A further examination of the epistle shows that it must have been written towards the close of the B&erla An of Acts xxviii.
A Manichaean epistle, addressed to one Marcellus, has, however, been preserved for us in the Acta Archelai.
A similar history attaches to the so-called Second Epistle of Clement (see Clementine Literature).
Accordingly, we find him journeying again in 1351 to Vaucluse, again refusing the office of papal secretary, again planning visionary reforms for the Roman people, and beginning that 'curious fragment of an autobiography which is known as the Epistle to Posterity.
After the day of Pope the epistle again fell into desuetude, or occasional use, in England.
After they had passed away and before the Christian Scriptures were canonically sifted and collected there was a gap which for us is only slenderly filled by such productions as the so-called 2nd Epistle of Clement, really a rambling homily on repentance and confession (see Clementine Literature), and by what we can imagine was the practice of men like Ignatius and, on the other hand, the Apologists.
Again, while the Gospel and the Epistle of John show marks of agreement which suggest a common authorship, the Apocalypse differs widely from both in its ideas and in its way of expressing them; we miss in it the frequent references to ` life,' ` light,' ` truth,' ` grace ' and ` love ' which are characteristic of the Apostle and find ourselves in a totally different region of thought..
All this may be deduced from reading the first epistle.
Almost the earliest document revealing anything of the inner organization and condition of the Armenian church in the Nicene age is the epistle of Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, to the Armenian bishop Verthanes, written between 325 and 335 and preserved in Armenian.
Although Wimborne (Wimburn) has been identified with the Vindogladia of the Antonine Itinerary, the first undoubted evidence of settlement is the entry of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the date 718, that Cuthburh, sister of King Ine, founded the abbey here and became the first abbess; the house is also mentioned in a somewhat doubtful epistle of St Aldhelm in 705.
Among his later writings, besides numerous pamphlets on what was known as "the Apocrypha controversy," are a treatise On the Inspiration of Scripture (1828), which has passed through many editions, and a later Exposition of the Epistle to the Romans (1835), which has been frequently reprinted, and has been translated into French and German.
An attempt has been made in some quarters to prove that certain allusions in the epistle imply the rise of the heresy of Marcion and that it cannot therefore be placed earlier than 140.
And there is another important passage which shows why, in spite of its natural and occasional character, the epistle exhibits the germs of that essential quality which caused all the books of the New Testament to be so highly estimated.
As to the external evidence for the book's early date, we must remember that the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation, though admittedly earlier, are of the same school, and, with the great Pauline.
At present, both in N and B, Hebrews is placed after 2 Thess., but in B there is also a continuous numeration of sections throughout the epistles, according to which I to 58 cover Romans to Galatians, but Ephesians, the next epistle, begins with 70 instead of 59, and the omitted section numbers are found in Hebrews.
At the close of the century Samuel Rogers endeavoured to resuscitate the neglected form in his "Epistle to a Friend" (1798).
At the end of the Codex Sinaiticus of the 4th century, as a sort of appendix to the New Testament, there stands an "Epistle of Barnabas."
At the same time, as such prefaces are often forgeries, not prejudicing the body of the treatise, it does not really matter whether Aristotle actually dedicated his work to Alexander in that epistle about that year or not.
Attempts have been made to find a setting for the epistle within the apostle's life previous to his Roman imprisonment (as recorded in Acts), but by common consent s it is now held that the epistle (if written by the apostle) must fall later, during the period of missionary enterprise which is supposed to have followed his release from the first captivity.
Be this as it may, the epistle is of great historical importance, as reflecting a crisis inevitable in the development of the JewishChristian consciousness,when a definite choice between the old and the new form of Israel's religion had to be made, both for internal and external reasons.
Beside the works already named Tyndale wrote A Prologue on the Epistle to the Romans (1526), An Exposition of the 1st Epistle of John (1531), An Exposition of Matthew v.-vii.
Bishops and deacons hold a subordinate place in this document; but the contemporary Epistle of Clement of Rome attests that these bishops " had offered the gifts without blame and holily."
Branches of palm, olive or sprouting willow (hence in England known as "palm") having been placed before the altar, or at the Epistle side, after Terce and the sprinkling of holy water, the priest, either in a purple cope or an alb without chasuble, proceeds to bless them.
But be this as it may, he had no sooner adopted his new creed than he resolved to profess it; " a momentary glow of enthusiasm " had raised him above all temporal considerations, and accordingly, on June 8, 1753, he records that having " privately abjured the heresies" of his childhood before a Catholic priest of the name of Baker, a Jesuit, in London, he announced the same to his father in an elaborate controversial epistle which his spiritual adviser much approved, and which he himself afterwards described to Lord Sheffield as having been " written with all the pomp, the dignity, and self-satisfaction of a martyr."
But even if we date the rise of heresies in the reign of Domitian instead of Trajan, 2 the attributing of this epistle against 2 O n this point (date of the outbreak of heresy) there is some inconsistency in the reported fragments of Hegesippus.
But his keen criticism of Hesse and Knoke is more successful than his positive explanation of the textual phenomena, and a more thorough-going process of literary criticism is necessary in order to solve the problems of the epistle.
But it happened that Hobbes had allowed a French acquaintance to have a private translation of his reply made by a young Englishman, who secretly took a copy of the original for himself; and now it was this unnamed purloiner who, in 1654, when Hobbes had become famous and feared, gave it to the world of his own motion, with an extravagantly laudatory epistle to the reader in its front.
But Paul, while he saw this much in it, saw much more; or he could not in the same epistle, x.
But Pope excelled, not only in the voluptuous and in the didactic epistle, but in that of compliment as well, and there is no more graceful example of this in literature than is afforded by the letter about the poems of Parnell addressed, in 1721, to Robert, earl of Oxford.
But thank God for John's first epistle, an epistle of certainty for his age and ours, which are ages of uncertainty.
But the address and the expression in the italicized passage just quoted (which evidently alludes to the vaunting epistle of 1165) hardly leave room for doubt that the pope supposed himself to be addressing the author of that letter.
But the more serious difficulties which to many minds still stand in the way of the acceptance of the epistle have come from the developed phase of Pauline theology which it shows, and from the general background and atmosphere of the underlying system of thought, in which the absence of the well-known earlier controversies is remarkable, while some things suggest the thought of John and a later age.
