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Notes on video lecture:
Form and Physicality of Ancient Letter Writing
Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on January 14, 2014 (go to class or lectures)
Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:
autographs, ostraka, stranger, Corinthians, Phoebe, lovers, bark, context, Epaphroditus, farewell, letter, Oxyrhynchus, antiquity, imperial, poverty, god, vellum, scribe, folded, Philemon, Isias, Alexandria, papyri, himself, reeds
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epistolography
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the study of              writing
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letters were their means of circulating news, requests, and communicating ideas
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what kind of letters existed in                   
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business letters
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notes to             
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children to parents asking for things
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letters of condolence
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letters of advice
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letters are found both in literary form and non-literary, i.e. non-studied
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it's difficult to figure out the aim and tone of a letter if you don't know its               
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materials
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             (calf skin)
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parchment
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               (potsherds)
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wood
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most frequently we find letters preserved papyrus letters, i.e. letters written on           
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pen made of reed
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ink made of crushed minerals
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the quality of the materials tells us about the wealth or                of the author
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has the piece of paper been washed and reused?
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is the writing squeezed in the margin?
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is the letter written in hand-writing styles indicating that a              did some of the writing
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sending a letter in antiquity
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there was no post office or publicly funded mail system
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although there was an                  system for sending messages
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most people relied on friends, acquaintances, or even a                  to carry your letter, both slaves and free persons
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we meet some letter carriers in Paul's letters
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a letter to the Philippians mentions                          [ay-PAF-rah-DIGH-tus], as Paul mentions him "my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need"
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we learn that he didn't only carry the letter but there was some anxiety about his sickness
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at the end of the letter to the Romans, a woman named              is mentioned
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we learn that she not only had a letter of recommendation from Paul but that she had an honored status and was a leader within the community
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who wrote ancient letters and how did one learn to write letters?
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letter writing was taught at the secondary stage of education by a teacher called a grammaticus
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we have handbooks from antiquity that give examples of how to write a good letter
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             has been found that shows that children must have been practicing as well
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                       [ahk-see-RING-kus] in Egypt is the most important archaeological site ever discovered in terms of finding documents
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letter from father to his son imploring him to take him to                     
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women were trained to write letters as well
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e.g.            to husband Hephaestion, complains about this absence from their family and about financial hardships
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she writes in her own hand the farewell, but someone else scribed the letter
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there were professional letter writers who served in government
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form of an ancient letter
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prescript (superscriptio, adscriptio, salutation)
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thanksgiving
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e.g. to a       
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body
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the main issue
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please send me money
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someone is sick
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ending
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                 formula
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listed greetings from others
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Paul uses this similar format that Isias wrote to her husband
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letter to                  [figh-LEE-man]
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it is often called a private letter, yet the greeting at the end includes several people
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the address include a house
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personal matters as well as business matters
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how Paul's letters were sent
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we don't have any                      of Paul's letters, nothing from his own hand
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we can learn about the earliest networks of Christ's followers
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Paul sometimes used scribes
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Romans 16: "I, Tertius, the writer of this letter, greet you in the Lord."
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Paul sometimes wrote the letters               
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1 Corinthians: "I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand"
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Galatians 6:11: "See what large letters I make when I'm writing in my own hand"
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Paul sometimes writes in response to others' letters
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1                       : "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote."
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his letters sometimes are substitutes for visits
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shows various ways of ancient writing with Annemarie Luijendijk
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ancient papyri
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shows piece of modern papyrus
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shows papyrus plant
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shows how they              the papyrus plant with address on front, something like a folded envelope
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people could tear out a fiber and wrap up the envelope
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different qualities of papyrus
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bones
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pottery
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tree          (in England, the size of postcards in Latin from Roman military there)
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shows ancient papyrus in glass, from 1st century
Paul's Letters: Authorship and Audience
Form and Physicality of Ancient Letter Writing
Paul's Letter Writing Within the Tradition of Ancient Rhetoric
Ancient Responses to the Letters of Paul
How Ancient People Wrote about Their Place in History: Polybius and Daniel
Four Stories of Empire in Judea: Babylonian, Macedonian, Seleucid, and Roman
The Roman Empire's Knowledge of Early Christian Communities
Josephus on the Definition of Jew and Christian in the Ancient World
Understanding the Historical Josephus
The Priene Inscription
Intertwining of Religion and Politics in the Roman Empire
Letters to the Corinthians
Slavery and Freedom in Roman Corinth
Slavery in First Corinthians