Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 70:2 (NA 2019)
Article: Epistolary Greetings In The Oxyrhynchus Papyri
Author: Peter M. Head

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Epistolary Greetings In The Oxyrhynchus Papyri1

Peter M. Head

([email protected])

Summary

This paper examines the function of greetings in letters in the Oxyrhynchus Papyri by focusing on vocabulary, how individuals and groups of people are described, questions relating to format and presentation, differences in format, particularly when greetings are interrupted, and the function of greetings in consolidating and maintaining connections between writers and extended communities. It offers conclusions concerning the placement of greetings, the normal epistolary practice of Graeco-Roman antiquity, and the flexibility in the relationship between the greetings, the situation, and main purpose of the letter. Included is a list of the 74 letters and the text of their greetings.

1. Introduction

The aim of this paper is to examine the vocabulary, format, role, and function of the greetings contained in the Greek documentary letters from Oxyrhynchus. The investigation arose from an earlier study of epistolary practices in a collection of letters from Claudius Terentianus found in the archive of Claudius Tiberianus.2 In that study I noted ‘the evident desire expressed by the author for the contact represented by a letter and the news contained in such letters’.3 These letters, in common

TynBull 70:2 (2019) p. 270

with many other letters from antiquity, contained a variety of references to the desire for correspondence, the joy resulting from receiving a letter, and references to news and gossip passing between the sender and the recipient (and their wider networks). I noted that ‘a particular expression of the connections between people is the use of greetings in the closing parts of the letters’, including greetings sent to the recipient from those present with the writer and greetings (or instructions to convey greetings) to people at the recipient’s location.

These greetings serve to connect, through the vehicle of the written communication, the family group around the sender with the recipient, and the sender with an extensive network of friends and colleagues (some of whom are greeted in other letters as well).4

Greetings of various types have, of course, an important place within the letters of the New Testament, and of Paul in particular. The important role of greetings within ancient epistolary practice has been widely recognised and attempts have been made to relate the greetings within the Ne...