Letters and Communities: Studies in the Socio-Political Dimensions of Ancient Epistolography (eds. Paola Ceccarelli, Lutz Doering, Thorsten Fögen, and Ingo Gildenhard; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Economy of Letter-Writing in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
The topic of epistolary theory, rhetorical theory, and Paul has been widely canvassed 1 . This study attempts to add to the ongoing scholarly conversation by taking a slight different perspective than is traditional, beginning from economic utility rather than textual outcome.
Jewish Letter Writing in Late Antiquity
The Routledge Handbook of Jews and Judaism in Late Antiquity, 2024
The chapter reviews the evidence of Jewish letters and letter writing in Tannaitic texts, where it is sparse, and Amoraic texts, where it becomes more frequent; specific groups of letters are those ascribed to the Patriarch, those between rabbinic colleagues, mostly in regards to halakhic topics, and those addressed by “the people” of a given place to rabbis, again concerning halakhic questions, which can be considered a forerunner of the responsa literature from the Gaonic period onwards. In addition, the chapter discusses the evidence of extant Jewish documentary letters in Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew from Late Antiquity (from ca. the fourth century C.E.). Finally, the chapter briefly considers the debated question of potential Jewish literary letters transmitted in Latin (Letter of Mordecai to Alexander, Epistola Anne ad Senecam).
Ancient Epistolary Theory: a Brief Overview
Годишен зборник на Филозофскиот факултет/The Annual of the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje
This paper is a brief overview of ancient theoretical views on letters: how the term 'epistle' (έπιστολή, epistula) was defined in ancient times, what was discussed in the theory of letters, what recommendations comprised epistolary decorum and what types of letters were defined in ancient handbooks of letter-writing. The purpose of the paper is to reconstruct ancient epistolary theory based on surviving evidence. Direct evidence of this theory are the excursus on letters in the treatise Περὶ ἑρμηνείας by Demetrius, two postclassical handbooks of letter-writing ("Τύποι έπιστολικοί" and "Έπιστολιμαῖοι χαρακτῆρες"), a brief tractate on letters written by the sophist Philostratus of Lemnos, one epistle by Gregory of Nazinanzus and the appendix "De epistulis" at the end of the rhetorical handbook by Gaius Julius Victor "Ars rhetorica". Indirect evidence, on the other hand, of ancient epistolary theory are the not-so-numerous incidental references to letters and letterwriting that are mainly found in Cicero's correspondence.
2018
Dossier of Magnesia on the Maeander; discussion of the royal letters, of documents from the cities, of Magnesia as a community.
Ancient Jewish letter writing is a neglected topic of research. Lutz Doering’s new monograph seeks to redress this situation. The author pursues two major tasks: first, to provide a comprehensive discussion of Jewish letter writing in the Persian, Hellenistic, and Roman periods and, second, to assess the importance of ancient Jewish letter writing for the emergence and early development of Christian epistolography. Although individual groups of Jewish letters have been studied before, the present monograph is the first one to look at Jewish letters comprehensively across the languages in which they were written and/or handed down (chiefly Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek). It operates with a broad concept of "letter” and deals with documentary as well as literary and embedded letters. The author highlights cross-linguistic developments, such as the influence of the Greek epistolary form on Aramaic and Hebrew letters or the non-idiomatic retention of Semitic "peace” greetings in some letters translated into Greek, which allowed for these greetings to be charged with new meaning. Doering argues that such processes were also important for early Christian epistolography. Thus, Paul engaged creatively with Jewish epistolary formulae. Frequent address of communities rather than individuals and the quasi-official setting of many Jewish letters would have provided relevant models when Paul developed his own epistolary praxis. In addition, the author shows that the concept of communication with the "Diaspora”, in both halakhic-administrative and prophetic-apocalyptic Jewish letters, is adapted by a number of early Christian letters, such as 1 Peter, James, Acts 15:23-29, and 1 Clement . Ancient Jewish and early Christian letters also share a concern with group identity and cohesion that is often supported by salvation-historical motifs. In sum, Lutz Doering addresses the previously under-researched text-pragmatic similarities between Jewish and Christian letters.
La correspondance privée dans la Méditerranée antique : sociétés en miroir. Madalina Dana (éd.) Collection Scripta antiqua (168) Bordeaux, 2023, 2023
This paper is about Pecyllus, a magistrate in 3rd c. AD Oxyrhynchus, whose dossier consists of several private and official documents as well as letters. After a brief description of Pecyllus’ social and financial situation, the paper focuses on his private letters, analysing how Pecyllus adapted the layout, palaeography and linguistic style of each of his letters according to the message, the addressee and situation. It argues that ancient letter writers were able to adapt the external appearance of their writings according to their relationship to the addressee and in order to increase the persuasiveness of their letters.
Within the Christian religion, no writer has had the inÁ uence of shaping tradition more than Paul. Consequently, it is vital to understand the historical and literary background to his letters to assure a proper reading of the text. Geographical setting, authorship, thematic introduction and epistolary theory all provide important information to the exegete on how this text is to be interpreted and, consequently, place the exegete within a framework that helps prevent imposing modern ideas, concepts and culture onto the text.