The General Epistles

Last time, we focused on Paul, who wrote many of the New Testament letters. But he was not the only one writing to early Christian communities.

In this unit, we look at the other letters, known as the General Epistles or sometimes the Catholic Epistles. That name can be confusing, so let me clarify: here, “catholic” just means universal or general, and it is not related to the Catholic Church as a denomination.

These letters got their name because, unlike most of Paul’s letters that were sent to specific churches or people, several of these were meant for the wider church, not just one group. You can think of them as general circular letters for the early Christian movement.

These letters are named after several key leaders from the early days of Christianity, besides Paul. There is a letter from James, letters from Peter, letters from John, and a short letter from Jude. There is also a longer and unique letter called Hebrews, which stands apart from the rest.

Together, these writings give us a broader and more diverse view of early Christianity, showing that there were many important voices and different focuses, not just Paul. They remind us that the early church was made up of many voices working together.

There are two important things to keep in mind here. First, as we learned in Unit 13, these are still letters written to real communities facing real situations. We should read them carefully, trying to understand the issues they address instead of taking verses out of context.

Second, as we discussed in Unit 5 about canonization, several of these books were once debated and not immediately accepted into the New Testament. Hebrews, James, Second Peter, the short letters of Second and Third John, and Jude were all discussed before being included. Reading them means we are looking at books that took longer to become part of the Bible, which makes them especially interesting.

Each of these letters has its own unique style and message, different from each other and from Paul. James is very practical, focusing on how faith should lead to real actions, like doing good, controlling speech, and caring for the poor. It has a straightforward, almost proverb-like style, and stresses that true faith changes how people live.

Peter’s letters address times of suffering and persecution, encouraging believers to stay strong and hopeful when facing hardship. This connects to the themes we will see in Revelation.

John’s letters focus on love, saying that anyone who knows God must love others, and warning against those who might mislead the community. Jude’s short letter warns strongly against false teachers who had entered the group. Even in this quick overview, you can see how each letter speaks to the early church in its own way.

The General Epistles help us see a broader view of the early church, not just Paul’s perspective. These general letters, traditionally attributed to leaders like James, Peter, John, and Jude, include some that were debated before being added to the Bible.

As a note, the authorship of these works are debated. Critical scholarship tends to see them as having been forged in these leaders’ names, but the conversation has largely moved past that sort of debate, and instead focuses on what is actually written in these texts.

They are still letters written for specific situations, and each one has its own focus: James on practical faith, Peter on endurance, John on love, and Jude on warning against false teachers. Next, let’s move on to the  book in this group that stands out the most, and then discuss the background that shaped these ideas.

I want to focus here on the letter to the Hebrews, since it is unique and full of meaning. After that, I’ll go back and talk about the background ideas that shaped it, which we have been planning to cover since the start of the New Testament section.

This letter is impressive and well-crafted, and it does not read like the other letters. It feels more like a long sermon or a carefully made argument than a regular letter, and it is written in very polished Greek.

Hebrews does not mention its author, and people have debated who wrote it since the early days of the church. Some thought Paul wrote it, but its style and approach are different from his. The truth is, we do not know who wrote Hebrews, and this mystery is one reason it was debated before being included in the Bible.

Hebrews is fascinating because it looks deeply into the Old Testament to explain who Jesus is. Think back to Unit 8, where we talked about the Torah, the priesthood, sacrifices, the tabernacle, and the covenant. Hebrews argues that all these things were leading up to Jesus and are fulfilled in him.

It describes Jesus as the great high priest and the final, perfect sacrifice, making the old system of repeated sacrifices unnecessary. This letter explores how the new covenant connects to the old one, and it clearly shows how early Christians saw the Old Testament as pointing to Jesus.

Hebrews is a great example of how the early church saw the new covenant relating to the old, and it shows, more clearly than almost any other book, how the early Christians read their entire Scripture, our Old Testament, as pointing toward Jesus. Hebrews is a masterclass in how the two testaments were being connected in the mind of the early church.

Now let me step back and finally pay off a promise I have been making since Unit 3: the fuller picture of the intertestamental period, the world of ideas that stands between the Old and New Testaments.

Remember from Unit 3 and Unit 11 that centuries passed between the last of the Old Testament writings and the events of the New, and that a great deal happened in that gap that shaped everything the New Testament assumes. This is the background hum behind all the New Testament writings, and understanding it illuminates the whole collection.

During those centuries between the testaments, the Jewish people lived under different foreign empires. This experience brought about new ideas and hopes that are taken for granted by the time of the New Testament.

The hope for a messiah, which we saw in Unit 11, became stronger and took on different forms, with various groups imagining the coming savior in their own ways. Ideas about resurrection, life after death, and final judgment also became more common, so that by Jesus’ time, many Jewish people expected a general resurrection.

