Secretaries in Ancient Letter Writing: Influences on the Composition of New Testament Epistles
May 2026 · Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht
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About this ebook
Scholars have long believed that much of the New Testament was physically written down by scribes – anonymous helpers who acted as the hands of the biblical authors, using pen and papyrus to record their words. It has also been widely assumed that these scribes often had the freedom to extensively shape the text, adding their own style or even ideas. Such affirmations have reached the status of unchallenged fact in the scholarly guild. In his work, Travis B. Williams takes a fresh look at this long-standing view by examining what ancient Greek and Roman sources actually tell us about the role of secretaries in that era. He demonstrates that the historical evidence is too limited to say how often scribes were employed and that when they were involved, they generally had very little control over what they wrote. This challenges everything we thought we knew about the mechanics by which early Christian literature was composed, and it raises serious challenges for the authorship claims of certain New Testament documents.
Scholars have long believed that much of the New Testament was physically written down by scribes – anonymous helpers who acted as the hands of the biblical authors, using pen and papyrus to record their words. It has also been widely assumed that these scribes often had the freedom to extensivel...
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About the author
Travis B. Williams is Professor of Religion at Tusculum University.
Travis B. Williams is Professor of Religion at Tusculum University.
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