An epistle ( / ɪ ˈ p ɪ s əl / ; from Ancient Greek ἐπιστολή ( epistolḗ ) 'letter') is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter . The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians are usually referred to as epistles. Those traditionally attributed to Paul are known as Pauline epistles and the others as catholic (i.e., "general") epistles .
159-637: The ancient Egyptians wrote epistles, most often for pedagogical reasons. Egyptologist Edward Wente (1990) speculates that the Fifth-dynasty Pharaoh Djedkare Isesi —in his many letters sent to his viziers —was a pioneer in the epistolary genre. Its existence is firmly attested during the Sixth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom , and is prominently featured in the educational guide The Book of Kemit written during
318-635: A fairy tale . While stories like Sinuhe , Taking of Joppa , and the Doomed prince contain fictional portrayals of Egyptians abroad, the Report of Wenamun is most likely based on a true account of an Egyptian who traveled to Byblos in Phoenicia to obtain cedar for shipbuilding during the reign of Ramesses XI . Narrative tales and stories are most often found on papyri, but partial and sometimes complete texts are found on ostraca. For example, Sinuhe
477-589: A 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae ( Divine Institutes ): But all scripture is divided into two Testaments. That which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets —is called the Old; but those things which were written after His resurrection are named the New Testament. The Jews make use of the Old, we of
636-644: A Gentile, and similarly for the Gospel of Matthew, though most assert Jewish-Christian authorship. However, more recently the above understanding has been challenged by the publication of evidence showing only educated elites after the Jewish War would have been capable of producing the prose found in the Gospels. Authorship of the Gospels remains divided among both evangelical and critical scholars. The names of each Gospel stems from church tradition, and yet
795-506: A conversation with his ba (a component of the Egyptian soul ) on whether to continue living in despair or to seek death as an escape from misery. The funerary stone slab stela was first produced during the early Old Kingdom. Usually found in mastaba tombs, they combined raised-relief artwork with inscriptions bearing the name of the deceased, their official titles (if any), and invocations . Funerary poems were thought to preserve
954-701: A copy of a teaching text (i.e. Ptahhotep ), dates to the Eighteenth dynasty . Ptahhotep and Kagemni are both found on the Prisse Papyrus , which was written during the Twelfth dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. The entire Loyalist Teaching survives only in manuscripts from the New Kingdom, although the entire first half is preserved on a Middle Kingdom biographical stone stela commemorating
1113-469: A corpus of fourteen "Pauline" epistles. While many scholars uphold the traditional view, some question whether the first three, called the "Deutero-Pauline Epistles", are authentic letters of Paul. As for the latter three, the "Pastoral epistles", some scholars uphold the traditional view of these as the genuine writings of the Apostle Paul; most regard them as pseudepigrapha . One might refer to
1272-415: A deceased person's name would deprive his or her soul of the ability to read the funerary texts and condemn that soul to an inanimate existence. Hieratic is a simplified, cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Like hieroglyphs, hieratic was used in sacred and religious texts. By the 1st millennium BC, calligraphic hieratic became the script predominantly used in funerary papyri and temple rolls. Whereas
1431-675: A different tradition and body of testimony. In addition, most scholars agree that the author of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles . Scholars hold that these books constituted two-halves of a single work, Luke–Acts . The same author appears to have written the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, and most refer to them as the Lucan texts. The most direct evidence comes from the prefaces of each book; both were addressed to Theophilus , and
1590-682: A draughtsman working at Deir el-Medina during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt , quoted passages from the Middle Kingdom narratives Eloquent Peasant and Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor in an instructional letter reprimanding his disobedient son. Menena's Ramesside contemporary Hori, the scribal author of the satirical letter in Papyrus Anastasi I, admonished his addressee for quoting the Instruction of Hardjedef in
1749-610: A dry environment to ensure the preservation of the ink on their surfaces. Whereas papyrus rolls and packets were usually stored in boxes for safekeeping, ostraca were routinely discarded in waste pits; one such pit was discovered by chance at the Ramesside-era village of Deir el-Medina , and has yielded the majority of known private letters on ostraca. Documents found at this site include letters, hymns, fictional narratives, recipes, business receipts, and wills and testaments . Penelope Wilson describes this archaeological find as
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#17327583839171908-455: A lord over them, saith the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people; and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: 'Know the LORD'; for they shall all know Me, from
2067-513: A monarch's soul in death. The Pyramid Texts are the earliest surviving religious literature incorporating poetic verse. These texts do not appear in tombs or pyramids originating before the reign of Unas (r. 2375–2345 BC), who had the Pyramid of Unas built at Saqqara . The Pyramid Texts are chiefly concerned with the function of preserving and nurturing the soul of the sovereign in the afterlife. This aim eventually included safeguarding both
2226-528: A narrative with an ending in letter form and suitable terminology for use in commemorative biographies . Other letters of the early Middle Kingdom have also been found to use epistolary formulas similar to the Book of Kemit . The Heqanakht papyri , written by a gentleman farmer, date to the Eleventh dynasty and represent some of the lengthiest private letters known to have been written in ancient Egypt. During
2385-442: A person's unique handwriting could be identified as authentic. Private letters received or written by the pharaoh were sometimes inscribed in hieroglyphics on stone monuments to celebrate kingship, while kings' decrees inscribed on stone stelas were often made public. Modern Egyptologists categorize Egyptian texts into genres , for example " laments / discourses " and narrative tales. The only genre of literature named as such by
2544-461: A pessimistic outlook, descriptions of social and religious change, and great disorder throughout the land, taking the form of a syntactic "then-now" verse formula. Although these texts are usually described as laments, Neferti digresses from this model, providing a positive solution to a problematic world. Although it survives only in later copies from the Eighteenth dynasty onward, Parkinson asserts that, due to obvious political content, Neferti
2703-695: A revival during the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty and Roman period of Egypt with works such as the Demotic Chronicle , Oracle of the Lamb , Oracle of the Potter , and two prophetic texts that focus on Nectanebo II (r. 360–343 BC) as a protagonist. Along with "teaching" texts, these reflective discourses (key word mdt ) are grouped with the wisdom literature category of the ancient Near East. In Middle Kingdom texts, connecting themes include
2862-522: A scholarly consensus that many New Testament books were not written by the individuals whose names are attached to them. Scholarly opinion is that names were fixed to the gospels by the mid second century AD. Many scholars believe that none of the gospels were written in the region of Palestine . Christian tradition identifies John the Apostle with John the Evangelist , the supposed author of
3021-578: A single poetic hymn in the Demotic script has been preserved. However, there are many surviving examples of Late-Period Egyptian hymns written in hieroglyphs on temple walls. No Egyptian love song has been dated from before the New Kingdom, these being written in Late Egyptian, although it is speculated that they existed in previous times. Erman compares the love songs to the Song of Songs , citing
3180-613: A uniformity of doctrine concerning the Mosaic Law , Jesus, faith, and various other issues. All of these letters easily fit into the chronology of Paul's journeys depicted in Acts of the Apostles. The author of the Epistle of James identifies himself in the opening verse as "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". From the middle of the 3rd century, patristic authors cited the Epistle as written by James
