a letter of the alphabet: a single written character or mark
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At its most basic, the word names one written character, the individual mark a writer or engraver forms on a surface. When Pilate's sign was posted over the cross "in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew" (Luke 23:38), the word points to the actual characters cut into the board in three scripts.
The same plain sense lets Paul speak of the old covenant as "engraved in letters on stone" (2 Corinthians 3:7), picturing the commandments as physical characters chiseled into tablets. He uses it again when he tells the Galatians to notice "what large letters" he has written to them in his own hand (Galatians 6:11), drawing attention to the size of the characters on the page.
Luk 23:382Co 3:7Gal 6:11
2
a written document: an account, record, or letter
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The word can also name a whole piece of writing rather than a single character: a document that records something or a message sent to someone. In Jesus' parable the dishonest manager tells each debtor, "Take your bill" (Luke 16:6, 16:7), meaning the written note that recorded what was owed.
The word also covers correspondence. When Paul reaches Rome, the local leaders tell him they have "received no letters" about him from Judea (Acts 28:21), using the plural for an official written message. English needs different words here, "bill" in one place and "letters" in another, though the underlying idea is the same: something set down in writing.
Nuances
2aan account or bill: a written record of a debt
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Luk 16:6Luk 16:7
2ban official letter or dispatch sent about someone
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Act 28:21
3
the sacred Scriptures: the holy writings of Israel
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In the plural the word names the body of Israel's sacred writings, the Scriptures. Paul reminds Timothy that from childhood he has known "the sacred writings" that make him wise for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15), pointing to the Old Testament Scriptures he grew up with.
Jesus uses the word the same way when he warns those who reject him: "If you do not believe [Moses'] writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:47). Here the writings are the books of Moses, held as the authoritative record of God's word. This is close to the more common word for Scripture (γραφή), and the two overlap, but this word leans slightly toward the writings as a physical, taught deposit, the sacred text one is raised on.
Jhn 5:472Ti 3:15
4
the letter: the written law as an outward code, set against the life-giving Spirit
TranslatabilityPartialCertaintyContested
Paul gives the word a charged theological use, always paired against the Spirit. "The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6). By "the letter" he means the law of Moses considered simply as a written code, a demand carved and recorded but powerless to create the obedience it requires. Set beside the Spirit, who writes on the heart, the written code can only expose sin and pronounce death.
The contrast runs through Romans as well. True circumcision is "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Romans 2:29); a person can break the law even while possessing "the letter and circumcision" (Romans 2:27); and believers now serve "in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter" (Romans 7:6).
This is not a contrast between the surface wording of a text and its deeper meaning, the way the phrase "the letter of the law" is often used today. Paul is contrasting two eras and two powers: the old written order that condemns, and the Spirit who gives new life.
Rom 2:27Rom 2:29Rom 7:62Co 3:6 (2×)
Disputed
Whether Paul's "letter" (γράμμα) means the Mosaic law itself considered as a written external code, or a specifically legalistic and literalistic misuse of the law.
majorityIt denotes the law/old covenant itself as merely written and therefore unable to give life, in deliberate contrast to the Spirit.; Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (1980), on Rom 2:29; 7:6; Stephen Westerholm, "Letter and Spirit: The Foundation of Pauline Ethics," NTS 30 (1984): 229-248; James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (1988), on Rom 2:29
minorityIt denotes not the law as such but the law misused as legalism, the outward and literal keeping of commands apart from the Spirit.; C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975), on Rom 2:29; 7:6
5
learning: the book-education gained from written texts
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In a further extension, the plural can mean formal learning, the education a person acquires through written texts. When Jesus teaches in the temple, the crowd marvels, "How does this man know his letters, having never studied?" (John 7:15), astonished that he shows trained learning without formal schooling.
