This week's study will deal with the general characteristics of the Epistles which Paul wrote, and includes a survey of the Epistles which he wrote before he was imprisoned

Textbook Resources

• pages 9-10 - Address and Greeting - typical of a Pauline Epistle
• page 10 - Photo of a Second Century Papyrus fragment of a copy of the Epistle to the Romans
• page 15 - Paul and Rhetoric
• page 32 - Paul and Jewish Apocalytpic
• page 36 - Reflections on "old self" and "new self&quoy;
• page 41 - Paul's Corporate Solidarity with Israel/li>
• page 55 - Reflections - the ambiguity caused by the absence of punctuation in ancient manuscripts
• page 77 - The Social-Political Setting of Paul's Appeal to Obey the Government
• pages 90-94 - Commentary on the concluding paragraphs (Greetings and Epistolary Conclusion) of Romans
• page 100 - Introduction and Thanksgiving paragraph to I Corinthians
• page 185 - Greetings and Salutations for I Corinthians
• pages 199-200 - Greetings and Opening Blessing for II Corinthians
• pages 209 & 233 - The Erastus Inscription
• pages 269-270 - Greetings and Address to the Galatians
• page 347-350 - Introduction, Thanksgiving prayer, Intercessory prayer for Philippians
• page 350 - photo of a second century letter on papyrus
• page 363 - Concluding Admonitions for Philippians
• page 366 - Conclusion for Philippians
• pages 376-378 - Intriduction, Thankksgiving and Prayer for Colossians
• pages 399-401 - Personal Greetings and Instructions for Colossians
• pages 410-411 - Letter Opening and Thanksgiving for I Thessalonians
• page 428 - Letter Closing for I Thessalonians
• pages 433-436 - Letter Opening and Thanksgiving for II Thessalonians
• page 441 - Letter Clsong for II Thessalonians
• pages 480-481 - Salutation and Letter opening for II Timothy
• page 518 - Closing and greetings for Philemon

Go here for Course Notes for this assignment

Go here for InterNet Links for this assignment

other useful articles can be found by using the Topics as search words in Search Engines such as MSN, Dogpile, AltaVista, or Yahoo

This Week's Assignment :

Write an "Epistle", 1 - 2 pages, in the style of a First Century Greek Epistle
You may write either as if you were the Greek silversmith and merchant named Demetrios, writing from Ephesus to a trading partner named Brutus in Rome (has his shipment of little silver statues of Diana arrived safely, and when will he get the return shipment of Falernian wine ??? ),
or as if you were Erastus in Corinth, writing to Paul in Rome.
See the concluding salutations in the Epistle to the Romans for names of Christians in Rome and Corinth, and the concluding salutations of Colossians, II Timothy, and Philemon for the names of some of Paul's co-workers in Rome.
Remember to use the Epistolary form for letters during the first century (Introduction, body of letter, final greetings - you may invent family members and friends).
Write a first copy using all capital letters, but with punctuation and spaces between the words.
Then convert it to a copy without punctuation and spaces. Read it through, to get an idea of how difficult it was for people to read letters during the first century.
Send both copies in as your assignment.

Remember to cite your sources

Use MSWord or a text editor such as Notepad to prepare and save your work, then send it as an Attachment to, or pasted into, an email message to Dr. Rollinson at rollinsondr@yahoo.com,rollinsondr@hellokitty.com,rollinsondr@mail2world.com.
Please use all 3 email addresses in case any of the mailboxes go down.