3339-501: A wide variety of media. This includes papyrus scrolls and packets, limestone or ceramic ostraca , wooden writing boards, monumental stone edifices and coffins . Texts preserved and unearthed by modern archaeologists represent a small fraction of ancient Egyptian literary material. The area of the floodplain of the Nile is under-represented because the moist environment is unsuitable for the preservation of papyri and ink inscriptions. On
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#17327583839173498-657: Is a collection of Christian texts originally written in the Koine Greek language, at different times by various authors. While the Old Testament canon varies somewhat between different Christian denominations , the 27-book canon of the New Testament has been almost universally recognized within Christianity since at least Late Antiquity . Thus, in almost all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books: The earliest known complete list of
3657-550: Is a dearth of written material from all periods from the Nile Delta but an abundance at western Thebes , dating from its heyday. He notes that while some texts were copied numerous times, others survive from a single copy; for example, there is only one complete surviving copy of the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor from the Middle Kingdom. However, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor also appears in fragments of texts on ostraca from
3816-527: Is always linked to a reading from the Gospel , though some services, such as Matins , will have a Gospel lesson, but no Epistle ( Vespers on a number of feast days (typically for Apostles) will also have three epistle readings but no Gospel). A number of services besides the Divine Liturgy will have an Epistle and Gospel reading. Such services often include a Prokeimenon and Alleluia as well. The Epistle
3975-577: Is chanted by the reader , though at a Hierarchical Liturgy (a Divine Liturgy celebrated by a bishop ), it is read by a deacon . The one who chants the Epistle also reads the verses of the Prokeimenon . During the Middle Ages , the art of letter writing was taught in numerous manuals, and the ars dictaminis became an important genre of instructional discourse. The necessity for letter writing
4134-446: Is contrasted with many stories written in Late Egyptian, whose authors frequently chose divinities as protagonists and mythological places as settings. Parkinson defines tales as "...non-commemorative, non-functional, fictional narratives " that usually employ the key word "narrate" ( s d d ). He describes it as the most open-ended genre, since the tales often incorporate elements of other literary genres. For example, Morenz describes
4293-506: Is foreign to the original Hebrew word brit (בְּרִית) describing it, which only means 'alliance, covenant, pact' and never 'inheritance instructions after death'. This use comes from the transcription of Latin testamentum 'will (left after death)', a literal translation of Greek diatheke (διαθήκη) 'will (left after death)', which is the word used to translate Hebrew brit in the Septuagint . The choice of this word diatheke , by
4452-522: Is found on five papyri composed during the Twelfth and Thirteenth dynasties. This text was later copied numerous times on ostraca during the Nineteenth and Twentieth dynasties, with one ostraca containing the complete text on both sides. The Middle Kingdom genre of " prophetic texts ", also known as " laments ", " discourses ", " dialogues ", and "apocalyptic literature", include such works as
4611-697: Is not very sharp. The Harper's Song , the lyrics found on a tombstone of the Middle Kingdom and on Papyrus Harris 500 from the New Kingdom, was to be performed for dinner guests at formal banquets. During the reign of Akhenaten (r. 1353–1336 BC), the Great Hymn to the Aten —preserved in tombs of Amarna , including the tomb of Ay —was written to the Aten , the sun-disk deity given exclusive patronage during his reign. Simpson compares this composition's wording and sequence of ideas to those of Psalm 104 . Only
4770-404: Is often thought that John the Apostle is John the Evangelist , i.e. author of the Gospel of John ) or to another John designated " John of Patmos " after the island where the text says the revelation was received (1:9). Some ascribe the writership date as c. 81–96 AD, and others at around 68 AD. The work opens with letters to seven local congregations of Asia Minor and thereafter takes
4929-450: Is possible that women employed others to write documents. Richard B. Parkinson and Ludwig D. Morenz write that ancient Egyptian literature—narrowly defined as belles-lettres ("beautiful writing")—was not recorded in written form until the early Twelfth dynasty of the Middle Kingdom. Old Kingdom texts served mainly to maintain the divine cults, preserve souls in the afterlife, and document accounts for practical uses in daily life. It
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5088-535: Is scholarly debate as to the reason why the translators of the Septuagint chose the term diatheke to translate Hebrew brit , instead of another Greek word generally used to refer to an alliance or covenant. The use of the phrase New Testament ( Koine Greek : Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη , Hē Kainḕ Diathḗkē ) to describe a collection of first- and second-century Christian Greek scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian in his work Against Praxeas . Irenaeus uses
5247-651: Is the second division of the Christian biblical canon . It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus , as well as events relating to first-century Christianity . The New Testament's background, the first division of the Christian Bible, is called the Old Testament , which is based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible ; together they are regarded as Sacred Scripture by Christians. The New Testament
5406-455: Is written as follows: "Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James". The debate has continued over the author's identity as the apostle, the brother of Jesus, both, or neither. The Gospel of John, the three Johannine epistles , and the Book of Revelation , exhibit marked similarities, although more so between the gospel and the epistles (especially the gospel and 1 John) than between those and Revelation. Most scholars therefore treat
5565-623: The Admonitions of Ipuwer , Prophecy of Neferti , and Dispute between a man and his Ba . This genre had no known precedent in the Old Kingdom and no known original compositions were produced in the New Kingdom. However, works like Prophecy of Neferti were frequently copied during the Ramesside Period of the New Kingdom, when this Middle Kingdom genre was canonized but discontinued. Egyptian prophetic literature underwent
5724-522: The Heroides , letters written in the person of legendary women to their absent lovers; and the Tristia and Ex Ponto , written in first person during the poet's exile . The epistles of Seneca , with their moral or philosophical ruminations, influenced later patristic writers. Christian epistles, both those in the New Testament and among the early Christian Fathers, were written in accordance with
5883-570: The Instructions of Amenemhat and The Loyalist Teaching . By the New Kingdom period, the writing of commemorative graffiti on sacred temple and tomb walls flourished as a unique genre of literature, yet it employed formulaic phrases similar to other genres. The acknowledgment of rightful authorship remained important only in a few genres, while texts of the "teaching" genre were pseudonymous and falsely attributed to prominent historical figures. Ancient Egyptian literature has been preserved on
6042-477: The Prophecy of Neferti suggest that compositions were meant for oral reading among elite gatherings. In the 1st millennium BC Demotic short story cycle centered on the deeds of Petiese , the stories begin with the phrase "The voice which is before Pharaoh", which indicates that an oral speaker and audience was involved in the reading of the text. A fictional audience of high government officials and members of
6201-524: The Story of Sinuhe and Instructions of Amenemhat , were copied by schoolboys as pedagogical exercises in writing and to instill the required ethical and moral values that distinguished the scribal social class. Wisdom texts of the " teaching " genre represent the majority of pedagogical texts written on ostraca during the Middle Kingdom; narrative tales, such as Sinuhe and King Neferkare and General Sasenet , were rarely copied for school exercises until
6360-579: The Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic epistles in modern editions. Most Greek manuscripts, however, place the General epistles first, and a few minuscules ( 175 , 325 , 336 , and 1424 ) place the Pauline epistles at the end of the New Testament. The catholic epistles (also called the general epistles) are seven epistles of the New Testament. Listed in order of their appearance in the New Testament,