Beliefs about angels and evil spiritual powers became more detailed, and expectations about the end of the age, when God would set things right, became clearer. This period also produced many Jewish writings, including apocalyptic works with dramatic and symbolic styles like those in Daniel, which did not become part of the Protestant Bible.

Why is this background so important? Because the New Testament was written in a world shaped by these ideas. When people in the Gospels talk about resurrection, wait for a messiah, or mention angels, evil powers, and judgment, they are using ideas that became clear during the intertestamental period.

Most importantly for our next topic, the apocalyptic worldview that grew during this time, with its focus on cosmic conflict, symbolic visions, and belief that God would defeat evil empires, directly influenced the book of Revelation.

Hebrews shows us, through its careful writing and unknown author, how the early church saw the Old Testament as being fulfilled in Jesus, who is described as the great high priest and perfect sacrifice.

The intertestamental period, though often called a time of silence, was actually full of new ideas about the messiah, resurrection, judgment, and hope for the future; ideas that the New Testament builds on. With this background, we are now ready to look at the most unusual and misunderstood book in the Bible: Revelation.

We’ve been preparing for this since Unit 11, because Revelation is often misunderstood. The most important thing to remember is that understanding its genre is the key to reading it well. If you remember one thing from this lecture, let it be this: to read Revelation properly, you need to know what kind of book it is.

Remember from Unit 1 that we should always ask what kind of writing we are reading before trying to understand its meaning. In Units 2 and 11, we learned about apocalyptic literature. Revelation is the main New Testament example of this genre, and its name comes from the Greek word “apokalypsis,” which means unveiling or revealing.

Apocalyptic literature is known for its dramatic visions, strange symbolic creatures, battles between good and evil, and vivid images of judgment and victory. It often uses numbers, colors, and figures as symbols.

Most importantly, this kind of writing was meant for people facing hardship or persecution, to reassure them that even when things seemed hopeless, God was still in control and would win in the end. Apocalyptic literature was, at its heart, resistance literature for the oppressed, a coded message of hope for people being crushed by a hostile power. It was a way to give hope to those suffering under powerful enemies.

This is the single most important thing to understand about Revelation, and it reframes the entire book. Revelation was written to real Christian communities in the first-century Roman world, communities that were facing pressure, hostility, and, in places, persecution from the might of the Roman Empire.

Into that situation, Revelation speaks, using the coded, symbolic language of apocalyptic literature to assure suffering believers that the brutal empire that seemed all-powerful would not have the final word, that God and the Lamb, its central image for the crucified and risen Jesus, would ultimately triumph, and that faithfulness would be vindicated.

Read this way, Revelation is a book of hope and endurance for the persecuted, a message that evil empires fall and God’s justice prevails.

Many popular interpretations treat Revelation as a literal timetable for the end of the world, trying to match its symbols to modern events, countries, or dates. This has led to a lot of speculation over the years, but every attempt to link Revelation to current events has been proven wrong.

Most scholars recommend reading Revelation in its original context, as apocalyptic literature written for first-century Christians under Roman rule, using symbols that made sense to them. This approach does not take away the book’s lasting power or its hope for God’s victory. Instead, it helps us understand what Revelation really meant to its first readers and keeps us from making predictions that do not come true.

With Revelation, the Bible comes to its final page and brings the whole story together. As we learned in Unit 2, the way a collection ends shapes its meaning.

The Bible finishes with a powerful vision of God making everything new; a new heaven and a new earth, every tear wiped away, and God living with people in a restored world.

Let’s recall how the story began in Unit 8, with creation, a garden, and the start of brokenness. The Bible ends by returning to a renewed creation and a healed world. The closing vision of Revelation brings the whole story full circle, from creation, through the fall, the journey of God’s people, and the coming of Jesus, to final restoration. It is a thoughtful and fitting end to the Bible.

This brings us to the end of Unit 14 and almost the end of our New Testament survey.

The General Epistles help us see the early church beyond Paul, with different voices like James, Peter, John, and Jude; some of whose letters were debated before being included in the Bible.

The letter to the Hebrews, with its unknown author, shows how the early church saw the Old Testament as fulfilled in Jesus, the great high priest and perfect sacrifice.

The intertestamental period, though often called a time of silence, was actually full of new ideas about the messiah, resurrection, judgment, and hope for the future; ideas that the New Testament builds on.

Revelation, the final book, is best understood not as a secret code for the future, but as a message of hope and endurance for first-century Christians under Roman rule, promising that God would win and ending the Bible with a vision of a renewed creation.

That finishes our overview of the biblical library.