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  • From: "Frank W. Hughes" <fwhughes AT sunbeach.net>
  • To: corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [corpus-paul] Letter writing in the ancient world
  • Date: Sat, 04 Jan 2003 07:18:53 -0400

I hope to be forgiven if I refer you to my articles, including "The Rhetoric of Letters" and "The Social Situations Implied by Rhetoric," in The Thessalonians Debate, edited by Karl P. Donfried (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000).  The Form and Function of the Pauline Thanksgivings (BZNW 20; Berlin: Töpelmann, 1939) by Paul Schubert continues to be fundamental.

Also important and too frequently overlooked is Hermann Peter, Der Brief in der römischen Literatur (Abhandlungen der Königlichen Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, philologisch-historische Classe, 20/3; Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1901; reprinted Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1965).  Peter argued that official letters were seen in Greek tradition as substitutes for or representations of public speeches ("letter and speech were looked upon as belonging together," Peter, 14), and thus teaching about letters was a natural part of Graeco-Roman education, particularly within rhetorical schools.  Peter argued that the systematic rules taught in rhetorical schools had a powerful influence on all kinds of speeches and also letters (Peter, 19).  See also Jonathan A. Goldstein, The Letters of Demosthenes (New York & London: Columbia University Press, 1968).

Frank W. Hughes
Lecturer in New Testament
Codrington College
St. John J6
Barbados, West Indies



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