6519-763: The Collect and the Gospel reading. The corresponding Gregorian chants have a special tone ( tonus epistolae ). When the epistle is sung or chanted at Solemn Mass it is done so by the subdeacon . Epistles are also read by an Elder or Bishop in the Lutheran Divine Service , between the gradual and the Gospel. In the Divine Liturgy of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Byzantine Rite Catholics
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6678-470: The Egyptian language : Old Egyptian . Old Egyptian remained a spoken language until about 2100 BC, when, during the beginning of the Middle Kingdom , it evolved into Middle Egyptian . While Middle Egyptian was closely related to Old Egyptian, Late Egyptian was significantly different in grammatical structure. Late Egyptian possibly appeared as a vernacular language as early as 1600 BC, but
6837-806: The Eleventh Dynasty . A standardized formulae for epistolary compositions existed by the time of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt . The epistolary formulae used in the Ramesside Period found its roots in the letters composed during the Amarna Period of the Twentieth Dynasty . Wente describes the "Satirical Letter" found on the Papyrus Anastasi ;I of the Nineteenth Dynasty as an epistle which
6996-638: The Epistle to the Laodiceans and the Third Epistle to the Corinthians as examples of works identified as pseudonymous. Since the early centuries of the church, there has been debate concerning the authorship of the anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews, and contemporary scholars generally reject Pauline authorship. The epistles all share common themes, emphasis, vocabulary and style; they exhibit
7155-434: The Gospel of John . Traditionalists tend to support the idea that the writer of the Gospel of John himself claimed to be an eyewitness in their commentaries of John 21 :24 and therefore the gospel was written by an eyewitness. This idea is rejected by the majority of modern scholars. Most scholars hold to the two-source hypothesis , which posits that the Gospel of Mark was the first gospel to be written . On this view,
7314-658: The Greeks and particularly the Romans . The letters of Cicero are one of the most important sources on the history of the late Roman Republic and preserve features of colloquial Latin not always in evidence in his speeches and treatises. The letters of Pliny the Younger likewise are studied as both examples of Latin prose with self-conscious literary qualities and sources for historical information. Ovid produced three collections of verse epistles, composed in elegiac couplets :
7473-459: The Jewish Bible 's Book of Jeremiah , Judaism traditionally disagrees: Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; forasmuch as they broke My covenant, although I was
7632-452: The Old Kingdom (26th century BC to 22nd century BC), literary works included funerary texts , epistles and letters, hymns and poems, and commemorative autobiographical texts recounting the careers of prominent administrative officials. It was not until the early Middle Kingdom (21st century BC to 17th century BC) that a narrative Egyptian literature was created. This was a "media revolution" which, according to Richard B. Parkinson ,
7791-596: The Roman period of Egypt , the traditional Egyptian reed pen had been replaced by the chief writing tool of the Greco-Roman world : a shorter, thicker reed pen with a cut nib . Likewise, the original Egyptian pigments were discarded in favor of Greek lead -based inks . The adoption of Greco-Roman writing tools influenced Egyptian handwriting , as hieratic signs became more spaced, had rounder flourishes, and greater angular precision. Underground Egyptian tombs built in
7950-543: The Twelfth Dynasty , the Egyptians believed that disfiguring, and even omitting certain hieroglyphs, brought consequences, either good or bad, for a deceased tomb occupant whose spirit relied on the texts as a source of nourishment in the afterlife. Mutilating the hieroglyph of a venomous snake , or other dangerous animal, removed a potential threat. However, removing every instance of the hieroglyphs representing
8109-412: The Twelfth dynasty official Sehetepibre. Merykare , Amenemhat , and Hardjedef are genuine Middle Kingdom works, but only survive in later New Kingdom copies. Amenemope is a New Kingdom compilation. The genre of "tales and stories" is probably the least represented genre from surviving literature of the Middle Kingdom and Middle Egyptian. In Late Egyptian literature, "tales and stories" comprise
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#17327583839178268-449: The "teaching" genre include the Maxims of Ptahhotep , Instructions of Kagemni , Teaching for King Merykare , Instructions of Amenemhat , Instruction of Hardjedef , Loyalist Teaching , and Instructions of Amenemope . Teaching texts that have survived from the Middle Kingdom were written on papyrus manuscripts. No educational ostraca from the Middle Kingdom have survived. The earliest schoolboy's wooden writing board, with
8427-425: The 27 books is found in a letter written by Athanasius , a 4th-century bishop of Alexandria , dated to 367 AD. The 27-book New Testament was first formally canonized during the councils of Hippo (393) and Carthage (397) in North Africa. Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under Pope Damasus I gave the same list first. These councils also provided
8586-611: The 2nd century. The Pauline letters are the thirteen New Testament books that present Paul the Apostle as their author. Paul's authorship of six of the letters is disputed. Four are thought by most modern scholars to be pseudepigraphic , i.e., not actually written by Paul even if attributed to him within the letters themselves. Opinion is more divided on the other two disputed letters (2 Thessalonians and Colossians). These letters were written to Christian communities in specific cities or geographical regions, often to address issues faced by that particular community. Prominent themes include
8745-520: The Apostle ( Acts 16:10–17 ; arguing for an authorship date of c. AD 62 ), which is corroborated by Paul's Letter to the Colossians ( Col. 4:14 ), Letter to Philemon ( Philem. 23–24 ), and Second Letter to Timothy ( 2 Tim. 4:11 ), the gospel account of Luke "was received as having apostolic endorsement and authority from Paul and as a trustworthy record of the gospel that Paul preached" (e.g. Rom. 2:16 , according to Eusebius in Ecclesiastical History 3.4.8). The word testament in
8904-437: The Apostles is a narrative of the apostles' ministry and activity after Christ's death and resurrection, from which point it resumes and functions as a sequel to the Gospel of Luke . Examining style, phraseology, and other evidence, modern scholarship generally concludes that Acts and the Gospel of Luke share the same author, referred to as Luke–Acts . Luke–Acts does not name its author. Church tradition identified him as Luke
9063-533: The Copts people is even believed to have survived up until the 7th century. Egyptian hieroglyphics were believed to be letters with a phonetic aspect and use to represent ideas. They were popularly used by medieval Arabs in the sciences, and in Islamic arts for their symbolism and aesthetic. The Rosetta Stone is important because it helped scholars decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. In 1799, scholars were able to interpret hieroglyphics as more than just symbols; they also represented sounds and ideas. The Rosetta Stone aided in
9222-428: The Divine Liturgy is not celebrated. These daily Epistle readings are a part of the Paschal cycle , being ultimately dependent upon the date of Pascha (Easter). There are also lessons appointed for the feast days of numerous saints and commemorations. There may be one, two, or three readings from the Apostol during a single Liturgy. The Epistle is read between the Prokeimenon and the Alleluia . The Epistle reading
9381-475: The Doomed Prince , Tale of Two Brothers , and the Report of Wenamun . Stories from the 1st millennium BC written in Demotic include the story of the Famine Stela (set in the Old Kingdom, although written during the Ptolemaic dynasty ) and short story cycles of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods that transform well-known historical figures such as Khaemweset ( Nineteenth Dynasty ) and Inaros ( First Persian Period ) into fictional, legendary heroes. This
9540-408: The Eighteenth dynasty erected a stela commemorating his military victories in which the gods bless Thutmose in poetic verse and ensure for him victories over his enemies. In addition to stone stelas, poems have been found on wooden writing boards used by schoolboys. Besides the glorification of kings, poems were written to honor various deities , and even the Nile . Surviving hymns and songs from
