Ancient Letters and the New Testament: A Guide to Context and Exegesis

Abstract

A practically mechanical application of the classical four-part speech model to letters and letter compo- nents is more likely to discredit rhetorical analysis than to pro- mote it. Rhetorical analysis must not be pursued at the expense of the unique features of the letter genre that epistolography has helped us understand. Inflated use of the term “rhetoric” should be avoided and the scope of its applicability precisely determined and stated. The division of rhetoric into several subdisciplines should also be kept in mind. If these boundaries are respected, then obviously rhetoric can be of great value in illuminating the argumentative structure of letters—for example, by working through enthymemes and examples or by relating the letter ele- ments to the classical means of persuasion by ethos, pathos, and logos. The rhetorical analysis of smaller linguistic units such as tropes