Festus uses the word the same way when he interrupts Paul: "Your great learning is driving you insane" (Acts 26:24). The idea is book-learning, the accumulated knowledge that comes from study, here treated as so intense it looks like madness.
the Greek idiom means specifically the schooling gained from written texts, not knowledge in generalJhn 7:15
Both
both name the trained knowledge a person gets through studyAct 26:24
Only learning
English "learning" can mean any acquired knowledge, broader than the book-education the Greek points to
How gramma differs from similar Greek words
γραφήthe standard word for a passage of Scripture or Scripture as a whole; γράμμα leans toward the physical writing or, in Paul, the written law as a deadening code
In the New Testament it almost always means a holy, authoritative text: a passage of Scripture, or Scripture as a whole, treated as the word of God.Mat 22:29Jhn 10:35Rom 4:3
Points to a specific scriptural saying that an event is said to fulfill, framing the text as a prophecy now coming true.Jhn 19:24Luk 4:21Act 1:16
ἐπιστολήspecifically a letter sent to someone; γράμμα is broader, covering a character, a bill, a document, or the Scriptures
Names the physical rolled document itself, the object that is handed over, opened out, and rolled back up again.Luk 4:17Luk 4:20Rev 6:14
Denotes a whole finished written work taken as a single volume, the complete composition rather than any one line inside it.Jhn 20:30Jhn 21:25Rev 22:19
Is the sealed heavenly scroll of Revelation, the book of destiny opened by the Lamb and the register called the book of life.Rev 5:1Rev 5:9Rev 20:12
Reaches down to the single written character, the shape a hand or a chisel makes: the oversized ones Paul forms himself, and the three scripts posted above the cross.Gal 6:11Luk 23:38
Covers an ordinary business or legal document, the kind of note a debtor holds and takes back to write a smaller figure on.Luk 16:6Luk 16:7
Covers correspondence, a message sent from one party to another about a particular case.Act 28:21
Stands for schooling itself, so to "know letters" is to have been formally educated, and too much of it can be thrown at a man as an accusation.Jhn 7:15Act 26:24
Names the written code as a way of serving God, set in opposition to the Spirit: the outward requirement that condemns rather than gives life.Rom 2:29Rom 7:62Co 3:6
Both
Either word can stand for Scripture itself, so a speaker can send a reader to the text and expect it to be believed: Jesus appeals to "the book" of Moses and to Moses' own "writings" in exactly the same way.Mrk 12:26Jhn 5:47
Both name something a person actually wrote down, so each can be held, read out, and handed on rather than merely remembered: scrolls carried in by the armful, a note passed back across a table.Act 19:19Luk 16:6
Names a whole, bounded work that can be cited by title, so a speaker can send a hearer to "the book of Moses" or "the book of Psalms" and expect them to know exactly which scroll is meant.Mrk 12:26Luk 20:42Luk 3:4
Can head a written work as its opening label, marking everything that follows as one continuous record.Mat 1:1
Carries the picture of God's own register, the roll of the living in which a name either stands written or is missing.Php 4:3Rev 3:5Rev 20:15
gramma in the other biblical languages
סֵפֶרHebrew“scroll: book”the main Hebrew word for a written document, scroll, or letter, covering much of the document range of γράμμα
Names the individual written character, the letter of the alphabet itself, and by extension the book-learning that comes from mastering letters.Luk 23:38Jhn 7:15Act 26:24
Carries the sharp contrast between the written code and the Spirit: the mere "letter" that kills over against the life-giving Spirit.Rom 2:29Rom 7:62Co 3:6
Both
Both name a written legal document with binding force, such as a bill or certificate that settles an obligation.Luk 16:6Deu 24:1
Both stand for authoritative sacred writings, the Scriptures a community reads and reveres.2Ti 3:15Deu 28:58
Denotes the whole scroll as a physical object, the rolled document that holds an entire written work such as the book of the law.Jos 1:8Exo 24:7Deu 31:26
Serves as the standing term for an official royal register or archive, as in the recurring formula "the book of the chronicles of the kings".1Ki 14:191Ki 14:291Ki 11:41
Names a letter or dispatch sent from one person to another, an epistle written, carried, and delivered.2Sa 11:142Ki 5:51Ki 21:8