9699-423: The Epistle reading is called the Apostol (the same name is given to the lectionary from which it is read). The Apostol includes the Acts of the Apostles as well as the Epistles, but never the Apocalypse (Revelation of John). Unlike in the Latin liturgical rites , there are never readings from the Old Testament . There are Epistle lessons for every day of the year, except for weekdays during Great Lent , when
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#17327583839179858-447: The Epistle to the Hebrews does not internally claim to have been written by the Apostle Paul , some similarities in wordings to some of the Pauline Epistles have been noted and inferred. In antiquity, some began to ascribe it to Paul in an attempt to provide the anonymous work an explicit apostolic pedigree. In the 4th century, Jerome and Augustine of Hippo supported Paul's authorship . The Church largely agreed to include Hebrews as
10017-437: The Evangelist , the companion of Paul, but the majority of scholars reject this due to the many differences between Acts and the authentic Pauline letters, though most scholars still believe the author, whether named Luke or not, met Paul . The most probable date of composition is around 80–90 AD, although some scholars date it significantly later, and there is evidence that it was still being substantially revised well into
10176-407: The Gospels were written forty to sixty years after the death of Jesus. They thus do not present eyewitness or contemporary accounts of Jesus's life and teaching." The ESV Study Bible claims the following (as one argument for gospel authenticity): Because Luke , as a second generation Christian, claims to have retrieved eyewitness testimony ( Luke 1:1–4 ), in addition to having traveled with Paul
10335-419: The Hebrews , although it does not bear his name, was traditionally considered Pauline (although Origen questioned its authorship in the 3rd century CE), but from the 16th century onwards opinion steadily moved against Pauline authorship and few scholars now ascribe it to Paul, mostly because it does not read like any of his other epistles in style and content. Most scholars agree that Paul actually wrote seven of
10494-412: The Jewish translators of the Septuagint in Alexandria in the 3rd and 2nd century BCE, has been understood in Christian theology to imply a reinterpreted view of the Old Testament covenant with Israel as possessing characteristics of a 'will left after death' (the death of Jesus ) and has generated considerable attention from biblical scholars and theologians: in contrast to the Jewish usage where brit
10653-559: The Just . Ancient and modern scholars have always been divided on the issue of authorship. Many consider the epistle to be written in the late 1st or early 2nd centuries. The author of the First Epistle of Peter identifies himself in the opening verse as "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ", and the view that the epistle was written by St. Peter is attested to by a number of Church Fathers : Irenaeus (140–203), Tertullian (150–222), Clement of Alexandria (155–215) and Origen of Alexandria (185–253). Unlike The Second Epistle of Peter ,
10812-441: The New Kingdom. William Kelly Simpson describes narrative tales such as Sinuhe and The Shipwrecked Sailor as "...instructions or teachings in the guise of narratives", since the main protagonists of such stories embodied the accepted virtues of the day, such as love of home or self-reliance. There are some known instances where those outside the scribal profession were literate and had access to classical literature. Menena,
10971-411: The New Kingdom. Many other literary works survive only in fragments or through incomplete copies of lost originals. Although writing first appeared during the very late 4th millennium BC, it was only used to convey short names and labels; connected strings of text did not appear until about 2600 BC, at the beginning of the Old Kingdom . This development marked the beginning of the first known phase of
11130-416: The New Testament were all or nearly all written by Jewish Christians —that is, Jewish disciples of Christ, who lived in the Roman Empire , and under Roman occupation . The author of the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts is frequently thought of as an exception; scholars are divided as to whether he was a Gentile or a Hellenistic Jew . A few scholars identify the author of the Gospel of Mark as probably
11289-462: The New Testament were only a few among many other early Christian gospels. The existence of such texts is even mentioned at the beginning of the Gospel of Luke. Many non-canonical gospels were also written, all later than the four canonical gospels, and like them advocating the particular theological views of their various authors. In modern scholarship, the Synoptic Gospels are the primary sources for reconstructing Christ's ministry. The Acts of
11448-607: The New: but yet they are not discordant, for the New is the fulfilling of the Old, and in both there is the same testator, even Christ, who, having suffered death for us, made us heirs of His everlasting kingdom, the people of the Jews being deprived and disinherited. As the prophet Jeremiah testifies when he speaks such things: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new testament to
11607-411: The Old Kingdom include the morning greeting hymns to the gods in their respective temples. A cycle of Middle-Kingdom songs dedicated to Senusret III (r. 1878–1839 BC) have been discovered at El-Lahun . Erman considers these to be secular songs used to greet the pharaoh at Memphis , while Simpson considers them to be religious in nature but affirms that the division between religious and secular songs
11766-404: The Old Kingdom. Dating texts by methods of palaeography , the study of handwriting, is problematic because of differing styles of hieratic script. The use of orthography , the study of writing systems and symbol usage, is also problematic, since some texts' authors may have copied the characteristic style of an older archetype . Fictional accounts were often set in remote historical settings,
11925-526: The Pauline epistles, but that four of the epistles in Paul's name are pseudepigraphic ( Ephesians , First Timothy , Second Timothy , and Titus ) and that two other epistles are of questionable authorship ( Second Thessalonians and Colossians ). According to some scholars, Paul wrote these letters with the help of a secretary, or amanuensis , who would have influenced their style, if not their theological content. The Pauline epistles are usually placed between
12084-583: The Ramesside Period, becoming very popular during the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. The epistolary Satirical Letter of Papyrus Anastasi I written during the Nineteenth dynasty was a pedagogical and didactic text copied on numerous ostraca by schoolboys. Wente describes the versatility of this epistle, which contained "proper greetings with wishes for this life and the next, the rhetoric composition, interpretation of aphorisms in wisdom literature, application of mathematics to engineering problems and
12243-541: The ancient Egyptians was the "teaching" or sebayt genre. Parkinson states that the titles of a work, its opening statement, or key words found in the body of text should be used as indicators of its particular genre. Only the genre of "narrative tales" employed prose , yet many of the works of that genre, as well as those of other genres, were written in verse . Most ancient Egyptian verses were written in couplet form, but sometimes triplets and quatrains were used. The "instructions" or "teaching" genre, as well as
12402-485: The authors of the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke used as sources the Gospel of Mark and a hypothetical Q document to write their individual gospel accounts. These three gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels , because they include many of the same stories, often in the same sequence, and sometimes in exactly the same wording. Scholars agree that the Gospel of John was written last, by using
12561-495: The authors of the Gospels do not identify themselves in their respective texts. All four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles are anonymous works . The Gospel of John claims to be based on eyewitness testimony from the Disciple whom Jesus loved , but never names this character. The author of Luke-Acts claimed to access an eyewitness to Paul ; this claim remains accepted by most scholars. Objections to this viewpoint mainly take
12720-499: The authorship of which was debated in antiquity, there was little debate about Peter's authorship of this first epistle until the 18th century. Although 2 Peter internally purports to be a work of the apostle, many biblical scholars have concluded that Peter is not the author. For an early date and (usually) for a defense of the Apostle Peter's authorship see Kruger, Zahn, Spitta, Bigg, and Green. The Epistle of Jude title