But the question of course arises, May not the epistle, in whole or in part, have originally been more of a treatise in epistolary form than at first sight appears?
But the result of this freedom was confusion and discord, as is indicated by Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians (see chapters xi., xiv.).
But there is a deeper and a worthier reason for the contrast in tone between this epistle and those written to the Galatian and Corinthian churches.
But these cases, when properly understood and calmly viewed, do not carry conviction against the epistle.
But this is as artificial as Otto's attempt to classify the contents of the epistle under the three notes of the Iry 13 a in i.
But while in all cases the suggestion of Clement's authorship came ultimately from his prestige as writer of the genuine Epistle of Clement (see Clement I.), both (3) and (4) were due to this idea as operative on Syrian soil; (5) is a secondary formation based on (3) as known to the West.
But, for a generation or so, it has been denied that this can be inferred simply from the fact that the epistle approaches all Christian truth through Old Testament forms. This, it is said, was the common method of proof, since the Jewish scriptures were the Word of God to all Christians alike.
By the way, the ones to whom he wrote were the same ones to whom he wrote in the first epistle.
Cato labours to express himself in an awkward and laconic epistle, apologizing for its length.
Certainly what Paul has in mind throughout the epistle is not a Judaizing tendency among the Jewish Christians at Rome, but the general and perplexing question of Judaism in relation to the new faith.
Clement himself, taking it for granted that an epistle to Hebrews must have beeen written in Hebrew, supposes that Luke translated it for the Greeks.
Clement is exceedingly discursive, and his letter reaches twice the length of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Clement Marot, in the 16th century, first made the epistle popular in France, with his brief and spirited specimens.
Clement's epistle, indeed, conforms more to the elaborate and treatise-like form of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on which it draws so largely; and the same is true of "Barnabas."
Combined with these is the Sunday Epistle, sent from Heaven, enjoining strict observance, not only of Sunday, but also of Friday and Wednesday, as holy days.
Commonly, however, the epistle has been edited and criticized along with the epistles of Timothy.
Consequently his commentary on the epistle to the Romans, mentioned by the historian Socrates, and his epistles, mentioned by Philostorgius and Photius, are no longer extant.
Controversy centres round a very long and singular undated epistle called "The Glasgow Letter" or "Letter II."
Copernicus was seized with apoplexy and paralysis towards the close of 1542, and died on the 24th of May 1543, happily unconscious that the fine Epistle, in which he had dedicated his life's work to Paul III., was marred of its effect by an anonymous preface, slipt in by Andreas Osiander (1498-1552), with a view to disarming prejudice by insisting upon the purely hypothetical character of the reasonings it introduced.
Dale, Epistle to the Ephesians; its Doctrine and Ethics (1882), is a valuable series of expository discourses.
De Wette first (1826) doubted, then (1843) denied that the epistle was by Paul.
Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 1-60, for this distinction between the genuine "letter" and the literary "epistle," as applied to the New Testament in particular.
Dionysius Alexandrinus also, in his canonical epistle (260 A.D.), refers to the six fasting days (E Twv Pr YTECwv iijApac) in a manner which implies that the observance of them had already become an established usage in his time.
Dr Rutherford stated the case briefly and pointedly in the preface to his translation of the Epistle to the Romans (London, 1900).
During the age of Anne various Augustan poets in whom the lyrical faculty was slight, from Congreve and Richard Duke down to Ambrose Philips and William Somerville, essayed the epistle with more or less success, and it was employed by Gay for several exercises in his elegant persiflage.
Ephesians has been called "the crown of St Paul's writings," and whether it be measured by its theological or its literary interest and importance, it can fairly dispute with Romans the claim to be his greatest epistle.
Even if the epistle be not genuine it is evidence of the same tradition.
Everything turns, then, on internal criticism of the epistle, working on the distinctive features already noticed, together with such personal allusions as it affords.
For general reflections on the subject see the appendix to Jowett's edition of the Epistle to the Romans (London, 1855).
For the Third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and Epistle from the Corinthians to Paul, see under " Acts of Paul " above.
Further illustrations of these views were given in two works published about the same time as the lectures, one a treatise On the Sonship and Brotherhood of Believers, and the other an exposition of the first epistle of St John.
Galater (1897); Perrot, De Galatia 1 In the unsettled state of this controversy, weight naturally attaches to the opinion of experts on either side; and the above statement, while opposed to the view taken in the following article on the epistle, must be taken on its merits.
Gresset, Bernis, Sedaine, Dorat, Gen di - Bernard, all excelled in the epistle.
Habington's Epistle to a Friend is one of his most finished pieces.
Harvey (not Bacon) is the only Englishman he mentions in the dedicatory epistle prefixed to the De corpore, among the founders, before himself, of the new natural philosophy.
He also wrote Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1856), in which he applied to history the doctrine of organic evolution; Discourses and Essays (1856); A Manual of Church History (2 vols., 1857), a translation of Guericke; A History of Christian Doctrine (2 vols., 1863); Theological Essays (1877); Literary Essays (1878); Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (1879); The Doctrine of Endless Punishment (1885); and he edited Coleridge's Complete Works (7 vols., New York, 1894).
He appears, in the composition of his various pieces, to have treated everything that occurred to him in the most desultory fashion, sometimes adopting the form of dialogue, sometimes that of an epistle or an imaginary discourse, and often to have spoken in his own name, giving an account of his travels and adventures, or of amusing scenes that he had witnessed, or expressing the results of his private meditations and experiences.
He began to lecture on Homer and the Epistle to Titus, and in connexion with the former he announced that, like Solomon, he sought Tyrian brass and gems for the adornment of God's Temple.
He introduced and practised the forms of the sonnet, canzon, ode, epistle in oitava rim y and in tercets, and the epigram, and raised the whole tone of poetry.
He is equally full in his quotations from the New Testament, for he quotes from all the books except the epistle to Philemon, the second epistle of St Peter, and the epistle of St James, and he quotes from The Shepherd of Hermas, and the epistles of Clemens Romanus and of Barnabas, as inspired.
He knew that he could only do this at the 1 The date of this epistle is rather uncertain.
He revived previous doubts as to the direct Pauline origin of the Epistle to the Hebrews, called in question Peter's authorship of the first epistle, and referred the second epistle to the end of the 2nd century.
