popularity of the "letter" form of literature was the introduction of quasi-confidential remarks, which gave a freshness, a breath of everyday life to the composition; or, to use another image, the "Letter" might even be termed a picturesque and attractive "setting" to the graver, the more serious thoughts contained in the writing.
This is well exemplified in the famous collection of the correspondence of Cicero, of whose Letters it has been happily written that the majority are "brief confidential outpourings of the moment." The same purely human colouring is manifest in the Letters of Seneca, written from the year 57 and onwards; this is even more especially noticeable in the Letters of the younger Pliny.
There are, however, certain of the Pauline Epistles which partake more closely of the nature of private letters, and which scarcely seem intended for public circulation—notably the Second Epistle to the Corinthians and the little letter to Philemon.
Professor Deissmann, of Heidelberg, who has written at some length on the subject, differs somewhat from the general view taken here of S. Paul's writings; but while expressing his doubts as to whether any of the Pauline Epistles were really written by the apostle with a view to publication, he unhesitatingly decides that amongst the New Testament writings the Epistle to the Hebrews, the First Epistle of John, the First Epistle of Peter, the Epistles of James and Jude, were most certainly written in "letter" form for general circulation.
As early certainly as the third century, the Christian Church placed the so-called Catholic Epistles as a group apart among the canonical writings and termed them "Catholic" or universal, as addressed to no one special congregation. This is absolutely true in the cases of the Epistles of 1 Peter, James, Jude, and 1 John, above referred to.
The First Epistle of Peter is addressed to a vast number of the "Dispersion," who, the apostle says, were sojourning in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia,—these provinces almost covering the region now popularly known as Asia Minor.
James wrote to the twelve tribes scattered abroad.
