Final answer:
The New Testament epistles stress eschatological themes, echoing personal salvation and afterlife beliefs common in early Christian, Jewish, and mystery religions. They contribute significantly to the eschatological discourse evident in their intertextuality with other apocalyptic writings.
Step-by-step explanation:
The emphasis of the New Testament (NT) epistles on eschatology reflects a significant element of early Christian belief and practice. Eschatology, the study of the end times or last things, encompasses the Second Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the ultimate destiny of humanity and the world.
The NT epistles, along with various apocalyptic literature of Greek, Roman, and Jewish origin, highlight themes of eschatological expectations and the mysteries surrounding them.
Emphasizing light and darkness, the epistles echo the aspirational message found in the mystery religions, which is the personal salvation and the afterlife rewards and punishments. This anticipation of eschatological events is threaded throughout writings like 1 Enoch, Revelation, Philo, Matthew, and letters within the NT such as Philippians and Colossians.
As such, the NT epistles contribute to the broader discourse on eschatology, enriched by its intertextuality with other Jewish and Hellenistic apocalyptic literature.