Page:The early Christians in Rome (1911).djvu/110

 John in his First Epistle gives no address at all, leaving his Letter perfectly general—or universal.

Jude, too, names no particular congregation, but simply writes to those that are "sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ and called."

In the Epistle "to the Hebrews" the writer is unnamed, and there is no mention of those to whom the anonymous "Letter" is addressed. It is, however, clear from the tenor of the "Letter" that it was addressed to Jewish Christians, and probably to Jewish Christians settled in Rome.

The "Pastoral" Epistles, so called (including 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), were evidently intended for general circulation.

We may therefore conclude that the greater number of the New Testament Letters—certainly the four principal "Catholic" Epistles and the great Epistle to the Hebrews, and the Epistles of S. Paul with the exceptions above noted, influenced by the analogy of other collections of Letters made in the same age, were written in "letter" form, but were intended for a large group of readers. This particular "letter" form being adopted owing to the great popularity, throughout the Roman Empire, of this special description of literature.

Thus it is evident that the great Christian teachers to a certain extent adopted the most loved popular literary forms of the age in which they lived, especially choosing the letter form which such distinguished writers as Cicero, Seneca, and a little later the younger Pliny adopted.

While the "Acts of the Apostles" more or less followed the literary method of profane historical literature, with its picturesque insertion of "speeches," "letters," and "official papers"; while the "Revelation of S. John" more or less followed the method adopted in Jewish apocalyptic literature of the famous Alexandrian school: alone the Gospels are absolutely an original form—a literary form which originated within Christianity itself—a literary form which stands out alone. It imitated nothing, it followed no classical or Jewish examples—no models, however beautiful, attractive, or popular; nor has it ever been imitated in all the Christian ages, stretching over more than eighteen centuries, simply because it is inimitable.