LETTERS

The writing and sending of letters, either of an official, a business or a personal nature, was a widely used means of communication in ancient times. (2 Sam. 11:14; 2 Ki. 5:5-7; 10:1, 2; 2 Chron. 30:1; Ezra 4:7; Isa. 37:14; Jer. 29:1; Acts 9:1, 2; 28:21; 2 Thess. 2:2; Heb. 13:22) Confidential letters were usually sealed. (1 Ki. 21:8) To send a letter unsealed is said to have been viewed as disrespectful, which may have been Sanballat’s reason for sending an open letter to Nehemiah.—Neh. 6:5.

In addition to papyrus, materials employed for letter writing in ancient times included ostraca (small pieces of broken pottery or earthenware) and clay tablets. (See ARCHAEOLOGY, pages 110, 111.) Thousands of clay tablets have been found in Babylonia and other regions. Washed and cleaned, smooth clay was made into a tablet and, while still wet, it was imprinted by means of a stylus forming wedge-shaped (cuneiform) characters. These tablets were often enclosed in clay envelopes. In the case of contracts, the text was sometimes repeated on the envelope. The envelopes were sealed and then baked in a kiln or dried in the sun to make them hard and durable.

Letter writing was often done by professional scribes. As in the Persian court, such scribes were usually on hand to take down official government correspondence. (Esther 8:9; Ezra 4:8) Scribes were also to be found in the marketplaces near city gates, where they could be engaged by the populace to write letters and to record business transactions.

Letters were sometimes delivered by messengers (2 Ki. 19:14), runners (2 Chron. 30:6), or couriers. (Esther 3:13; 8:14) Postal service itself seems to have been restricted to official correspondence down to Roman times. So average persons had to rely on traveling acquaintances or merchants to deliver their letters.

Anciently, letters of recommendation were also used. However, the apostle Paul did not need such letters to or from the Christians at Corinth to prove that he was a minister. He had aided them to become Christians and therefore could say: “You yourselves are our letter, inscribed on our hearts and known and being read by all mankind.”—2 Cor. 3:1-3.

In the first century C.E., letters from Paul, James, Peter, John, Jude and the governing body in Jerusalem contributed to the growth and the preservation of the unity and cleanness of the Christian congregation.—Acts 15:22-31; 16:4, 5; 2 Cor. 7:8, 9; 10:8-11.