He was delayed, and used the interval to spend two or three months at Oxford, where he found John Colet lecturing on the Epistle to the Romans.
He wrote also a Koran commentary, now apparently lost, and a hortatory epistle to Harlan al-Rashid.
Henry Vaughan (1622-1695) addressed a fine epistle in verse to the French romance-writer Gombauld (1570-1666).
His "Eloisa to Abelard" (1717) is carefully modelled on the form of Ovid's "Heroides," while in his Moral Essays he adopts the Horatian formula for the epistle.
His best book is a Life of Cardinal Wolsey (London, 1724), containing documents which are still valuable for reference; of his other writings the Prefatory Epistle containing some remarks to be published on Homer's Iliad (London, 1714), was occasioned by Pope's proposed translation of the Iliad, and his Theologia speculativa (London, 1718), earned him the degree of D.D.
His character as a man, preacher, divine, and as an important ruler in the university, will be found portrayed in the Epistle by John Potter, prefixed to the Commentary.
His chief works were a Commentary on i Corinthians (1885), the Epistle to the Hebrews (" Expositor's Bible" series, 1888), and The God-Man (" Davies Lecture," 1895).
His Commentaries on St John's Gospel (1881), on the Epistle to the Hebrews (1889) and the Epistles of St John (1883) resulted from his public lectures.
His Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews is one of a series of handbooks for Bible classes.
His Commentary on the Epistle to the Philippians (1618, reprinted 1864) is a specimen of his preaching before his college, and of his fiery denunciation of popery and his fearless enunciation of that Calvinism which Oxford in common with all England then prized.
His epistle to Gardiner, De recta et emendata linguae Graecae pronunciatione, was printed at Paris in 1568; the same volume includes his dialogue De recta et emendata linguae Anglicanae scriptione.
His greatest work, his commentary on the epistle to the Hebrews (Brief an die Hebrl er erldutert durch Einleitung, Ubersetzung, and fortlaufenden Commentar, in three parts, 1828, 1836 and 1840) won the highest praise from men like De Wette and Fr.
His homiletic books, Epistle on Sanctity (Iggereth ha-qodesh) and Law of Man (Torath ha-Adam), which deal respectively with the sanctity of marriage and the solemnity of death, are full of intense spirituality, while at the same time treating of ritual customs - a combination which shows essential Rabbinism at its best.
His name is associated with that of Paul in the opening salutations of both epistles to the Thessalonians, the second epistle to the Corinthians, and those to the Philippians and Colossians.
I I lies in the size of the letters, Paul cannot have contemplated copies of the epistle being made.
I Tim., like Ephesians, is a writing whose lack of greetings and general tone point to the functions of an encyclical or Catholic epistle.
I went to write an epistle About a visit to a whistle Factory.
If so, and if the epistle be genuine, this is conclusive evidence that Peter was in Rome.
If the latter epistle could be finally established as genuine, or its date fixed, it would give important evidence with regard to Ephesians; but in the present state of discussion we must confine ourselves to pointing out the fact.
If thus related to the Apologists of the middle of the 2nd century, the Epistle to Diognetus has also points of contact with one of the most practical and least literary writings found among our Apostolic Fathers, viz.
In 1559 du Bellay published at Poitiers La Nouvelle Maniere de faire son profit des lettres, a satirical epistle translated from the Latin of Adrien Turnebe, and with it Le Poete courtisan, which introduced the formal satire into French poetry.
In 1617 Napier published his Rabdologia, 4 a duodecimo of one hundred and fifty-four pages; there is prefixed to it as preface a dedicatory epistle to the high chancellor of Scotland.
In 1639, in the epistle to the reader of his most noticeable book historically, his Triall of our Church-Forsakers, he tells us, "I have lived now, by God's gratious dispensation, above fifty years, and in the place of my allotment two and twenty full."
In 1730 he entered the Mazarin College under the Jansenists, who soon perceived his exceptional talent, and, prompted perhaps by a commentary on the Epistle to the Romans which he produced in the first year of his philosophical course, sought to direct it to theology.
In 1882 a critical reconstruction of this book was made by Adam Krawutzcky with marvellous accuracy, as was shown when in the very next year the Greek bishop and metropolitan, Philotheus Bryennius, published The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles from the same manuscript from which he had previously published the complete form of the Epistle of Clement.'
In affirming the " inamissibility " of grace in the regenerate (not simply in the unknowable elect) Calvin went beyond Augustine, perhaps beyond Paul, certainly beyond the Epistle to the Hebrews, resolutely loyal to the logic of his non-sacramental theory of grace.
In all this the epistle is still a genuine letter, and not a treatise.
In dedicating to him his Commentary on the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, as "eximiae pietatis et doctrinae viro," he declares that so had he been aided by his instruction that whatever subsequent progress he had made he only regarded as received from him, and "this," he adds, "I wish to testify to posterity that if any utility accrue to any from my writings they may acknowledge it as having in part flowed from thee."
In earlier times the church had strongly impressed the duty of loyalty to Rome, as we see from the Epistle to the Romans and 1 Peter.
In Hermas there is special affinity to the language and thought of the epistle of James, and in the homilist to those of Paul.
In prose the old forms - oratory, history, the epistle, treatises or dialogues on ethical and literary questions - continue to be cultivated.
In St Paul we find the beginnings of explanation, indeed of two explanations, and in the Epistle to the Hebrews the whole sacrificial system is found to culminate in Christ, of whom all priests and sacrifices are symbols, so that they are abolished with the coming of the great reality.
In the epistle ambo at Salerno and the gospel ambones at Cava and San Giovanni del Toro in Ravello, the columns support segmental arches carrying the ambones; the epistle ambo at Ravello and all those in Rome are raised on solid marble bases.
In the Epistle of Clement to James prefixed to the Homilies Peter is spoken of as the light of the West, and as having met with a violent death in Rome; and in Homilies i.
In the Epistle of James we have a really distinct type; and it seems to us that the degree to which the epistle misses its mark as a polemic may be easily and naturally accounted for in more ways than one.
In the intervening body of the epistle the writer also follows the regular form of a letter.
In the same pamphlet as the Sunday Epistle was published the legend of St Sisoe and sometimes that of Avestitza, - the former saved the children of his sister from the attacks of the devil, who had devoured them and had to restore them alive; the latter is the female child-stealing demon, who is prevented by an angel from carrying out her evil design.
