How Did Ancient People Write Letters?

A Better Understanding of St. Paul

The Bible and the people who inhabit its pages can seem strange, far, and distant to modern readers. Of course, the strange customs and way of life can feel foreign and uncomfortable to a growing secular culture that shares no particular attachment, identity, or common culture with these people who lived long ago. In most countries of the Western world, there are no longer kings and queens, nor are there prophets demanding our leaders to repent and do penance—at least ones that get an audience with the ruling heads of state. Furthermore, there is an absence in the ancient Near East understanding of covenant and sacrifice. Nonetheless, a modern reader can begin to develop an understanding of some of these customs and beliefs by a personal encounter with Paul of Tarsus in his letters found in the New Testament.  Of course, none of us can meet and speak to St. Paul today, barring the miraculous, but we begin to develop a personal encounter with him by a close reading of his letters to the early Christian churches in a similar manner that they encountered Paul of Tarsus. Theologians N.T. Wright and Michael Bird explain, “In the ancient world, letter-writing was largely a substitute for personal presence.”[1]

The world that Paul grew up and lived in was shaped largely by the military conquest of Alexander the Great, the generals who broke apart his empire, and the Roman empire that rose up from the pieces. The society Paul lived in was a microcosm of different cultures and religions from around the world. Charles B. Puskas and Mark Reasoner explain Paul’s world,
 “The Greek world in which Paul moved was an amalgam of cultures. There was no Greek nation or state. It is often labeled ‘Greco-Roman’ because Greek culture had impacted the Mediterranean world resulting in Hellenism.”[2]   

Due to the spread of Greek culture surrounding the Mediterranean, Greek rhetorical schools, where the skill of letter writing could be learned, were common in various parts of the Greco-Roman world. The difficulty for scholars is there is not a lot known of St. Paul’s early education. So, any attempt to figure out where St. Paul would have developed his penchant for writing letters becomes guesswork.[3] Paul may have learned the craft of writing letters in Greco-Roman rhetorical school; however, Pauline expert Fr. Raymond F. Collins suspects that Paul being a pious Jew would not have attended such a school.[4] Paul would have learned the craft of letter writing by the general culture.

When reading the Letters of St. Paul, it is important to bear in mind that these are actual letters from a sender to a recipient. The letters can be difficult to interpret due to their elusive quality. For example, Fr. Collins explains, when writing a thank-you note to your grandma for giving a bike for your birthday, you may write, “Thanks for the gift.”[5] Naturally, if any outside party finds the note, the fact that the gift is a bike would be unknown. Furthermore, both modern and Greco-Roman letter styles are tied to the occasion of the letter. The previous example from Fr. Collins indicates a cause, or occasion, that produces the thank-you note. The recognition of the occasion helps people today to better understand St. Paul’s letters, other ancient writers, and modern letters. 

In the Greco-Roman world, the cheap ink that was normally used to write a letter could be easily washed off papyrus, so letters were sent in a waxed leather case to protect them from the contents being lost.[6] It is likely that Paul would have written his letters on a single papyrus sheet or a roll. Professor of Biblical Studies E. Randolph Richards explains, “Most ancient letters were very brief and were written on a single sheet of papyrus. A customer bought a sheet from a papyrus vendor in the market, who cut a sheet off of a roll. One could also purchase an entire roll and cut sheets as needed. A longer letter was written on the roll, not on a series of individual sheets.”[7] In fact, as Fr. Collins explains in his lecture on ancient letter writing, the tools used for writing presented a challenge for letter writers. One challenge for the letter writer was dictating the message to a scribe who could only write five words per minute.[8] The tools for letter writers also presented a challenge for ancient writers like dipping the pen into ink and the rough paper of either papyrus or parchment slowed the writings process. In the modern world, people typically receive a letter in the mail in a stamped envelope with the sender’s name on it. Since the ancient letter was rolled up in a waxed leather case, when the recipient received the letter, they would unroll the letter and read the name of the sender, “I, Paul…”[9] And so, the papyrus was key in developing the introduction of the ancient letter.

Paul, and his contemporaries, would have engaged in a variety of letter writing, which is exhibited in the New Testament. In the New Testament, for example, one might find a letter like Paul’s letter to the Romans which is a protreptic discourse that urges the Romans to adopt the Christian life of faith.[10] Scholars know about the types of letters and techniques of letter writing by manuals written three or four centuries after Paul credited to Pseudo-Demetrius and Pseudo-Labanius.[11] Greco Roman Letters’ form started with an opening letting the recipient know who is sending the letter, a thanksgiving, the body (topic), and a closing with greetings to various people. There are generally six types of letters in the Greco-Roman world: Person-to person (personal), Business, Official, Public Letters, Fictitious Letters, and Discursive.[12]

