1), Epistle to the Philippians (1885), chs. 7, 12 and 13 (13: the letters of Ignatius).
  • Polycarp (trans. J. B. Lightfoot), To the Philippians (1891), 3:2-3; 5:1; 6:2; 7:1; 11:2-4; 12:1.
  • Irenaeus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1), Against Heresies (1885), preface to book 1; 3.13-16 (3.16.5 and 3.16.8 on 1 and 2 John); 5.2.3.
  • Clement of Alexandria (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2), Stromata; Fragments (Comments on the Second Epistle of John) (1885), Stromata 1.14 and 2.15; Comments on 2 John.
  • Jerome (trans. E. C. Richardson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 3), Lives of Illustrious Men (1892), chs. 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, 18.

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