In the same year appeared Sermons on Various Subjects (2 vols.), the Church Companion, or Sermons on Several Subjects, and a recommendatory epistle to the Life of Thomas Halyburton.
In these circumstances it would never have occurred to any one to doubt the genuineness of the epistle or to suppose that it had been interpolated, but for the fact that in several passages reference is made to Ignatius and his epistles."
In this then consists the significant turn given by St Paul in the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians to the whole conception, namely, in the substitution for the tyrant of the latter time who should persecute the Jewish people, of a pseudo-Messianic figure, who, establishing himself in the temple of God, should find credence and a following precisely among the Jews.
In this we may take the epistle as typical of the state of the whole Church at the time.
Instead of an editorial we get a ramble a sort of epistle with rather more urban angst than upbeat progression.
Instead of the epistle, sundry passages from Hosea, Habakkuk, Exodus and the Psalms are read.
It is a monument of learning and scholarship. The most recent edition is that with notes and introduction by the present writer, u.s. It includes also the History of the Abbots, and the Epistle to Egbert.
It is cited without acknowledgment in the Book of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypses of Moses and Paul, the Sibylline Oracles, the Ascension of Isaiah, the Epistle of Barnabas, and referred to by Origen and Irenaeus (see Charles, The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, 1895, pp. xvii-xxiv).
It is not probable that the epistle was addressed to the mother church at Jerusalem.
It is plainly Gnostic and may perhaps have been composed by Bardaisan or his son Harmonius.0 Among recent editions of Apocrypha in Syriac may be mentioned those of the Apocalypse of Baruch, the Epistle of Baruch, ' For the later Monophysite versions, none of which attained much popularity, see Wright's Syr.
It is possible then that Aristotle may have written the dedication to Alexander about 34 0 and treated him as if he were king in the dedicatory epistle.
It is sometimes not easy to distinguish the epistle from the elegy and from the dedication.
It is to this period of his life that we owe a revised and enlarged form of his Institutes, his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, and his Tract on the Lord's Supper.
It is, however, to be noted that Shelley's "Letter to Maria Gisborne" (1820), Keats's "Epistle to Charles Clarke" (1816), and Landor's "To Julius Hare" (1836), in spite of their romantic colouring, are genuine Horatian epistles and of the pure Augustan type.
It shows a fine combination of mildness with severity; the language is simple but powerful, and, while there is undoubtedly a lack of original ideas, the author shows remarkable skill in weaving together pregnant sentences and impressive warnings selected from the apostolic epistles and the first Epistle of Clement.
It was a legitimate development of an indigenous dramatic entertainment, popular among the Romans before the first introduction of the forms of Greek art among them; and it seems largely also to have employed the form of the familiar epistle.
It was a short commentary on all the books of Scripture, including some of the apocryphal works, such as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Revelation of Peter.
It was Daniel's deliberate intention to introduce the Epistle into English poetry, "after the manner of Horace."
It was not too late to arrest the Galatians on their downward plane, and the apostle, unable or unwilling to re-visit them, despatched this epistle.
It was probably known to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
It was to him that Southwell addressed his Epistle of Comfort.
It was used by the Gnostic Heracleon and probably by the unknown writer of the epistle to Diognetus.
Its opening section, recalling to its hearers the passing of the mists of idolatry before the revelation in Jesus Christ, is markedly similar in tone and tenor to passages in the Epistle to Diognetus.
Leo of Rome, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Theophylactus, Cyril of Jerusalem and others, trine immersion was regarded as being symbolic of the three days' entombment of Christ; and in the Armenian baptismal rubric this interpretation is enjoined, as also in an epistle of Macarius of Jerusalem addressed to the Armenians (c. 330).
Lightfoot, indeed, dwells on the all-round "comprehensiveness" with which Clement, as the mouthpiece of the early Roman Church, utters in succession phrases or ideas borrowed impartially from Peter and Paul and James and the Epistle to Hebrews.
Like its sister Epistle to the Colossians, it represents, whoever wrote it, deep experience and bold use of reflection on the meaning of that experience; if it be from the pen of the Apostle Paul, it reveals to us a distinct and important phase of his thought.
Like the epistles to Timothy, the Epistle to Titus thus belongs to a phase of the apostle's life for which we possess no other contemporary evidence.
Lipsius (2nd ed., Hand.-Commentar, 1892), and Zockler (2nd ed., 1894) may still be consulted with advantage, while Hilgenfeld's commentary (1852) discusses acutely the historical problems of the epistle from the standpoint of Baur's criticism.
Lipsius brings' the date of the epistle down to about 260, though he admits many of the statements as trustworthy.
Luther feebly rejected this scripture as " a right strawy epistle."
Many attempts have been made to identify the home of the Hellenistic Christians addressed in this epistle.
Many of his general exhortations are but very indirectly connected with the practical issue to which the epistle is directed, and it is very probable that he was drawing largely upon the homiletical material with which he was accustomed to edify his fellow-Christians at Rome.
Martin Luther regarded Apollos as the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and many scholars since have shared his view.
Moreover, if Colossians be accepted as Pauline (and among other strong reasons the unquestionable genuineness of the epistle to Philemon renders it extremely difficult not to accept it), the chief matters of this more advanced Christian thought are fully legitimated for Paul.
Moreover, we know that the Ethiopic Church did long possess a chapel and altar in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and, though we have been unable to find travellers' testimony to this older than about 1497, it is quite possible that the appropriation may have originated much earlier.(fn 5) We know from Marco Polo that about a century after the date of Pope Alexander's epistle a mission was sent by the king of Abyssinia to Jerusalem to make offerings on his part at the Church of the Sepulchre.
Most nearly on the lines of the New Testament are the so-called Apostolic (really Sub-Apostolic) Fathers (Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, Didache, Barnabas, the letters of Ignatius and the single letter of Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas, the homily commonly known as the Second Epistle of Clement).
Most of the literature of the sub-apostolic age is epistolary, and we have a particularly interesting form of epistle in the communications between churches (as distinct from individuals) known as the First Epistle of Clement (Rome to Corinth), the Martyrdom of Polycarp (Smyrna to Philomelium), and the Letters of the Churches of Vienne andLyons (to the congregations of Asia Minor and Phrygia) describing the Gallican martyrdoms of A.D.