Greco-Roman personal and business letters are similar to our own letters. The contents of personal letters could be letters between neighbors, friends, romantic interests, introductions to society, and recommendation letters.  Business letters are fairly typical to what anyone might expect with contents that deal with taxes, wills, commerce, and land.[13]

The official letter would be from a political or military leader. In contemporary society, the invention of the television and the internet, the official letter has been replaced and would probably most likely resemble the President of the United States’ State of the Union Address given to congress and the citizens of the United States. A public and discursive letter, the former concerned with public pleas, its literary value and philosophy might resemble something in the pages of the commentary or essay in an academic journal. The latter, which would share some of the same motives might be found in our contemporary society in the commentary of a newspaper or in the pages of a magazine like the New Yorker, written by a political commentor, politician, businessperson, etc. to inform, dip into like interests to sway people to their position.[14] St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, in which he often speaks to the Jewish people with reference to the faith of Abraham is a good example of this type of letter.[15]

Finally, the fictitious letter is explained here because this letter, unless perhaps in literature circles, has been lost in our modern society. An example of this letter would if someone who grew up in Illinois listened to Ven. Fulton Sheen on the radio, studied his academic and television work, then decided to write a letter with a summary of the teachings of Sheen and opening the letter, “I, Fulton Sheen…” In fact, some scholars like Fr. Raymond Collins suspect some letters in the New Testament canon attributed to St. Paul fall into this category of genre like Colossians, Ephesians, and 1 Timothy.[16] Typically, scholars perusing the letters of St. Paul make judgments based on the personal emotion expressed by St. Paul in the 2nd letter to the Corinthians versus the general context of the letter to the Ephesians which St. Paul spent three years living and the unpersonal letter to a personal comrade and fellow worker Timothy.[17]

The importance of the development of the Greco-Roman letter cannot be overstated in the study of the letters of St. Paul. The battle over St. Paul began with at least the Marcion heresy, then split Western Christianity with the Reformation, and the battle still wages to this day. It’s important to understand how a person wrote a letter typically with a scribe, how long it took to write a letter, and that it’s a real letter to a real audience with elusive contents. The careful reading of the letters of St. Paul with this understanding has led some Protestant scholars to reread Romans and St. Paul in a “New Perspective.” Martin Luther read it as a dichotomy between faith and works, whereas modern scholars recognize that Paul, a real letter writer, is writing to a Jewish audience was juxtaposing the old Mosaic covenant with New Covenant of Jesus Christ, so the reference to works of the law must be applied to Jewish understanding of covenant not generally to works of mercy versus faith. The covenant of Abraham is understood in two of the undisputed letters of St. Paul, Galatians and Romans, as “the primary pattern for how God relates with those who follow him.”[18] For St. Paul, it is the covenant grant to Abraham, without conditions, that is central to early Jews and Christians. The covenant treaty of the mosaic covenant or the law has been replaced by the law of Christ for St. Paul.

The letters of St. Paul continue to be fruit for Christian theology and spirituality. It is important though to reassess some of the debates surrounding St. Paul during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Modern historical research has revealed a better ability for biblical exegetes to understand how Paul would have written these letters and the context of the culture surrounding him.  The developments help improve exegetical methods for interpreting St. Paul in unity with all Christians. In many ways, this has been led by the efforts of Protestants like E.P. Sanders. Christian and non-Christian scholars will no doubt continue to develop a real relationship with this 1st-century Palestinian man.

[1] N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World: An Introduction to the History, Literature, and Theology of the First Christians (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2019), 703.

[2] Charles B. Puskas and Mark Reasoner, The Letters of Paul: An Introduction (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2013), 14.

[3] Ibid, 16

[4] Fr. Raymond F. Collins, “St. Paul’s Letters 101: How to Read & Understand the Apostle Paul’s Epistles”, Now You Know Media Inc, July 28th, 2017 accessed February 2nd, 2021, https://www.learn25.com/product/st-pauls-letters-101-how-to-read-and-understand-the-apostle-pauls-epistles/

[5] Ibid.

[6] E. Randolph Richards, 47.

[7] E. Randolph Richards, Paul and First-Century Letter Writing: Secretaries, Composition and Collection (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press; Apollos, 2004), 52.

[8] Fr. Raymond F. Collins, “St. Paul’s Letters 101: How to Read & Understand the Apostle Paul’s Epistles”

[9] Ibid.

[10] Wright and Bird. 703.  

[11] Fr. Raymond F. Collins, “St. Paul’s Letters 101: How to Read & Understand the Apostle Paul’s Epistles”

[12] Puskas and Reasoner, 30.

[13] Ibid.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Fr. Raymond F. Collins, “St. Paul’s Letters 101: How to Read & Understand the Apostle Paul’s Epistles”

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Puskas and Reasoner, 6.