Etymology

Noun

1. A letter, or a literary composition in the form of a letter.
   • 1748 — David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section III, § 5.

     he may be hurried from this plan by the vehemence of thought, as in an ode, or drop it carlessly, as in an epistle or essay

2. One of the letters included as a book of the New Testament.
   • 1956 — Werner Keller (translated by William Neil), The Bible as History, revised English edition, Chapter 41, page 358

     Even last century scholars had begun to search for the cities in Asia Minor whose names have become so familiar to the Chistian world through the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles of St. Paul.