כְּתָבHebrew“writing”the Hebrew word for a piece of writing or an edict, close to γράμμα in the sense of something set down in writing
can mean "learning" or "letters" in the sense of formal education, the mark of a schooled person: the crowd marvels that Jesus knows his "letters" without having studied, and Festus charges that Paul's "much learning" has driven him mad.Jhn 7:15Act 26:24
names the written code set in deliberate contrast to the Spirit, the outward "letter" of the law that kills where the Spirit gives life: a purely Pauline theological use.Rom 2:29Rom 7:62Co 3:6
can shrink to a single written character of the alphabet, the individual mark of the pen: Paul points to the large "letters" in which he writes, and the law is "engraved in letters" on stone.Gal 6:112Co 3:7
Both
both name an official written communication dispatched from authority, the physical document a ruler or sender puts out: the copy of the king's decree in Hebrew, letters arriving from Judea in Greek.Est 3:14Act 28:21
both can denote authoritative sacred text, "the writing of truth" that fixes God's purpose in Hebrew and the "holy scriptures" that make one wise for salvation in Greek.Dan 10:212Ti 3:15
names a royal edict promulgated as binding law and copied out to every province, published so the whole realm is held to it: the decrees Haman and later Mordecai issue in the king's name.Est 3:14Est 8:8Est 8:13
can be an official register or roll of enrolled persons, the record that certifies membership in a lineage or in the people: priests are barred for not being found in it, and false prophets are threatened with erasure from it.Ezr 2:62Neh 7:64Ezk 13:9
can shrink to a single written character, the individual mark a pen or chisel forms: Paul tells the Galatians to notice the large "letters" of his own hand, and calls the old covenant one "engraved in letters" on stone. The Aramaic word never narrows this far; it always names a whole text.Gal 6:112Co 3:7
can mean "learning" in the sense of formal schooling, writing as the mark of an educated person: the crowd wonders how Jesus knows his "letters" without having been taught, and Festus tells Paul that his "great learning" has driven him out of his mind.Jhn 7:15Act 26:24
names the written law considered as an outward code and set against the Spirit, so that "the letter" kills where the Spirit gives life, and true circumcision is of the heart and not by "the letter": a charged theological use with no counterpart in the Aramaic word, which stays administrative throughout.2Co 3:6Rom 2:29Rom 7:6
covers a private business note between ordinary people, the written record of what one man owes another, which the dishonest manager hands back to each debtor to be rewritten. Every appearance of the Aramaic word belongs instead to a royal or temple setting.Luk 16:6Luk 16:7
Both
both name a text set on a surface and put where people will see it: the charge over the cross written in three scripts, and the words traced on the palace wall during the feast.Luk 23:38Dan 5:24Dan 5:25
both name an official written communication that carries the weight of the authority behind it, the physical document itself rather than the order it conveys: the letters Rome had not received about Paul, and the writing signed in the Persian court.Act 28:21Dan 6:9
both can point to what stands written in Moses as the authority a community orders its life by: the priests and Levites stationed according to the writing of the book of Moses, and the writings of Moses that Jesus says his hearers do not believe, along with the sacred writings Timothy was raised on.Ezr 6:18Jhn 5:472Ti 3:15
names the document a ruler puts his signature to, where the signing itself is what makes his order impossible to reverse: the officials press Darius to sign the writing, he signs it, and Daniel keeps praying knowing the signed text now stands over him. The Greek word can name an official letter but never carries this power to lock an order beyond recall.Dan 6:8Dan 6:9Dan 6:10
can mean the amount a document specifies, so that salt supplied "without writing" means salt with no written limit set on it. The Greek word never stands for a quantity fixed on paper.Ezr 7:22
is repeatedly a text nobody present can make sense of, so the word keeps company with reading it aloud and declaring what it means: the king offers rewards to whoever can read the writing and tell him its meaning, his experts fail, and Daniel is finally called in to do both. The Greek word is never a text that needs an interpreter.Dan 5:7Dan 5:8Dan 5:15Dan 5:16Dan 5:17
