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Epistles are real correspondence

The New Testament letters have fit into my mental model as a synopsis of the whole Bible, and the Old Testament primarily as historical background. If the Bible were written as I imagine, the letters would be the treatise, and the Old Testament would be an appendix. The claim that the letters are real correspondence rooted in the circumstances of the Roman Empire is scandalous. This means that the central content of the Bible is actually the Old Testament and the Gospel accounts, and the letters are nearer to practical footnotes on how to understand and apply the core than a synopsis of it.…