Epistles | Knowable Word

There May be a Clue at the End of the Letter

February 26, 2024 By Ryan Higginbottom

A good email is a dying art. Especially within a business context, clear and concise communication is crucial.

In particular, I love it when someone crafts their email subject line with care. This short text field exists to capture the purpose of the entire email. I have nearly laughed with joy when the body of an email is simply adding a few details to a well-chosen subject line. It’s sublime.

No one would argue that the Biblical epistles are the same as modern day emails. However, as written communication they share some qualities. As my co-blogger Peter has pointed out, because the writers of the epistles wanted to persuade their readers to believe or do something, they often included thesis statements throughout their letters.

The beginning of a letter is an obvious place for such a statement. But these writers occasionally ended their communication by returning to the same topic. This makes sense, and we often do the same—if I want to make extra sure that someone gets my point, I’ll include that at both the beginning and end of the email.

Examples

As we will see later, not every epistle ends in the way that I’m describing. But a number of them do! Here are three for our consideration.

1 Thessalonians

Our interpretive overview of this letter argues that Paul was mainly concerned with urging the Thessalonians on in faith, love, and hope. After noting how obvious these qualities were in them (chapter 1), Paul told them to excel still more in these same virtues.

At the end of the letter, Paul wrote this benediction (which might be my favorite New Testament benediction).

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thess 5:23-24)

We can see how Paul returned to the familiar note he had been hitting throughout the letter. His prayer and urgent desire for the Thessalonians was that God would perfect them in faith, love, and hope. This is what is meant by his use of “sanctify” and “blameless” in verse 23; in the context of the letter, he wanted their Christian virtues to be complete.

Titus

Paul’s message to Titus was straightforward: character and devotion to good works flow from a sound faith. Though this letter is short, Paul punctuated it with frequent mention of those works which a redeemed heart is glad to perform.

The end of the letter is no exception. Just before Paul’s final greetings, and just following some detailed personal instructions, Paul returned to his theme.

And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful. (Titus 3:14)

Paul made sure Titus could not miss his main point.

1 Peter

Peter’s first letter was written to Christians scattered because of persecution. He was writing to give them hope in the midst of great trials, when they were “suffering for righteousness’ sake (1 Peter 3:14).

Like Paul, Peter’s benediction at the end of the letter was tender and bursting with pastoral wisdom. It was also, unsurprisingly, connected to the theme of the letter.

And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:10-11)

Peter touched on the suffering that his friends would face and also reminded them of their great, eternal hope.

Not all Epistles!

The structure of each epistle is different, and in some letters a summary at the end is absent. Consider Ephesians as a prime example. This letter splits neatly into two, with the first three chapters laying out important doctrine (“the calling to which you’ve been called”) and the last three chapters giving application (“walk in a manner worthy of this calling”).

The main doctrinal point Paul made in the first half of Ephesians is that God has a plan to unite all of heaven and earth under the Lord Jesus. The letter ended with the famous “armor of God” passage and then final greetings. While one can these greetings to the uniting all things in Christ, there is nothing so explicit as we see in our earlier examples. A summary statement or return to theme is simply absent from the end of this letter.

Finding the Author’s Main Concern

When studying any book of the Bible, we should find its structure to help us discern its main point. Because epistles are so driven by logic and arguments, statements of purpose or theme are more abundant than in other genres of Biblical literature.

So as you’re studying the epistles, if you’re having trouble finding the main point, you might find a clue at the end of the letter.

In Epistles, Grammar Always Wins

October 28, 2022 By Peter Krol

At a recent Simeon Trust preaching workshop, I was reminded by instructor David Helm that “in epistles, grammar always wins.” By this, he meant that, when we’re studying biblical discourse (as opposed to narrative or poetry), the most important interpretive questions and conclusions must rely heavily on the text’s basic grammar.

A Probing Question

That raises a probing question for students of the Bible: Do you know basic grammar?

For example, perhaps you’re fond of turning to Ephesians 1 when arguing for the doctrine of predestination (since God “chose us” and “predestined us for adoption”). But do you know what Paul’s main point was in Eph 1:3-14? That’s not a difficult question—at least, if you can identify the main clause (the subject and main verb) of that one, lengthy sentence. I encourage you to comment below if you can identify that main clause (and bonus points if you can do it in three words!).

Or perhaps you prefer to argue in favor of the doctrine of universal atonement from 1 Timothy 2:4 (since God “desires all people to be saved”). But what is Paul getting at by divulging God’s salvific desire for all people? A grade-schooler could answer this question, since grammatically, there is nothing obscure about either the main clause of that sentence or the antecedent to which the demonstrative pronoun refers. Gold stars will be given to anyone who comments below with that sentence’s main clause and antecedent.

Parts of Speech

Now maybe my use of technical grammar language (clause? antecedent? huh?) is distracting for you. Do you really have to know all that lingo in order to study the Bible?

No, you don’t have to know the lingo. You can study the Bible just fine without being an expert in the terminology. But you must still understand what the concepts mean. At least, if you would like to study an epistle or speech properly.

In particular, any student of the Bible would be greatly helped by grasping the parts of speech and knowing how they function in sentences. Can you define the following?

noun
pronoun
verb
adjective
adverb
preposition
conjunction

That list doesn’t contain all parts of speech, but they are the ones you frequently bump into. In fact, the previous sentence contains every part of speech on the list; can you find each one?

