Paul and First-Century Letter Writing
eBook - ePub

Paul and First-Century Letter Writing

Secretaries, Composition and Collection

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Paul and First-Century Letter Writing

Secretaries, Composition and Collection

About this book

Traditional Christian art depicts Paul the letter writer, pen in hand, attentive to the Spirit. We might think we know better and imagine him pacing in agitation as he rapidly dictates to a secretary his letter to the Galatians. But in reality neither of these pictures is accurate.

In Paul's day, producing a letter was a time-consuming and costly business. And we have ample resources from the ancient world to piece together what it must have been like. A secretary was usually part of the picture. But so were notes, drafts, corrections and careful rewrites, not to speak of scratchy pens, sooty ink and coarse papyrus. Interestingly, there is evidence that Paul involved his missionary team in the writing of letters. And then came the delivery over land and sea, the reading and circulation, as well as the epistolary afterlife of copying, collecting and storing.

E. Randolph Richards has extensively studied ancient letter writing and secretaries. Informed by the historical evidence and with a sharp eye for telltale clues in Paul's letters, he takes us into this world and places us on the scene with Paul the letter writer. What first appears to be just a study of secretaries and stationery turns out to be an intriguing glimpse of Paul the letter writer that overthrows our preconceptions and offers a new perspective on how this important portion of Christian Scripture came to be.

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Yes, you can access Paul and First-Century Letter Writing by E. Randolph Richards in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Biblical Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Preface
  6. Abbreviations
  7. Introduction
  8. 1. A Modern, Western Paul
  9. 2. Paul as a First-Century Letter Writer
  10. 3. The Tools of a Letter Writer
  11. 4. Secretaries in the First-Century World
  12. 5. Paul’ s Use of a Secretary
  13. 6. Identifying Inserted Material
  14. 7. Weaving Together a Letter
  15. 8. Classifying Paul’s Letters
  16. 9. Analyzing Paul’ s Writing Style
  17. 10. Preparing a Letter for Dispatch
  18. 11. Dispatching the Letter
  19. 12. Paul’s Letter Carriers
  20. 13. Paul’s Use of His Letter Carriers
  21. 14. Collecting Paul’s Letters
  22. 15. Inspiration and First-Century Letter Writing
  23. Conclusion
  24. Notes
  25. Bibliography
  26. Modern Authors Index
  27. Subject Index
  28. Scripture Index
  29. About the Author
  30. Like this book?
  31. Copyright