Epistle

Not to be confused with Apostle.

This article is about the literary genre of letter-writing. For other uses, see Epistulae (disambiguation). For the Manichaean text, see The Epistles (Manichaeism).

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, by Valentin de Boulogne or Nicolas Tournier (c. 16th century, Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, TX).

An epistle (/ɪˈpɪsəl/; from Ancient Greek ἐπιστολή (epistolḗ) 'letter') is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The letters in the New Testament written by apostles to the early Christians are usually referred to as epistles; those traditionally attributed to Paul are known as Pauline epistles and the others as catholic (i.e., "general") epistles.