The Feeding of the Multitude — Gustave Doré (engraving, public domain)
A movement of the canon
General Epistles
Short letters written to Christians everywhere rather than to one church. Practical, urgent, and written by men who walked with Jesus.
- 7Books
- 21Chapters
- 28Studies
The story, plainly
General Epistles in five questions
What happens
Eight letters to the whole scattered church: James on faith that works, Peter on suffering with hope, Hebrews lifting Christ above angels, Moses, and every priest, John on love and truth, and Jude contending for the faith once delivered.
Why it matters
How to live as strangers and pilgrims: holding the faith, enduring the fire, testing the spirits, and looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
Who you’ll meet
When
c. AD 45–95: letters to the scattered church.
The books
James
5 chThe Lord's brother on faith that works. ‘Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.’
1 Peter
5 chPeter to scattered exiles. A living hope; a royal priesthood; suffering borne in Christ.
2 Peter
3 chPeter's farewell. False teachers denounced; the Lord's patience defended; new heavens promised.
1 John
5 chThree tests (light, love, life) interwoven. ‘That ye may know that ye have eternal life.’
2 John
1 chThe elder to the elect lady. Thirteen verses on truth and love and guarded hospitality.
3 John
1 chThe elder to Gaius. Fourteen verses on welcome and on Diotrephes who ‘loveth the preeminence.’
Jude
1 chTwenty-five urgent verses. ‘Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.’
Card plates: Gustave Doré — Doré’s English Bible (1866) and the Doré New Testament engravings. Public domain.
Studies that walk through these books
The numeral is how many passages of General Epistles each study touches.