Most of these texts date in their Rumanian form from the 16th and 17th centuries; the Sunday Epistle is well known in connexion with the Flagellants.
No doubt of the Pauline authorship was expressed in ancient times; nor is there any lack of early use by writers who make no direct quotation, to raise doubts as to the genuineness of the epistle.
No epistle sheds more light on St Paul's character as a man - so mobile, so tactful, so tender and affectionate, and yet so statesmanlike and so commanding.
Nor does early currency in Rome prove that the epistle was written to Rome, any more than do the words "they of Italy salute you."
Nor does it appear to us that the objections to this theory brought by Dr Chase in his excellent article on the epistle in Hastings' Dictionary are really so fatal as he supposes.
Nor is this pre-literary and vital quality really absent even from the writing which is least entitled to a place among "Apostolic Fathers," the Epistle to Diognetus.
Notes in Latin on the first epistle of Peter, the epistle of Jude, and the first two of John have come down to us; but whether they are the translation of Cassiodorus, or indeed a translation of Clement's work at all, is a matter of dispute.
Now that she's away at college, Sheila's mom writes her a lengthy epistle each week.
Of the Latin variants, Iberio is the form found in the most ancient Irish MSS., such as the Confession of St Patrick, and the same saint's Epistle to Coroticus.
Of the shorter poems, besides the greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars (796), an epistle to David (Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace.
Olshausen's commentary, himself writing the volumes on the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Johannine Epistles, and Revelation.
On the chronology adopted in the article Paul, this would yield as probable date for the epistle A.D.
On the contrary, it is dedicated to Gilberd by Edward Wright, who wrote the dedicatory epistle.
On the other hand, the characteristics of the thought in Ephesians give some strong evidence confirmatory of the epistle's own claim to be by Paul.
Other business will include the receipt of the draft epistle, and amendments to Quaker faith & practice.
Over and above the general criticism, which may now be said to have been completely answered by the investigations of Zahn, Lightfoot and Harnack, one or two special arguments have been brought against the Epistle to Polycarp. Ussher, for instance, while accepting the other six epistles, rejected this on the ground that Jerome says that Ignatius only sent one letter to Smyrna - a mistake due to his misinterpretation of Eusebius.
Paul habitually expanded and deepened this, and, in this case, that paragraph is enormously enlarged, so that it may be regarded as including chapters i.-iii., and as carrying the main thought of the epistle.
Paul probably despatched the epistle from Corinth.
Paul, lxiii-lxxv), find different editions in the canonical epistle, one meant for Thessalonica (i.-xiv.
Paul's epistle to the Colossians is one of my favorite pieces of Biblical literature.
Pauline particles like apa, Sc6, Sam, E7recra, Iise and Moo 1 When the literary integrity of the epistle is maintained this allusion naturally drops to the ground, since the use of the epistle by Polycarp rules the earlier conjectures of Baur and others (who made the pastorals anti-Marcionite) out of court; besides, passages like i.
Penry's press, now removed to Fawsley, near Northampton, produced a second tract by Martin, the Epitome, which contains more serious argument than the Epistle but is otherwise similar, and shortly afterwards, at Coventry, Martin's reply to the Admonition, entitled Hay any Worke for Cooper (March 1589).
Peter starts the second epistle talking about our side, we believed.
Phis epistle has of course been subjected to the same criticism as has been directed against the other epistles of Ignatius (see Ignatius).
Probably these epistles did not originally bear Clement's name at all, but formed a single epistle addressed to ascetics among an actual circle of churches.
Probably, then, the original and limited address, or rather salutation, was never copied when this treatise in letter form, like the epistle to the Romans, passed into the wider circulation which its contents merited.
Recht im Galaterbrief, 1 89P, not merely that Paul must have acquired such knowledge in Italy but that he wrote the epistle there.
Rollock wrote Commentaries on the Epistles tc the Ephesians (1590) and Thessalonians (1598) and Hebrews (1605), the book of Daniel (1591), the Gospel of St John (1599) and some of the Psalms (1598); an analysis of the Epistle to the Romans (1594), and Galatians (1602); also Questions and Answers on the Covenant of God (1596), and a Treatise on Effectual Calling (1597).
Scholars of such opposite schools of thought as Schmiedel 3 and Lindsay 4 maintain that the epistle contains the most explicit references to presbyters of the official type.
Seneca (Epistle 9) shows how closely allied Stilpo was to the Stoics.
So Basil of Cappadocia (Epistle 93), about the year 350, records that in Egypt the laity, as a rule, celebrated the communion in their own houses, and partook of the sacrament by themselves whenever they chose.
So far as any trustworthy evidence is available, such Hellenic notions as are presupposed in this epistle might well have been intelligible to the Galatians of the northern provinces.
So far as concerns the Epistle of St James this interpretation would probably be correct.
So too the early Christian church in Rome, to which St Paul addressed his epistle, was Greek-speaking, and continued to be till far into the 3rd century.
Some consider the Epistle of James to be the New Testament version of the book of Proverbs.
Some early ambones are found in Ravenna, and in the south of Italy are many fine examples; the epistle ambo in the cathedral at Ravello (1130), which is perhaps the earliest, shows a Scandinavian influence in the design of its mosaic inlay, an influence which is found in Sicilian work and may be a Norman importation.
Southey has a very complimentary reference to Cats in his "Epistle to Allan Cunningham."
Still from the time of Origen the opinion that Paul wrote the epistle became prevalent in the East.
Strictly speaking, any such communication is an epistle, but at the present day the term has become archaic, and is used only for letters of an ancient time, or for elaborate literary productions which take an epistolary form, that is to say, are, or affect to be, written to a person at a distance.
Such a work seems implied by the epistle of Peter to James and its appended adjuration, prefixed in our MSS.
Such an epistle is mentioned in the Muratorian canon.
Such was the general situation of the readers of this epistle, men who rested partly on the Gospel and partly on Judaism.
Such writings have affinities with both the letter and the epistle, and they may further be compared with the "edicts and rescripts by which Roman law grew, documents arising out of special circumstances but treating them on general principles."
That our epistle is the one referred to in Col.
That the epistle implies as already existent a developed system of Gnostic thought such as only came into being in the 2nd century is not true, and such a date is excluded by the external evidence.
The "Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot" has not been surpassed, if it has been equalled, in Latin or French poetry of the same class.
