1. a letter i. e. the character: Luke 23:38 (R G L brackets Tr marginal reading brackets); Galatians 6:11.

2. any writing, a document or record;

a. a note of hand, bill, bond, account, written acknowledgment of debt (asscriptio in Varro sat. Men. 8, 1 (cf. Edersheim ii., 268ff)): Luke 16:6f. ((Josephus, Antiquities 18, 6, 3), in L text T Tr WH plural τά γράμματα; so of one document also in Antiph., p. 114 (30); Demosthenes, p. 1034, 16; Vulg.cautio).

b. a letter, an epistle: Acts 28:21; (Herodotus 5, 14; Thucydides 8, 50; Xenophon, Cyril 4, 5, 26, etc.).

c. τά ἱερά γράμματα the sacred writings (of the O. T.; (so Josephus, Antiquities prooem. § 3; 10, 10, 4 at the end; contra Apion 1, 10; Philo, de vit. Moys. 3, 39; de praem. et poen. § 14; leg. ad Gai. § 29, etc. — but always τά ἱερά γράμματα)): 2 Timothy 3:15 (here T WH omit; L Tr brackets τά); γράμμα equivalent to the written law of Moses, Romans 2:27; Μωϋσέως γράμματα, John 5:47. Since the Jews so clave to the letter of the law that it not only became to them a mere letter but also a hindrance to true religion, Paul calls it γράμμα in a disparaging sense, and contrasts it with τό πνεῦμα i. e. the divine Spirit, whether operative in the Mosaic law, Romans 2:29, or in the gospel, by which Christians are governed, Romans 7:6; 2 Corinthians 3:6f (but in 2 Corinthians 3:7 R G T WH read the plural written in letters, so L marginal reading Tr marginal reading).

3. τά γράμματα, like the Latinlitterae, English letters, equivalent to learning: Acts 26:24; εἰδέναι, μεμαθηκέναι γράμματα (cf. German studirthaben), of sacred learning, John 7:15. (μανθάνειν, ἐπίστασθαί, etc., γράμματα are used by the Greeks of the rudiments of learning; cf. Passow, i. p. 571; (Liddell and Scott, under the word, II. a.).)