[Editor's Note: Next month we begin our study of the Epistles, with that in mind, we present the following article for your careful consideration.]
God's Fascination with Letters by Mike Wilson (Reprinted from Focus Magazine, http://www.focusmagazine.org/Articles/letterswilson.htm)
Careful Bible students pay special attention not only to what is said in the Scriptures, but also to how it is said. God has utilized many forms of communication in the Bible, from songs to legal contracts to personal correspondence. Since at least 22 of 27 "books" in the New Testament are epistolary in form (with two of the remaining documents, Luke and Acts, partially epistolary), we should familiarize ourselves somewhat with the background of first-century letter writing.
1. Letters from a Literary Perspective
Written communication comes in many shapes and sizes. Some examples:
dissertation, handbook of rules and regulations, adventure story,
transcript, legal contract, sales transaction, love story, certificate
of grand prize eligibility, etc.
What is it about letters, as a form of communication, which
makes them the ideal vehicle through which so much of the New
Testament is conveyed? For starters, God has allowed us to be
snoopers, reading other people's mail! They contain real-life
situations that are common to human nature.
They are more personal. William Barclay says, "It is just
because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so
well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved
so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind
grappling with the problems of the early church, and feel that
great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided
and mistaken." (The Letters to the Corinthians, xi).
The difficulty with letters is that they are like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. One has to try to reconstruct something of the background and setting to get the larger picture. In I Corinthians, Paul responds to some specific questions in a letter from the church at Corinth (7:1; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1). We don't have access to their letter, but we have his responses. To properly interpret the setting, we have to be good detectives!
2. Letter Writing in the New Testament World
The discovery of ancient papyri from the sands of Egypt has shed
much light on Hellenistic letter writing. Ancient Egyptian garbage
dumps have proven to be an archaeological gold mine, because the
absence of moisture helps to preserve old sheets of papyrus. Consequently,
archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, contracts,
sales transactions, and private letters from the New Testament
period.
Barclay reprints one such letter, dating to the second century, from a soldier who has arrived safely after a stormy passage (Barclay, xii; see also Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 178-183):
"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus. I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother. I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to let me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly, that I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and because of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give Capito my heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and my friends. I sent you a little picture of myself painted by Euctemon. My military name is Antonius Maximus. I pray for your good health. Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimon's boy, and Turbo, Gallonius's son."
Notice the form:
1) Author's name, with a greeting to the one addressed
2) Prayer for the good health of intended recipients
3) Thanksgiving
4) The main reason(s) for writing -- often introduced with language
urging the recipient to do something
5) Special salutations and personal greetings
This is a familiar pattern to students of the New Testament!
3. An Extension of the Spoken Word
Oftentimes, Paul dictated his letters to a scribe (Rom. 16:22;
I Cor. 16:21; Col. 4:18; II Thess. 3:17; Gal. 6:11). Sometimes
his letters are hard to understand because his sentences do not
finish, the grammar breaks down, or he goes off on a sudden tangent.
We must not envision him sitting at a desk writing out a carefully
polished manuscript, but speaking out loud, as an amanuensis struggles
to record his words on paper. As he composed his letters, Paul
had before him, in his mind's eye, the very people to whom he
was speaking.
And when his letters were received, the original recipients heard his words as if he were standing in their presence (I Cor. 5:4; II Thess. 2:15). We live in a world saturated with print media, and so silent reading is taken for granted. In the NT world, letters were almost always read out loud (cf. Rev. 1:3). Therefore, in a carefully polished letter to a large group of people, transitions in thought were intended for the ears, not for the eyes. Instead of "reading between the lines" or looking for visual indicators, people listened for verbal clues. Oratorical structural devices carried over into written communication much more so than today. The ancients didn't have the luxury of diagrams, charts, transparencies and PowerPoint.
4. The Production and Delivery of a Letter
Robert Jewitt says, "NT letters consisted for the most part
of dictated material written by reed pens on papyrus rolls...
On the basis of thousands of examples in the ancient world, it
is clear that letters were typically written on papyrus sheets
that had been pasted in series and rolled up in the form of a
scroll. Scribes would cut off enough to write their particular
letter, drafting their material on the inside of the scroll so
that delivery instructions could be placed on the outside... The
postal system of the Roman Empire was restricted to governmental
agents, so private correspondence had to be sent by couriers or
trusted travelers... Delicate details concerning the business
or controversy under discussion were often left to the trusted
emissary, and in some instances the customary address was omitted
on the premise that the emissary would supply the appropriate
greetings. This may explain why a letter like Hebrews lacks an
epistolary opening, while containing a normal epistolary closing."
(Harper's Bible Commentary, p. 1125)
Why We Sing and Do Not Play by Robert Turner (Plain Talk, August, 1964: http://cedarparkchurchofchrist.org/ptalk/)
True Christians are committed to the principle that Christ is their king, and that their worship and service to Him must be authorized in His word. They believe they have no right to "speak where He has not spoken" (GOD'S WORK IN GOD'S WAY) hence, seek to answer religious questions by citing divine will.
We are not under the Old Testament (2 Cor.3:11-18) nor is our
worship determined by figurative descriptions of heaven (Rev.
14:2); so David's harp and heavenly "voices" have no
bearing upon our subject. We are concerned with New Testament
authority for music in worship, and here present all passages
that deal with this subject. Perhaps you can decide why we sing
and do not play.
Matt. 26:30 - "when they had sung a hymn"
Mark 14:26 - "when they had sung a hymn"
Acts 16:25 - "prayed, and sang praises unto God"
Rom. 15:9 - "confess to thee ++ and sing unto thy name"
1 Cor. 14:15 - "Sing with the spirit, and ++ understanding"
Eph. 5:19 - "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns,
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to
the Lord."
Col. 3:16 - "teaching and admonishing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord."
Heb. 2:12 - "in the midst of the church will I sing"
Jas. 5:13 - "Is any merry? Let him sing psalms"
To avoid the force of these passages some appeal to PSALLO, the
Greek word translated "sing" ("making melody"
Eph.5:19) because in earlier Greek it meant to "pluck, twang,
as the strings of a harp, or carpenter's chalk line." But
its N. T. meaning was "sing" as the translators testify.
Further, if it does mean "play a harp" ALL worshipers
would have to do so in order to obey these commands. No "psalloing"
would be acceptable without the instrument.
Appeals to popularity, love of the arts church traditions, etc., fall far short of providing divine authority for instrumental music in the worship. Secular history points to 666 A.D. as the date for the first use of mechanical music in worship by church authority-- and that is far from God's way.
Our plea, with reference to mechanical music in worship, is exactly like that for congregational independence and recognition of the work of the church. We believe divine authority is established by precept, approved example, and necessary inference. The only safe course is within these bounds.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT (Selected from The Beacon)
"The man who has not learned to say "no" will be a weak and wretched man as long as he lives."
"Church members are like cars; they start missing before they quit."
MONTHLY BIBLE READING: Lessons the Disciples Learned - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS
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