Thus, for example, the twenty-ninth chapter of the prophecy of Jeremiah
opens with the interesting superscription:

Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent
from Jerusalem unto the residue of the elders of the captivity, and
to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom
Nebuchadrezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon; by
the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah,
whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent unto Babylon to Nebuchadrezzar.

If it were not for this superscription, no one would suspect from the
nature of the letter which follows that it was anything other than a
regular spoken or written prophecy. Its contents and spirit are exactly
parallel to those of Paul's epistles. Undoubtedly many prophecies were
never delivered orally, but were originally written like Paul's Epistle
to the Ephesians, and sent out as circular letters. The Babylonian
exile scattered the Jews so widely that the exilic and post-exilic
prophets depended almost entirely upon this method of reaching their
countrymen and thus became writers of epistles.

[Sidenote: _The oldest literature poetry_]

Like the Epistles in the New, certain of the prophecies,--as, for
example, those of Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah,--are among the earliest
writings of the Old Testament. But in the light of modern biblical
study, it has become apparent that prose was not the earliest form of
expression among the Hebrews, In this respect their literary history
is parallel with that of other early peoples; for first they treasured
their thought in heroic song and ballad. While they were nomads,
wandering in the desert, and also while they were struggling for the