epistle is discernible. The book both begins and concludes in typical epistolary manner (see below on 1:4 and especially on 22:21). The main purpose of the epistolary genre elsewhere in the NT is to address problems that have arisen in the various churches. The epistolary writers elsewhere in the NT appeal to the readers’ present and future participation and blessings in Christ as the basis for their appeals to obedience. If the epistolary form of Revelation functions like that of the other letters