Letters of Grace and Beauty (eBook)

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Types of New Testament Letters

The game plan for this book is to begin with two chapters that provide a broad picture of letter writing in the New Testament. Then the focus will narrow to more specific components of the epistles. The first two chapters should be viewed as providing a framework within which later chapters will be placed.

A preliminary consideration for this chapter is that the epistles belong to a broader category that is common in the Bible. Literary scholars call it the “mixed-genre format,” and they also speak of “encyclopedic form.” This means that a passage or book of the Bible does not display the traits of just one genre but of multiple ones. We can accurately think of the New Testament epistles as hybrids that combine multiple genres, literary forms, and styles. Sometimes it is helpful to think of these genres as overlapping (such as a personal letter that is simultaneously an autobiography), but in other instances it is more helpful to think of them as existing side by side (such as an opening section of theological exposition followed by a unit of moral exhortation).

All of the epistles fall into the genre of the letter, with the result that a preliminary set of considerations automatically kicks in for all of the epistles. But there are more letter types than simply the generic one, and one or more of these is always capable of entering a New Testament epistle. Sometimes the general category “letter” with its five standard elements suffices as a description of a given epistle, but usually something more is needed. The current chapter aims to provide a menu of types of letters that we find in the New Testament epistles.

A final preliminary point is very important: in almost no instance does a New Testament epistle fall completely into a given category. It would therefore be wrong to think of a letter as being only a personal letter, for example, or only a letter of friendship. The operative principle is that the New Testament epistles do not always fall completely into this or that genre but instead show affinities with or resemblances to the epistolary genres that I cover in this chapter. The explanatory value of having this menu of genres at our disposal is immense, but we need to avoid looking for a single rubric and then forcing the entire letter into that mold. I will note in passing that the reason I do not use the categories of classical rhetoric such as deliberative rhetoric and judicial rhetoric or epideictic rhetoric is that the rhetorical approach has been extremely guilty of forcing individual epistles into just one category and confusing readers as a result.

Letter Writing in General

One reason the New Testament epistles have been misrepresented is that people do not take time to consider the genre of the letter as they themselves know and practice it. Everyone has some experience with letters. It is true that the electronic age has made the letter a somewhat neglected and forgotten form, but this is counteracted if we include emails as a form of letter writing.

What things characterize our own letters? They are a form of communication, first of all, designed to convey information of many potential types from the writer to the recipient. Sometimes the information is the whole point of the letter, but on other occasions there is an element of persuasion as well. Or there may be an emotional component, as the writer aims to convey not only information but feelings such as love or anger. Sometimes the information focuses on conditions or ideas that exist objectively, quite apart from the writer of the letter, but on other occasions a letter conveys personal information about the writer, or personal responses to a situation. In all these ways, the content of letters is varied and multiple, and already we can see that the common practice of reducing New Testament epistles to a single topic or purpose is misleading.

What about the form and organization of the letters we write and receive? Well, how many times have we sat down to write a letter by formulating a thesis and an outline of topic sentences under it? Probably never. That paradigm is the format of an essay, and letters are not essays. In how many of our letters do we carefully compose a topic sentence for every paragraph? Rarely. How often do we stop while composing a letter and say, “Wait a minute—that unit does not fit the melodic line of my letter?” How often do we compose a transition paragraph between two paragraphs that deal with sharply different subject matter, or make sure that there is a seamless flow of logic from one paragraph to the next?

A lot of harm has been done by overlooking the obvious and by imposing criteria on the New Testament epistles that belong to essays rather than letters. The Roman author Seneca, who lived at approximately the same time as the New Testament writers, said regarding his letters that they “should be just what my conversation would be if you and I were sitting in one another’s company or taking walks together.” That is not the whole truth about letter writing, but it is an important part of the truth.

We can summarize what characterizes letter writing in general as follows, realizing that a given letter might be a partial exception:

•Most letters cover multiple topics, not just one.

•Letters are not organized like an essay with a thesis sentence, subordinate generalizations under that thesis, and topic sentences for every paragraph.

•The main principle of organization is a series of self-contained paragraphs (we tend to “think paragraph” as we compose a letter).

•The linear organization of a letter is free-flowing and informal; we take up topics as they occur to us.

•As a result, the flow from one paragraph to the next is often disjointed.

The foregoing list is descriptive of letters generally and is not offered as prescriptive or something that is always followed.

The Basic Paradigm of New Testament Epistles

The New Testament epistles resemble (but are not identical with) letter-writing conventions in the ancient world (and scholars often use the formulas Greco-Roman and classical for my adjective ancient). Letters in the ancient world followed a basic three-part paradigm: introduction or salutation, body, and closing. The New Testament epistles have those parts, too, but two ingredients were added to complete the format and make the New Testament epistles distinctive. The resulting template is as follows:

•salutation (sender, recipient, greeting)

•thanksgiving

•body

•paraenesis (section of commands)

•closing

A few qualifications need to be made. Some epistles omit one or more of these elements. Although the order noted above is the norm, the order might be slightly rearranged, or a given element might appear more than once in a letter. Additionally, even though the body is nearly always the dominant ingredient, with the thanksgiving and paraenesis taking up only limited space, sometimes one of those elements assumes a major role in a given letter. The constancy of the paradigm shows that the New Testament writers composed their epistles within an accepted understanding of their genre.

Anyone who wishes to see what this five-part format looks like with a specific epistle can take time now to read or browse the book of Ephesians. Here is an outline that applies the grid:

•salutation: sender, recipient, greeting (1:1–2)

•thanksgiving: the spiritual riches that the recipients possess and prayer for their spiritual welfare (1:3–23)

•body of the letter (2:1–4:16)

•paraenesis, or list of exhortations (4:17–6:20)

•closing: information on how the letter will be delivered and concluding benediction (6:21–24)

Circular Letters

A circular letter is a letter intended for circulation among a group of people. Often the salutation or close in such a letter signals the group that is envisioned, but this is not a requirement. Because the easiest way to circulate a letter is to read it orally to an assembled group, this is frequently how circular letters are disseminated. We should note that both the Old and New Testaments belong to what are called oral cultures, meaning that documents were more likely to be read aloud and heard than read silently and privately.

Certain features of letters fall into place when we picture them as circular letters. For example, a kind of universality descends on them, both for the first recipients and for us as we read them hundreds of years later. We sense that what we are reading applies to all Christians in all times. Balancing this universality, we can exercise our historical imagination and picture ourselves as being present at a reading of an epistle in a church service. We realize that the writer is not addressing us personally but a whole group. In a circular letter, the issues discussed are likely to be of public concern.

Certain qualities of the genre of the circular letter are automatically present as we read the New Testament epistles, while other features emerge with more clarity if we become self-consciously aware of the communal aspect. We sense intuitively that there is a foundational and normative quality to the New Testament epistles, and that the writers are...