12879-532: The beginning of Sinuhe is "...excellent propaganda". Morenz describes The Shipwrecked Sailor as an expeditionary report and a travel-narrative myth. Simpson notes the literary device of the story within a story in The Shipwrecked Sailor may provide "...the earliest examples of a narrative quarrying report". With the setting of a magical desert island, and a character who is a talking snake, The Shipwrecked Sailor may also be classified as
13038-488: The calculation of supplies for an army, and the geography of western Asia ". Moreover, Wente calls this a "polemical tractate" that counsels against the rote, mechanical learning of terms for places, professions, and things; for example, it is not acceptable to know just the place names of western Asia, but also important details about its topography and routes. To enhance the teaching, the text employs sarcasm and irony. New Testament The New Testament ( NT )
13197-518: The canon of the Old Testament, which included the deuterocanonical books. There is no scholarly consensus on the date of composition of the latest New Testament texts. John A. T. Robinson , Dan Wallace , and William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Many other scholars, such as Bart D. Ehrman and Stephen L. Harris , date some New Testament texts much later than this; Richard Pervo dated Luke–Acts to c. 115 AD , and David Trobisch places Acts in
13356-582: The catholic epistles are: These are letters written by some very early Christian leaders, in the 1st or 2nd century, which are not part of the New Testament . They are generally considered to form part of the basis of Christian tradition. The ennobling word "epistle" is used partly because these were all written in Greek, in a time period close to when the epistles of the New Testament were written, and thus "epistle" lends additional weight of authority. In
13515-682: The chief writing tool of ancient Egypt was the reed pen , a reed fashioned into a stem with a bruised, brush-like end. With pigments of carbon black and red ochre , the reed pen was used to write on scrolls of papyrus —a thin material made from beating together strips of pith from the Cyperus papyrus plant—as well as on small ceramic or limestone potsherds known as ostraca . It is thought that papyrus rolls were moderately expensive commercial items, since many are palimpsests , manuscripts that have had their original contents erased or scraped off to make room for new written works. This, along with
13674-662: The context of a liturgy , epistle may refer more specifically to a particular passage from a New Testament epistle (the Pauline epistles and the General epistles )—sometimes also from the Book of Acts or the Revelation of John , but not the Four Gospels —that is scheduled to be read on a certain day or at a certain occasion. In the Roman Catholic Mass and Anglican Eucharist , epistles are read between
13833-413: The dead through funerary texts . Each hieroglyphic word represented both a specific object and embodied the essence of that object, recognizing it as divinely made and belonging within the greater cosmos . Through acts of priestly ritual, like burning incense , the priest allowed spirits and deities to read the hieroglyphs decorating the surfaces of temples. In funerary texts beginning in and following
13992-575: The dependence of ancient Egyptian literature on the sociopolitical order of the royal courts. Middle Egyptian , the spoken language of the Middle Kingdom, became a classical language during the New Kingdom (16th century BC to 11th century BC), when the vernacular language known as Late Egyptian first appeared in writing. Scribes of the New Kingdom canonized and copied many literary texts written in Middle Egyptian, which remained
14151-475: The desert provide possibly the most protective environment for the preservation of papyrus documents. For example, there are many well-preserved Book of the Dead funerary papyri placed in tombs to act as afterlife guides for the souls of the deceased tomb occupants. However, it was only customary during the late Middle Kingdom and first half of the New Kingdom to place non-religious papyri in burial chambers. Thus,
14310-445: The dominant form of writing in Late Egyptian. By the New Kingdom and throughout the rest of ancient Egyptian history , Middle Egyptian became a classical language that was usually reserved for reading and writing in hieroglyphs and the spoken language for more exalted forms of literature, such as historical records, commemorative autobiographies, hymns, and funerary spells. However, Middle Kingdom literature written in Middle Egyptian
14469-518: The drawing up of his Antitheses, centres in this, that he may establish a diversity between the Old and the New Testaments, so that his own Christ may be separate from the Creator , as belonging to this rival God, and as alien from the law and the prophets . By the 4th century , the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius ,
14628-465: The epistle to the Hebrews, based on its distinctive style and theology, which are considered to set it apart from Paul's writings. The final book of the New Testament is the Book of Revelation , also known as the Apocalypse of John. In the New Testament canon, it is considered prophetical or apocalyptic literature . Its authorship has been attributed either to John the Apostle (in which case it
14787-448: The equivalent of sifting through a modern landfill or waste container . She notes that the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina were incredibly literate by ancient Egyptian standards, and cautions that such finds only come "in rarefied circumstances and in particular conditions." John W. Tait stresses, "Egyptian material survives in a very uneven fashion ... the unevenness of survival comprises both time and space." For instance, there
14946-495: The exalted status of being inscribed on stone in hieroglyphs. The various texts written by schoolboys on wooden writing boards include model letters. Private letters could be used as epistolary model letters for schoolboys to copy, including letters written by their teachers or their families. However, these models were rarely featured in educational manuscripts; instead fictional letters found in numerous manuscripts were used. The common epistolary formula used in these model letters
15105-543: The excavation of a lake and the building of a brick ramp, to establish the number of men needed to transport an obelisk and to arrange the provisioning of a military mission". Besides government employment, scribal services in drafting letters, sales documents, and legal documents would have been frequently sought by illiterate people. Prevalence and percentage of literacy in Egyptian society remains difficult to determine. Literate people are thought to have comprised 1-15% of
15264-419: The exchange of dialogue. In Ipuwer , a sage addresses an unnamed king and his attendants, describing the miserable state of the land, which he blames on the king's inability to uphold royal virtues. This can be seen either as a warning to kings or as a legitimization of the current dynasty, contrasting it with the supposedly turbulent period that preceded it. In A man and his Ba , a man recounts for an audience
15423-581: The expression "New Testament" refers to a Christian new covenant that Christians believe completes or fulfils the Mosaic covenant (the Jewish covenant) that Yahweh (the God of Israel) made with the people of Israel on Mount Sinai through Moses , described in the books of the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. While Christianity traditionally even claims this Christian new covenant as being prophesied in
15582-428: The fictional instruction given by Amenemhat I (r. 1991–1962 BC) to his sons "...far exceeds the bounds of school philosophy, and there is nothing whatever to do with school in a great warning his children to be loyal to the king". While narrative literature, embodied in works such as The Eloquent Peasant , emphasize the individual hero who challenges society and its accepted ideologies, the teaching texts instead stress
15741-444: The five as a single corpus of Johannine literature , albeit not from the same author. The gospel went through two or three "editions" before reaching its current form around AD 90–110. It speaks of an unnamed "disciple whom Jesus loved" as the source of its traditions, but does not say specifically that he is its author; Christian tradition identifies this disciple as the apostle John , but while this idea still has supporters, for
15900-636: The form of an apocalypse , a "revealing" of divine prophecy and mysteries, a literary genre popular in ancient Judaism and Christianity. The order in which the books of the New Testament appear differs between some collections and ecclesiastical traditions. In the Latin West, prior to the Vulgate (an early 5th-century Latin version of the Bible), the four Gospels were arranged in the following order: Matthew, John, Luke, and Mark. The Syriac Peshitta places