The "open letter" of modern journalism is really an epistle.
The Anabaptists were great readers of Revelation and of the Epistle of James, the latter perhaps by way of counteracting Luther's one-sided teaching of justification by faith alone.
The authors of the Ascension of Isaiah, the Apoc. of Baruch and the Epistle of Barnabas were probably acquainted with it.
The balance of evidence seems to lie on the side of the genuineness of the Epistle.
The best known of these poems is The Friendly Epistle addressed to King Udayana.
The Church of England has reverted to early custom in so far as only "Easter Even" is distinguished by a special collect, gospel and epistle.
The city was twice visited by St Paul, whose Epistle to the Philippians was addressed to his converts here.
The date of the epistle depends upon the date of the Ignatian letters and is now generally fixed between 112 and 118.
The discovery that the poet had printed secretly 1500 copies of The Patriot King caused him to publish a correct version in 1749, and stirred up a further altercation with Warburton, who defended his friend against Bolingbroke's bitter aspersions, the latter, whose conduct was generally reprehended, publishing a Familiar Epistle to the most Impudent Man Living.
The earliest African tradition, on the other hand, preserved by Tertullian l (De pudicitia, c. 20), but certainly not invented by him, ascribed the epistle to Barnabas.
The earliest allusion to the epistle 11 is the notice of its inclusion in Marcion's canon, but almost verbal echoes of iii.
The earliest expression of this genuinely official principle is found in Clement's Epistle to the Corinthians, ch.
The Epistle attracted considerable notice, and a reply was written by Thomas Cooper, bishop of Winchester, under the title An Admonition to the People of England, but this was too long and too dull to appeal to the same class of readers as the Marprelate pamphlets, and produced little effect.
The epistle can hardly have been written therefore until after the period described in Acts xviii.
The epistle dates itself.
The epistle gives a minute description of the persecution in Smyrna, of the last days of Polycarp and of his trial and martyrdom; and as it contains many instructive details and professes to have been written not long after the events to which it refers, it has always been regarded as one of the most precious remains of the 2nd century.
The epistle is largely involved in the Ignatian controversy (see Ignatius).
The epistle is more the work of a companion of St Paul of long standing than of one who, with quite different and independent antecedents, had only been influenced by the perusal of one or two of St Paul's letters.
The epistle is not a compilation from the two others (as Schleiermacher thought), but it seems to denote a slightly later stage.
The epistle is quoted by Eusebius 1 Ency.
The epistle is taken up with matters of this kind; either the apostle is reproving disorders and abuses actually existing in the Church, and almost sure to exist in a young community that had just adopted a novel method of life and had as yet no settled understanding of the principles involved in it; or else he is replying to definite questions put to him by his converts.
The epistle may be safely ascribed to the years 95-96.
The epistle of Horace to his agent (or villicus) is of a more familiar order, and is at once a masterpiece and a model of what an epistle should be.
The Epistle of James (also, if genuine) must be placed late in the lifetime of the brother of the Lord.
The Epistle of James may breathe a Christianized Jewish legalism, or, as others hold, it may breathe the legalism (not untouched by Jewish influences) of popular Gentile-Christian thought.
The Epistle of Jude cannot be either dated or localized with any certainty.
The Epistle of Polycarp. - Though Irenaeus states that Polycarp wrote many "letters to the neighbouring churches or to certain of the brethren" 4 only one has been preserved, viz.
The Epistle to Egbert, though not historical in form, may be mentioned here, because of the valuable information which it contains as to the state of the Northumbrian Church, on which the disorders and revolutions of the Northumbrian kingdom had told with disastrous effect.
The epistle to Rufinus (3rd in Vallarsi's enumeration) tells us the route.
The Epistle to Testa- the Hebrews is a parallel to Paulinism, working out ment.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is an epistolary treatise of uncertain date, on the Pauline model, and by a disciple of St Paul or at least a writer strongly influenced by him, though influenced also in no small degree by the Jewish school of Alexandria represented by Philo.
The epistle was published in 1633 by Patrick Young from Cod.
The epistle, on the other hand, rather takes the place of a public speech, it is written with an audience in view, it is a literary form, a distinctly artistic effort aiming at permanence; and it bears much the same relation to a letter as a Platonic dialogue does to a private talk between two friends.
The exception is in the little treatise commonly called the Epistle of Barnabas, probably composed about A.D.
The exegesis does not absolutely necessitate a partition of the epistle, which (so Heinrichs and Paulus) would make iii.
The exegetical arguments are, in short, the final court of appeal, and their verdict tells rather in favour of the epistle's integrity.
The finished form of the epistle's argument is sometimes urged to prove that it was not originally an epistle at all, written more or less on the spur of the moment, but a literary composition, half treatise and half homily, to which its author - as an afterthought - gave the suggestion of being a Pauline epistle by adding the personal matter in ch.
The first epistle of John he calls less a letter or an epistle than a religious tract.
The first forms the text of the principal argument in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which the author easily demonstrates the inadequacy of the mediation and atoning rites of the Old Testament, and builds upon this demonstration the doctrine of the effectual high-priesthood of Christ, who, in his sacrifice of himself, truly " led His people to God," not leaving them outside as He entered the heavenly sanctuary, but taking them with Him into spiritual nearness to the throne of grace.
The first part of the epistle deals generally with magnetic attractions and repulsions, with the polarity of the stone, and with the supposed influence of the poles of the heavens upon the poles of the stone.
The first piece of Christian literature which has an independent existence and to which we can fix a date is St Paul's first Epistle to the Thessalonians.
The first six verses of this chapter contain an epistle sent by Jesus Christ to the church of Sardis.
The first tract by "Martin Marprelate," known as the Epistle, appeared at Molesey in November 1588.
The formality and conventional grace of the epistle were elements with which the leaders of romantic revival were out of sympathy, and it was not cultivated to any important degree in the 19th century.
The former came from Paul's pen, but it did not belong originally to this epistle.
The former is based on the Epistle to the Romans, and deals with the religious life as (I) Repentance, (2) Faith, (3) Love.
The fundamental theme of the epistle is The Unity of Mankind in Christ, and hence the Unity and Divinity of the Church of Christ.
The genuineness of this epistle stands or falls with that of the Ignatian epistles.
The gospel and epistle are still read from the ambo in the Ambrosian rite at Milan.
