Rose Publishing - Rose Guide to the Epistles: Charts and Overviews from Romans to Revelation

Chapter 1

The Bible has many different types of writings within its pages. Some of it is poetry, like the musical lyrics in the Psalms. Some writings are historical, like the epic narratives of Moses and the exodus, and others are wisdom literature, like the proverbs of wise King Solomon. Categories such as these are called genre . Much like we would sort music into categories of pop, rock, jazz, classical, or country, the books of the Bible can be sorted according to their genres.

Twenty-one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament fit the ancient genre of epistle. This epistle genre is not a one-size-fits-all. In fact, some ancient sources list anywhere from twenty-one to forty-one different types of epistles. Although the New Testament Epistles do not follow any of these types exactly, the genre can take on various forms and does so in the New Testament.

Peter and Paul by Guido Reni

The various roles Paul takes on in the book of Acts and in his epistles is quite staggering. We see him as a pastor, church planter, missionary, teacher, and in some cases, like a mother or father (see for example, 1 Cor. 4:17; Gal. 4:1920; 1 Thess. 2:78; 2 Thess. 2:1516). Pauls ministry was rich in character and broad in its reach, which makes sense if we consider his ministry philosophy of becoming all things to all people so that by all possible means [he] might save some (1 Cor. 9:22).

What we know of Pauls life comes from Lukes writings in the book of Acts, where we find Pauls conversion story on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) and the extensive narratives of his missionary journeys (Acts 1328). We also have a window into Pauls life when he mentions things about himself in his epistles, specifically Galatians 1:1124 (he explains his prior status as a zealous persecutor of Christians) and Philippians 3:36 (his travels immediately after his conversion to Christianity).

Peter was one of Jesus original twelve disciples, an eyewitness to the ministry of Christ. He became the most prominent leader of the early and rapidly growing church (see Acts 2). Information about Peters life comes mostly from the first five books of the New Testament: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Acts.

His two back-to-back epistles (1 and 2 Peter) were written late in his life, about thirty years after Christ. It is believed that not long after writing these letters, he was martyred in Rome under Emperor Neros persecution of Christians.

Like Peter, John was one of the original twelve disciples and an eyewitness of Christ. John was a prolific writer, penning the gospel that bears his name, the apocalyptic book of Revelation, and three epistles. While the gospel of John and Revelation are lengthy, the epistles of 1, 2, and 3 John are among the shortest books of the Bible.

John the Evangelist

Though John is not featured in the book of Acts as much as Peter or Paul, he nonetheless emerged as an important leader of the early church (see Acts 34). We learn about Johns life from the Gospels, Acts, his letters, and the writings of other early church leaders such as Irenaeus and Polycarp. John is believed to have lived the longest of any of the twelve apostles, and he wrote his books late in his life. According to tradition, John died of natural causes in Ephesus near the end of the first century.

Other Writers

• Two of the epistles are believed to have been written by Jesus brothers James and Jude.
• In four of Pauls epistles, he identifies Timothy, his fellow missionary traveler, as also sending the letter and possibly co-authoring them since Paul sometimes uses we instead of I in these letters (Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:1; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1).
• Hebrews stands out as the only entirely anonymous letter. Various theories of its authorship have been proposedPaul, Apollos, or Priscillabut there are not enough clues in the letter to determine with any certainty who authored it.