16059-490: The form of the following two interpretations, but also include the claim that Luke-Acts contains differences in theology and historical narrative which are irreconcilable with the authentic letters of Paul the Apostle . According to Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina , none of the authors of the Gospels were eyewitnesses or even explicitly claimed to be eyewitnesses of Jesus's life. Ehrman has argued for
16218-429: The formalized, Hellenistic tradition. This reflects the amount of Hellenistic influence upon the epistle writers, especially in the case of Paul. Classicist Steve Reece has compared thousands of Greek, Roman, and Jewish letters contemporary with Paul and observes that Paul follows many of the normal epistolary conventions. In contrast to modern letters, epistles usually named the author at the very beginning, followed by
16377-583: The fourteenth letter of Paul, and affirmed this authorship until the Reformation . The letter to the Hebrews had difficulty in being accepted as part of the Christian canon because of its anonymity. As early as the 3rd century, Origen wrote of the letter, "Men of old have handed it down as Paul's, but who wrote the Epistle God only knows." Contemporary scholars often reject Pauline authorship for
16536-555: The genre of "reflective discourses", can be grouped in the larger corpus of wisdom literature found in the ancient Near East . The genre is didactic in nature and is thought to have formed part of the Middle Kingdom scribal education syllabus . However, teaching texts often incorporate narrative elements that can instruct as well as entertain. Parkinson asserts that there is evidence that teaching texts were not created primarily for use in scribal education, but for ideological purposes. For example, Adolf Erman (1854–1937) writes that
16695-566: The hieroglyph for door-bolt , pronounced se , produced the s sound; combined with another or multiple hieroglyphs, one could thus spell out the sound of words for more abstract concepts like sorrow, happiness, beauty, and evil. The Narmer Palette , dated c . 3100 BC during the last phase of Predynastic Egypt , combines the hieroglyphs for catfish and chisel to produce the name of King Narmer . The Egyptians called their hieroglyphs "words of god" and reserved their use for exalted purposes, such as communicating with divinities and spirits of
16854-414: The house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord." ... For that which He said above, that He would make a new testament to the house of Judah, shows that the old testament which was given by Moses
17013-562: The king with prophecies that the land will enter into a chaotic age, alluding to the First Intermediate Period , only to be restored to its former glory by a righteous king— Ameny—whom the ancient Egyptian would readily recognize as Amenemhat I. A similar model of a tumultuous world transformed into a golden age by a savior king was adopted for the Lamb and Potter , although for their audiences living under Roman domination,
17172-454: The labels "sister" and "brother" that lovers used to address each other. The ancient Egyptian model letters and epistles are grouped into a single literary genre. Papyrus rolls sealed with mud stamps were used for long-distance letters, while ostraca were frequently used to write shorter, non-confidential letters sent to recipients located nearby. Letters of royal or official correspondence, originally written in hieratic, were sometimes given
17331-482: The language used for oral readings of sacred hieroglyphic texts. Some genres of Middle Kingdom literature, such as " teachings " and fictional tales , remained popular in the New Kingdom, although the genre of prophetic texts was not revived until the Ptolemaic period (4th century BC to 1st century BC). Popular tales included the Story of Sinuhe and The Eloquent Peasant , while important teaching texts include
17490-511: The late Middle Kingdom, greater standardization of the epistolary formula can be seen, for example in a series of model letters taken from dispatches sent to the Semna fortress of Nubia during the reign of Amenemhat III (r. 1860–1814 BC). Epistles were also written during all three dynasties of the New Kingdom. While letters to the dead had been written since the Old Kingdom, the writing of petition letters in epistolary form to deities began in
17649-444: The late second century, the four narrative accounts of the life and work of Jesus Christ have been referred to as "The Gospel of ..." or "The Gospel according to ..." followed by the name of the supposed author. The first author to explicitly name the canonical gospels is Irenaeus of Lyon , who promoted the four canonical gospels in his book Against Heresies , written around 180. These four gospels that were eventually included in
17808-414: The least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more. The word covenant means 'agreement' (from Latin con-venio 'to agree' lit. 'to come together'): the use of the word testament , which describes the different idea of written instructions for inheritance after death, to refer to the covenant with Israel in the Old Testament,
17967-546: The literary genres of "teaching" and "laments/discourses" contain works attributed to historical authors; texts in genres such as "narrative tales" were never attributed to a well-known historical person. Tait asserts that during the Classical Period of Egypt, "Egyptian scribes constructed their own view of the history of the role of scribes and of the 'authorship' of texts", but during the Late Period , this role
18126-538: The major Catholic epistles (James, 1 Peter, and 1 John) immediately after Acts and before the Pauline epistles. The order of an early edition of the letters of Paul is based on the size of the letters: longest to shortest, though keeping 1 and 2 Corinthians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians together. The Pastoral epistles were apparently not part of the Corpus Paulinum in which this order originated and were later inserted after 2 Thessalonians and before Philemon. Hebrews
18285-562: The majority of surviving literary works dated from the Ramesside Period of the New Kingdom into the Late Period . Major narrative works from the Middle Kingdom include the Tale of the Court of King Cheops , King Neferkare and General Sasenet , The Eloquent Peasant , Story of Sinuhe , and Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor . The New Kingdom corpus of tales includes the Quarrel of Apepi and Seqenenre , The Taking of Joppa , Tale of
18444-709: The majority of well-preserved literary papyri are dated to this period. Most settlements in ancient Egypt were situated on the alluvium of the Nile floodplain . This moist environment was unfavorable for long-term preservation of papyrus documents. Archaeologists have discovered a larger quantity of papyrus documents in desert settlements on land elevated above the floodplain, and in settlements that lacked irrigation works, such as Elephantine , El-Lahun , and El-Hiba . Writings on more permanent media have also been lost in several ways. Stones with inscriptions were frequently re-used as building materials, and ceramic ostraca require
18603-564: The mid-to-late second century, contemporaneous with the publication of the first New Testament canon. Whether the Gospels were composed before or after 70 AD, according to Bas van Os, the lifetime of various eyewitnesses that includes Jesus's own family through the end of the First Century is very likely statistically. Markus Bockmuehl finds this structure of lifetime memory in various early Christian traditions. The New Oxford Annotated Bible claims, "Scholars generally agree that
18762-563: The need to comply with society's accepted dogmas. Key words found in teaching texts include "to know" ( rḫ ) and "to teach" ( sbꜣ ). These texts usually adopt the formulaic title structure of "the instruction of X made for Y", where "X" can be represented by an authoritative figure (such as a vizier or king ) providing moral guidance to his son(s). It is sometimes difficult to determine how many fictional addressees are involved in these teachings, since some texts switch between singular and plural when referring to their audiences. Examples of
18921-406: The opening section of the foreign adventure tale Sinuhe as a "...funerary self-presentation" that parodies the typical autobiography found on commemorative funerary stelas . The autobiography is for a courier whose service began under Amenemhat I. Simpson states that the death of Amenemhat I in the report given by his son, coregent , and successor Senusret I (r. 1971–1926 BC) to the army in