The Gospel and the First Epistle are written in correct and flowing Greek, and there is not a barbarism, a solecism, or a provincialism in them; whereas the Greek of the Apocalypse is inaccurate, disfigured by unusual or foreign words and even at times by solecisms."
The graceful precision and dignified familiarity of the epistle are particularly attractive to the temperament of France.
The history of the epistle's reception into the canon is not opposed to this; for, once it was attributed to James, Syria would be more likely to take it up, while the West, more sceptical, if not better informed as to its origin, held back; just as happened in the case of Hebrews.
The inconvenience of having a single ambo led to the substitution of two separate ambones, between which these various functions were divided, one on the south side of the chancel being for the reading of the gospel, and one on the north for reading the epistle.
The influence of its language is probably to be seen in Ignatius, Polycarp and Hermas, less certainly in the epistle of Barnabas.
The Jewish expectations are adopted for example, by Papias, by the writer of the epistle of Barnabas, and by Justin.
The latter tendency appeared first in Paul, afterwards in the Gospel and First Epistle of John, in Ignatius of Antioch and in the Gnostics.
The leading varieties of teaching, the Sayings of Jesus, Paul, the Johannine writings, the Epistle to the Hebrews, connect the atonement with Christ especially with His death, and associate it with faith in Him and with repentance and amendment of life.12 These ideas are also common to Christian teaching generally.
The method resembles that of the First Epistle of John, for although the errorists attacked in the latter manifesto are not those of the pastorals, and although the one writer eschews entirely the inner authority of the Spirit which the other posits, the same anti-gnostic emphasis on practical religion and stereotyped doctrine is felt in both.
The ministry of enthusiasm which they represent is about to give way to the ministry of office, a transition which is reflected in the New Testament in the 3rd Epistle of John.
The modifications, however, are all in a more spiritual direction, in keeping with the genuinely evangelic spirit which underlies and pervades even the allegorical ingenuities of the epistle.
The most important commentaries on the epistle are those of Matt.
The most permanent interest of the epistle lies in the conception of the grounds on which the Christian ministry rests according to the view of a prominent teacher before the 1st century has closed.
The new view clears away some manifest difficulties in the reconciliation of the Epistle and the Acts, and the early date for Galatians in relation to the other Pauline epistles is not so improbable as it may seem; but the chronology still appears more satisfactory on the older view, which enables the conversion to be placed at least three years later than on the alternative theory.
The only positive piece of evidence produced is the passage from Thomas Nash's "Epistle to the Gentlemen of the Two Universities," prefixed to Greene's Arcadia, 1859, in which he upbraids somebody (not known to be Shakespeare) with having left the "trade of Noverint" and busied himself with "whole Hamlets" and "handfuls of tragical speeches."
The other features noted in the epistle, their turbulence, drunkenness and greed, all happen to be verified in the pages of ancient writers like Polybius.
The phrase " when ye shall be stripped and not be ashamed " contains an idea which has some affinity with two passages found respectively in the Gospel according to the Egyptians and the so-called Second Epistle of Clement.
The Pontifical known as Ecgbert's shows that it was then in use both as an office and as an order, and Aelfric (Io06) in both his pastoral epistle and canons mentions the acolyte.
The prayer in the burial service, as in the Communion service, contained distinct intercessions for the departed; and a form of Holy Communion was provided for use at funerals with proper introit, collect, epistle and gospel.
The preface to the prose life of Cuthbert proves that he had stayed at Lindisfarne prior to 721, while the Epistle to Egbert shows that he had visited him at York in 733.
The relationship, both literary and theological, between the epistle to the Ephesians and that to the Colossians is very close.
The Second Epistle to Timothy carries on this line of advice.
The second stage was for the sub-deacon who read the epistle (facing the altar); and the third for the subordinate clergy who read other parts of scripture.
The short Epistle of Polycarp contains references or allusions to no less than nine out of the thirteen epistles, including 2 Thess., Eph., r and 2 Tim.
The subject of each poem is generally suggested by some part of the lessons or the gospel or the epistle for the day.
The substantially Pauline character of the epistle, for all practical purposes, is to be granted upon either hypothesis, for the author or the editor strove not unsuccessfully, upon the whole, to reproduce the Pauline spirit and traditions The older notion that the personal data in Titus, or in the rest of the pastorals, were invented to lend verisimilitude to the writing must be given up. They are too circumstantial and artless to be the work of a writer idealizing or creating a situation.
The tendency among adherents of the south Galatian theory is to put the epistle as early as possible, making it contemporaneous with, if not prior to, 1 Thessalonians.
The testimony which it affords to the Ignatian Epistles is so striking that those scholars who regard these letters as spurious are bound to reject the Epistle of Polycarp altogether, or at any rate to look upon it as largely interpolated.
The text in Paul's Epistle to the Colossians should be " for the whole fullness was pleased to dwell in him.
The third council of Carthage in 397 forbade anything but Holy Scripture to be read in church; this rule has been adhered to so far as the liturgical epistle and gospel, and occasional additional lessons in the Roman missal are concerned, but in the divine office, on feasts when nine lessons are read at matins, only the first three lessons are taken from Holy Scripture, the next three being taken from the sermons of ecclesiastical writers, and the last three from expositions of the day's gospel; but sometimes the lives or Passions of the saints, or of some particular saints, were substituted for any or all of these breviary lessons.
The tone of surprise which marks the opening of the epistle tells in favour of the latter theory.
The uncertainty as to the literary structure of the epistle naturally renders it hazardous to infer the character of the Christians who are addressed, but it may be said that the results of the long debate on this point are converging upon the belief that the predominant class in the local church or churches were Gentile Christians, while proselytes must have swelled the ranks to no inconsiderable degree.
The vacillation of tradition and the dissimilarity of the epistle from those of Paul were brought out with great force by Erasmus.
The view which denies the Pauline authorship of Ephesians has to suppose the existence of a great literary artist and profound theologian, able to write an epistle worthy of Paul at his best, who, without betraying any recognizable motive, presented to the world in the name of Paul an imitation of Colossians, incredibly laborious and yet superior to the original in literary workmanship and power of thought, and bearing every appearance of earnest sincerity.
The whole epistle to the Hebrews is a protest against it.
The whole Hellenistic culture of the epistle (let alone its language), and the personal references in it, notably that to Timothy in xiii.