Syntax

Syntax is the label for how the words in the sentence fit together. And the most important aspects of syntax to master for Bible study are:

Subject and main verb (predicate) = main clause
Distinction between independent clauses and dependent clauses.

Finding and labeling such clauses for what they are, you will grow to interpret the epistles clearly and accurately. In the previous sentence, “finding and labeling such clauses” is dependent; that’s not the sentence’s main idea. The main idea is found in the main (independent) clause: “you will grow.” That’s what I’m after in not only this paragraph but this post!

Where Can I Get Help?

I hope to post a few crash courses in grammar and syntax in future weeks, but I can go only so far. Yet you are not on your own to figure this out. Many resources are available to help English speakers learn basic grammar.

Here is a free, brief online course for those learning English as a second language. Native speakers know these grammar rules intuitively but will profit immensely from learning why the language works the way it does.

The classic Schoolhouse Rock has a series of entertaining shorts, with fantastic music, about grammar and syntax. “The Tale of Mr. Morton”—teaching subjects and predicates—is my family’s favorite.

As for books, here is a list of the best English grammar books on the market. I typically recommend The Elements of Style (#16 on the list), as I’ve read and benefitted from it myself. But #17 (English Grammar to Ace New Testament Greek) also looks promising, even for those who don’t plan to learn Greek. I’m sure anything on the list would be useful, so find whatever looks appealing and give it a try.

In epistles, grammar always wins. So when you study epistles, you won’t want to be on the losing side.

Amazon links are affiliate links. Clicking (verb) them (pronoun, antecedent = “links”) [SUBJECT] will support (verb) [PREDICATE] this (demonstrative pronoun) blog (noun) at (preposition) no (adverb) extra (adjective) cost (noun) to (preposition) yourself (pronoun).

Watch for Thesis Statements in Epistles

September 30, 2022 By Peter Krol

Different types of literature work in different ways. So as Bible students, we ought to have some idea of what we’re looking for when we begin to observe a text. And since epistles are logical literature, clearly presenting arguments, with premises and conclusions, we should look for such things. The conclusions are the main ideas of which the author wishes to persuade his audience. They can come in a variety of flavors.

Photo by Jarritos Mexican Soda on Unsplash

Summarizing the entire letter

Sometimes, conclusions come in the form of thesis statements that summarize the main argument of an entire letter.

For example, Eph 4:1 summarizes the letter’s entire argument in two parts: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to [Part 2] walk in a manner worthy of [Part 1] the calling to which you have been called.”

Another example is Hebrews 1:1-3, which states the letter’s thesis up front: “…God…has spoken to us by his Son…who sat down…”

John does the same thing in his first epistle: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).

Introducing a section

Alternatively, thesis statements can come at the beginning of a section, to introduce the topic of the next division.

Hebrews does this all through the letter, weaving the topic statement of each new portion into the transitional paragraphs between sections. For example, see Heb 2:17: “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” This conclusion to the first section introduce the next section, which explains how Jesus is both a faithful high priest (Heb 3:1-4:14) and a merciful high priest (Heb 4:15-5:10).

Another example is 2 Timothy 2:1-2: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.” This thesis introduces the section, which expands on the how to entrust the message to faithful men (2 Tim 2:3-7) before also expanding on how to be strengthened by grace (2 Tim 2:8-13).

One more example: 1 Peter 2:11-12 is the thesis for the entire section that goes from 1 Peter 2:11 to 1 Peter 4:11. Everything contained in the thesis statement gets expanded on throughout the section: abstaining from passions (1 Pet 4:1-6), honorable conduct among Gentiles (1 Pet 2:13-3:7), being spoken against (1 Pet 3:8-22), and glorifying God (1 Pet 4:7-11).

Concluding a section

Sometimes, the thesis comes at the end of a section, summing up the argument in that part of the letter.

For example, Romans 3:19-20 condenses the argument of Rom 1:18-3:20. 1 Cor 14:39-40 states the argument of that chapter (though that argument was also introduced in 1 Cor 14:1). Philippians 4:1 states the thesis of Paul’s argument that he presented all the way from Phil 1:12 to that point.

Conclusion

Whether you are studying a lengthy or brief amount of text, don’t forget that the authors of epistles generally wanted to persuade their readers to believe or do something. They knew as well as writers do today, that one key to persuasion is to explicitly inform your audience what it is you would like to persuade them of. Therefore—here is my thesis statement at the end—we ought to look for thesis statements in the Bible’s logical literature, especially epistles.

Paul’s Personality and Writing Assistants

June 26, 2019 By Peter Krol

Talbot Davis makes a helpful point about the process of divine inspiration with respect to the letters of Paul:

Muslims contend that the Koran is straight dictation — all Allah, with no Mohammed filter at all.
The Christian conception of the bible is quite different. We
believe the God-breathed message of the Word gets delivered most
compellingly through the passions and personalities of the various
authors.
Because if God can take a curmudgeon like Paul and turn him
into a composer of inspired texts, imagine what he can do with you and
me.

Davis explains Paul’s use of a scribe, to whom he dictated his letters. Along the way, Davis shows us that this in no way undermines the doctrine of inspiration, but rather upholds it and makes it uniquely Christian.

Check it out!