19080-437: The other hand, hidden caches of literature, buried for thousands of years, have been discovered in settlements on the dry desert margins of Egyptian civilization. Ancient Egyptians used three forms of writing: Demotic, Hieratic, and Hieroglyphic. Demotic writing was easier for medieval Arabic scholars to decipher because materials in more than one script and language were available to read (Demotic, Coptic, Greek). Demotic writing
19239-473: The past. The classics of the time were to be memorized completely and comprehended thoroughly before being cited. There is limited but solid evidence in Egyptian literature and art for the practice of oral reading of texts to audiences. The oral performance word "to recite" ( šdj ) was usually associated with biographies , letters, and spells. Singing ( ḥsj ) was meant for praise songs, love songs , funerary laments , and certain spells. Discourses such as
19398-481: The phrase New Testament several times, but does not use it in reference to any written text. In Against Marcion , written c. 208 AD, Tertullian writes of: the Divine Word, who is doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel . And Tertullian continues later in the book, writing: it is certain that the whole aim at which he [ Marcion ] has strenuously laboured, even in
19557-577: The population based on very limited evidence. The percentage varied by period and region. the remainder being illiterate farmers, herdsmen, artisans, and other laborers, as well as merchants who required the assistance of scribal secretaries. The privileged status of the scribe over illiterate manual laborers was the subject of a popular Ramesside Period instructional text, The Satire of the Trades , where lowly, undesirable occupations, for example, potter, fisherman, laundry man, and soldier, were mocked and
19716-502: The post-resurrection appearances, but the emptiness of the tomb implies a resurrection). The word "gospel" derives from the Old English gōd-spell (rarely godspel ), meaning "good news" or "glad tidings". Its Hebrew equivalent being "besorah" (בְּשׂוֹרָה). The gospel was considered the "good news" of the coming Kingdom of Messiah , and the redemption through the life and death of Jesus, the central Christian message. Starting in
19875-414: The practice of tearing pieces off of larger papyrus documents to make smaller letters, suggests that there were seasonal shortages caused by the limited growing season of Cyperus papyrus . It also explains the frequent use of ostraca and limestone flakes as writing media for shorter written works. In addition to stone, ceramic ostraca, and papyrus, writing media also included wood, ivory, and plaster. By
20034-624: The preceding epistles. These letters are believed by many to be pseudepigraphic. Some scholars (e.g., Bill Mounce, Ben Witherington, R.C. Sproul) will argue that the letters are genuinely Pauline, or at least written under Paul's supervision. The Epistle to the Hebrews addresses a Jewish audience who had come to believe that Jesus was the Anointed One (Hebrew: מָשִׁיחַ—transliterated in English as "Moshiach", or "Messiah"; Greek: Χριστός—transliterated in English as "Christos", for " Christ ") who
20193-462: The preface to the Acts of the Apostles references "my former book" about the ministry of Jesus. Furthermore, there are linguistic and theological similarities between the two works, suggesting that they have a common author. The Pauline epistles are the thirteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul of Tarsus . Seven letters are generally classified as "undisputed", expressing contemporary scholarly near consensus that they are
20352-520: The prologue of Neferti ), or they could write fictional accounts placed in a chaotic age resembling more the problematic life of the First Intermediate Period (e.g. Merykare and The Eloquent Peasant ). Other fictional texts are set in illo tempore (in an indeterminable era) and usually contain timeless themes. Parkinson writes that nearly all literary texts were pseudonymous , and frequently falsely attributed to well-known male protagonists of earlier history, such as kings and viziers . Only
20511-420: The recipient (for example, see Philippians 1:1 ). The scribe (or more correctly, the amanuensis ) who wrote down the letter may be named at the end of the epistle (e.g., Romans 16:22 ). In the absence of a postal system , the courier may also be named (e.g. Ephesians 6:21–22 ). After the names of the author and recipient, Pauline epistles often open with the greeting, "Grace and peace to you." "Grace"
20670-585: The relationship both to broader " pagan " society, to Judaism, and to other Christians. [Disputed letters are marked with an asterisk (*).] The last four Pauline letters in the New Testament are addressed to individual persons. They include the following: [Disputed letters are marked with an asterisk (*).] All of the above except for Philemon are known as the pastoral epistles . They are addressed to individuals charged with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. They often address different concerns to those of
20829-632: The royal court are mentioned in some texts, but a wider, non-literate audience may have been involved. For example, a funerary stela of Senusret I (r. 1971–1926 BC) explicitly mentions people who will gather and listen to a scribe who "recites" the stela inscriptions out loud. Literature also served religious purposes. Beginning with the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, works of funerary literature written on tomb walls, and later on coffins , and papyri placed within tombs, were designed to protect and nurture souls in their afterlife. This included
20988-400: The savior was yet to come. Although written during the Twelfth dynasty, Ipuwer only survives from a Nineteenth dynasty papyrus. However, A man and his Ba is found on an original Twelfth dynasty papyrus, Papyrus Berlin 3024. These two texts resemble other discourses in style, tone, and subject matter, although they are unique in that the fictional audiences are given very active roles in
21147-476: The scribal profession praised. A similar demeaning attitude towards the illiterate is expressed in the Middle Kingdom Teaching of Khety , which is used to reinforce the scribes' elevated position within the social hierarchy. The scribal class was the social group responsible for maintaining, transmitting, and canonizing literary classics, and writing new compositions. Classic works, such as
21306-577: The sovereign and his subjects in the afterlife. A variety of textual traditions evolved from the original Pyramid Texts: the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom, the so-called Book of the Dead , Litany of Ra , and Amduat written on papyri from the New Kingdom until the end of ancient Egyptian civilization. Poems were also written to celebrate kingship. For example, at the Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak , Thutmose III (r. 1479–1425 BC) of
21465-415: The thirteen books of the New Testament attributed to Paul the Apostle , although the authorship of some is in dispute. Among these epistles are some of the earliest extant Christian documents. They provide an insight into the beliefs and controversies of early Christianity . As part of the canon of the New Testament, they are foundational texts for both Christian theology and ethics . The Epistle to
21624-549: The translation because it contained the same written text in three languages; at the time of discovery, researchers were able to read the ancient Greek written on the stone and translated the accompanying Egyptian hieroglyphics. By the Early Dynastic Period in the late 4th millennium BC, Egyptian hieroglyphs and their cursive form hieratic were well-established written scripts . Egyptian hieroglyphs are small artistic pictures of natural objects. For example,
21783-489: The unbecoming manner of a non-scribal, semi-educated person. Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert further explains this perceived amateur affront to orthodox literature: What may be revealed by Hori's attack on the way in which some Ramesside scribes felt obliged to demonstrate their greater or lesser acquaintance with ancient literature is the conception that these venerable works were meant to be known in full and not to be misused as quarries for popular sayings mined deliberately from
21942-443: The use of contemporary settings in fiction being a relatively recent phenomenon. The style of a text provides little help in determining an exact date for its composition, as genre and authorial choice might be more concerned with the mood of a text than the era in which it was written. For example, authors of the Middle Kingdom could set fictional wisdom texts in the golden age of the Old Kingdom (e.g. Kagemni , Ptahhotep , and
22101-611: The use of magical spells, incantations , and lyrical hymns. Copies of non-funerary literary texts found in non-royal tombs suggest that the dead could entertain themselves in the afterlife by reading these teaching texts and narrative tales. Although the creation of literature was predominantly a male scribal pursuit, some works are thought to have been written by women. For example, several references to women writing letters and surviving private letters sent and received by women have been found. However, Edward F. Wente asserts that, even with explicit references to women reading letters, it