The writer is more versed than any other New Testament writer except the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, and very much more than most of them, in the literary Greek of the period of the rise of Christianity; and he has, also, like other writers, his favourite words, turns of expression and thoughts.
There are in the town many memorials of John Kyrle, the Man of Ross, who died here in 1724, and is eulogized by Pope in his third Moral Epistle (1732).
There are other books in the New Testament that bear the same impress, the epistles to the Ephesians and the Colossians, and to a much greater degree the epistle to the Hebrews.
There is a touching epistle (Medea to Jason) in the Heroides of Ovid.
There is absolutely no motive for a forgery in the contents of the epistle.
There is here abundant proof that the epistle was in existence, and was highly valued and influential with leaders of Christian thought, about the year ioo, when persons who had known Paul well were still living.
There was nothing unusual in the final epistle to indicate why the correspondence abruptly ended.
These are - "The Fate of Caesar," "Verses upon Inveraray," "Epistle to the Earl of Eglintoun," "Prologue on the Birthday of the Prince of Wales, 1759" and several "Epigrams," which are printed in vol.
These are divided into Familiar Correspondence, Correspondence in Old Age, Divers Letters and Letters without a Title; to which may be added the curious autobiographical fragment entitled the Epistle to Posterity.
These are the Epistles of James and Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
These letters, which were still popular a hundred years later, were the first example of a distinct class of Roman poetry - the poetic epistle.
These preceptors included the German priest Bruno, the Czech priest Radla, and an Italian knight, Theodate of San Severino, who taught him arms and letters (a holograph epistle by Stephen existed in the Vatican Library as late as 1513).
They contend even that extreme unction was so instituted, and that St James in his Epistle did but promulgate it.
They include the History of Adam and Eve, the Legend of the Cross, The Apocalypse of Abraham, the History of the Sibyl, the Legends of Solomon; numerous New Testament apocryphal tales, starting with legends of St John the Baptist; a very remarkable version of the Gospel of Nicodemus; and the Epistle of Pilate.
This being so, the epistle was probably written, not to Alexandria, but rather by a "teacher" of the Alexandrine Church to some body of Christians in Lower Egypt among whom he had recently been visiting.
This epistle was questioned from the first, and only gained its place with much hesitation, and rather through slackness of opposition than any conclusiveness of proof.
This forms the leading theme of the epistle.
This is an explanation of today's epistle, part of Romans 4, in the form of a dialog with St Paul.
This pupil (probably Albert Burgh, who afterwards joined the Church of Rome and penned a foolishly insolent epistle to his former teacher) was the occasion of Spinoza's first publication - the only publication indeed to which his name was attached.
This suspicion is strengthened by the fact (discovered by von Sybel) that even the very preface to his book is taken almost word for word from Rufinus's translation of Origen's commentary on the epistle to the Romans.
This vacillation may then have been one of the causes which led up to the council, which may have been held before, not, as is usually thought, after the sending of the Epistle to the Galatians.
This would account for the general character of the epistle, as well as for the entire and striking absence of personal greetings and of concrete allusions to existing circumstances among the readers.
This would explain the absence of specific address, so that it appears as in form a "general epistle," as Origen styles it.
Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and most interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nash, in To the Gentlemen Students, prefixed to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), calls him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir Ihon Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues."
Though at first written consecutively, the work is now usually divided into three portions, - a preface, the history proper, and an epistle, - the last, which is largely made up of passages and texts of Scripture brought together for the purpose of condemning the vices of his countrymen and their rulers, being the least important, though by far the longest of the three.
Three years after his death the first press was set up"in Iceland by John Matthewson, at Breidabolstad, in Hunafloe, and a Gospel and Epistle Book, according to Odd's version, issued from it in 1562.
Throughout the epistle we have a singular combination of the seemingly desultory method of a letter, turning aside at a word and straying wherever the mood of the moment leads, with the firm, forward march of earnest and mature thought.
Thus he paves the way for his tardy rebuke of present disorders, which he reserves until two-thirds of his epistle is completed.
Thus it is quoted by name as a genuine production of Enoch in the Epistle of Jude, 14 sq., and it lies at the base of Matt.
Thus some have made him out to be the Hermas to whom salutation is sent at the end of the Epistle to the Romans, others that he was the brother of Pius, bishop of Rome in the middle of the 2nd century, and others that he was a contemporary of Clement, bishop of Rome at the close of the 1st century.
Thus the Oratorian Andrea Gallandi (1709-1779), in re-issuing Cotelier's collection in his Bibliotheca Veterum Patrum (1765-1781), included the fragments of Papias and the Epistle to Diognetus, to which recent editors have added the citations from the "Elders" of Papias's day found in Irenaeus, and, since 1883, the Didache.
Thus this epistle is the earliest of the Apostolic Fathers, and as such of special interest.
To appreciate the full significance of that promise we must take note of the circumstances in which the Epistle was written.
To the evidence given above may be added the use of Ephesians in the First Epistle of Peter.
Tradition, obviously resting on the Epistle to Titus, has it that he died in Crete as bishop at an advanced age; another line connects him with Venice.
Upon the whole, the internal evidence of the epistle strongly favours its position as the last of the captivity epistles.
Various schemes of analysis have been proposed to account for this and other passages of the same nature in the epistle, e.g.
We see from the Epistle of John how mortally afraid of gnostic spiritualism were the founders of the historical fraud.
We see from the Epistle of John how mortally afraid of Gnostic Spiritualism were the founders of the historical fraud.
What relevance has this little epistle to our modern day?
Whatever the currency in classical circles of the epistle as a literary form, it is irrational to put first in the development of Christian literature a general epistle, couched in fluent, even rhetorical, Greek, and afterwards the Pauline letters, which both as to origin and subsequent circulation were a product of urgent conditions.
While the first part must be dated before the Epistle of Barnabas, i.e.
With few and early exceptions, such as we may note in the Epistle of Barnabas, chap. i., they confine the word to doctrine.
With regard to the evidence of the Epistle of Clement, Harnack seems to be incorrect in his conclusions.
Wood (Studies in St Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, 1887) criticizes Lightfoot.
Zittwitz assumes that this epistle was in its original form of much larger extent, and that the author of the Acts took out of it the matter for the speeches which he makes Mani deliver during his disputation with Bishop Archelaus.