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corpus-paul - what happened to Paul's epistle once written?

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  • From: "Elli Elliott" <ellielliott AT email.msn.com>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: what happened to Paul's epistle once written?
  • Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 13:38:23 -0600


Regis Bernet asked about the "epistolarity of Paul's epistles."

To get a more concrete understanding of what Paul's letters would have
looked like, how they were written and delivered, I would suggest you look
at: John L. White, Light from Ancient Letters. Foundation and Facets
Series. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986. This book offers a wealth of
information about letter-writing in the Greco-Roman world and a good
collection of examples.

Your other questions are all interesting questions for discussion, and the
vagueness of the information you are finding is due to the lack of solid
data. Your effort to "get the picture" is refreshing. IMHO we can
understand the words of the letters better when we have some context in
mind, visually.

snip > what happened to Paul's epistle once they were written? Of course
they were carried by a courier who was sometimes one of Paul's co-workers
like Timotheus or Stephanas. But who read them? Were they read in front of
the communities? Were they commented? <snip

Most scholars assume that the letters were read aloud in community
gatherings. I would have to assume that they were discussed, too. In newly
formed churches where everyone has made a conscious decision to be part of
the community, letters addressed to vital issues of community life would
surely have evoked lively discussion. If their meetings were similar to
symposia or meetings of collegia, as the evidence suggests, this would of
course be the case. (I don't have bibliography for this readily at hand,
but someone else on this list must. There is a lot of current work on
this.) If the letters were important to people, they were saved and
recopied (probably edited) and apparently passed around to other
congregations. Otherwise we would not have them.

> How rough people like (for instance) the Galatians do understand the
subtle argumentation of the
> > apostle?

This question touches on my own research. The argumentation is not so
subtle once we understand the world of the audience -- who may or may not
have been "rough people." The part of my work that is published and
available currently can be found in Susan M. Elliott, "Choose Your Mother,
Choose Your Master: Galatians 4:21-5:1 in the Shadow of the Anatolian Mother
of the Gods." Journal of Biblical Literature 118 (1999) 661-683.

Elli Elliott (elli AT ria.net)
Pastor, Zion United Church of Christ, Sterling, Colorado
PhD, New Testament & Early Christianity, Loyola University Chicago







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