22260-412: The work of Paul: Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians and Philemon. Six additional letters bearing Paul's name do not currently enjoy the same academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus. The anonymous Epistle to the Hebrews is, despite unlikely Pauline authorship, often functionally grouped with these thirteen to form
22419-484: The writing of hieroglyphs required the utmost precision and care, cursive hieratic could be written much more quickly and was therefore more practical for scribal record-keeping. Its primary purpose was to serve as a shorthand script for non-royal, non-monumental, and less formal writings such as private letters, legal documents, poems, tax records, medical texts , mathematical treatises , and instructional guides . Hieratic could be written in two different styles; one
22578-561: Was "The official A. saith to the scribe B". The oldest-known private letters on papyrus were found in a funerary temple dating to the reign of Djedkare-Izezi (r. 2414–2375 BC) of the Fifth dynasty . More letters are dated to the Sixth dynasty , when the epistle subgenre began. The educational text Book of Kemit , dated to the Eleventh dynasty , contains a list of epistolary greetings and
22737-521: Was a common Hellenistic greeting, while "peace" ( shalom ) was the common Jewish greeting; this reflected Paul's dual identity in Jewish faith and Hellenistic culture. There may also be a word of thanks to the audience. In secular letters, a prayer or wish for health followed. The body begins with a brief statement introducing the main topic of the entire body. The epistles of the New Testament canon are usually divided as follows: The Pauline epistles, also called Epistles of Paul or Letters of Paul, are
22896-437: Was also rewritten in hieratic during later periods. Throughout ancient Egyptian history, the ability to read and write were the main requirements for serving in public office, although government officials were assisted in their day-to-day work by an elite, literate social group known as scribes . As evidenced by Papyrus Anastasi I of the Ramesside Period, scribes could even be expected, according to Wilson, "...to organize
23055-416: Was commonly copied as a writing exercise by Egyptian schoolchildren on ceramic ostraca (over eighty examples of which have been found so far by archaeologists). Epistle letters were also written to the dead, and, by the Ramesside Period, to the gods ; the latter became even more widespread during the eras of Persian and Greek domination. Epistles in prose and verse were a major genre of literature among
23214-421: Was in large part due to the general deterioration of civil life and the decay of the Roman road system in the early Middle Ages , factors that obliged literate people with business to transact to send letters instead of travel themselves. A vast number of letters and letter-writing manuals were written in the period's lingua franca , Latin . Ancient Egyptian literature Ancient Egyptian literature
23373-441: Was instead maintained by the religious elite attached to the temples. There are a few exceptions to the rule of pseudonymity. The real authors of some Ramesside Period teaching texts were acknowledged, but these cases are rare, localized, and do not typify mainstream works. Those who wrote private and sometimes model letters were acknowledged as the original authors. Private letters could be used in courts of law as testimony, since
23532-463: Was known as the common script and was similar to the late Coptic language, which was widely spoken throughout the ancient Middle East. Hieratic writing was described as the script of the elite/priests (cursive). This writing seems to have been commonly used along with other types of writings in many scripts and books. Hieroglyphics was known as the script of kings. It had a phonetic resemblance to Greek characters. The knowledge of hieroglyphic writing among
23691-419: Was more calligraphic and usually reserved for government records and literary manuscripts, the other was used for informal accounts and letters. By the mid-1st millennium BC, hieroglyphs and hieratic were still used for royal, monumental, religious, and funerary writings, while a new, even more cursive script was used for informal, day-to-day writing: Demotic . The final script adopted by the ancient Egyptians
23850-472: Was not perfect; but that which was to be given by Christ would be complete. Eusebius describes the collection of Christian writings as "covenanted" (ἐνδιαθήκη) books in Hist. Eccl. 3.3.1–7; 3.25.3; 5.8.1; 6.25.1. Each of the four gospels in the New Testament narrates the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (the gospel of Mark in the original text ends with the empty tomb and has no account of
24009-419: Was not until the Middle Kingdom that texts were written for the purpose of entertainment and intellectual curiosity. Parkinson and Morenz also speculate that written works of the Middle Kingdom were transcriptions of the oral literature of the Old Kingdom. It is known that some oral poetry was preserved in later writing; for example, litter-bearers' songs were preserved as written verses in tomb inscriptions of
24168-403: Was not used as a written language until c . 1300 BC during the Amarna Period of the New Kingdom . Late Egyptian evolved into Demotic by the 7th century BC, and although Demotic remained a spoken language until the 5th century AD, it was gradually evolved into Coptic beginning in the 1st century AD. Hieratic was used alongside hieroglyphs for writing in Old and Middle Egyptian, becoming
24327-544: Was originally written during or shortly after the reign of Amenemhat I. Simpson calls it "...a blatant political pamphlet designed to support the new regime" of the Twelfth dynasty founded by Amenemhat, who usurped the throne from the Mentuhotep line of the Eleventh dynasty . In the narrative discourse, Sneferu (r. 2613–2589 BC) of the Fourth dynasty summons to court the sage and lector priest Neferti. Neferti entertains
24486-621: Was predicted in the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures. The author discusses the superiority of the new covenant and the ministry of Jesus, to the Mosaic Law Covenant and urges the readers in the practical implications of this conviction through the end of the epistle. The book has been widely accepted by the Christian church as inspired by God and thus authoritative, despite the acknowledgment of uncertainties about who its human author was. Regarding authorship, although
24645-658: Was the Coptic alphabet , a revised version of the Greek alphabet . Coptic became the standard in the 4th century AD when Christianity became the state religion throughout the Roman Empire ; hieroglyphs were discarded as idolatrous images of a pagan tradition, unfit for writing the Biblical canon . Egyptian literature was produced on a variety of media . Along with the chisel , necessary for making inscriptions on stone,
24804-423: Was the result of the rise of an intellectual class of scribes , new cultural sensibilities about individuality, unprecedented levels of literacy, and mainstream access to written materials. The creation of literature was thus an elite exercise, monopolized by a scribal class attached to government offices and the royal court of the ruling pharaoh . However, there is no full consensus among modern scholars concerning
24963-405: Was the usual Hebrew word used to refer to pacts, alliances and covenants in general, like a common pact between two individuals, and to the one between God and Israel in particular, in the Greek world diatheke was virtually never used to refer to an alliance or covenant (one exception is noted in a passage from Aristophanes ) and referred instead to a will left after the death of a person. There
25122-481: Was variously incorporated into the Corpus Paulinum either after 2 Thessalonians, after Philemon (i.e. at the very end), or after Romans. Luther's canon , found in the 16th-century Luther Bible , continues to place Hebrews, James, Jude, and the Apocalypse (Revelation) last. This reflects the thoughts of the Reformer Martin Luther on the canonicity of these books. It is considered the books of
25281-424: Was written with the Egyptian language from ancient Egypt 's pharaonic period until the end of Roman domination . It represents the oldest corpus of Egyptian literature . Along with Sumerian literature , it is considered the world's earliest literature . Writing in ancient Egypt —both hieroglyphic and hieratic —first appeared in the late 4th millennium BC during the late phase of predynastic Egypt . By
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