I noted earlier that I'd received a copy of Klauck's Ancient Letters and the New Testament. I've been reading the first few chapters and have to say that I've been enjoying it.

The first chapter, Foundations—Two Letters of Apion and Two Letters of the "Elder", uses the well-known examples of letters from one Apion (BGU II 423 and BGU II 632, Greek and English provided) to his family. These were used to identify and discuss epistle structure and standard letter components. After this, Klauck uses 2 and 3 John (in parallel!) as source material and identifies components and details structure. The exercise at the end of the chapter is, essentially, "do the same thing for Philemon". Thankfully, Klauck has answers in the back so one can do the work and compare. One is not left hanging when doing exercises.

The second chapter, Practical Realities—Paper and Postal System, gets into how letters were written and delivered. Good background stuff that folks don't normally think about, but it is good to know.

When I'm able to get through a few more chapters, I'll by all means let y'all know. But for now I'm very impressed with the book and quite happy to have it available as a resource. If you're teaching a class on epistles or epistolography, I'd say this is pretty much a no-brainer for students to have, particularly with the added exercises.

More info, of course, is on the Baylor Press web site.