EPISTLE

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) The use of this word is now confined in our language to the designation of those written addre es by apostolical writers to their Christian brethren which are contained in the canon of Scripture: a few others, either spurious or of high antiquity, although not recognized among inspired writings, are also so denominated. The Epistles of St. Paul, and others contained in the volume of the New Testament, are not arranged according to their date, but, in all probability, according to the views which those who arranged the canon entertained of the relative importance either of the writings themselves, or of the parties to whom they are addre ed Thus the Epistles of St. Paul to the different churches, and the Catholic Epistles of St. John (t.e. addre ed to the universal church), are ranked before the Epistles of those saints to individual Christians. An exception to this rule is to be found in the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is placed last among those of St. Paul, and seems to have been admitted into the canon at a comparatively recent period. The practice of reading a portion of an Epistle in the service of the church is extremely ancient, and said to be noticed by Justin in his First ApoEPISTYLIUM. (Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) In Architecture, the same as architrave, which see. [s. 421]