'Epistle' equals letter, but letter does not (in 99.5% of cases) equal epistle. Something significant will be lost by your suggestion. To call Romans a 'letter' is entirely true, but not the entirety of the truth. In fact, I believe this has significant relevance for our talking about NT 'letters' as being relevant generally rather than church-specific. Removing the 'epistle' vibe threatens making this letter just a simple personal letter to the Church, rather than what Romans clearly is - a self-consciously didactic letter. The core question is - did Paul himself think he was just writing a 'letter' - when 'letter' means what it did in 60AD?
An epistle is a sub-genre of letter, in exactly the same way that chihuahua is a 'sub-genre' of dog, and 'blog-post' is a sub-genre of personal notes. It's got nothing to do with nerdiness or elitism. It is a historically legit and important genre of letter writing, and twould be le'foolish to dump it because it sounds like an elitist synonym.
That would be a rather silly thing to do. Why not say:
ReplyDelete"Delete the word 'chihuahua' from your vocabulary
It's called a dog"
I see where you're going. But no, it's not like that at all.
ReplyDeleteNo, it's like saying delete the name 'Canis lupus familiaris' from your vocabulary, it's called a dog.
Sometimes it's appropriate to talk about canis lupus familiaris, sometimes it's appropriate to use the word epistle.
ReplyDeleteYou are very much incorrect dear Izaac.
ReplyDeleteWhat you are saying is,
"Delete the word 'blog post' from your vocabulary
It's called a personal note"
'Epistle' equals letter, but letter does not (in 99.5% of cases) equal epistle. Something significant will be lost by your suggestion. To call Romans a 'letter' is entirely true, but not the entirety of the truth. In fact, I believe this has significant relevance for our talking about NT 'letters' as being relevant generally rather than church-specific. Removing the 'epistle' vibe threatens making this letter just a simple personal letter to the Church, rather than what Romans clearly is - a self-consciously didactic letter. The core question is - did Paul himself think he was just writing a 'letter' - when 'letter' means what it did in 60AD?
An epistle is a sub-genre of letter, in exactly the same way that chihuahua is a 'sub-genre' of dog, and 'blog-post' is a sub-genre of personal notes. It's got nothing to do with nerdiness or elitism. It is a historically legit and important genre of letter writing, and twould be le'foolish to dump it because it sounds like an elitist synonym.
QED.
I agree with Acevedo.
ReplyDeleteAnd subsequent to his QED I throw in a post script about the form of the St. George Dragons, because that's how the internet works.
While I see the point others have made, I tend to call them 'letters'. I have little control over which words remain in my vocabulary, however.
ReplyDelete