Epistles to particular groups

[teeboy]

What letters other than Hebrews and Galatians were written to only a selected group within the rapidly growing church?

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Nearly all of them were. Paul’s epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon were written to individuals, but meant to be read also to the community they were the head of (in the case of Philemon the epistle is also addressed to Apphia, Archippus, and “to the church in your house”). It is possible to read James’s “twelve tribes in the Dispersion” as referring to the entire Church, but more likely it refers specifically to those Christians outside of Jerusalem or specifically to Jewish Christians outside of the Holy Land. 2 John’s “elder lady” probably represents a particular church community, perhaps that of Ephesus.

What we are left with is 2 Peter, which does not make its recipients clear, 1 John, which hardly qualifies as an epistle at all though it is traditionally counted among them, 3 John, which is to just one specific person (Gaius), and Jude, which seems to be written for all Christians. All the rest of the epistles are written to specific groups.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

The Letter to the Hebrews, Letter of James, First Epistle of Peter, Second Epistle of Peter, First Epistle of John, Second Epistle of John, Third Epistle of John, and the Epistle of Jude are often called the “Catholic Epistles” because they were addressed to the entire Church. (There is some disagreement here) The others seem addressed to specific groups.

 

[COPLAND_3]

Yes, the Catholic Epistles are for those in general, while Paul’s Letters were for those in particular. The whole Bible that we have does have all the books in categories, which is something that new students of the Bible should take time to learn about. I learned the books of the Bible by memorizing each category at a time, I highly recommend it. Then it really helps to take time to learn who the authors were and who they were writing to and the theme of each book. Without learning these basic things people can mislead themselves by wrongly assuming things. Before I began studying the Bible I just assumed that Timothy wrote 1-2 Timothy, and Titus wrote Titus, etc etc.

 

[TimothyH]

What letters other than Hebrews and Galatians were written to only a selected group within the rapidly growing church?

Phillipians was written to Christians in the city of Phillipi.

1 and 2 Thesolonians was written to Christians in the city of Thessalonica.

Collosians was written to Christians in the city of Colossae.

Ephesians was written to the Chrisians in the city of Ephesus.

1 and 2 Timothy were written to me (kidding)

The others who replied to this thread have done so most excellently.

-Tim-

 

[teeboy]

This is what I thought ; however, a local newspaper which is nationally owned decided to state otherwise last week.

In speaking of our Roman Catholic reading for Ascension Thursday, their Baptist pastor took our reading from Acts regarding Church law made at the council in Jerusalem and twisted his article into salvation by faith alone.

Satan is still up to his old tricks.

He also wrote that only two epistles are directed to certain groups.