Epistles

Place and Divisions in the Bible

The Epistles are the twenty-one books of the New Testament that were written in letter form. They are commonly divided as follows.

• Pauline Epistles: The thirteen books from Romans through Philemon. Each opens by naming Paul as the sender.
• Prison Epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, in which Paul states that he is writing while in confinement.
• Pastoral Epistles: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus, in which the church leaders Timothy and Titus receive instructions about church offices and teaching. The name is generally said to have come into use around the eighteenth century.
• Hebrews: The text does not name its author.
• General Epistles (Catholic Epistles): The seven books bearing the names of James, Peter, John, and Jude: James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1 John, 2 John, 3 John, and Jude. They were generally addressed to a wider readership than a single church. Some groupings include Hebrews, making eight books.

The Epistles contain teaching that explains the meaning of the gospel, responses to conflicts and questions within the churches, ethical instruction for daily life, and personal greetings. Their canonical order does not follow the order in which they were written; they were arranged largely by length and by recipient.

Background

The Korean term seosin (書信) means "letter" and renders the Greek epistolē (letter). Letters in the first-century Mediterranean world followed a set sequence of sender, recipient, greeting, body, and closing, and the Epistles follow the same pattern. The conventional Greek epistolary greeting chairein ("greeting") appears as such in James 1:1. Paul, by contrast, usually greets his readers with "grace and peace."

Letters were carried by messengers and read aloud before the assembled church (1 Thessalonians 5:27), and they were sometimes circulated to other churches as well (Colossians 4:16). The principal recipients were churches in cities such as Corinth, Philippi, and Thessalonica, which had been founded during Paul's missionary journeys. Many scholars regard 1 Thessalonians as one of the earliest writings in the New Testament.

Significance in the Whole of Scripture

Letters appear in the Old Testament as well: Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles carried away to Babylon (Jeremiah 29:4-14). In addition, Acts 15 records the letter that the Council of Jerusalem sent to the Gentile churches.

The Epistles interpret the meaning of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus presented in the Gospels as it applies to the life of the church. For this reason they serve as a principal basis for doctrines such as justification, the church, and eschatology. 2 Peter 3:15-16 mentions Paul's letters alongside "the other scriptures," a passage frequently cited as evidence that the early church read these letters as authoritative from an early date. The messages to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Revelation 2-3 also take the form of letters.

Interpretation and Points of Debate

• Authorship: Some scholars in the field of biblical criticism regard the Pastoral Epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, and 2 Thessalonians as writings composed by Paul's disciples after his death. Reformed and evangelical denominations and seminaries generally accept Pauline authorship, as the texts themselves state. Hebrews has been attributed to Paul since ancient times, but the text does not identify its author.
• Faith and works: Romans 3:28 and James 2:24 can be read as being in tension, and they have long been debated. Martin Luther is known to have called James an "epistle of straw." Many Protestant traditions today generally harmonize the two passages, holding that Paul speaks of the ground of salvation while James speaks of the fruit borne by a living faith.
• Women and church office: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:12 are interpreted differently across denominations and are central texts in discussions of the ordination of women.
• Place of writing of the Prison Epistles: Traditionally, they are held to have been written from prison in Rome. However, because the texts state only that Paul was in bonds, some scholars propose Ephesus or Caesarea instead.

In the Korean Church

The benediction pronounced at the close of worship is usually based on 2 Corinthians 13:13 (13:14 in the KJV). At ordination and installation services for elders and deacons, the qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are frequently read. 1 Corinthians 13 (the Love Chapter) is often read at wedding services, and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 (the Resurrection Chapter) at funeral services. Romans and Ephesians are widely used as texts for discipleship training and Bible study.