The SHOCKING Cost of a New Testament Letter

[@tsukareppi]

I, too, had never thought of the cost of a letter, how dear it must have been to Paul. It also makes me think of all the trials he suffered and, in the midst of those, how important he thought it was to communicate the gospel and guide the church. We are truly blessed to be able to pick up a bible (or more) and have it in a language accessible to us!

[@chrisschroeder2873]

Never thought about the cost. Excellent topic that brings about a deeper appreciation for what we have. Thank you for bring it to us.

[@bitesizeseminary]

Thanks dad😁

[@Moreh17]

It really puts things into perspective learning the cost! Didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing! And the devotional at the end really brings it all together. Excited for the next video!

[@bitesizeseminary]

Yes it really does! Thanks for the encouragement!

[@dusttalking6871]

Excellent commentary, analysis, and reflections, brother!

[@bitesizeseminary]

Thanks for the encouragement! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@LouEG23]

Great video! I do have a question….with all of that being said, do you think that the cost would’ve caused the authors to reduce characters that they other wise wouldn’t have if the cost wasn’t suspected to be as high as it was?

[@RadicalPersonalFinance]

What an interesting analysis!

[@DianeAntos]

Thanks for the reminder of how privileged we are to have the complete Word of God at little cost. Watch out Spielberg!! 😜 That was excellent, JC! 👍

[@bitesizeseminary]

Thanks Diane!

[@devionevers1232]

Would it cost the same amount for churches to make copies?

[@bitesizeseminary]

Yeah, good question! So Richards, the author I cite for the cost, calculates the cost based on the how many lines of text the document was. The more lines, the higher the cost. This was the way the market price for copying was set (see Richards, "When Is a Letter Not a Letter" in Paul and the Giants of Philosophy, p. 89, n.1). Now to actually answer your question! The same market price would have applied for the churches as well. I would imagine though that the process of copying within or for the church could have been discounted or done for free by members of a church. This would be similar to today where people volunteer their time and skills. This could bring the real world cost (or out of pocket cost) down for a church. But the market cost (or value) of the letter would still be the same. Hope that makes some sense!! Really good question Devion!

[@dustinburlet7249]

And, of course, you have to fund someone to DELIEVER the letter and EXPLICATE it (think Phoebe in Romans) which only adds to the overarching cost (D.A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo have a great little section on amanuensis in their Introduction to the New Testament volume and, of course, see too Tell Her Story by Nijay Gupta) Two of the best books (in my opinion) that delineate some of these things in more detail are the following: (1) The Journey from Texts to Translations: The Origin and Development of the Bible (Baker, 2004) by Paul D. Wegner (2) Scribes and Scripture: The Amazing Story of How We Got the Bible (Crossway, 2022) by John D. Meade and Peter J. Gurry Keep up the great work in these videos - I am sharing them with my class and (so far) they have been well received :-)

[@DupDiDonk]

It's good you have cost in today's dollars - but it would have been even better to include the original price and how that price related to ancient people daily/monthly salary. $2275 dollars - is that a 2 months salary or a two week salary?

[@carlospantoja33]

¡Dios te bendiga más y más cada dia de tu vida, gloria al Señor porque he conseguido tu canal, todo tu trabajo no es vano!

[@TheGreatGonzales777]

Guess I owe you a truth for my dare.

[@bitesizeseminary]

I’m living on the edge 😂 I’ll take your comment though 🤣😂