In my post "Epistle" in the Book of Mormon, I show that the term "epistle" is not an anachronism in the Book of Mormon. I have added the following letter dating to the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt (ca. 2345-2181 BC) to the discussion therein. It is a
protest to the Vizier from Saqqara. It was found within the Step Pyramid
enclosure in 1925 and is now in Cairo, JE 49623:
(1) Year of the eleventh occasion, first
month of the Shemu season, day 23.
(2) The overseer of the expedition speaks:
(3) The letter of the vizier has been brought
to this your servant, to effect that the division of troops of Tura should be
brought (4) to the Western Enclosure so that they may be fitted with clothes in
his presence. (However), this your servant protests at (such) unusual requests;
for indeed the letter-carrier (5) is about to come to Tura with the (stone)
barge, while your servant has to spend six days at the Residence (6) along with
this division until it is clothed. It is (this) which gets in the way of your
servant’s work, since but one day (7) needs to be wasted for the clothing of
the division.
So speaks your servant. Inform the
letter-carrier! (Nigel C. Strudwick, Texts
from the Pyramid Age [Writing from the Ancient World; Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2005], 177)