The Greek word can shrink to a single character of the alphabet, one mark on the page or the board. The sign over the cross was posted "in letters" of three scripts (Luke 23:38), and Paul points to the size of the characters he formed with his own hand (Galatians 6:11). The Hebrew word never names one character on its own; it always names the whole text.Luk 23:38Gal 6:11
In the plural it can stand for schooling itself, the training a person did or did not receive. The crowd is astonished that Jesus "knows letters" without having studied (John 7:15), and Festus tells Paul that his "great learning" is driving him mad (Acts 26:24). The Hebrew word stays with the written object and never turns into a word for education.Jhn 7:15Act 26:24
Paul turns it into a theological term for the written law as an outward code set against the Spirit: "the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:6), and true circumcision is "of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter" (Romans 2:29). Nothing like this charged use attaches to the Hebrew noun, which stays neutral about what is written.2Co 3:6Rom 2:29Rom 7:6
It reaches into everyday business paper, the private note that records what one person owes another. The dishonest manager hands each debtor his "bill" and tells him to write a smaller figure (Luke 16:6,Luke 16:7). The Hebrew word is used for public and official writing, never for a commercial IOU.Luk 16:6Luk 16:7
Both
Both name the finished text rather than the act of writing it, and both are at home with words cut into a hard surface. The Hebrew word describes the text on the Sinai tablets, called the writing of God (Exodus 32:16), and the Greek word describes the same tablets from the other side of the Bible as a ministry "engraved in letters on stone" (2 Corinthians 3:7).Exo 32:162Co 3:7
Both cover a written message carried from one party to another, where the point is that the words were committed to writing instead of merely spoken. Elijah's warning reaches King Jehoram as a letter (2 Chronicles 21:12), and the Jewish leaders in Rome tell Paul they have "received no letters" about him from Judea (Acts 28:21).2Ch 21:12Act 28:21
It names a royal order deliberately put in writing as well as proclaimed aloud, so that the command outlasts the herald. Cyrus sends his decree "and also in writing" through his whole kingdom (2 Chronicles 36:22,Ezra 1:1), and Josiah's temple arrangements follow what earlier kings had set down (2 Chronicles 35:4). The Greek word covers documents and dispatches but is never used this way for a king's published decree.2Ch 36:22Ezr 1:12Ch 35:4
It can serve as a title standing over a poem, labelling the piece that follows as something its author composed and set down: "a writing of Hezekiah" after his recovery from illness (Isaiah 38:9). The Greek word is never used as a heading for a composition.Isa 38:9
What scholars say about gramma
The lexica (BDAG, LSJ) lay out a well-defined range for γράμμα: a letter of the alphabet, a written document (account, record, epistle), in the plural the sacred writings (τὰ ἱερὰ γράμματα, 2 Tim 3:15), the plural for book-learning (John 7:15;Acts 26:24), and Paul's antithetical use against πνεῦμα. G. Schrenk's treatment in TDNT traces the alphabetic and documentary senses into the Pauline contrast. The disputed point is exegetical, concentrated in Rom 2:27-29; 7:6 and 2 Cor 3:6: whether γράμμα designates the Mosaic law simply as written and external (Kasemann, Westerholm, Dunn, and the majority of recent commentators) or the law misused as legalistic literalism (Cranfield). Studies of 2 Corinthians 3 (Furnish, Hafemann) situate the antithesis within Paul's old-covenant/new-covenant contrast rather than a hermeneutic of surface-versus-depth.
Sources
BDAG, s.v. γράμμαlexicon
LSJ, s.v. γράμμαlexicon
G. Schrenk, "γράμμα," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (TDNT) 1:761-769dictionary
H. Balz and G. Schneider, eds., Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament (EDNT), s.v. γράμμαdictionary
C. E. B. Cranfield, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, ICC (1975)commentary
James D. G. Dunn, Romans 1-8, WBC 38A (1988)commentary
Ernst Kasemann, Commentary on Romans (1980)commentary
Stephen Westerholm, "Letter and Spirit: The Foundation of Pauline Ethics," NTS 30 (1984): 229-248journal-article
Victor Paul Furnish, II Corinthians, Anchor Bible 32A (1984)commentary
Scott J. Hafemann, Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel (1995)monograph