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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
epistle
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Can you keep one bookmark in the page for the gospel and turn to our epistle in 1 Corinthians 8.
▪ He was the author of the Fourth Gospel, three biblical epistles, and the book of the Revelation.
▪ Leapor's reference to the fly is a signal that she is arguing against Pope's epistle.
▪ Now Malcolm has asked for a bit more of my own feelings and thoughts in these epistles.
▪ Thank you for various letters, telling me you read these epistles, and asking questions.
▪ The whole machinery of prefaces, dedicatory epistles and the like is designed to focus attention on the writer himself.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Epistle

Epistle \E*pis"tle\, n. [OE. epistle, epistel, AS. epistol, pistol, L. epistola, fr. Gr. ? anything sent by a messenger, message, letter, fr. ? to send to, tell by letter or message; 'epi` upon, to + ? to dispatch, send; cf. OF. epistle, epistre, F. ['e]p[^i]tre. See Stall.]

  1. A writing directed or sent to a person or persons; a written communication; a letter; -- applied usually to formal, didactic, or elegant letters.

    A madman's epistles are no gospels.
    --Shak.

  2. (Eccl.) One of the letters in the New Testament which were addressed to their Christian brethren by Apostles.

    Epistle side, the right side of an altar or church to a person looking from the nave toward the chancel.

    One sees the pulpit on the epistle side.
    --R. Browning.

Epistle

Epistle \E*pis"tle\, v. t. To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing. [Obs.]
--Milton.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
epistle

partly from Old English epistol and in part directly from Old French epistle, epistre (Modern French épitre), from Latin epistola "a letter," from Greek epistole "message, letter, command, commission," whether verbal or in writing, from epistellein "send to, send as a message or letter," from epi "to" (see epi-) + stellein in its secondary sense of "to dispatch, send" from PIE *stel-yo-, suffixed form of root *stel- "to put, stand," with derivatives referring to a standing object or place (see stall (n.1)). Also acquired in Old English directly from Latin as pistol. Specific sense of "letter from an apostle forming part of canonical scripture" is c.1200.

Wiktionary
epistle

n. 1 A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter. 2 (context Christianity English) One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament. vb. (context obsolete English) To write; to communicate in a letter or by writing.

WordNet
epistle

n. especially a long, formal letter

Wikipedia
Epistle

An epistle (; Greek ἐπιστολή, epistolē, "letter") is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament from Apostles to Christians are usually referred to as epistles. Those traditionally attributed to Paul are known as Pauline epistles and the others as catholic (i.e., "general") epistles.

Epistle (Quaker)

Quaker epistle: in the 17th century, the Quaker movement revived the Gospel use of the word " epistle" to mean an advisory or admonitory letter, sent to a group of people, sometimes termed a "general epistle". The text of a short epistle, written by Isaac Penington in 1667 is in Wikisource.

The term is still in use for letters sent by Yearly Meetings in session to all other Yearly Meetings.

Usage examples of "epistle".

Some of his Lyceum verses are exercises in the forms practiced by Zhukovsky and Derzhavin, but by far the greater part belong to the favorite Arzamasian kinds of fugitive poetry, friendly epistles, and Anacreontic lyrics.

Chalmers, a gentleman in Ayrshire, a particular friend of mine, asked me to write a poetic epistle to a young lady, his Dulcinea.

In the second Epistle of Clement and in the Shepherd the Christological interest of the writer ends in obtaining the assurance, through faith in Christ as the world ruling King and Judge that the community of Christ will receive a glory corresponding to its moral and ascetic works.

But the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which have been strained from the epistles of St.

In a public epistle to the nation or community of the Jews, dispersed through the provinces, he pities their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope, that after his return from the Persian war, he may be permitted to pay his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem.

If, as is probable, the Ignatian Epistles are independent of the Gospel of John, further, the Supper prayer in the Didache, finally, certain mystic theological phrases in the Epistle of Barnabas, in the second epistle of Clement, and in Hermas, a complex of Theologoumena may be put together, which reaches back to the primitive period of the Church, and may be conceived as the general ground for the theology of John.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, following the example of those Rabbins who, several centuries before his time, began to give mystical interpretations of the Scriptures, infers from this statement that Enoch was borne into heaven without tasting death.

To confess the truth, Jones was less pleased with this last epistle than he had been with the former, as he was prevented by it from complying with the earnest entreaties of Mr.

This epistle he prefixed to his poems printed at Kilmarnock in the year 1789: he loved to speak of his early comrade, and supplied Walker with some very valuable anecdotes: he died one of the magistrates of Irvine, on the 2d of May, 1830, at the age of seventy.

I despatched a messenger unto thee with Epistles revealed by Me, that thou mightest obey the command of God and not be of them that have repudiated the Truth.

But the Epistle of Peter is still wanting in the Muratorian Fragment, nor do we yet find the group there associated with the Acts of the Apostles.

Look at II-F-2, my Saharan scribble, or the Perseid epistles posted between II-A and -B.

Read at home tonight, and read when alone, what that great man of God says about all that in his classical epistle to the Philippians, and refuse to sleep till you have made the same submission.

Edgar Poe in their hearing on the chance that Auntie Blum would find some excuse to inform Peter, or write a concerned epistle on the state of my life to my great-aunt, with whom she had been very hand and glove over the years.

English poets recite with a sort of ecstasy some of the verses of these epistles, and praise the ease of the language and the happiness of the thoughts.