noun
definition
A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.
definition
One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament.
verb
definition
To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.
Examples of epistle in a Sentence
Some consider the Epistle of James to be the New Testament version of the book of Proverbs.
There was nothing unusual in the final epistle to indicate why the correspondence abruptly ended.
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.
The relationship, both literary and theological, between the epistle to the Ephesians and that to the Colossians is very close.
Paul's epistle to the Colossians is one of my favorite pieces of Biblical literature.
In the intervening body of the epistle the writer also follows the regular form of a letter.
The Jewish expectations are adopted for example, by Papias, by the writer of the epistle of Barnabas, and by Justin.
The "open letter" of modern journalism is really an epistle.
The fundamental theme of the epistle is The Unity of Mankind in Christ, and hence the Unity and Divinity of the Church of Christ.
To the evidence given above may be added the use of Ephesians in the First Epistle of Peter.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
These are the Epistles of James and Jude, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, the Apocalypse of John, and the Epistle to the Hebrews.
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.
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.
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."
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.
De Wette first (1826) doubted, then (1843) denied that the epistle was by Paul.
But these cases, when properly understood and calmly viewed, do not carry conviction against the epistle.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The balance of evidence seems to lie on the side of the genuineness of the Epistle.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
For general reflections on the subject see the appendix to Jowett's edition of the Epistle to the Romans (London, 1855).
The epistle may be safely ascribed to the years 95-96.
The genuineness of this epistle stands or falls with that of the Ignatian epistles.
For the Third Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, and Epistle from the Corinthians to Paul, see under " Acts of Paul " above.
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."
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.
There is a touching epistle (Medea to Jason) in the Heroides of Ovid.
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).
Controversy centres round a very long and singular undated epistle called "The Glasgow Letter" or "Letter II."
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.
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..
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."
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.
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.
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 is largely involved in the Ignatian controversy (see Ignatius).
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.