LETTERS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

LETTERS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT

Paul’s are written to be read aloud to persuade.

Also, it was customary to use scribes; the author would dictate to the scribe.

More or less a standard (conventional) format:

Opening Formula
Thanksgiving
Body or Message
Concluding Formula

(1) Opening Formula (Galatians 1:1-5 and Romans 1:1-7)

Consists of three basic elements: sender, addressee, greeting (A to B, Greetings)

(a) Sender. This involves the personal name of the author, sometimes further identified with a title to establish the author’s authority. Galatians (like several other letters where Timothy, for example, is named) names co-senders; in one way or another the co-senders have contributed to the composition of these writings.

(b) Addressee. The simplest form is a personal name, but the addressees in most NT letters are communities in stated regions. In Galatians the addressees are identified as "churches." In Romans the addressees are identified as "saints" ("God’s beloved").

(c) Greeting. Occasionally this was omitted. Jewish letters of the time tend to replace "greetings" with "peace." See Galatians 1:3 and Romans 1:7b.

Expansion of these elements is common. Galatians expands the greeting in 1:4-5; Romans expands the designation of the sender through verse six.

(2) Thanksgiving (None in Galatians, but Romans 1:8-15)

In Hellenistic letters the Opening Formula is often followed by a statement wherein the sender gives thanks to the gods for specified reasons. In the Pauline Thanksgiving the introductory wording is usually: "I/we give thanks to (my) God because…" The specified reason for the thanks is not deliverance from disaster but the faithfulness of the congregation addressed, and the supplication is for the continuance of such fidelity.

(3) Body or Message

This is sometimes defined as what comes between the Opening Formula (+Thanksgiving) and the Concluding Formula.

Transitional sentences mark the body-opening and the body-closing. The body-middle is most difficult to analyze from a formal viewpoint.

(4) Concluding Formula (Galatians 6:11-18 and Romans 16:1-27)

Galatians consists of an autographic postscript and benediction, and Romans ends with greetings and the benediction.

This page maintained by rick jones, G411 Mason Hall