Editing Epistle (section)

{{Distinguish|Apostle}}
{{Short description|Letter written for a didactic purpose}}
{{About|the literary genre of letter-writing|other uses|Epistulae (disambiguation)|the Manichaean text |The Epistles (Manichaeism)}}
[[File:PaulT.jpg|thumb|''[[Saint Paul]] Writing His Epistles'', by [[Valentin de Boulogne]] or [[Nicolas Tournier]] (c. 16th century, Blaffer Foundation Collection, Houston, TX).]]

An '''epistle''' ({{IPAc-en|ᵻ|ˈ|p|ɪ|s|əl}}; {{etymology|grc|''{{Wikt-lang|grc|ἐπιστολή}}'' ({{grc-transl|ἐπιστολή}})|letter}}) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal [[Didacticism|didactic]] [[Letter (message)|letter]]. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in [[ancient Egypt]] as part of the [[Scribe|scribal-school]] writing curriculum. The letters in the [[New Testament]] from [[Twelve apostles|Apostles]] to [[Early Christianity|Christians]] are usually referred to as epistles. Those traditionally attributed to [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]] are known as [[Pauline epistles]] and the others as [[General epistles|catholic (i.e., "general") epistles]].